Page 11 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

I ran my fingers through my hair, debating whether to tell him I didn’t fucking care what he thought of my relationship with my sweet and slutty kitten, who purred so delightfully for me when I tied her up, whipped her, and made her scream on my cock.

She liked him, though, even if I thought him insufferably smug about his moral superiority. He, of course, continued to pine for my kitten, desperate and needy.

Pathetic.

Not that I was any better. I didn’t like how much I wanted Sofia to like me, to approve of my actions, instead of simply taking what I needed from her. This fucking obsession had turned me upside down and inside out, and I needed my kitten back to claw my way out from it.

I didn’t intend to let her go. Ever. And that meant accepting that the other men in her life had opinions too, no matter how fucking idiotic they might be.

“Get in the car, Morelli,” I ordered, stepping on the gas the moment his door shut.

We drove through the city in silence, speeding through the streets until the skyscrapers turned to houses with manicured lawns, swings on the porch, and bikes parked out front.

“Where the fuck are we going?”

“Sofia is going to need a place to stay when we find her,” I answered. “Is it safe to assume you want to stay with her?”

Lorenzo didn’t answer, turning his head to stare out the window, avoiding my gaze. We pulled into the driveway of a nondescript two-story house. I turned off the security features and got out of the car. When we reached the door of the house, I shoved Lorenzo against it, then spun him around.

To my surprise, he let me.

“Sofia has spent her entire life under the thumb of a family who doesn’t realize the fucking treasure they have. She works her ass off to present the face of a perfect mafia princess to the world, and she hates it. She’s raised Lizzie by herself!”

Lorenzo watched me out of those deep brown eyes that reminded me so much of my own when I was younger—younger and more blind to the way the world worked.

“You know what she doesn’t have to do with me? Pretend. Be strong. Do anything but kneel at my feet and feel whatever the fuck I’m making her feel. And she fuckinglovesit.”

“You beat her. Humiliate her. You force her to her knees instead of kneeling at her feet like the fucking queen she deserves to be.”

Fucking idiot.

“Sofia is already a queen, you stupid fuck,” I growled. “And I’m going to make sure the whole fucking world knows it. But when she needs someone to carry the weight for her, to give her a place where she can relax and let someone else make decisions for her for a few moments, then I’ll fucking do that too.”

Goddamn, Morelli was blind if he didn’t see how tired she was, how much she craved those moments of peace with me, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it herself.

A wave of loneliness washed through me. I fuckingmissed her—the feeling of her hair between my fingers, the trust she placed in me when she leaned her cheek on my thigh.

“Are you done?” Lorenzo snapped, shoving me backward. “I tolerate you because Sofia tolerates you and because we need your money to find her, but I swear to all that is holy, the moment she tires of you, you’re gone.”

She wouldn’t.

She couldn’t.

I wouldn’t allow her to.

7

NICK

“Your best isn’t good enough!”Ginevra’s voice carried over the video chat. “Luca, where the fuck is our sister?”

Luca had the grace to look ashamed. We all were. Five days of searching and we hadnothing. We were no closer to finding her than we were the day Sergio snatched her off the sidewalk.

Cormac, Ginevra’s information security genius husband, stuck his face into the frame. “Unlike when Ginevra was kidnapped, Sergio was smart—we haven’t been able to locate the vehicle or catch his face on any cameras since she disappeared.”

Goddammit. Five days. Five messages with videos and pictures, showing us exactly what Sergio was doing to her. Dante hadn’t shared those with the Russos. He couldn’t. If photos got out, the tide of community support would change, going from sympathy to calling Sofia a slut. After all, she’d already had one child out of wedlock with him. As if she had a choice. As if she’d ever had a choice.

Once again, the violent mafia life she hadn’t chosen had swept her choices away from her.

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