Page 115 of Brutal Legacy

“Consider me warned. Now, let’s eat.”

33

ELIO

Icouldn’t keep my fucking eyes off Georgia at dinner. Jealousy and possessiveness had stewed in my gut as I’d watched her talk to Sokolov. Why the hell had I brought her? Ah, yes, to send the message to my world and its important players that this woman was mine now.Mine. And there would be no mercy for anyone who forgot that.

I’d clearly never forgotten. Lie to myself as I might, the fucking walls of her bedroom of the penthouse were undeniable. How long had I been preparing the perfect prison for my little country mouse? How long had I planned to take her, and keep her? How long would I have been able to leave her alone to live her life, had Renato not sent me after her? Another month? A year? Had I always just been waiting for my patience to run out? Or Tommaso Conti to shuffle off the mortal coil and leave her alone and unprotected…

Now, we were walking by the marina for no other reason than I wanted to delay leaving here and going back to the penthouse. I wanted to delay the moment when she’d disappear into her own bedroom and shut me out.

The last few days had made one thing extremely clear.

I was going to lose this battle she was unknowingly waging against my self-control. Her fucking whispered confession had haunted me, as had her drunken kiss.

I was going to snap.

And I wanted to.

Georgia had high heels on, and her entire body swayed with every step. It was hypnotic.

We were nearly at the yacht. I’d had it a few years, imagining that maybe once I did, I’d become the kind of man who worked less and went out and enjoyed his free time more. I’d pictured being on the boat, with the calm waters all around, and hoped that maybe, just maybe, they could calm me, too.

It hadn’t worked.

The damn thing sat in the marina and mocked me whenever I saw it. A reminder of my failed attempts to be anything in this life other than the De Sanctissottocapo. A natural-born killer.

Only one thing had calmed me in fourteen years… and it was this woman’s touch. I was completely fucked. I could be calm and controlled and emotionless as hell, and Georgia might as well laugh at my efforts. Around her, I felt like a desperately-in-love twenty-year-old whose sun rose and fell by her smile.

“I would say this is romantic, but isn’t this the kind of place where bodies get dumped?” Georgia said, waving her hand around the marina.

“No, the best places are up by Long Branch,” I replied.

She stopped before realizing I was joking. To be fair, jokes felt like a foreign language in my mouth. I had very little experience with them of late.

“What? Are you shocked? Did you think as Renato’ssottocapoI just push papers in an office? We both know what I am… what I’ve become.” My voice was tightly controlled.

She frowned at me. “Yes, like your father,” she said softly.

Ouch, that one stung.This was the problem with being so close to someone who’d known you when you were young. They had too much insight, making stunningly accurate ammunition to wage war with.

“My father didn’t have an inch of the power I command now. Don’t be confused. I am nothing like my father. He was weak, and he couldn’t protect his family… in fact, your father has more in common with him than me,” I pointed out.

She flinched and raised her chin, defensiveness taking over. “At least he tried to be good once.”

“Did he? So did I…” I raised a hand and stroked her cheek. I couldn’t stay away.

“Those days in Castel Amaro… I tried to be good. I tried to be what you deserved, and look where it got me,” I added, forcing myself to walk on.

“It got you here,” she called out.

I stopped but didn’t turn.

“It got us both right here, together,” she continued.

It was true. Somehow, fate had brought us back together again.

We had just reachedthe gangway of the yacht when a dark shadow caught my attention. Farther along, in the boat just past mine, dark shapes were moving.

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