She flinches. “Don’t call me that.”
I get in her face. “You don’t tell me what to do.”
Our eyes lock, and a familiar stirring hits me like a sledgehammer. I slam it into the ground before I do something I’ll regret. “Coke dealer. Seductress. Weak with daddy issues.”
She gasps, but I continue on, merciless. “Your best friend had a lot to say about you.” I shake my head with pretend disappointment. “Why would she believe you’d run off with her boyfriend?”
“I didn’t … I wouldn’t…” Riley scrunches her face. Disgusted by her friend or Ciro? “Emily doesn’t know Ciro’s dead?”
Her loyalty’s admirable. Shame I wasn’t shown the same consideration.
“I saw his body…” Her face pales as her words sink in. Like it’s only just now hit her that I could wrap a rope around her pretty neck and hang her from a balcony, and no one would care.
“No body now. No crime scene. Gone, just like that.” I snap my fingers in front of her face, and she jerks back.
Fuck knows why the one and only witness is still alive.
Fear grips her, and her body shakes.
“Get the fuck out.” I shove her aside to open the door.
She plants her feet, and I clench my jaw.
“What do you want from me?” Her voice trembles.
“Not a motherfucking thing.”
Tension thickens the air between us, yet I see the wheels within her mind spinning.
Then she does the unimaginable, and drops to her knees. Face inches from my erection, she raises beautiful green eyes. “I’ll do whatever you demand.”
Well, fuck. I wasn’t expecting that.
“If you let Emily go.” She holds her head high like this bargain she’s proposing is the winning numbers on a lottery ticket.
I shrug. “Not anything you can offer that I don’t already have.”
Hurt washes over her expression, her reaction the equivalent of popping a balloon with a butcher knife. And I want to hurt her.
Almost as much as the desire to flip her onto all fours and drive my way home.
Whatever I want.
Wherever I want.
I take her elbow, tug her onto her feet, and push her out the door. “What I want is you out of my sight,” I say, before slamming the door so hard, the crash reverberates louder than my twisted thoughts.
Out of sight.
Now I need to rid her from my mind.
RILEY
My emotions runrampant while an alternate plan for saving Emily evades me. I begged Alessandro to spare her. Humiliated myself by getting on my knees. Completely, utterly offered myself to him.
And he slammed the door in my face.
Tears aren’t enough to calm my panic. I’m powerless against that unforgiving monster. I press my eyelids tighter, though the worst thought possible pushes through—Emily might be dead by now.