I don’t need to reach for her to know she isn’t there. I felt her get out of bed, but I thought she was just using the restroom. I let my guard down. I became so comfortable in bed with her, loving the feeling of having someone there to warm the usually cold and unforgiving side that I didn’t think she wouldn’t return.
Furious doesn’t begin to describe what I feel, or worse; it’s nearly nine in the morning. I never sleep in that late. Business doesn’t get done, and money doesn’t get made, but right now, I don’t care about any of that.
Where. Is. Delilah.
Throwing the covers off, I swing my legs over the bed and slip on my sweatpants, barreling out of the room and down the hall.
“Well, good morning, sunshine,” Ari greets, crunching on a piece of bacon. “Marie made a wonderful breakfast—”
“I don’t give a fuck about breakfast. Where is Delilah?”
He hides a smile as he eats, and that’s how I know he knows something.
Biting back my anger, I glance at Matias and take a deep breath. “Can you please pull up the security footage? I need to know where she is.”
“Sure. Let me get done—”
I roar into the kitchen and startle Marie. “Now!”
“All right, Carmine. I’m going. I’m going.” He places his fork down, scrambled eggs still attached, and pulls out his phone and taps the security app we have installed.
“No need for that. I know where she is.”
I run around the table and grip Ari by the back of the neck. “I don’t know what games you’re playing here, but I am getting fed up with them, Ari. Where is she?” My entire body shakes with rage, and I’m seconds away from slamming his face into the counter.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, brother. I planned on it. You never give me a chance.”
“Because you never take the chance to tell me immediately. You like to get me angry.”
“She climbed the gate.” Matias shows me his phone, and I watch as Delilah, my clever little Sweetling, climbs the steel without any issues. “And this dumbass,” he points to his twin. “Let her out the door.”
My temper rolls through my shoulders, and I have to take a deep breath, grinding my teeth together to keep myself from killing him.
I take a step away, my chest rising and falling in dangerous pulses. I flex my fingers, staring at my injured hand, the fresh scabs across my knuckles remind me of how Delilah took care of me last night, how she tended to my wounds, and how I liked it.
I liked her attention.
“Why?” I seethe, my vision clouding as my anger rises. “Why would you let her leave?”
“Why won’t you?” he asks, not bothered by my fury. “She’s a human being, Carmine. The more you treat her like a prisoner, the more she will resent you. If anything, I helped you. She wants to have her own life too. You need to remember that. Her wants and dreams won’t go away because of you. And if you try to take them, she’ll hate you. By the look in your eyes, I don’t think you want that.” He takes a bite of his biscuit and groans in delight. “Marie, this is fantastic. You did such an amazing job. Thank you so much.” He takes another bite of the biscuit and licks his fingers. “So good. Carmine, you want one?”
“No. I don’t want one. I want to get Delilah. I need to know she’s safe.”
“I think you should take your time. Get ready, have breakfast, and then we will go. The more time you give her alone, the more it will work in your favor,” he suggests.
And I hate him more when I know he is right.
I pull a stool, harshly dragging it across the floor, and sit down.
“You’re like a child in a tantrum,” Ari says, as if his life isn’t already on the line.
“Your fiancé didn’t escape you. She didn’t leave in the middle of the night because she’d rather be anywhere else but with you. So, you’ll excuse me if I don’t have the temper to handle that.” I clench the silverware in my hand as Marie sets a plate full of eggs, bacon, and toast in front of me.
I’m not even hungry.
Do I repulse Delilah so much that she needs to escape me? Is she afraid of me? I would have given her whatever she wanted if she had talked to me.
Not if it meant leaving.
My brother is right.
I would have never allowed her to leave the house, but it’s only for her protection, and now she’s out there all alone. No protection, nothing. Anyone could take her. Anyone could use her against me. Anyone could hurt her.
“Where did she go?” I ask, defeated. The fight has left my system.
He wipes his mouth and takes a sip of his coffee. “She went to school. She has class.”
