Mag-log inAXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.
Olivia…
She was exactly the way Isabella had described— pretty, innocent and naive. Gullible too. And the fact that I had her in my custody without even trying hard felt amazing and fulfilling.
After breaking the omertà, Isabella had run off. But I was going to find her. And her sister was going to take all the pains Isabella was absent to receive.
“Ace.” Viper called the moment I stepped into the “La Camera del Consiglio" [the council room], “I have news.”
I walked to my chair, taking a seat abruptly while lighting fire to my cigarette, “Spill.”
“Isabella found her way to La Mano Nera.” I frowned, “I heard she tried to give him the item she stole.”
My jaw tightened. What was she thinking? Going to my rival with a secret that could ruin me? Isabella had crossed all lines.
“Really?” I took a puff, narrowing my eyes as I thought of the perfect plan, “Where’s she now?”
Viper brought out the map. Circling and trailing until it landed on a particular spot. “If we're calculating well, she should be here.”
I darted my gaze, sat upright and grabbed the edges of the map. I stared at the name he had marked, “Sydney.”
“That means she’s still with it.” I thought she’d given it to a family member, maybe her sister, “Manda gli uomini a inseguire lei!” [Send the men to chase her!].
He nodded, standing up and giving signals to a few of the men who stood there. I took another puff, my annoyance growing. Isabella had broken my trust. And now she was going to face my wrath.
Viper returned to his seat after a few minutes of dishing out orders, packing up the map and handing it over to someone else. His eyes turned to me and I held his gaze. I saw the look in his eyes and knew exactly what he wanted to say next.
“How’s your new baby? She’s so endowed.”
I huffed. “She’s a bit fragile.” My mind went back to her wrists, already red from the ropes she was being tied with. Although I clearly instructed Grant not to hurt her in any way. “I might break her.”
Viper chuckled. “I love them that way.” Fucking dickhead. He loved naive, slender and fragile women. “I can’t wait for you to give her to me while you’re done. Please don’t suck out all her juices before she gets to me.”
For some reasons, that annoyed me. I’d always given Viper women after having them. But this was different. It felt different. I had no intention of sharing Olivia with anyone.
I took another puff, blowing the smoke into the air slowly. “Lei è mia.” [She's mine], “I’m not sharing this one.”
Viper didn’t say anything in disagreement. But I saw the flash of anger in his eyes. I couldn’t care less. I was the boss, and I called the shots.
After a few minutes of silence, Viper finally spoke up. “Are you taking Fernanda to the party?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll take her.” I heard the excitement in his voice, “Sophia needs to stay home with our daughter. I can’t let them come with me now that they’re being targeted.”
I didn’t say anything. Honest truth was, I wasn’t even listening. My mind was a roller coaster of thoughts. And the fact that something that was supposed to be hidden was out there almost in the hands of my rivals was driving me insane.
“I’m taking Olivia to the party.”
Viper shot me a look, his eyes widening with surprise. I could tell what he was thinking. He must have thought I was crazy.
“You can’t do that, Ace.”
I had reached the end of my cigarette. So I threw it down and lit another one.
“Why?”
“You can’t just take anyone there.” I understood what he was saying, but my mind was made up, “What if she’s undercover for Isabella? What if she steals something again?”
I hadn’t really thought of that. I pushed my body forward, giving Viper a side look. He was right. But, my mind still wasn’t going to change.
“I want to show her a glimpse of the world she’s gotten into.” I drew a puff, “And what will happen if she dares to cross me. I’m going to use her sister and mother’s existence to control her.”
He relaxed in his chair, watching me keenly. “And you think that might work? Or even scare her not to snitch on you? Remember, Isabella had the same innocence the first time she came here.”
I sighed, running a hand through my beards. “Isabella is trying to get back at me for what I did to her. She’s always been fierce. But Olivia… She's different.”
I knew it was too early to start differentiating between them, but— Isabella and Olivia were two opposite personalities.
Viper stared at me, his mouth slightly ajar. “Damn Ace. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’ve been love struck.”
I straightened my posture and countenance. Viper was quick to see through people, but I was too good at hiding my true feelings perfectly.
What I felt for Olivia wasn’t love. It was anger. Revenge. Lust.
Anger, because Isabella had done me dirty, and tried to hide her sister away from my reach.
Revenge, because I was going to make her pay. For every single pain I’d suffered since her sister’s betrayal.
Lust, because Olivia’s body was tempting. And I knew deep down she was still untouched— Isabella had mentioned it and I believed after seeing her.
And tonight, I was going to have her, her body beneath mine. And I was going to thrust in and out of her while making sure she felt nothing but pain… rather than pleasure.
“Ace?” I hadn’t heard him call me. I was too deep in my thoughts, imagining how I was going to take my little kitten.
I shifted in my seat, feeling my hand burn slightly. I had reached the end of my cigarette, again.
“Thinking about her?” I shot him a look, biting down my bottom lip.
“No.”
“You’re getting hard.” I shifted my gaze to my pants. And damn… he was right even though I hated to admit.
“Can’t wait to have her, I know. I looked forward to it too.” I gave him another cold glare, and he quickly added, “Until you made it clear that you won’t be sharing. I bet her pussy would taste amazing.”
I gritted my teeth. He had no right to imagine what my girl would taste like. But hearing him say that made my cock grow, threatening to tear through my pants.
I needed her, right there. I couldn’t hold it anymore. My legs pulled me up from my seat, and I found myself heading to the door without warning.
“Ace.” Viper called after me, “Where are you off to? We haven’t even concluded the dealings yet.”
“That can wait.” I responded without looking back, “But I can’t.”
I walked out, heading straight to the room I’d instructed Rosa to keep her. The door wasn’t locked, but there was no sign of her when I entered. Until I heard voices inside the bathroom. Hers and Rosa’s. And I heard laughter, her laughter. It sounded like soothing music to my ears.
