Page 7 of Relentless Sinner

Good, he’s here.

This should be enjoyable. I have much in store for him.

I park in the garage and make my way inside the house. It’s as quiet as it usually is at this hour. Apart from the guards on duty the rest of the house staff will have either left for the day or are already in bed.

Although I’m sure they would have woken up if they heard any commotion.

Eve, my assistant, would have told Salvatore to wait in my office, so I head there.

The scent of leather and polished wood grounds me when I step into my office, but the sight of Salvatore De Costa standing by the window makes my jaw clench.

He turns to face me and I can’t hide my disdain at seeing him. Neither can he.

I’ve always known him to be a pompous bastard who wears his arrogance as effortlessly as his tailored Brioni suits.

His hair, slicked back in a way that seems too perfect, gleams under the soft overhead light. His jaw is clean-shaven but the tension there makes me wonder if he’s seriously going to argue with me tonight.

This asshole is in no position to argue with anyone. Least of all me.

He keeps his eyes on me as I walk to my desk, take off my jacket and throw it over the chair.

I turn around and look at him but I say nothing. I want him to feel the weight of my silence so he knows he’s not the one in control here. I am.

“Did you get her back?” His earnest, wistful tone almost makes him sound like the caring father he’s trying to portray, but he’s not fooling me. This man is cut from the same ragged cloth as I am.

That’s why I made him wait to hear the news of whether or not I got Gabriella back. All I told him was that he was to head to my place where we’d regroup.

I have no doubt that Salvatore wanted his daughter back unharmed. But that’s more to do with the monetary loss of not having her and the fear of what I’ll do with the information I have on him if I don’t get to marry her.

“I did get her back.” I keep my voice low and empty of emotion on purpose.

“I want to see her.”

So he can trash her out?And probably beat her the way I heard he did with her sister when he found out she was pregnant?Fuck him.

“No. You can come by and see her on Wednesday.” I need a break from him, to sort things out and do possible damage control. Wednesday is also best because I’m away on a few business trips from Thursday onwards and I don’t want him here when I’m not around.

“Are you fucking serious?” Salvatore lifts his chin and pins me with a stony stare. “My daughter was kidnapped and you want me to waittwomore days to see her? I want to take her home now.”

“Sheishome, Salvatore.”

The blood drains from his face, leaving his olive skin pale as he catches my meaning. He really is a fool if he seriously thought I was going to allow him to take Gabriella back with him.

“You’ve got some nerve, Jaxon.” He sneers, squaring his shoulders. “She’s my daughter. You can’t keep her here.”

“Well, I am.”

“This is an outrage.”

“Why? The wedding is in three weeks. She was going to move here anyway.”

He must think I’m fucking stupid. I know what he’s up to. He’s doing what anyone else in his position would do by secretly working behind the scenes to find some way of getting rid of me. Or at least getting me out of the picture. That way he can strike up some deal for someone else to marry his daughter so he can get the money he needs.

“She’s my daughter. Everything is happening too fast. Gabriella was supposed to be going to med school in L.A. We never planned on marriage just yet. This is going to be another shock for her.”

He doesn’t care about any of that.

He’s shitting himself because of the hardcore truth, which is that he needs the money to replace what he stole from the Castellanos. He needs to do that before they find out what he did.

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