Page 23 of Venomous Vows

His eyes twinkle in skepticism, but when I don’t say anything else, it’s when his desire for knowledge comes into play. “What’s your angle,piccola diavola? Is this a ploy to have me assassinated?”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t done your homework to see if my sister has been taken by The Disciples or not.”

“I’ve seen it,” he vouches simply. “I’ve just never seen you so loyal to anyone other than Zane.”

“She’s my sister. And I need your help quickly. Because I got a note in front of my door yesterday saying that I have a week to pay up.”

Adrian doesn’t flinch and he doesn’t move either. “I’m not worried about your sister?—”

“Iam,” I retort through clenched teeth. “And if you’re not going to hand her over alive to me, then you won’t get a wifey or two little villains in your grasp.”

Adrian smirks at me and relaxes the tenseness in his shoulders. “As I was saying,piccola diavola, I’m not worried about your sister because I think I’ve already located her.”

My eyes bulge in shock that he’s already started his search for her even though we haven’t agreed to everything yet. “You have?” He nods. “Is she all right?”

“I think she’s still alive.”

Relief and hope and everything that I’ve been trying to suppress come full throttle, and I can’t contain them all, which makes Adrian lean back in his seat.

“Don’t doubt my ability,” he mutters to me, but there’s no fury laced in his words. “I told you I’d get her if you agreed to my terms.”

“How quickly can you get her?” I ask eagerly. “She’d have to live with us if I?—”

“I’m working out a perimeter and plans to meet up with them so we can do the handoff. I’ll send word when I’m ready before the week is out.”

“You promise?”

“If you decide to marry me…and give me what I want, then yes.”

I shove my arm across the table to shake his hand to cement this in stone before he changes his mind.

However, Adrian doesn’t make a move to complete our agreement in full.

“There’s one more thing, Elena,” he says, sending every hair on my body on end because something in the way he said it made my brain wave several red warning signs in the air.

“What?”

“No one touches you but me. You won’t take a lover. You sure as hell won’t look at anyone the way you’re supposed to look at me. And I want you to stay away from my brother.”

The latter is what gets me to snap out of his possessive monologue and into the realm of him being out of his damn mind again.

“I won’t stay away from Zane,” I assert. “We used to be best friends.”

“Past tense,used. You’re not anymore.”

“No.”

Adrian leans over the table once more and fixes me with what I can only describe as his death glare. “Take it or leave it,piccola diavola. I won’t have you cheating on me with my brother.”

Wow.

I know he’s not my biggest fan, but I’d never cheat on someone.

“Just because I wouldpreferto marry him over you doesn’t mean I won’t be able to help myself,” I state. “I’d never do something like that.”

“Then you’ll have no problem steering clear.”

“Adrian—”

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