Page 51 of Passion and Revenge

Sienna wraps her arms around herself. “And the lives of the innocent who have been ruined by the drugs you push into the streets?”

A defense is on my tongue. If those people don’t buy those drugs from me, they’ll buy them from someone else. I don’t force them to ruin their own lives with deadly and expensive addictions.

But the words die before they can come out, and my teeth jam together. I don’t owe Sienna D’Addario an explanation. It doesn’t matter that I’m not the monster she thinks I am.

It won’t change the fact that I have a personal vendetta against the man she loves most on earth, and no matter how tempting she is, I will never let the prosecutor walk free.

“I didn’t know you were such an advocate for the innocent,” I sneer. “I thought you were a starving artist and not a human rights activist.”

She steps up to my face, tiny and fierce. “I’m not a starving artist. You may have walked away from The Revelation, but someone else thought they were good enough. You know, back then, I wished you had been my secret buyer, but now I’m glad you haven’t put your dirty paws on my babies.”

If only she knew.

“I want to show you something,” I say before I can rethink my decision.

I’ve never been one to make split-second decisions, but recently, it seems that’s all I ever do. All my careful planning and scheming go flying out the window whenever Sienna is involved.

When all of this is over, she’ll be gone. I’ll never have to see her again or deal with this discomfiting confusion. My life will go back to business as usual, everything in its rightful place.

Just the way I like it.

“What is it?” Her voice is wary, and I’m tempted to drag this out, but on the other hand, I want to get this over with. My phone feels like it’s burning a hole in my pants.

I stick my hand in my pocket and pull out my phone, her hazel eyes tracing my movement.

Not looking at the messages from Ivan before turning the screen to his daughter may just be the most stupid thing I’ve ever done.

“What does it say?” I ask her after several minutes of her just staring at the screen with a lost expression.

Tears cling to her lashes as she flicks them up to stare at me. “It says he’s coming for me, and he loves me.”

I finally bring the phone screen to my face.

“I love you more than all the planets stacked together,” I recite with a scoff. “What does that mean?”

“None of your business,” she answers, but her voice lacks the usual bite to it.

When my eyes meet hers, they are soft and adoring. As if I dragged the stars down from the sky and gifted them to her. If this is how easy it is to please Sienna, then I won’t…

I don’t allow myself to complete that train of thought. It’s not my duty to please her. The opposite, in fact.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I warn her.

“You sent him pictures of me.”

“Not for your sake or his,” I lie. “I just wanted to remind him that you’re at my mercy.”

“Thank you.”

I paste on a smirk. “As I said, my action is for neither of your benefit. It was a completely selfish act.”

“Regardless, thank you.”

I turn to walk out of the room, knowing that the longer I spend there, the more I give her a false sense of hope. I can’t imagine what’s going through her head. I only hope for her sake she doesn’t think I’m being redeemed.

The only redemption I require is Ivan’s grief-ravaged body.

“Alessandro.” Her voice is like a brush of a feather against my skin, and I ignore it, increasing my pace to the door. “Alessandro.” There’s an annoyed undertone to it now. “You coward.”

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