“She still hasn’t eaten.”
The brat. Maeve doesn’t need this extra hassle.
When we finally find Elisa’s father again and I force him to confront what I’ve made of his daughter, I can’t have it look like I beat and starved her into submission. He needs to see that her once innocent eyes are lustful for my cock and my cock only. He needs to know that I’ve corrupted and taken the one thing he had left, without any hope that he could ever recover who she was.
Even if he doesn’t care about Elisa or her life, any man would care about that. Even those as cold and callous as Ciro. He’s competitive, and as long as I show him how much of a loser he really is, I’ll be winning.
But I don’t have time for Elisa’s stubbornness right now.
Apparently, Nolan’s found some info on our warehouse fire. We’re all meeting at his club in an hour. I’ve got to get to the helicopter.
Still, before I leave, something compels me to make sure Elisa is taken care of. I had to find Meave. She was by the kitchen. Tara was there too. Neither looking particularly happy with me. I don’t blame them. They’ve seen me come home covered in blood. They’ve seen me take men downstairs who never come back up. They’ve heard about gunfights breaking out in the city and smelled the gun powder on me when I return home. But they’ve never had to deal with anything like this.
I’ve bought and kidnapped an innocent woman. They probably heard her scream when I interrogated her earlier, they definitely heard her cry out when I fingerfucked the innocence out of her last night. They may be used to this mafia lifestyle, but they aren’t used to this. Usually, I leave women alone. But this isn’t any regular woman. Fuck. She’s barely even a woman. Only twenty years old. I’m thirty-one. More than a decade stands between us. But that’s all that stands between us now. Well, that and our hate. But as much as she frustrates me, as much as I’m reminded of her father’s evil every time I look in those innocent eyes, I don’t hate her. I want her. And by the way her body reacts to me, she wants me too. That wasn’t part of the plan, but it’s a welcome surprise.
My heart races. This is the D’Ignoti princess. Beautiful. Pure. She’s the daughter of my greatest enemy. And now she’s mine. Exactly what I wanted.
I’m not letting her go, even if Maeve and Tara clearly don’t approve.
“Ask her what kind of food she likes, then make sure she gets it,” I tell my family’s oldest serving maid. Maeve and I have a complicated relationship. By the time I was returned to my father from Ciro’s grasp all those years ago, Mom was dead, and there was a new woman running the household. Dad hired Maeve to look after everything while he was out trying to build his new consulting business. That didn’t sit well with me. We fought at every turn, but I’ll give that fiery woman some credit, she eventually won me over. That takes a lot of strength, and a lot of courage.
“I doubt she’ll give me a straight answer, what with you ringing her head in every time you go up there!” She’s been holding that back.
“I’m not doing anything to her she doesn’t want.” That’s only a half-lie. I look over to Tara to gauge her response.
Tara and I also have a complicated relationship, but that’s just because Tara has a complicated relationship with everyone she comes into contact with. I guess I do too. That’s something we have in common. What else do we have in common? A tough childhood. The young woman has had a life you could make a movie about, but you’d have to tone down some parts just to make it more believable.
She’s been part of my family now for just slightly longer than Maeve has. Dad found her in these very woods. A feral child, abandoned by her meth head parents at such a young age that she barely spoke any English. I wasn’t here when Dad rescued her and brought her into the little cabin that he’d built in the Catskills to protect his family from the harsh world, but I’ve heard stories.
That untamed animal flickers behind Tara’s eyes right now. “It’s not right, what you’re doing.”
She’s the only one in this world besides Dad and my brothers who would dare say such a thing to me. She’s also one of the select few who I would allow challenge me like that. Not even Meave ever gets so direct about my business.
“What do you know about what’s right?” I immediately challenge her. When we really get at it, the both of us are just untamed beasts. Feral kids who had to suffer to survive our adolescents. Sometimes, we butt heads. But I haven’t lost my temper. I’m just testing Tara. A spark of life seems to slowly be returning to her once dead eyes, and I want to see just how animated I can get her.
“I know enough to understand that it’s wrong to kidnap an innocent woman just because you hate her father! No matter what he did to you. I also know enough to be proud that she at least fought back.” A little smirk creases her pale cheeks as her gaze sets on the scratch marks drawn into my face.
I roll my eyes and try to wipe away the redness. I’m glad to see Tara energized again. I really am. Adulthood has been hard on her. She’s had to wrestle all of her own demons, and for a while, she turned to hard drugs to cope. But she’s back now, and working as an understudy to Meave. Whether or not she wants to be a maid is of no consequence, we just want to keep her close and put her to work. Anything to distract her from the darkness. Anything to keep her from running back into the black woods. Still, she needs to understand her place in all of this.
“I didn’t kidnap her,” I retort. “I’ll show you the contract if you want. She signed on the dotted line. If you have any issues with what’s happening, I’d take it up with her father.”
“Maybe I would, if you hadn’t lost him already.”
That little comment hits me harder than I was expecting Tara to punch. She must have gotten that information from Shane. Those two are like two peas in a pod sometimes. Despite her problems, I trust Tara, but Shane shouldn’t be spreading our business like that. I make a note to take it up with him at our meeting. If I ever fucking make it there.
“I don’t have time for this shit,” I shake my head, trying to hide my tight smile. In a way, it’s nice to see the fire return to Tara. “You look after her. But don’t get too close. There’s no telling where exactly this is going and I know how fragile you are.” Still, I can’t help but tease her just a little bit.
“I’m tougher than you are, big macho man. Locking up a girl barely over half his age and a quarter of his size. That’s not tough. That’s mean.”
My phone starts buzzing and I already know I’m running late. This has not been the ideal start to my reign. “You’re exaggerating,” I mumble, checking my phone. Text from Nolan.
Will be there in fifteen.
“I’m just a poor country bumpkin. I don’t know things like you, Mr. CEO,” Tara goes on. But now I’ve had enough.
I need to make sure Elisa is properly looked after. The last thing I want is Tara talking into her ear about how much of a softy I really am. The truth is, Elisa won’t find the same sympathy from me as Tara does. What Tara doesn’t seem to understand is that I treat her the way I do because she is practically family. Elisa is not. At least, Elisa isn’t until I marry her. But there’s going to be a lot of growing pains until that moment. Tara can’t ruin it. No matter how badly she might need the distraction.
“I can take you off the job,” I tell her, hardening my tone. “Send you into the city with all of your junky friends and find you in a week in some alleyway. Or you can do as I say. Which is it?”
The meek side of Tara returns at the harshness of my words. If I had the time, I might almost feel bad. She’s been through a lot. Well, fuck. So have we all.
“Understand?”
“Yes… Whatever.”
Before I head out to the landing pad, I point a stern finger at Meave. “You keep her in line. The both of them.”
She nods. I leave.
