Page 28 of Twisted Fate

A shiver speeds down my spine.

“I need answers from you, Alina,” Damian says.

“I can’t tell you what I don’t know,” I whisper. But I could tell him what I do know, what I overheard. Mention of the Ivanovs. Why don’t I tell him that? Because it’s my one trump card and I’ll only play it when I really need it.

“You’ve been hiding from him, haven’t you?” Damian asks.

I shake my head as my heart flutters in my chest.

“You’re afraid of him.” Damian’s voice is a low rumble, luring me to confide in him.

“I said I don’t want to talk about Enzo.” The words explode out of me.

“And yet, here we are. Talking about that asshole.” He strokes a wayward strand of hair off my cheek. “I swear to you, Alina, he will never hurt you again. He will never touch you again.”

His words surprise me, as does the intensity of how he’s watching me. “Why do you care?”

Damian rears back as if I’ve slapped him. After a long moment, he says, “Good fucking question. You’re nothing to me.”

I feel a flush of anger touch my cheeks, and a prick of hurt sting my heart. Which makes absolutely no sense. He’s right. I am nothing to him.

“And you’re nothing to me,” I snap back, forcing a tight smile.

His lips thin. We glare at each other in silence until he asks, “What clubs did he take you to?”

“Clubs?” It takes me a second to catch up with the change of topic. “Um… Hakkasan, Drai’s, Voodoo, LED…”

His eyes narrow slightly at the mention of the last one. “What restaurants?”

I huff out a breath. “I don’t know. Different places.”

“Humor me. Name a few.”

“He liked Bottiglia, Settebello, Chen’s…”

“Chen’s? The hole in the wall in Chinatown?”

I nod. “That’s the one. The food there is really good. I mean, really, really good.”

He lifts a brow. “Anywhere else?”

“La Vecchia. That was his favorite. He took me there a few times. And each time he’d leave me sitting alone for at least half an hour while he went in back and spoke to the chef.”

Damian tenses. “He spoke to the chef at La Vecchia,” he muses.

“Does that means something?”

His smile is tight, forbidding, frightening. “Yeah. Actually, it means a great fucking deal.”

11

Damian

It took everything I had to leave Alina last night when what I really wanted to do was get her naked and fuck her. I know dozens of gorgeous women. Sexy, smart, luscious women. But from the second I first saw Alina Madsen, she’s the only one I want.

I exhale sharply. What the fuck is wrong with me?

Thinking about Alina brings me back to what she revealed: that piece of shit Enzo Bianchi took her to La Vecchia, a restaurant owned by the Ivanovs.

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