Chapter 37

I strode down the hallway toward my home gym, needing to work out some of this anger before I saw Veda again.

How could this have happened? How the hell could I have fucked things up to this extent?

Restlessly, I clenched my fists and released them again, aching to hit something. But then I forced myself to relax and took a deep breath. There was no way I could have known there were twins. I put my best guys on this shit. Not one of them had discovered that there were two girls who looked exactly the same. One engaged to Mario, and one who was not. And we’d had to move in fast. It was a mistake anyone could have made.

However, my father would not see it that way.

When I got to the gym, I stripped down, grabbed a pair of shorts I kept there for occasions such as this, and then I went straight to the punching bag. I've been training in mixed martial arts since I was four, and I knew how to hit a bag. But this right here, right now, this was all about taking out my anger at myself.

Thirty minutes later, when Veda wandered down and found me there, my knuckles were bruised and my knees and the tops of my shins and feet were red. Sweat dripped down my face, my breathing was ragged, and I was still pissed off.

“What did you find out?” she asked me from the doorway, a glint of hope in her expression.

I watched her reflection in the wall of mirrors, but I didn’t turn around. “You’re supposed to be waiting in my room.” Thinking she didn’t have my full attention, I didn't miss the way her eyes traveled down my body, lingering at my thighs and ass before they wandered over my back and arms. But she was smart enough not to come any closer.

Looking at her, standing there in what little she was wearing, my blood roared so loud in my ears I barely heard what she’d said, my body screaming for release, but not from the bag. "You have a sister," was the only response I gave her.

"Uh, yeah, that's what I've been telling you," she answered.

I glared at her over my shoulder, turned, and punched the bag again, but the aggression behind it was less than it had been. A part of me had felt relief when I saw her standing there in the doorway, and I admitted to myself I was glad she wasn't her sister. But I couldn't admit more, no matter how much my body tried to tell me. Not yet. Not until I knew we didn't need her. "So, what now?" she asked me.

"Nothing changes," I told her. Grabbing a towel from the bench, I wiped off my face, my anger at myself renewed. How fucked up was I, lusting after some girl when the only thing I should be thinking about was finding her sister and carrying out my plan.

Shock swept over her face. “What do you mean, nothing changes?"

"Just what I said," I gritted out. I was swiftly growing tired of her questions. I needed to be alone to think.

"What the fuck do you mean?" she repeated, her voice rising. "I'm not the right person."

"It doesn't matter," I said as I wiped the sweat from my chest.

She took a few steps into the room, and I could clearly see the panic in her eyes. "But you can just let me go now."

I lowered the towel and looked straight at her. "No, Veda, I can't."

As the meaning of my words sank in, she swayed on her feet. "You're going to kill me," she whispered. "But I don't know anything. I don't know where this house is. I don't even know who you are! Not really..."

She was scared, and she had a right to be. She should be fucking terrified, because that's exactly what I should do. But this woman intrigued me, and despite the way she disobeyed everything I told her to do, I found I liked having her near me. "That's not what I said," I told her.

She walked on stiff legs over to the wall of mirrors and leaned her back against it before her knees gave out and she sank down to the floor. "Then what?" she asked. "I'm your prisoner forever?"

"I didn't say that, either," I told her.

She looked up at me then. "What exactly are you saying, Luca?"

That was a good fucking question, wasn't it. I wrapped the towel around the back of my neck and grabbed a water bottle out of the small fridge in the corner. "I need to find your sister before I decide what I'm going to do with you," I told her.

"And if you find her?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Then you won't be needed anymore." At least not for my plans of revenge.

But somewhere in the red haze of my anger, another plan began to form. One where I wouldn't have to give up this beauty I'd only just found, if only I could find her sister. Either way, there was no chance in hell Veda was ever going back to what she'd known before. The only life she would have now was one with me in it, however long that would be. My instincts told me she belonged here. With me. I wasn't sure yet exactly why that was, but I always followed my instincts.

Well, except once. And there was no fucking way that would happen again.

Maybe she would take the place of her sister and help me rip Mario's heart from his chest the way he had mine. Maybe she'd end up being one of my best spies. Maybe she was just going to be mine. I didn't know, and I didn't fucking care. I just knew she wasn't leaving.

"And if you don't find her?" she said, as if she'd read my mind.

"Then perhaps you and I can come to some sort of agreement."

"Like, what kind of agreement?" she asked, looking up at me in confusion.

"The kind that will make you useful to me, which means I will keep you alive."

She mulled that over for a moment. "So, you just expect me to hang out here and wait."

"Yes," I told her. "That's exactly what I expect you to do." I paused, took a sip of my water, and eyed her over the bottle. "If you're not the praying type, Veda, now would probably be a good time to take that up."

She laughed, but it was an ugly sound. "I have a life. I have people who will miss me. They'll report me missing."

"I'll take care of it."

She stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I'm a fucking human being! You can't just kidnap me like this and expect me to do whatever the hell you say."

"I can. And I did. And you will."