Page 18 of The Devil Can Be Kind

FOUR

ADALYN

“Wow, you look like shit.” Jesse whistled as I walked into the garden room the next morning.

“Thanks, asshole.” I muttered on reflex.

My lifetime of submissiveness seemingly smothered in only one hundred and twenty hours.

Part of me said it was survival, but a bigger part of me knew I had always been this way—audacious and strong-willed. It had just been beaten out of me. Trampled on until my instinct was no longer to assert my opinion, but to bend to the wills of others. It wasn’t tolerated in the Cosa Nostra: women having an opinion on their lives. After all, who were we to question the will of men?

It was why I had always felt like I didn’t belong. Like I was a square peg being forced into a round hole half its size. It's funny how being trapped in this cage had also made me feel free. Perhaps not physically…but in other ways.

Troubled by that thought, I settled into the same chair I had commandeered the previous morning and poured myself a coffee.

“Couldn’t sleep? You didn’t have nightmares about Hannibal Lecter, did you?” Jesse mocked, bringing his own cup of black coffee to his lips.

I flipped him the bird and took a bite of the warm, syrup covered pancake that was already laid out for me.

“You need to try and keep your head down today, Adalyn.” Jesse’s serious tone caught my attention. “There are visitors coming to the house this afternoon, and it would be wise to stay out of their way.”

His tone was ominous enough for me to decide that the meeting wasn’t going to be a good one.

“Does it have something to do with the ransom?” I tried my best to sound nonchalant.

“Yes and no,” He responded airily, shoving a load of bacon into his mouth and refusing to continue.

Realizing that Jesse had already told me more than any other person in this godforsaken house—or rathermansion—I dared to ask another question. “Do you know what is going on with it?”

“We’re in talks. That’s all I know.”

I nodded and pretended to look bored while a small bubble of hope erupted in my chest.

Jesse finished up before jumping out of his seat and shrugging into his black blazer. “Right, I’ve got to get security tightened before the visit. If you need me, just ask someone to radio me.”

“Tighten security? I thought you were my babysitter,” I yelled after him. He stopped at the door to shoot me a look.

“Babysitter? No, Bandit. I’m head of security.” He winked at me before exiting.

I sighed into the now silent room.

My babysitter was head of security...

It felt a bit excessive but made sense given I was effectively a fugitive within the Don’s family home. It also wasn’t that surprising given the death-glares I frequently got from the meat-head Mafiosos that paraded the halls.

A chill ran down my spine realizing that most of them probably fantasized about killing me.

I ate the rest of my breakfast alone, running through fictional scenarios on how to defend myself should any of the lackeys decide they’d had enough of me. Even if Marco had given them a direct order…one could never be too careful.

After about half an hour, Lucia came in to clear the table, and I jumped on the opportunity to ask her for a tour around the mansion, secretly praying she would keep me company for at least some of the day. To my intense relief, she accepted the invitation.

As it turned out, the mansion was set over three main floors. The basement housed a cinema, commercial kitchen for events, a gym, and indoor pool complete with a sauna and jacuzzi area. On the first floor, there were four beautifully decadent living spaces, a formal dining hall as well as numerous other rooms, some of which I had already been in. The top floor consisted of over six guest bedrooms with luxury on-suites, without Jesse’s or mine included in that figure.

The entire upstairs East wing housed rooms belonging solely to Don La Torre. Lucia only gestured to the ornate, polish wood doors I had stood before the previous night, and I was somewhat grateful we didn’t venture inside.

We then stepped outside, exiting through the garden room veranda to walk the grounds of the home. There was an outdoor pool, numerous formal garden spaces, as well as a large, terraced area that was designed for hosting large family gatherings. By the end, I was in total awe of the place—not only by the sheer sizeof the property, but by the eye-watering wealth that saturated its walls.

I had once considered my family extremely rich, especially prior to our move from Las Vegas to Boulder…but this? This made my family look like mere street peddlers.

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