Page 24 of Desire and Revenge

“Who is this Vittoria?” I smirk at him. “She sounds delightful.”

“We’ve been together for years. And she’s a jealous, possessive fiend. She gave me hell when she found out about my marriage to Sofia. She’s got a nasty temper.” But he doesn’t sound unhappy about it. If I have to guess, I’ll say that that temper translates to the bedroom.

“If you’ve ever been with her, you’ll never look at Sofia the same,” he says, his face and mouth dragging down at the corners in annoyance.

My fingers curl into fists inside my gloves, and the next punch I land to the punching bag is vicious. I realize I’m angry on Sofia’s behalf. She spends her days being verbally abused by an asshole of a husband and his shitty family. She endures terrible sex from a man who doesn’t give two shits about her, and now she’s being talked about with such derision.

Can’t she catch a break?

The hypocrisy of it all catches up with me, and I shake my head, because I’m yet another person who’s planning to make her life more difficult.

“Vittoria will be back this weekend,” he says, turning off the thread mill and standing there, panting like someone who’s run a thousand miles when, in reality, he’s barely been going fifteen minutes. “I had to pay for her vacation to Korea to appease her after my wedding. I’m sure she’ll expect me to still grovel when she gets back.”

“You sound like you don’t mind.” I fix a smirk on my face.

“Not at all, if you catch my drift.” He winks, and I’ve never wanted to hit someone so badly.

Sebastian mops his face with a towel. “Have fun out here, but I think I’d rather get my cardio fix in a different way.”

His roaring laughter follows him out of the home gym, and as soon as he’s gone, I hurry to the thread mill and turn it on as fast as it can go. There’s tension lining my shoulders, and my head is throbbing with frustration.

Taking those two blondes to bed didn’t do anything at all. The satisfaction from my night with them only lasted long enough till my eyes had landed on her. The her that has gone from a small problem to a major catastrophe.

My legs and arms pump faster and faster as I run on the machine. Sweat pours down my face and back, but no matter how fast I go, I don’t succeed in escaping the thoughts in my head.

I slap my palm over the button, turning off the machine, and even before I’ve caught my breath, I click on Davide’s contact.

“Boss? What’s going on? Are you alright? Do we need to initiate emergency extraction?”

I chuckle bitterly because the truth is that I need to be taken off this mission. Unfortunately, I’m the major part of the mission.

“I’m fine,” I assure him. “I need you to get eyes on a Vittoria, she’s apparently Sebastian’s mistress and will be flying in from Korea this weekend. I want twenty-four-seven surveillance on her.”

“Will she be a threat?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m not taking chances. She seems to have a lot of power over Sebastian.”

I recall his words about a woman who likes to take charge and frown. “Even if it turns out to be nothing, it won’t hurt to have her as a bargaining chip if all of this goes to shit.”

He pauses. “Is there a possibility that it will, boss?”

“Not from my own end,” I admit, “but some of the men are getting impatient.”

“We have eyes on them. We’ll be the first to know if any of them decides to betray us.”

I shut my eyes and sigh. I didn’t want to have to monitor my own partners, but in our world, blind trust is one of the deadliest mistakes anyone can ever make, followed by becoming attached to the wife of your enemy.

“Keep me updated,” I tell him, then end the call.

Most of the lights in the house have been turned off, but I’m too familiar with the house to be bothered by navigating it in the dark. I easily make my way to my room and take a shower, washing away all traces of blood and sweat and lying to myself that I’ll slip right into my bed after my shower.

“I’m not going there for her,” I say as I roughly towel dry my hair after the shower.

Yellow eyes blink at me, and I can swear that the cat is judging me. The little shit is always judging me.

“I’m going to toss you out the window one of these days.”

His only response is a drawn-out meow, and then he turns around and curls up into a ball in the very center of the bed, ignoring me. Why I still keep the cat, I have no idea.

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