Mag-log inRielle's POVThe next morning, I woke up expecting to see Lorenzo lying in the bed beside me.My eyes snapped open and my whole body went stiff. For a moment I didn't move at all. I just lay there with my heart racing, waiting to feel the weight of him on the mattress, waiting to hear him breathing, waiting for a big warm arm to be thrown across my waist like I belonged to him.Nothing.Slowly, I turned my head.The other side of the bed was empty. The pillow was smooth and untouched. The sheets on that side were cool and flat, like nobody had slept there at all. I pushed myself up onto my elbows and looked around the room. The curtains were half open, and pale morning light was spilling across the thick carpet. His chair by the window was empty. The bathroom door was open, and the bathroom was dark.I held my breath and listened. No footsteps. No running water. No rustle of clothes.He wasn't here.I let out a long, shaky sigh of relief and fell back against the pillow.That was when
Lorenzo's POVIt was almost four in the morning when I finally got home.The deal with Vincenzo was done. He had his money, and I had his ships, and he had spent the last hour making jokes about me going soft. I let him. Let him think whatever he wanted. A man who thinks you're soft gets careless around you, and careless men are easy to kill.The house was dark and silent. The guards nodded to me as I passed. I took the stairs slowly, my arm throbbing under the bandage, my whole body heavy with the kind of tired that sits in your bones.I had been thinking about what I would find the whole drive back.An empty room, maybe. Windows open, sheets tied into a rope. Or her waiting for me behind the door with something heavy in her hands, ready to crack my skull. Or her sitting up wide awake in the middle of my bed, glaring, with a fresh list of names to call me.I pushed my bedroom door open quietly.The lamp on the far nightstand was still on, turned down low, throwing a soft yellow glow
Lorenzo's POVThe club was called Velvet, and it smelled like every other club I had ever walked into. Sweat and perfume and spilled liquor, and something sweet pumped through the air vents to hide the rest.I didn't come for the girls. I came for Vincenzo Moretti.He was waiting for me in the private room upstairs, the one behind the black glass, sitting on a long curved couch with his tie loosened and a glass of scotch in his fat hand. Vincenzo ran the docks on the east side. I needed his ships next month, and he needed my money, and that was the only reason two men who couldn't stand each other were sitting in the same room at two in the morning."Lorenzo." He spread his arms like we were old friends. "You look like shit.""Long night.""So I hear." He grinned and took a sip. "Somebody shot up a Los Muertos party on the north side tonight. Some fancy auction. They're saying it was the Serpientes. Bodies everywhere. Half the senate probably pissed their pants." His little eyes watch
Rielle's POVThen he pushed himself off the bed and stood up. His hands went to his belt.The buckle clinked. The leather slid.I turned my face away so fast my neck hurt. I squeezed my eyes shut and stared at the wall with my cheeks on fire.Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.I was so angry at myself I could have screamed. This man had called my mother a whore. He had used her in the kitchen while I stood there and watched. He had bought me tonight like a piece of meat. And after all of that, I had just touched him. Like a lovesick idiot. My skin was still burning. My breath was still uneven. My thighs were pressed so tight together under his jacket that it hurt, trying to hold in the ache that had woken right back up like it had only been sleeping.What the hell was wrong with me?Behind me, I heard rustling. The soft drop of fabric to the floor."You can look," he said lazily. "You've had your hand wrapped around it before. Felt how big and hard it got for you."" I'd rather gouge my
Rielle's POVHe pulled me into the room and shut the door behind us.Then I heard the lock.It was a small sound, just a soft metal click, but it went through me like a gunshot. I spun around in time to see him slip the key into his trouser pocket, slow and deliberate, his eyes on mine the whole time like he wanted me to watch."Are you serious?" I said. "You're locking me in?""I'm locking you in.""Give me that key.""It's in my pocket, right next to my cock. Reach in and take it."I lunged for him anyway. I don't know what I thought I was going to do. Rip his pocket off, maybe. But he caught both my wrists in one hand before I even reached him, turned me around like I weighed nothing, walked me backward across the thick carpet, and pushed me down until I landed on the edge of his bed.The mattress was soft and deep, and I sank into it. The sheets were dark grey and cool under my bare thighs. The same bed. The same bed where I had lain with my dress shoved up and his fingers inside
Rielle's POV"I'm not yours.""Ten million dollars says otherwise.""Then you got ripped off."His breath ghosted across my neck when he laughed. "We'll see."He took my arm again and pulled me toward the house.The front doors swung open before we reached them. The same scowling maid from the night of the funeral stood inside. Her eyes went wide at the sight of me, then wider at the blood on his sleeve and his jacket wrapped around me."Don Lorenzo, your arm—""Later.""But it's bleeding, sir, it needs—""I said later." He didn't even look at her. "And send someone up with bandages for her feet. She's dripping on my floors."The maid looked at me like I was something the cat had dragged in. I looked right back at her until she dropped her eyes.My bare feet left small smudges of blood on the white marble as he pulled me across the entrance hall. Nothing had changed. Not the chandelier, not the curving staircase, not the old men glaring down from their gold frames. It was like the hou







