Chapter 6

—Ellie—

I sat on the bed, shaking. What the fuck had just happened? I pulled the blankets over my legs and removed the ice pack from my forehead. The bleeding had stopped, but I still felt shocked.

Things had escalated fast—so fast. Tristan came into the room, his questioning innocuous. Then he touched me, oh God, it felt so good and all he did was run one finger over my collarbone. If only he touched more of me… My pussy quivered.

I closed my eyes and let out a breath. Part of me was mad. I pushed him away. If I hadn’t, we could be having sex right now. My mouth was suddenly dry. I opened my eyes and looked around the room.

He wanted me. That was obvious. When his erection pressed against me, I wanted him too. I wanted him to tease me, to make me want him. “Fuck,” I muttered.

Just minutes after he had left the room, someone came in to attend to my wounds. All I needed was a Band-Aid and an ice pack, nothing serious. Was that enough to prove Tristan cared about me?

*******

—Tristan—

The next day, I leave the house and head to one of my clubs to check on how business is going.

I drive my black Aston Martin, I don't take any of my security with me, I need this drive to clear my head. I need to stop thinking about this woman and focus on how to destroy the Abelli's, I need to find their weakness.

I get to the club and my right hand man and best friend Damian is already there. Damian and I have been friends since we were kids. His father was also my fathers right hand man.

I head to the bar and grab a bottle of bourbon and then we both walk down the hall to my office.

I pour us out drinks and take my seat behind my desk, Damian takes the seat opposite me.

"Have you been to see Rico's family yet?"

"Yea, I have. His wife is distraught but I assured her that she and her children will be taken care of and protected."

"Ok, that's good. We need to find to get back at the Abelli's, we can't just let them get away with this."

"Yea, my contact should give me a call in the next few minutes with information about them. But you seem distracted brother, what's the problem? Does it have to do with a certain american staying in your house right now?"

I glare at him. Sometimes, he’s able to read me too well.

"Diego, needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut. I was going to tell you."

"So?"

"So, nothing, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with her."

He hurts out laughing. "Well this is a first, Tristan Russo is actually stumped. This girl has really done a number on you. If not by now she would have either been dead or in you bed."

He's not wrong but I still deny it all the same. "Its not like that, her situation is different."

"If you say so." He says with a smirk still on his face.

"Have you talked to Fabian today?" I say trying to change the subject.

“A few hours ago,” he says. “The construction project was greenlighted by Salvador this morning.”

“Merda.” Salvador’s going to be pouring concrete for a factory that’s on my territory.

“We’re going to have a war on our hands, soon. But I dont want that.”

"I think us going to war is the only way this can end Tristan, Salvador knows that you don't want to risk bloodshed that's why he has the guts to keep on crossing us."

"We can't go to war, whether I want to admit it or not, Salvador has as much man power as we do and an all out war will take too long and lead to much bloodshed. Theres has to be another way, he has his weaknesses we just have to find them."

"I hope and pray you're right, and that we find them before he grows to bold and tries to take us out."

His phone starts ringing and he picks it up. "Yes, were you able to get it? That's amazing I'll send you an encrypted address to send everything to now."

He looks up at me smiling. "Today might just be our lucky day, that was my contact in the Abelli's camp, he said he got us a list of all Salvador's businesses both legal and illegal and also a list of all his clients and warehouses."

"That's amazing, this is just what we need to take him down."

"Yea, he's sending everything to your email, boot up your computer."

I switched on my desktop and Damian comes to stand next to me. I open my email and see the file, I type in the code to dencrypt it and it opens. Different pictures and documents pop up, Damien was right this is a gold mine. Salvador is definitely going down.

We are both scrolling through the documents and pictures and Damien is just about to slide through what looks to be a family picture but something catches my eye and I tell him to stop.

I look at the picture and there stands Salvador, his wife and his idiot son Mateo but then there's someone else there, a girl, I never knew that Salvador had another child. But something about her catches my eye and I maximize the picture.

No it can't be, I stagger back and fall on my chair.

"What is it Tristan?" Damian asks me.

"It's her."

"Who?"

"The lady in the picture, that's Ellie. She's Salvador's daughter and I left her alone in my home."

"Fuck are you sure?"

"Yes I am, call the men at the house, let them make sure she's still there and not to let her out of their sight. Tell them we're on our way."