Page 18 of Sweet Retribution

Since it’s signed as a business contract, I have no rights to Stone, except for the addendum I had his attorney write in regarding him sleeping around while married to me. I could push the issue.

I could threaten to walk away.

Only he and I both know I won’t. He would have to release me, but I’d then be in danger of Lorenzo and Antonio. Physically, I’m safer with Stone, even if it puts my heart in danger.

I’m free yet I’m not able to go anywhere or do anything without Stone’s permission, and he isn’t saying yes to anything. Hell, he won’t even talk to me.

Granted, he tried a few seconds ago, but I’ve told him a hundred times I don’t like to be ordered around like a dog. The only demands I like are in the bedroom.

Scratch that. We haven’t had sex in a bedroom. Apparently kissing and bedroom sex are not something Stone Parlatore does. Except with Sebastiana. My skin crawls at the thought of them together.

It shouldn’t, though. She’s the type of woman who I expect to see on an arm like Stone’s. Tall, beautiful, buxom, and fake. If that’s the kind of woman Stone prefers then what the hell is he doing with me?

Pity sex. Or desperate sex since I cut him off from other woman. I shouldn’t have added that to our marriage contract. In fact, I’m going to tell him to get his lawyer on the phone and have him erase it.

Stone can have sex with whoever the hell he wants. And it sure as hell won’t be me. Remembering my mantra to put on a happy face, I slide into my denim shorts, pick up my belongings and saunter into the kitchen to help Maria with dinner.

***

The women in my houseare driving me bat shit crazy. Sebastiana won’t give me or my men room to breathe, Gia is ignoring me, as she should, and Maria has gone back to her subservient ways. Which shouldn’t be a bother either since she’s paid to keep the house clean and put food on the table, not to socialize with me or Gia.

I don’t have time to placate everyone, to sit down and have a family talk, to make sure no feelings are hurt. There’s bigger shit going down.

I shrug off Sebastiana’s touch and storm into my office. I hear Marco tell her to go away, to which she whines before leaving. When did her voice start grating at my nerves? Not that we ever had conversations, but she never got on my nerves like she has the past twenty-four hours.

I pour two fingers of bourbon and toss it back, then refill my glass. It’s been a long two days. The authorities were able to obtain a warrant and swept Parisi’s vineyard. They found twenty-four girls who’d been kidnapped and marked to sell.

No questions were asked about his shot up body. My man on the inside crafted a story and staged a double murder-suicide by one of Lorenzo’s men. The media are like piranhas biting at every angle to keep viewers tuned into to their station.

As predicted, reporters attempted to contact me to get a statement fromCallista Parisi, Lorenzo’s long-lost daughter. My legal team was quick with their prepared statement informing them she has had nothing to do with him since she was a teenager, and is horrified to learn of his longtime involvement in human trafficking.

Since she’s been here, Gia hasn’t had any interest in watching television or reading the papers. I plan on keeping her as far away from the media attention for as long as possible. Her menta well-being was never a concern of mine before. Not since... hell. Not since the first day I kidnapped her.

Gia got to me in a way no other woman ever has from the first time I laid eyes on her.

I swirl the rich bourbon in my class and stare out my office window. This is what I wanted for so many years: Lorenzo dead and the young girls found. I wanted an end to his sex trafficking ring. What I hadn’t counted on was one Antonio Rossi or his interest in Gia.

Everything has run too smoothly. The cooperation of the authorities, finding the caves, and arresting the remaining men on Parisi’s staff. All but Antonio Rossi. His hands are as dirty as Lorenzo’s, and until he is found and killed, I won’t rest.

Tio and Lucca haven’t found anything on him other than the obvious: employed by Lorenzo Parisi for the past twenty years. Owner of ten percent of the vineyard. Promised to Callista Parisi, and if they have a child, they will automatically inherit all of her shares and investments, but Rossi will maintain control until the child’s twenty-first birthday.

What Lorenzo hadn’t prepared for was her marrying someone else and signing her shares to her husband. Me. Antonio Rossi shouldn’t be a threat anymore. Not to me.

But he’s still after Gia. She won’t be safe until he’s gone.

And there’s still the unsettling in my gut that tells me we haven’t found all the missing girls, and Rossi’s the link.

I needed answers. Now.

“Get her,” I say without turning around.

Marco’s been on the receiving end of my anger long enough, and was the one to suggest bringing Gia into our meetings. She is the only one who knows Rossi. She’s the key to finding where he’s hiding and if he’s hiding more girls.

“Dinner won’t be ready for another hour or so. Did you have any requests?”

I take a final sip of my drink and turn around.

Fuck.Still clad in her bikini top and denim shorts, she’s incongruous to my elegant office, yet she never looked more perfect.

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