Page 3 of Corrupted Memories
My heart is screaming, and my stomach feels like it’s filled with lead as I tie the soft material tightly around them. I lick my lips as I lean back, drop my weight on his lap, and grind once against his hard length. He jerks, his arms trying to snap forward but only managing to swing an inch.
I smile smugly at him. Any other day, I would have loved to play with him like this.
He shakes his head, his lips curling up. “One time, and we keep this between us.”
I roll my eyes and hop off the bed, moving to the second drawer of my nightstand and grabbingthe kit Matt forces me to keep. When my hand touches the zip ties, I glance at Sebastian, who is watching me. His eyes have lost all humor, and his jaw is tight.
“This is my limit, Anna. You’re not sticking anything up my ass,” he says with a growl.
Everything inside of me aches when I realize my life is about to change. Once I finish my task, I’ll have to run and hope he can’t follow me. A part of me already misses the way he holds and kisses me, the softer side of him only I get to see. I’m about to destroy that side of him, and I know that. He may have never told me how he feels, but sometimes I swear I could feel his feelings as if they were my own.
“You sure? You might like it?” I tease him, thankful my voice isn’t strained.
“I’m fucking—” I stand up quickly and climb over him, looping the plastic around one wrist and bar before shoving it into the end piece. I pull on it tightly until it cuts into the flesh of his wrist and rubs against the silk. He hisses, his knee coming up in reflex to buck me over him.
My head slams against the wall and my vision spots. Sebastian thrusts under me, trying to dislodge me further. He pulls harshly against the silk, trying to loosen the knot. I shake my head, dropping my weight against his chest, and hear him grunt out a harsh breath. I get the other zip tie, fumbling it around the bar of my headboard, and his arm triesto knock against mine before I successfully get the end in and pull on it desperately. Each click of the zip tie tightening echoes around me, as if I’m being enclosed in my coffin and listening to it being nailed shut.
“UNDO THIS NOW!” Sebastian bellows, and I scramble off him. His face flushes with anger, and his cold eyes stare at me. His chest heaves as his arms keep pulling at where he’s tied to my bed.
“Are my birth control pills fake?” I ask, needing that small peace of mind that I’m right. It wouldn’t be the worst thing he’s done, but I would tack it onto the growing list.
He stills. “Is that what this is about?”
“Are they fake?” I repeat.
“What does it matter? You’re having my children either way.”
I huff out an exasperated breath. “It matters because it’s my choice. Not yours.” If he believes that’s why I’m upset, all the better, because there’s no chance he’d let me live after what I witnessed. I rub my forehead where it clashed with the wall and step farther away from him, grabbing my bag. I make my way to the door, exhausted from the entire night.
“Anna. If you leave me like this, you will regret it.” His voice is firm and impersonal.
I look back at him with a sad smile. “Goodbye, Sebastian.”
Chapter 1
Sebastian
Present Day
I rollthe small butterfly charm between my fingers, watching the city disappear as we drive away from the airport. The small reminder of her feels heavier today, perhaps because I’m one step closer to keeping her forever. I thought I’d be more nervous, but a calm sense of completion has settled in my soul.
“You sure you want to do this? We still have time to call it off,” Nico says.
I turn my head and stare at him. His grip on the steering wheel is so tight that his knuckles blanch, and his jaw holds just as much tension.
“I’m just saying,” he says through gritted teeth. It’s all he’s been saying for the past few months,especially after we found Arthur’s treachery. I understand why. Gianna may be my home, but Chicago is his. Nico’s loyalty may be to me, but he still loves the city, and he’s far more concerned about the Outfit’s Underboss participating in a possible coup than finding my ex-girlfriend.
“And to have wasted the last six years?” I try to appeal to his logical side, not that he’d ever betray me. But his patience is growing thin, as much as mine.
Nico shrugs. “You never tried with anyone else.”
My thumb rubs over the small ridges on the butterfly’s wings. “I never wanted anyone else.”
Even if a lingering doubt circles my mind, I can’t see past her. If she can lie about her name, what else is she lying about? It’s not like I don’t see his point, but he doesn’t know her like I do. No one does, not even herself. Gianna has ideas of what she thinks she believes. I just have to show her the truth.
With a sigh, he drops it, focusing on the road as we head to Jersey. It’s the same old fight we’ve had sinceAnnaGiannaziptied me to her dorm bed and disappeared from my life. At the time I found it amusing, knowing I was going to smack her little ass red once I got free. But passing days turned into weeks, turned into months, and then years. It was like she was a ghost. I’d believe she was a figment of my imagination if I didn’t havethe photos and videos to prove me wrong. “Plus, look at the leverage we have over the Italians if it all goes to plan,” I say.
Months ago, we traded information with the Irish that the Italians were disrupting their deliveries. In exchange, they helped us find Gianna and her brother Matt, who we discovered was the real mastermind of hiding her, not the Famiglia as I thought. When we looked a little closer into Gianna’s brother, it unraveled more ties of Arthur, Chicago’s Underboss, to a group of Italians. I assume ones that are not working with Luca, the Famiglia’s Underboss. The only thing we can’t determine is if Luca’s second is at the heart of it all. Finding Gio visiting Jersey during the time Matt visits is a hell of a coincidence.
