Page 3

I had been waiting for something—anything. Coiled, poised for the attack, I lunged at the first opportunity I had to let Aria Pesci know I wasn't going to let her get away with any overstepping from her men.

And luckily, she handed me that opportunity on a silver platter.

I didn't even need to pry. Hell, I didn't need to wait that long, either.

The moment I was informed of the arms deal being hijacked, I knew I had her...and I wasn't going to let her get away with it.

My men were dispatched before I even left the house, quick to track her down and take care of whatever her guard situation was, if any.

By the time I reached the warehouse and made my way inside, she was already waiting for me like a prize.

The unit worked efficiently, just how I liked it. The fewer issues, the better…and the less time spent messing around with the details, the more time I had to interrogate her thoroughly.

It was a rare opportunity to have another boss locked up in enemy territory, at your complete mercy, and I wasn't about to waste it. If she was unaware of just how futile it was to interfere with our business, then she was about to find out.

Moving through the warehouse with my destination set and my intentions in place, I kept that anger roiling beneath my skin at bay. As much as I wanted to snap over the money and goods lost in the hijacking, I needed to keep that fury for Aria. Maybe then she'd get the idea.

Pulling my gloves on tighter, I moved swiftly down the grated steps until I reached the lower floor and passed by the few holding cells and interrogation rooms until I found one of the guards waiting just outside the one at the far end.

"Did she make you work for it?" I asked, noticing the ice pack he held against a greenish-purple spot just beneath his eye.

He sighed and pulled the ice back, letting me see more of the bruised area. "You could say that...she's feistier than she looks."

"Good," I murmured, feeling another wave of irritation move through me at the prospect. "It's more fun that way. I'll take it from here."

With a nod, somewhat disgruntled at her not going down easily, he made his way back upstairs without protest.

Standing before the steel door, I pulled in a breath and pushed down the slight admiration I felt at the idea of her fighting back. I shouldn't have been surprised—she was a boss, after all. If anything, I was interested in finding out just how strong her will was.

Knowing I had to act sooner or later, I reached for the doorknob and pushed my way inside.

For a moment, it felt almost strange to be in the same room with her, the person I had been keeping a close eye on for months. Before that moment, I hadn't seen her for myself in the flesh. She had only been a portrait or an image on a screen.

Even if I’d been somewhat annoyed to have invested so much time in someone I didn't know outside of her records and surveillance, at least it gave my men and me the upper hand. They wouldn't have been able to track her down so easily otherwise.

There she was, sitting in the chair she was bound and cuffed to, glancing up at me with an irritated yet vaguely fearful gleam in her eyes. I could tell she was fighting hard to hide her emotions from me.

I couldn't blame her—not while I was doing the same thing to not give away my slight shock at the sight of her.

After digging into her past and current affairs, it’d been no secret that she was beautiful. I wasn't blind. But looking at her for myself at that moment only reaffirmed Esidor's claims before.

She was more attractive than I wanted to admit, which seemed to conflict with the world she found herself in, like a rose in a bed full of weeds.

But I wasn't that naive. Even something as beautiful as a rose could still make you bleed.

It was in my best interest to not underestimate her, despite something in me feeling disarmed by how easy she was on the eyes.

Remembering myself, I closed the door behind me and kept my gaze on her, cold and concealing every thought running through my mind.

"Aria Pesci…daughter of Enrico and sister of Esidor…" I began, taking a few steps closer while looking her over. "I must say, I'm surprised to hear you followed in their embarrassing footsteps."

Regardless of the fear veiling her brown eyes, she held my gaze and didn't waver. "I might be carrying their name, but I'm not following their blueprint."

The insistence in her voice amused me, and I crossed my arms while looking down at her. She looked so small sitting there, like something I could crush so easily.

"Right—that would land you in nothing but trouble, right? They didn't exactly succeed where they should have. But you're trying to do things differently, yeah?"

A hint of uncertainty lingered in her features before she admitted reluctantly, "Something like that."

Considering my next words, a touch of smugness seeped into my voice. "Perhaps those are your intentions, but I'm afraid you're heading for the same place, despite your efforts."

She looked at me more pointedly then, eyes fixing into an annoyed glare. "You don't know anything about what I'm doing."

Cocking a brow at that, I took a step closer. The reminder of what exactly she and her men had done made that fury spike in me all over again. "No? You think I went through the trouble of getting you hauled here just to chat? If you think I have you cuffed just to discuss your little olive branch, think again."

"Obviously not," she bit back, bristling at the insinuation that she didn't know exactly why she was there.

She wasn't acting oblivious, at least—I could give her that.

