Page 28 of Deception

Before I can second guess myself, I shut the door in her face, locking it from the outside.

7

ISABELLA

For a while, I just sit there on the edge of the bed, wired and more than a little irritated.

He locked me in here.

Like I’m a freaking prisoner.

The sensation that I’m trapped, caged, in the house of a madman, immediately rises in my chest like a tide of panic.

Despite our conversation and his relaxed demeanor the past few hours, it confirms everything I knew Alessandro Diamante would be. At least to my sense of fight or flight.

What I never expected is how my body would react to him, a complete betrayal of what I know and what I am here for. He’s magnetic. Domineering, but in a way that draws me in, wants to test the limits of his patience, taunt him into showing me who he really is.

It’s absolutely foolish.

Like dangling myself as a hunk of meat over a lion’s den.

I think back through the conversation; the questions I asked, the way I kept prodding him. “Way to throw caution to the wind…” I mutter, standing to walk off some of my nerves.

And what did it earn me?

A night locked in my room.

But I am here. I made it this far, and he didn’t throw me out or murder me. So I pace my room for a bit, drying my hair and trying to settle down enough to sleep. I’m still wired so I try the door, consider picking the lock. Another door appears to lead to the other guest room, but it too is locked.

The only way out of the bathroom is through the high, small window—my last resort if he decides to keep me a prisoner here for days.

The idea of getting caught sneaking around the house in the middle of the night makes me even more nervous, so I eventually make myself lay down, try to organize my thoughts and plan for tomorrow, reviewing my conversation with Alessandro.

“I’m not married.”

He said it too fast. A flash of something behind his eyes.

Pain, deep sadness. I know that look when someone is hiding it. My mother’s had it for years, living alone without my father, without my brother. The thought makes me miss her, wondering how she’s doing at the apartment I help her pay for in our small hometown.

I miss her dearly.

Except with Alessandro, I know that whatever pain he feels must be of his own making. He hurts people.

And yet I still fell for it, ached for him. The monster that I am certain killed my brother.

Any pain that man feels he has coming to him.

That anger riles me up nearly as much as taunting him did, matching his own powerful wrath which I only got a hint of when I pushed too hard.

Well, fuck him.

I’m going to keep pushing.

I just have to ride the line, walk a tightrope for the next few days to keep him from doing away with me, find an excuse to stay and dig deeper. Even if this is a trap that I walked straight into. The thought offers me a tiny bit of comfort as I ease down into the bed, letting the feeling of the fresh sheets and warm blankets distract me.

If this place belonged to anyone else, I would be ecstatic to be here. It’s so cozy, picturesque. A classic wood lodge with all of the appeal and trimmings of a vacation heaven.

Exhaustion eventually wins out, dropping me into a restless sleep, filled with uneasy dreams and disturbing images and feelings.

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