Page 52 of Owning Nicci

“They’re dead men,” I murmur. Her head shoots up, and she looks at me, her gaze empty as her eyes lock with mine. “Dead men walking,” I repeat. “I’ll kill them both,principessa. For what they did to you. It’s unconscionable. If I’d known?—”

“What?” She laughs. “You wouldn’t have bought me? Don’t be ridiculous, Savio.” Her gaze sparks, and I can tell she’s defying me, daring me to punish her for talking to me this way. But I’m not going to, and I think she knows it. We’re past that now. Even as a game, the desire to hurt her in any way has died. I feel like a monster myself for ever having wanted it in the past. “You had your own reasons for using me. You would have done it anyway.”

“No.” I shake my head. “No, I wouldn’t have. Not if I’d known.”

I believe that I’m telling the truth, but I can see that she doesn’t. “I’ll make sure they both die for what they’ve done,” I promise her again, and her jaw tightens.

“No, Savio.” Her voice is flat, now, the tears controlled. Her hands clutch the side of the bed, her nails digging into the mattress as she glares at me. “That’s not the deal.We’llmake sure they’re both dead. I’m a part of this, remember? The Crows were only the first step. My father and brother are the end goal. And you’re not leaving me out of it.”

“We need to figure out our next move.” I stand up, extending a hand to her. “Come on. You’re going to pack, and we’re getting out of here. I’m taking you somewhere else, somewhere safe, until we can decide how to move forward with this. It’s getting too dangerous?—”

Her eyes glitter, and she shakes her head, not moving an inch. I can see, in that moment, that all pretense of her submitting to me is gone. She’s the woman I’ve seen every day we’ve trained again—implacable, unbreakable, and utterly stubborn.

“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

20

NICCI

I’m past the point of caring what he says. I can see in Savio’s face that he knows as well as I do that the games are over. Or, at least—hisgame is over.

I hadn’t planned to spill all of the past to him—or to break down sobbing in front of him. But it’s clear that it disarmed him, made him see me differently, and that can only benefit me. If he’s dropping his guard around me, so much the better.

Another shudder runs through me at the thought of what would have happened if he hadn’t come home when he did. I’d heard the door unlocking and thought it was Savio. It was too early for dinner, but I’d thought that maybe he’d had another bad meeting—and wanted to go out—or that he wanted to work out some frustration—and was going to take me to the playroom. I hadn’t dreaded that idea as much as I should have. But then that guard had come in—the one who had leered at me in the hallway when I was in my nightgown—and I’d known from the moment I saw the look on his face that I was in danger.

It had been too much. The fear of what the guard had planned for me, the shock of Savio bursting in and killing him with his hands still on me, and then how quickly Saviohad scooped me up and taken me out, comforting me, asking questions…

I fell apart. I hate myself for it, but I did. And now Savio wants us to leave? I shake my head again, looking at him.

“We’re supposed to go after Vince tonight. We have the hit all planned. We talked about it.”

“We’ll do it later. We’ll make a new plan. I want to get you out of here,principessa.” Savio looks anxious, running a hand through his hair. “You can’t do this the way you are right now. You need to rest, recover.”

“Don’t fucking tell me what I need.” It bursts out of me, sharper and more defiant than I think he might tolerate, but he just looks at me, unmoving. “I want to go after Vince tonight. I want to take how I feel about what just happened and take it out on him. Don’t tell me you don’t understand that.”

Savio’s gaze holds mine, and he lets out a long breath. I can’t help but think, in that moment that stretches out between us, that he and I are far too much alike. It’s why we clash, and it’s why we can do this at all. It’s why, in the moments when he loses control, the sparks between us burn hotter than anything I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s why we make a good team. But it doesn’t matter.

I’m still going to kill him before this is all over.

Savio presses his lips together. “We’re doing it differently this time. You’re not seducing him. Don’t fucking argue with me.” He shakes his head sharply, and I let out a bitter laugh.

“I wasn’t going to. I don’t think I have it in me after what just happened.”

“Good.” He runs a hand through his hair, and despite what I said, a shiver of desire vibrates through me. No matter how much I hate him, no matter how much I despise what he’s done to me and the part he’s played in all of this, there’s something about him that calls to something in me. An undeniablechemistry that I’ve felt since the moment he first walked into that back room at the Gilded Lily. I’d almost say we were made for each other, if I believed in things like that.

But I don’t. If I ever did, I forgot a long time ago.

“I have his address.” Savio looks at me as if waiting for me to argue. “We’ll stake it out and make our move. It’s in a rough area, so it’s likely no one will take too much notice of us if we’re careful. But we’ll need to be careful and take a good bit of firepower with us. He won’t be an easy target.”

I catch something like worry in his voice, and I narrow my eyes at him. “I’ll be fine,” I say firmly. “What’s all that training been for, if not this? It’s one man.” That last comes out a bit braver than I feel—for all my bravado, I’m well aware that this one is particularly dangerous. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do it. I want the anticipation, the rush, the feeling of being powerful enough to take someone down who worked for someone who hurt me, who would have once taken pleasure in hurting me himself.

I want this. Ineedit. And as long as Savio is willing to help me, as much as I hate to admit it, I need him too.

But I won’t need him forever.

—

It’s wellafter dark when Savio and I leave the penthouse. None of the guards so much as look at me, dropping their eyes when I walk past and giving me plenty of space. I can tell that they’re all afraid of what Savio might do to them if they so much as brush the line of impropriety, and it’s a welcome change after those long weeks of Barca’s men leering at me and vying for the possibility of getting me as a reward. I try not to think of howSavio’s insistence on protecting me feels, focusing instead on the job ahead of us.

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