Page 25 of Plus-Size Bratva Possession
Five days later, and I still had jack squat.
The man was frustratingly careful. And I was going stir-crazy.
The penthouse, day by day, seemed to be shrinking around me, the walls closing in. It had now been two weeks since I’d stepped outside and felt the sun on my face.
It wasn’t that I was still craving company. Since my brothers had come that day, Gastone saw no reason to keep me from communicating with them. He’d returned my phone to me, and I often spent hours on the phone catching up with my siblings and cousins.
He, too, was trying to be more present. He’d come back earlier, often suggesting we have dinner together. Even if I was exhausted, I never said no. After all, I was waiting for Gastone to slip up during conversation, to give out one tiny little secret. But he never did.
In fact, I might have been imagining it or something, but sometimes I felt as though he was keeping me at arm's length. When I decided to remain married to him and declared it so, I expected he might open up more, view me as less of a threat. But since then, he’d become weirdly civil. There’s no more trash-talk, no more one-liners aimed to insult. Even when I try, he sits there like a rock, not once rising to the occasion.
I didn’t know what to make of it.
Our interactions were still tense, but way, way more hostile.
Sometimes I caught him watching me with an unreadable expression, like he was trying to figure me out.
Good luck with that, buddy. I barely understand myself these days.
But the longer I stayed here, the more desperate I became to find something I could use against him. When that option seemed to become a dead end, I started dreaming of what it might be like to sneak out for a day, to feel the sun on my face, grab a cup of coffee somewhere, and come back home safe before he returned.
I spent hours on my phone, googling security hacking systems for the front door. What did I find? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
But I had figured that the one in this penthouse was top-of-the-line. Breaking out wouldn't be easy.
But then, on day six after my brothers' visit, I hit the jackpot.
Gastone had gone out for his usual morning meeting, leaving me alone with Dom, the hulking bodyguard who now stood watch whenever Gastone was away, on the chance my brothers decided to whisk me away now that they knew where I was. Dom was loyal to the Ajellos. I knew that much, and stayed out of my way. Even when I tried to make conversation, he’d only give polite responses before stepping out of whatever corner I found him in. Most days, I knew, he stood outside the door.
I'd been pretending to read on the couch when I noticed Gastone had left the small war room unlocked. The room was one for planning, plotting attacks, full of high-tech systems. It was never unlocked when Gastone was away.Never.
My heart raced. This might be my only chance.
I waited until I heard Dom head toward the kitchen, then slipped into the room.
I moved quickly through papers and drawers, looking for anything useful.
And then, in the bottom drawer, I came across various manuals and warranties. In that moment, I felt a prickle down my spine, as though I knew before time that I had hit something good. I rummaged through the papers until at last, I found it. The security system manual.
Ialmostkissed it.
Flipping through it quickly, I found what I needed—a factory reset code to disable and change the current code. This could work, I thought to myself.
I snapped pictures of the relevant pages with my phone, then carefully put everything back exactly as I found it. Just as I was closing the drawer, I heard Dom's footsteps approaching.
Heart in my throat, I dashed to the door and pressed my ear against it. The footsteps stopped, then receded. I waited another whole minute before slipping out and casually strolling back to the couch.
Dom gave me a suspicious look when he returned, but I smiled innocently and returned to my book.
For the next two days, I watched and waited. I needed the perfect moment when Gastone would be gone long enough and Dom would be distracted.
My chance came sooner than expected. Gastone was out for the day, and Dom received a call that seemed to upset him. I didn’t stick around to find out what happened.
Once he disappeared into the kitchen with his phone, Imoved.
I grabbed my purse, went to the main security panel near the door, punched in the reset code, and held my breath. For a horrible moment, nothing happened. Then, the screen went blank before displaying “SYSTEM REBOOTING.”
I quietly opened the front door and stepped right out. Straight into freedom. My heart was pounding so hard I was sure Dom would hear it, but the kitchen was at the other end of the penthouse, and he was still talking loudly on the phone.
