Page 24 of Twisted Games of Revenge

When he gives me nothing, I take my broken dress off the floor and slip it back on, tying the straps behind my neck like a halter. Then I collect my discarded wig, and finding a mirror, I twirl my long hair back up and underneath it, fixing it back in place. Next I approach Alessandro, holding my hand out for my knife. “You should have kept me pretending for a little longer, Alessandro, tonight could have been so fun. I know how desperate you were for more of me. Maybe you will learn to give me what I want, and then you might get what you want. This could be such a nice partnership if you just trust me,” I offer him, being a hell of a lot nicer to him than he just was to me, even if my voice is filled with the sass of a girl who knows there is an army of bikers on her side this time.

He runs his eyes down my body, eating up every inch of me. And I know he’s back in the hall with me, imagining just how fucking hot tonight could have been. He carefully closes my blade and retrieves his own, placing it in my hand instead. “Unlike yours, mine is not tainted with pig’s blood.”

I nod, accepting his gift, then prop my leg up on the bed so I can lift my dress and slip the knife back inside the holster safely. I stride toward the door, patting my leg where the tracker still is. I’m not going to bother taking it off. They know where we stand now. “You boys know where I am if you change your mind and decide to work with me.” I blow them a kiss and walk out the door with my head held high. And my heart racing like fucking crazy.

Chapter 10

Lying on the couchin Sloane’s office, staring up at the shadowy ceiling, I sigh heavily. It’s mid-afternoon and she’s catching up on some paperwork at her desk while the club isn’t busy. Not wanting to be left alone in her apartment, I decided to join her for the afternoon shift, even though I’m not working until six.

I’m consumed by pain, a heavy, aching knot that feels like it’s constricting my stomach. The boys’ angry faces from last night keep flashing in my mind. Feeling the way they held me, it was all so different to the Moretti boys I know. I let my eyes close, wishing things could be different but knowing I’ve done irreparable damage, but so have they. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have just helped me in the first place. We could have avoided all this drama.

“I need something on the boys to take back to Enzo.” I let out another heavy sigh, the sound echoing in the quiet room. I don’t want to tell him shit but know I can’t go back to him empty-handed. Sloane was listening in on the entire conversation, soshe might come up with something that I can tell him without actually giving anything of value away.

She closes her laptop, the screen’s glow fading, and looks up. “I was wondering when you would be ready to talk about last night. That was one fucked-up predicament you found yourself in.”

I sit up, knowing there is no avoiding her judgment after I climbed into her car with her and Onyx took us home. She didn’t ask any questions, and I didn’t tell her anything. “We both know I shouldn’t have left the party with Alessandro, but I was finally getting somewhere with Enzo. He trusted me to seduce him, so I had to give it a go.”

She shakes her head, her sleek ponytail bobbing. “You agreed to seduce your ex-boyfriend, ex-fiancé of sorts, so you could take information about him back to his psycho papa and you left a party in his car. I’m glad you know it was a terrible idea. If it was one of my girls, Viv, I would be reprimanding them for their stupidity. What the fuck would you have done if I wasn’t listening in?”

“You were, though, I knew you had my back. You make it sound so fucked up.”

She raises a brow. “It is kind of fucked up, babe. But I get it. This really is the best way to get Enzo on your side. Shame the boys worked out who you were so quickly. I thought our disguise was unrecognizable, and didn’t the press say you had been announced dead?”

“My disguise is brilliant, no one else has any idea,” I huff. “But those assholes still had a tracker on me. They would have known from the moment they stepped into your bar the other night that it was me. Disguise or no disguise. I don’t know for sure, but I figure it was them who somehow faked my death.”

“Shit! That’s messed up.”

“You think? If you didn’t turn up to save me last night, I would probably be chained up in their fucking basement right now and no one would even know I was still alive.” The knot in my stomach tightens, making me feel nauseous.

Her laughter fills the air, but I cut her off with a sharp look, making it clear I’m not kidding. “They’ll simmer down, they just need time,” she tells me. But she doesn’t know them like I do.

Alessandro won’t stop until he gets what he wants. And I have pissed him and his brothers off by taking control over my life again, and they want me to pay. Hell, even I have no idea what they were actually going to do with me in that hotel room last night. I could feel how badly Alessandro wanted to fuck me before we entered the room, but maybe that was just a ploy to trick me. But it felt real. I wanted him every bit as much, and part of me is bitterly disappointed I couldn’t just have fucked him anonymously, have it be like it was when I first met him, without all the angst that exists between us now.

“It’s fine, it’s better this way,” I mutter, wishing my body would get with the program my brain is on and see this for what it was. This was the best thing that could have happened; now we all know exactly where we stand. I can get on with what I’m here to do, no distractions. Even if my chest has a constant ache in it. I tilt my head to see Sloane staring at me. “Have you ever been in love before?” I ask her, feeling silly as the words leave my lips.

A wave of emotion washes over her face, softening her normally sharp features. “Love’s a complication girls like us don’t have the time for,” she answers cryptically. “But tell me something, Viv, Alessandro isn’t the only one you’re in love with, is he?”

I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes, and I try to blink them away. I want so badly to be strong like Sloane, but seeing them last night has complicated things again. Knowing how much I hurt them is tearing me up.

“I don’t envy you then. Breakups are a bitch at the best of times, but three at once... Ouch, that’s got to hurt.” She shakes her head. “I think you’re very brave.”

I drop my head into my hands, sucking in deep breaths trying to calm myself down. “I’m not, I’m literally running away in fear.”

She moves across the room to sit beside me. “You’re not running away. You could have gotten on that plane to Australia and lived out your days lazing on the beach, but you stayed to fight in a world where us women have little control, knowing it would break the hearts of the three men you love, and that is brave.”

“Four,” I mutter, needing to confess it all to someone. The thoughts bouncing around in my head are making me feel crazy. Who falls in love with four men?

“Four what?” she asks, confused.

My eyes meet hers. “Geovani,” I admit, wondering where he was last night. I thought they had all joined forces, but doesn’t that mean in controlling me as well?

Her eyes go wide. “For fuck’s sake, girl. I’m not sure what kind of magic pussy you have but that shit must be devastating.”

“If something happened to any of them because of me, I would never forgive myself. That’s why I have to do what they can’t and deal with Enzo.”

“That’s right. Last night you made inroads. Valentina likes you enough to set you up with her beloved son, and Enzo already trusts you to work for him. You did good. Now we start fucking with him.”

“Yeah, except I got out of there before I got Alessandro to agree to fake dating me. Without him, I’m kind of back to square one, maybe worse because now I failed at the only job Enzo gave me.”

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