Page 22 of The Devil Can Be Kind

I forced indifference into my tone. “I’ve been here for days, and I’m bored. I want my phone back.”

“No.” His response was immediate. No hesitation whatsoever.

“It’s not like I can ask for help, I don’t even know where I am!” I protested, getting to my feet.

“You’re in Chicago and you can’t have your phone back because I’m using it.”

Chicago? How the hell did I get to Chicago without realizing it? Then I remembered how groggy I had felt on my first day here, and it all made sense.They had drugged me.

Then my cheeks warmed as I processed the second half of his sentence. If he had been using my phone to broker the ransom…hopefully that had beenallhe was doing on my phone.

I turned on my heel to leave, unable to hide my embarrassment.

“Your boyfriend Jason hasn’t called if that is what you are worried about.”

I froze mid-step. Dark humor lilted his words, and I all but choked on the oxygen in my lungs.

“Notmy boyfriend,” I corrected.

“All these pictures suggest otherwise.”

I swung back round with a jolt.

He now had what was obviouslymyphone in his hand and was scrolling obnoxiously through it. That stupid, heart fluttering smile of his pulling at the edge of his lips.

My heart thudded in my ears as I fought to control my unease. I had no need to feel it. There wasn’t anything on my phone but naughty lingerie shots… and I knew I looked hot as hell in them or else I wouldn’t have sent them to Jason. The thought was enough to allow my unease to ebb away into a languid self-assurance.

I crossed my arms, with faux annoyance. “Pervert. And it’s called afuckbuddy.”

His eyebrow raised in quiet question.

Clearly, he wasn’t expecting me to be so flagrant about sex, but I wasn’t in the mood to play the Virgin Mary when on enemy turf—even if it was frowned upon. He also didn’t have to know that it was a bold-asslie.

“Well, enjoy rubbing one out over my nudes,” I said sardonically. “Oh, and speaking of weird sexual fetishes, please tell your pet banshee to keep it down in future. I thought an animal was dying in the halls. Terrible noises…”

I turned back on my heel as I saw his head fly up in surprise.

My comment had caught him off guard and hit its intended target.

Feeling very much like I had won another round with the most powerful man I had ever encountered; I smirked the whole way back to my room.

CHAPTER

FIVE

ADALYN

Days passed at the mansion, and I spent a lot of my time by the pool, reading a book or lounging about watching television in one of the various living rooms. I was biding my time and trying to keep my head down. My confidence in the ransom being paid soon had started turning sour, and as the hours trickled slowly by, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my faith in my family had been misplaced.

The only time I didn’t sit brooding on the thought was when I was eating breakfast with Jesse, and thankfully, after a couple of days we started to eat our dinners together, too. He would always disappear during the day though, and soon enough, loneliness had started setting in.

On the fourth day, I plucked up enough courage to ask Lucia for help teaching me some basic Italian recipes. Cooking had never been something that came naturally to me, and with an ample amount of time on my hands, it seemed like a goodopportunity to learn from a woman who made the best food I had ever tasted.

The days quickly morphed into weeks—two to be exact—and I hadn’t spoken to another person outside of Jesse and Lucia for the entirety of them. All the usual busyness of the house was notably absent and apart from the odd Mafioso or maid here and there, the halls were unusually vacant.

It seemed that the Don was elsewhere, and I couldn’t say I was sad about it. Something about the man made my head hurt and my blood smolder…and I wasn’t entirely sure that was a good thing.

The clockin the kitchen read twelve forty-five when I pulled a steaming pan of chocolate brownies from the oven. Not ten minutes later, Jesse appeared from god-knows-where he spent his days, with a plate in one hand, and I rolled my eyes at him. I cut him a piece before stacking the rest onto a plate.

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