Page 10 of The Devil Can Be Kind

Jesse only deigned to answer after he had chugged back some of the amber liquor. “There’s not many men in this world, let alone awoman, who would stand up to you the way she did today. Any other person would have cried, begged at your feet, or accepted their fate without a word. Instead, Adalyn stood before you and threatenedyouwith her family’s worst. She has more balls than I have for doing that.”

“Or she’s just stupid.” I muttered.

He tipped up his glass with a smile. “You and I both know her GPA says otherwise.”

It was true; it was in the file Jesse had compiled on her and her entire family.

I sighed. “She is going to be a challenge.”

“And you thought the hard part would be these negotiations.” He laughed and tipped back the glass, downing the rest in one. “Which reminds me, I have an inmate to take care of.”

My lips quirked in a smile as he got to his feet and promptly departed the study.

The moment the door snicked shut behind him, I let out a heavy sigh I’d been holding since the moment Adalyn Mannino had walked into my life.

I took a mouthful from my tumbler and retrieved the phone from across the desk. The screen lit up with a picture of Adalyn and the friend I had seen her dancing with the other night at the club. I clicked on the messages and call history, reviewing the communications between us and the Mannino’s.

Benny was right—they were dwindling. Their responses had started coming slower over the last two days and were increasingly sparse. Irritated, I put the device on the desk, and I glared at the phone.

Adalyn’s phone.

Lured by curiosity instead of reason, I retook the device and began scrolling through its contents for an entirelydifferentreason.

Her photo album was surprising in that it told me almost nothing about her. The images were entirely ordinary, consisting of her friends, her car and outfit ideas she clearly liked. Nothing of any real note.

I gritted my teeth in frustration but quickly calmed back down when I noted the numerous apps for social media. I scrolled through them all, seeing the things she liked or followed. The conversations she had been having.

There was one in particular that caught my attention.

Seems my hostage has a naughty side.

I scanned through some of the pictures she had sent to someone called ‘Jason’. Anger tinged with arousal pooled in my gut as I stared at a risqué photo of Adalyn in some intricate lingerie. Her delicate face pulled into a timidly patient smile.

My dick instantly hardened and began throbbing.

I quickly clicked on the other two images she had sent, skirting around the dick pictures also present amongst the chat history.

I almost creamed in my goddamn pants.

Fucking hell.

The final picture was of Adalyn in a sexy black lace outfit complete with suspenders. Her nipples were like hardened beads against the tight strip of fabric cradling her chest. Her panties mere spindly little scraps of material at her sides.

I’m going straight to hell for this.

Not that I cared one tiny bit. Someone like me was going to go straight to hell anyway… Might as well enjoy the descent.

I retrieved my own phone and air-dropped the images across to it, saving them.

I was going to need them for later when I was in the privacy of my own room… ForresearchI told myself.

ADALYN

The second I had reached my room that afternoon, I had started devising a plan.

I pressed my face against the glass of one of the windows and sighed upon seeing the steep drop to the ground below. It was steep enough that I wasn’t confident I could walk away from it. There wasn’t a perfectly manicured bush, ledge, or anything else I could use to break the fall either, and I all but cried with frustration.

I have to get out of here.

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