Standing over her, tempering the full extent of my anger, I found myself at a standstill I wasn't used to.

She tampered with our business and stole from us; usually, that would warrant severe consequences. Given the value of those weapons and how much it cost us, I had every right to snuff the life right out of her.

But for whatever reason, I felt at a loss. I didn't know how to handle the situation.

While I wasn't one to shy away from violence or going to extremes, I didn't feel as willing to use the same brutal force I was used to.

I didn't know if it was the fact that she was a woman or because of the way she was looking up at me, but regardless, I couldn't ignore the rising refusal in me to shake her down physically.

While that inner turmoil was irritating, it also seemed to pose a new opportunity, like the nudge I needed to approach the situation differently than I normally would.

Maybe there was a new way I could make her crack—to make her pay for what she did.

“This is about the arms trade, correct?” she asked, looking up at me wearily, yet with a strange sort of willingness.

My eyes narrowed at her slightly. “Correct. I didn’t think you’d admit to it quite so easily.”

“I’m not admitting to it, because I didn’t do it, but I’m aware it happened.”

I cocked a brow at her words, unsure of what she was getting out. Leaning in, I gave her a scrutinizing assessment. “If you didn’t do it, then who did? We had confirmation it was your men.”

An irritated look crossed her features, but it didn’t seem aimed at me that time. She averted her eyes while a storm moved through them. “It was someone in my organization. They screwed you over, and me as a result. But it wasn’t me.”

A flicker of doubt lingered in my mind at that. “You’re the boss, right? How could someone act on your behalf and get away with it?”

She sighed, speaking far easier than I thought she would, for better or for worse. “I never authorized the move, nor would I have, if I had been clued into what was going on. I was on my way to figure out who did it before your men ambushed me.”

There was a sharp edge to that latter part, clearly irritated I had stopped her plan. As much as I could imagine that was infuriating, I had every right to step in when I did. The moment I heard what went down, there was no questioning how quickly I needed to be on it.

Regardless of who gave the order, I wasn’t going to let anyone from the Pesci family assume they could one-up us and get away with it. Especially after all the bullshit her brother caused for us.

“My apologies,” I said sardonically, not prepared to take her excuse to heart. “Even you should know how serious that offense is. I should have your head for this.”

A spark of fear lit up her eyes despite how she tried to keep it guarded. Regardless of how new she was to it all, she knew well enough that my words were true, and in any other situation, I’d already have it.

I didn’t want to carry it out. But I didn’t need her to know that.

After a moment, she sighed with resigned defeat. “I’m well aware, and I’m furious at whoever moved behind my back.”

Something in her tone made me believe she was telling the truth. It seemed she had been blindsided by the hit, and she knew someone was working against her within her own ranks.

As much as I wanted to believe she orchestrated the whole thing in retaliation after our silence in the wake of her attempts to make amends, I couldn’t ignore what seemed like sincerity emanating from her. The way the idea of it all seemed to be eating at her.

She might have had a rat in her forces, but even if that were the case, it wasn’t my problem.

“Even so, that’s no excuse, Pesci,” I muttered, gaze roving over her face again. “If you’re the head of your family, then someone has to take accountability for wronging us. For meddling in our business. And that someone is you.”

While Aria put on a brave face and tried to ignore the threat in my words, she couldn’t completely hide the panic in her eyes. She was completely trapped and at my mercy, and being able to watch how the gears moved in her head was more than satisfying.

There was no fighting in her position, and I loved every moment of it.

Regardless of not using the usual force that came easily to me, feeling the worry as it emanated from her fulfilled a different craving inside me.

I just couldn’t help myself.

“Now, now, little Italian,” I murmured, reaching forward to take her jaw in my gloved hand. “Don’t look at me like I kicked your dog.”

She flinched at the contact in a way that sent a shiver down my spine, but couldn’t move once I tightened my grip. Her gaze narrowed slightly. “And don’t you pretend like your intentions are anything but malicious.”

Chuckling at that, my grin pulled further. “Trust me, I’m not pretending anything.”

While having her so perfectly pinned beneath me in her chair, chained and unable to wriggle away from me, I inspected her features even closer. Despite myself, my thumb traced over the edge of her jaw, which looked so small in my grasp. “One way or another, you’re going to pay for the damage caused by your men…and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

With a cold bristle at the reminder of how my family had been wronged, I let go of her face forcefully and stood to my full height.

The way she looked up at me was both pathetic and arousing, and for a moment, I wondered what I was even hoping to get out of her.

The opportunities seemed endless, and she would have no choice but to oblige me.