Page 54 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

She nodded, then stepped into the room before me, sliding her eyes around the chamber before focusing on the prisoner. He was duct taped to a metal chair, covered in blood. José had worked him over already, to very little success. I didn’t expect Sofia to get any information out of him. Tonight was about testing her mettle, seeing if she was as ready to face the dark side of this business as she claimed.

“Aldo? Aldo di Traglia?” She walked right up to him and slapped him in the face. “What the hell are you doing trafficking girls? Does your wife know what you’ve been doing?”

José’s jaw dropped to the fucking floor. I leaned against the wall, unable to hide my grin.That’s my girl.

She grabbed his hair and yanked his face up, forcing him to look at her.

“I asked you a question, Aldo. What the hell is going on?”

“Sofia?” the man grunted, blinking at her through the blood that dripped over his eyes from the cuts on his forehead. “What are you doing here?”

“Never mind what I’m doing here. What areyoudoing here, cousin?”

She’s a goddamned treasure.

“Dante Oscuro grabbed me. Miss Russo, you have to help me!”

Did he not know she’d spent the last week in captivity? That Sergio had kidnapped her? That she wasmine?

She raised an eyebrow, rubbing her thumb over his forehead, as if to comfort him.

“I hear you were trafficking in girls, Aldo. Is that right?”

No, Sofia, don’t go down that road with him.

The prisoner shook his head, “No, I swear!”

“Aldo, you know how my father feels about traffickers. Don’t you think it’d be better to confess the truth now, instead of letting him find out later?”

Aldo’s eyes got big as fucking saucers as his gaze bounced between Sofia and me. “Oh shit. Oh shit, Sofia, no! I didn’t mean to betray the Russos. He said you were engaged! That Tony knew all about it! Shit, shit, shit.”

“Who, Aldo? Who said we were engaged?”

“Sergio did. Sergio Accardi.”

She dropped his head, grimacing at the blood on her palms. I resisted the impulse to murder this man for staining her hands.

She pulled over a chair and sat down in it, backward, her arms leaning over the back of it. “Aldo, how long has Sergio been in town?”

“A month, maybe a little bit longer.”

“How often do you see him?”

“Every day. He checks on the merchandise.”

So he’d been seeing Sergio every fucking day during her captivity—captivity that he was, apparently, ignorant of. My fists clenched at my sides. No, Sofia knew what she was doing. She was handling this idiot like the queen she was.

She reached out and smacked him on the side of the head. “Women are not merchandise, Aldo! What the hell?”

“Sorry, Miss Russo.”

“Where’s he staying?”

“I don’t know.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You need to become very useful, very quickly, Aldo, or my big attack dog over there,” she gestured at me, “isn’t going to let me keep you alive. Do you understand?”

I smirked at the attack dog comment. Every fucking day it was more true, and that terrified me as much as it filled my soul with molten heat.

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