That’s right. My Sweetling is intelligent. She’s missed the last few days of school because of everything with her father, and because of me.
I nod, wishing I was by her side. She needs to be always in my sight. After today, this will never happen again. If she needs to go to school, I will take her. I will sit with her, help her study. She will not be able to get rid of me.
But her little stunt today will have consequences. It may not be today or tomorrow, but when she initiates sex, I will not go easy on her. She needs to know it is me in control. Her disobedience, her reluctance to give in to me, has my cock hardening in my sweatpants. I love a strong-willed woman. She’s going to fight me every step of the way.
It will be worth it for me, but will it be worth it for her? I can only hope.
I pull out my phone and bring up the tracker I have on hers. It takes a moment to load, and I chew on a piece of toast, then take a bite of eggs. Marie does make the best food. I need to give her a raise.
“She is at school,” I’m surprised. I figured she’d be halfway across the state by now.
“That’s what I just said,” Ari says, swinging his fork around and throwing the egg onto the ground without realizing it.
“Clean that up. Marie dusts and vacuums, but she is not our mother. Clean up after yourself.”
He glances at the floor and winces. “Shit. Sorry.”
He takes a paper towel and scoops up his mess. Ari has never been hyperaware of his surroundings.
I zoom in on the map and notice she’s in the library. Why didn’t she tell me? I could call her, but I want my presence to be a surprise.
Then my mind takes a turn. I have been almost patient.
Almost.
Then, I wonder who the fuck she’s with.
Were there other men there? Men her age, men flirting with her, touching her…
I growl low in my throat, my fists clenching at the thought of another touching what is mine. I grip the edges of the plate as I’m assaulted with images of her in someone else’s arms. Some faceless stranger with greedy hands, grabbing at her, their lips touching. She gives into him.
Gives him everything.
Everything that is meant to be mine.
Her sounds, her orgasms, her virginity, it’s all meant to be mine.
The plate breaks in half and yanks me from my vile thoughts. Ari and Matias are staring at me. Matias looked concerned. Ari is grinning.
“You have anger issues. Anyone ever tell you that?” Ari asks, leaning back and drinking his coffee. “They have therapy for that. You should consider it, brother.”
I snarl at him. He’s right, though, and that’s what angers me most.
I clean up my mess and throw it in the trash. Marie minds her own business, humming a song she’s listening to as she chops vegetables. This is why I like Marie. She ignores us for the most part, does her job, and works around our brutal natures.
She’s the mom we never had, even if we never say it out loud. Marie is the heart of this household. If anything ever happened to her, we would avenge her without blinking an eye.
“We are leaving in ten minutes. Be ready.” I stroll down the hallway and slam the door to my room. I try to calm down, but Ari is right; I’ve always had anger issues, issues with things I cannot control.
How do people keep people in their lives? This situation with Delilah is already maddening. I’m obsessed to the point of wanting to kill everyone who looks in her direction.
“She’s agreed to be yours. She will not break the contract,” I mutter to myself, sounding like a man about to jump off a cliff if he doesn’t rein himself in.
I roll my shoulders to loosen the tension and step into my closet. I dress in a deep purple blazer paired with black trousers. Purple isn’t a color I wear often, but I do when I want to feel empowered. I want the upper hand; right now, Delilah thinks she has it.
She’s wrong.
We can play. She can be a mouse; I will be the cat, hunting her until she’s in my hands. Delilah needs a reminder that I’m a predator, and she’s my prey.
And prey gets devoured.
I tuck my gun at the back of my shirt so my blazer covers it. The last thing I need is for a professor to catch sight of my gun’s handle while I’m on campus—,
a campus I donate to, actively. So, they won’t be surprised to see me on campus checking how my funds have been allocated.
Strolling through my room and back down the hall, I’m confident, yet, rage still tickles my senses.
Ari, Matias, and Gianni wait at the end of the hall. I don’t know what comes over me, but I land a punch in Ari’s stomach. He tries to double over, but I hold him up by the back of his suit.
