Page 90 of Brutal Legacy

“Out. The door will be locked, so don’t do anything dumb.” I spun for the door.

“Wait! You’re just going to lock me in? What will I do all day?” She seemed panicked at the thought.

“Sleep, stare out the window, I don’t care. I have work to do. I’m not your babysitter. From this moment on, you will earn freedom from this room with good behavior.”

She glowered at me. “I’m not your dog, I already told you.”

“No, you’re not. I would never own a pet. They’re too emotionally demanding.”

Her eyes flashed at me dangerously.

“I could kill you when you sleep, Elio Santori,” she bit out through clenched teeth.

A dark chuckle left me. “You could try.” I turned away.

“Wait! So, this is my life now? Locked in a room? I’ll go mad.”

“The human mind takes much longer to break than you imagine. With time, we can see?—”

I cut off as she went for me, flying across the room like a possessed woman. I shifted to the side easily to avoid her attack and used the momentum to spin her around, tossing her ontothe bed. I followed, caging her in with a hand on each of her wrists, holding her down.

“I told you to stop testing me,topolina.”

“Don’t call me that,” she spit at me.

In my monotone life, her anger was a vivid slash. She was in color, and everyone else in black and white.

“Why not?” I heard myself ask.

“Because it hurts too fucking much,” she responded.

It hurts?

She shoved me with her hips, trying to move me, but her robe had come undone, and her nut-brown skin was glowing against the white terry cloth, and fuck, I wanted to touch her.

My body was waking up, and it knew what it wanted. The only woman it had ever wanted.

I pushed thoughts of licking that soft skin and rolling her over and sinking inside her out of my head. Touching her only spread the poison. It was dangerous.

“Let’s get something straight, here and now. I told you I was good at my job. I’m not just good at it. I’m the best at it. I’ve broken men so hard and well trained, that they could watch their families die without shedding a tear. I’ve lived in hell, Georgia. I was remade there. I brought it with me when I came back to the world. You cannot win against me.”

She stared at me, her eyes glittering. I knew that look. Tears were gathering, and I didn’t want to be around to see them.

“You don’t understand the privileges I’ve already given you. Clothes to wear. A bed to sleep in. Food to eat and served at a table.”

Her brow furrowed, my meaning dawning on her.

I nodded. “That’s right. I could keep you naked, chained to the bed, eating scraps from the floor and pissing in a bucket by the door. That is what the Ravellis no doubt had in store for you.”And they’re still searching for you.I didn’t bother with the last bit; we both knew it, and it was my problem. She was mine to protect.

“Who are you?” Georgia murmured, her gaze running over my face.

I’d taken the contacts out after the shower.

“I know you look just like him, but I can’t believe that you are. Elio Santori might have been a thief and a hustler, and he might have shattered me into tiny pieces, but he was ten times the man you are. You’re not mycittaiolo.”

Each word drilled into my composure, and splinters webbed the surface of my cool.

I had to get out of here.

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