I pushed the door open without warning. And my eyes met with hers. She sat in the bathtub, her upper body uncovered. I saw the fear in her eyes when she saw me, and the way she quickly tried to cover her breasts with both hands. I noticed the way she immediately stopped laughing and talking with Rosa. Her scared, unhappy gaze held my fierce eyes.
“Leave us, Rosa.” I thundered, peeling off the sleeves off my skin, “Right now.”
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“I brought some tea for you, it’ll help you sleep and relax better.”Rosa’s voice filtered into the bathroom where I was, standing over the shower as the cold water poured down my body.I didn’t say anything. For the next few seconds, I stood still in silence; the only noise came from the room and the door Rosa had shut behind her.And of course, the running water that seemed to drown every other sound I didn’t pay attention to.To say I was broken wasn’t enough to describe the emotional state I’d found myself in.Shattered. Destroyed. Half-dead.Any of those words was a better description. Even worse.Seeing Olivia’s body in that coffin had done nothing but damage my whole being. I was expecting her return but never imagined seeing her come back to me… lifeless.I swore never to rest until I got to the bottom of what had happened. They’d murdered her in cold blood—killed her for doing absolutely nothing.I’d been in that shower for over thirty minutes. I wasn’t
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.I walked outside, my footsteps resounding on the marble floor as I searched for Viper.He was close to the gates when I saw him. His back was turned against me as he held a conversation with one of the guards.I clenched my fists, seething with the anger that coursed through my veins. Slowly and steadily, I approached him.“Where is Olivia?” I asked him, interrupting whatever conversation he was having.He swerved around to look at me, his eyes narrowed in confusion.“Why are you asking me that?”The guard excused himself, turning around to walk away after I gave him a signal.I buried both hands inside my pockets, forcing myself to remain calm.“I am not joking with you, Ansel.”“Well, your question clearly sounds like a joke to me.”I tightened my jaw, exhaling deeply before stroking my chin with two fingers. We stood, staring at each other, only a few feet away with a gap between us.“What did you do to Olivia?” I drew the words out slowly, hoping they’d sink
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“What?” My jaw dropped. “That’s absurd.”Olivia escaping wasn’t what shocked me; it was the fact that she’d stolen something. I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t.Rosa swallowed hard, her eyes repeatedly blinking at me.“Non volevo tenerlo lontano da te,” [I didn’t mean to keep it away from you,] she muttered. “But she forced me to—‘“—Quit lying!” I snapped at her, taking quick steps forward. “Olivia would never do such things.”Stealing? What on earth could she possibly steal? For some reason, I felt like I’d established something with her that would never make her want to escape.She’d begged me to reconsider my marriage to Nelly, and as badly as I wanted to, I couldn’t do anything.Was that why she’d left?Because she was hurt and felt betrayed?I stared at the phone in my hand—her phone. It wasn’t coincidental or deliberate that she’d left it. Something had happened, and observing that room explained more than what a single glance could see.“Olivia is gone,
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“A month?” I arched my brows. “For what?”It was the first time in years that I was speaking to Donatello over the phone. And having that conversation triggered the bad blood we had.“I hate repeating myself, Salvatore.”“I’m not having a wedding in a month’s time,” I panted, pacing around with my right hand inside my pocket. “It’s too early.”A brief pause ensued. I halted in my tracks, my eyes glaring at the glass of whiskey that was on my table.“My daughter is carrying your heir.” I hated the sound of that, the way he spoke proudly like he owned me. “The least you could do is hurry up with the wedding.”‘Heir’ like I wanted that fucking baby.I ran my palm over my face, silently burning with the imaginary smoke that blew off my ears.“We had a fucking deal,” I gritted my teeth.“And I’m keeping to my part of the bargain. All you’ve got to do is give Nelly the wedding of her dreams.”I grabbed the glass and threw it over the wall, sending it crashing into seve
OLIVIA“When did you return to this?” I asked, my lips quivering at his menacing figure. “You swore that you changed, but… you only managed to hide everything perfectly.”I’d done wrong, I knew. But Axel? He’d morphed back into his beast form. That wasn’t part of his promises to me, and I couldn’t imagine living with this old personality of his.He huffed, tilting his head forward as I swallowed hard. I matched his gaze with twitching eyes, my whole body trembling.“Get the fuck out of my sight, Olivia,” he growled.He was still furious, his mouth threatening to spit fire. That part of me was something I couldn’t face again, so I ignored his dismissal and proceeded to say the words bothering my mind.“Are you really getting married to Nelly?” The question was too painful to ask. And I’d lost a part of my sanity ever since I heard the news. “Is that more important than us?”“Us?” Axel scoffed, his eyes blazing as he chuckled bitterly. “There’s no ‘us.’”“There was!” I screeched, hatin
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“W-what?”Maybe I didn’t hear right. She’d fucked who?Her words sent my heart racing faster than a sports car. For a split second, everything appeared blurry, even her petite figure standing in front of me.How could she? I didn’t want to believe it. Olivia knew the gravity of what she’d done. The crime she’d committed. I watched her struggle to keep her tears from falling, her eyes already throbbing and red.But that didn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t solve anything. She hadn’t just given her body to another man but had lowered the reputation that was held up high.My reputation.“I’m—I’m sorry,” she pleaded, trying to reach for me by tugging at my arm.“Sorry?” I snapped, my voice a low growl. “You’re sorry for fucking Alessandro?”“It was a mistake.” Her voice was soft as the words slipped out of her quivering lips. “I didn’t mean to. I was mad at you and—‘“—I told you everything was for the wrong girl,” Viper chipped in, blowing thick smoke into the air. He







