Page 41 of Mine, Forever

“Yes, I’m sorry for what happened to him. He was a really good man.”

Right now as I stood in my bloodied and ripped new lingerie, just after killing someone, I didn’t want to think about my father. He would be disgusted with what I had just done.

“What happened to him?” I asked. Parts of my memory were gone, which I knew was because of the treatment at Serenity. I didn’t fully understand what was real and what I had dreamed up, which made it difficult when it came to things I needed to remember.

“It’s not important,” York said. “I’ll call Carlo to clean this blood up.”

I was halfway down the hall when I turned around. “Thank you for your help, York.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Get some sleep, princess.”

My stomach plummeted, a queasiness spreading throughout my body.

How did he know to call me that?Only my father called me that.

“How did you—”

“He’d be damn proud of you, by the way.”

I cleared my throat, trying to wash away my sadness at not remembering my dad, only knowing he was someone who cared deeply about me. “How well did you know him?”

“Well… he’s my uncle. So pretty damn well. He taught me everything I know.”

I gasped. “But that would make us—”

“Cousins.”

JETT

Wedging open the door with my foot, I carried my bag into the room. Rome had always been my favorite place to get my suits, which meant my business trip had turned into a holiday pretty quick. The idiots over there were so easy to threaten and intimidate. It worried me they had been operating their businesses for so long, and yet one person could spread fear in them so effortlessly. I’d only had to maim one person to have them all agree to my demands. Kinda took the fun out of it, but I’ll take a victory where I can, especially considering I was alone over there, and I desperately needed to know how Ebony was holding up with her task.

“Boss,” York came from inside the apartment to help me. He picked up the bag with ease and headed inside. I quickly flicked through the mail to see if anything important had arrived.

Bills and more bills.

I tossed them into the rubbish by the door and headed inside. York was coming out of the room. “How’d she do?”

The one question I’d been dying to ask since I’d landed in Rome. Not one word was uttered while I was over there just as I had asked. But damn it, I’d been distracted the entire time wanting to know how my little protégé was coming along.

York hesitated before leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’s got a good handle on it, Boss.”

“Did she dispose of the body?”

York nodded. “I think she wants to tell you, though.”

“Where is she?”

“At the office.I’ll get her to come back here.”

York left, picking up the mail I’d just trashed and took it back with him to the office. He always did that, paid my bills and managed the books at the office. I’d never asked him to. He just took care of it one day, and we both pretended he didn’t do it. He was officially my chauffeur, but a damn well-paid chauffeur. I didn’t even realize how much I relied on York until I went into enemy territory alone.

I moved to the bed to try and get some shut eye before Ebony arrived. I knew when she turned up, I’d be wide awake for hours doing everything I had ever dreamed of to her. Well, maybe not everything, but close. Laying down on the bed, I turned my head to the side and was almost swallowed whole in the scent she’d obviously left on my pillow. I breathed it in closing my eyes to try and figure out what the scent was.

It was almost lolly-like, a sweet I could chew on all day. A soft musk with some flower mixed in. Whatever it was, it had me hard as concrete. Just like every other aspect of her, this perfume was intoxicating.

Realizing sleep wouldn’t come, I sat up feeling short of breath. Why couldn’t I stop thinking about Ebony? I was a damn criminal, someone who enjoyed killing, and yet this one woman—a woman I had tortured and broken—was infiltrating my every single thought. I just knew that if she asked me for anything, I would move heaven and hell to get it for her. Still, how the fuck could someone like her even tolerate someone like me?

Jesus, I’d had her tortured in that damn place. Serenity wasn’t known for its kind treatments, and I had seen what she’d done to those two orderlies. What had made her snap so suddenly after a year of being complacent with her treatments?

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