Page 14 of The Devil Can Be Kind

“Regardless of their reasons, allowing them near her is too much of a risk. It could cost us everything,” Jesse argued.

Her?Me.

They’re talking about me.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose as fear laced with dread weaved its way across my skin.

“Hasn’t it cost us everything already?” the older man spoke again, triggering the responses of numerous men—around ten I’d have guessed—and sending the room into complete chaos. Each man shouting to be heard over the other.

“ENOUGH!” The Don’s command rang out at the same time a loud thud echoed about the room, causing the men to fall into silence.

“I will not have any of my men putting this negotiation at risk and causing an all-out war for the sake of misplaced retribution. Adalyn is not the enemy—Alberto is. The sooner you all realize that the sooner I can be done with this stupid conversation and begin sorting out this mess with the Manninos.No oneis touching her. If I hear so much as a taunt, a threat or learn ofanyonedefying that order then they will have me to fucking answer to.”

The distinct sound of a chair being pushed back and then the clinking of glassware trickled out from the door. The only noise amongst the otherwise silent room.

“Hunter and Ross will be immediately removed from the property as Jesse has suggested, and anyone else that isn’t onboard with the program can be reassigned as well. Everyone in this room should heed that warning. If any of you betray the trust I have placed in you, then you will pay for it with your life.”

Shit.

I swallowed thickly as I stepped back. Away from the sliver of light and away from the lethality of the voice that trickled out of it.

I didn’t linger long. The conversation swiftly moved on from me and my ransom to the logistics of where the displaced menwould be assigned to and the practicalities of moving other men onto the property in their place.

I quietly crept back down the hallway and eventually found myself by the front entrance. I took a seat on one of the marble steps at the foot of the elaborate staircase, the stone bitterly cold as it bled through my leggings.

He isn’t going to hurt me,I realized.

In fact, he had just threatened his men with death if they so much as touched me.

That meant that I wasn’t about to be tied to a chair, beaten or shackled to a cellar wall, and even if I were, wouldn’t they have done that already? My botched escape the other night would certainly have given them justifiable motive and yet…they hadn’t taken it. They had left me alone.

He was worried about the repercussions.

A small smile pulled at the corner of my lips.

That meant I wasn’t just a hostage to them anymore—I was someone ofvalue.

And that changed everything.

The next morning,I woke in a cautiously optimistic mood.

My father had been told of my capture and would pay my ransom soon enough. It was just a matter of time before it would be paid… I hoped. Family was family. It didn’t matter that I stood to inherit nothing or wielded next to no power, we were the Cosa Nostra. Weneverturned our backs on family.

All I had to do was bide my time until my family came for me…and that meant not only maintaining the ruse I had fabricated during my first day of captivity, but it also meanttryingnotto make Don La Torre want to kill me anymore than he already did.

This is going to be tricky.

Allured by the strong smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the mansion, I got dressed and padded downstairs in search of breakfast at a little after nine the next morning. I followed my nose until I came across an extravagant white kitchen and the source of the smell: a small dark-haired older woman. She was merrily bouncing around the kitchen with various pots and pans in her hands, cooking up a storm.

She smiled kindly at me as I appeared in the doorway and quickly hurried over.

“Good morning, Miss Adalyn. I’m Lucia, the housekeeper and cook. Your food is out there in the garden room, but please let me know if there is anything else you would like,” Lucia said kindly and gestured to the glass double doors on the other side of the room.

Before I could mutter my thanks, she quickly scurried back to her station and continued flipping the bacon sizzling away in a pan. Curious, I wandered over to the doors she had referred to as the garden room.

Peeking through them, I was met with a bright and airy room, adorned with floor to ceiling arched windows and glass doors that led out onto a veranda. The room was decorated in an array of different shades of cream and accented with gold filigree that beautifully caught in the bright morning sun. A selection of ceramic pots at the room’s edge housed various towering species of plants, their leaves a startling green against the tameness of the room. It was both peaceful and spectacular.

A small table sat nestled beside one of the ornate windows and I was surprised to see Jesse already seated, shoveling bacon into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in a week.

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