I lean closer and whisper, “If you ever let her walk out that door alone again, I will pull the nails from your fingers, Ari.”
Ari wraps a hand around my throat and shoves me against the wall. “Fuck with me, and I’ll fuck with you, brother. If I don’t challenge you, no one will. And someone needs to exist to bring you down a few notches.”
Matias pulls Ari away from me, and I straighten my blazer. They watch me, pure hatred shining in their dark gazes. Finally, I hold out my hand in a truce.
Ari shakes it, and the brotherly dynamics are back, the anger and violence forgotten. Ari makes it so damn easy to lose my patience. He pokes at me, but I need to be better.
We all climb down the steps and swing the door open, my eyes zeroing in on the gate. “I want more men on security at the gate. The new rule is that Delilah is not to leave without an escort. It will normally be me, but if by some chance it isn’t, then someone needs to be with her at all times. Okay?”
“Agreed. No one will fuck with our sister-in-law,” Matias says, the bloodlust in his voice evident. He barely knows Delilah,
but because she belongs to me, that’s all he needs to know.
“Shotgun!” Ari shouts, quickly jumping into the passenger seat.
Matias and I curse as we climb in the back.
Calling shotgun is an absolute rule. Whoever calls it first gets to ride in the passenger seat for the day. It’s the one thing I’ve always done since the twins were kids. With such a large age gap between us, I need to remember that their mindset differs from mine. Ari calling shotgun reminds me of that every time.
The engine rumbles, the gate swings open, and all the while I’m staring at my phone to make sure she doesn’t move from the fucking spot she’s in. I feel the muscle in my jaw twitch, knowing she snuck away from me so easily. I’ve never slept so hard before. I wake up at the slightest noise, gun at the ready, but with Delilah by my side, I slept better than I had in my entire life.
“You might not want to go there raising hell,” Matias suggests. “We will be around people. In public. You can’t do anything drastic.”
“I’m not going to do anything drastic.” Except maybe wrap a hand around Delilah’s throat, press her against the nearest wall and slamming my lips to hers so she knows who is in charge. The contract be damned.
I can’t do that. I can’t go back on my word. It’s all I have with her right now, and if I let her come to me, then there is a chance for us to be more than a business arrangement.
The school is only a few miles away, and I’m curious how my little troublemaker got there. If she walked…
I don’t even want to think about that. Surely, she wouldn’t put herself in harm’s way. She’s stubborn, though. She might have walked just to prove that she could.
She’ll be my reason for insanity, but it’s a good thing I love the madness.
“So, what are you going to do when you see her? Talk? Yell?” Ari asks.
“It’s good to come up with a game plan.” Gianni rolls down his window and lights a cigarette. “We can’t just barge in there. Campus security will kick us out.”
“Please,” I scoff, looking out the window and watching through the tinted glass as the town passes. “I pay their fucking salaries. They would be idiots to do that. There won’t be any issues.”
“Good because we are pulling into the campus now.” The blinker clicks as Gianni takes a left, and immediately we are staring at tall buildings and dormitories. We follow the signs, passing college students along the way, and Ari is distracted by every woman he sees.
If they only knew the danger of just stepping on campus, they wouldn’t dare walk around so freely.
Gianni finally parks in front of a modern two-story building with large windows to let in the natural light.
I donated the money for their new library after a snowstorm caved in the roof and ruined all the books, computers and printers. Now, they have a state-of-the-art library with private rooms for studying, laptops for the students to rent, the best desktop computers and any book they could ever want.
This is my city, my people, and it’s up to me to take care of them.
Even if it means getting my hands a little bloody.
I step out of the car and stride to the front entrance of the library. I don’t wait for my brothers to follow me. I leave them behind, my legs carrying me faster. A few students see me and stare. A guy wearing glasses grabs his friend’s backpack and yanks her back, so she’s out of my way.
When I reach the doors, I yank them. Steel and glass clang against the library walls
and every head turns.
Including hers.
