Remo’s dark eyes held mine with intent. He bent low until his face filled my vision. “After what you saw me do today, you still defy me? Don’t you think submitting to me will make things less painful for you?” His voice was soft, low, almost curious.
“Yes,” I whispered, and something shifted in his eyes ... was that disappointment? “But I’d rather take pain than submit to your will, Remo.”
He smiled darkly and reached over me again. Before I could react, he pulled a blanket over my body, covering my nakedness. My eyes widened.
“How can you know what you prefer if you’ve never experienced either? Neither pain...” he brushed his lips lightly across my mouth, not a kiss but a threat “...nor pleasure.”
A shiver traveled down my spine. My throat was dry, my limbs heavy.
“I want to show you both, Angel.” He paused, his dark eyes burning into me. “But I fear you’d rather kill yourself than give yourself to me.” He pulled his knife out and put it down beside me. “You should end your life, take the easy way out, because nobody will come to save you, and I won’t stop until I’ve broken you, body and soul.”
I believed him. How could I not with the intense determination and coldness in his dark eyes? I reached for the knife then pushed into a sitting position and pressed the blade against Remo’s throat. He didn’t flinch, only regarded me with unsettling eyes.
“I won’t ever kill myself. I won’t do that to my family. But you will never break me. I won’t let you.”
Remo tilted his head, again with a hint of curiosity. “If you want to kill me, do it now because you won’t get another chance, Angel.” My hand holding the knife shook. Remo didn’t take his eyes off me as he shifted closer to me, climbing up on one knee then the other until he leaned over me. I pressed harder and blood welled to the surface. My eyes focused on the red coating the blade against Remo’s skin.
Remo moved over me and drove the knife harder into his flesh. I yielded, fixated on the blood trickling down his throat, on its smell, its bright color.
Remo lowered himself on top of me, the knife between our throats, his body covering mine with only the blanket between us. He regarded me, dark eyes peeling away layer over layer of protective walls that I tried to put up.
Hysteria swirled in my chest, the memories of the basement clawing at the fringes of my mind. Remo curled his hand around mine and the handle then slowly pried my hands off it and took the knife from me. He dropped it to the bed beside us.
I could feel every inch of his strong, muscled body against mine, but my eyes couldn’t focus on anything but the blood on his skin, dripping from the cut I had inflicted. He pressed two fingers to my throat, feeling my erratic pulse. “Still in the grasp of panic, hmm?”
I swallowed. He pulled away and stood. Then he bent over me. “You are safe in your weakest moments, Angel. I don’t enjoy breaking the weak. I will break you when you are strong.”
He grabbed the knife and turned around, presenting his back to me. My eyes traced the tattoo of the kneeling fallen angel. Was that how Remo saw himself? A fallen angel with broken wings? A dark angel risen from Hell?
And what was I?
Before he left the room, he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Don’t try to run, Angel. There are more men like Simeone waiting to get their hands on you. I’d hate having to send them after you and hurt you.”
As if anyone could hurt me worse than Remo would.
I forced a smile. “We both know you’re lying. You won’t let anyone hurt me.”
Remo cocked one dark eyebrow. “I won’t?”
“You won’t because you want to be the one to break me, to make me scream.”
Remo’s mouth pulled into a smile that raised the little hairs on my skin.
A smile that would haunt me forever.
“Oh, I will make you scream, Angel. That I swear.”
Suppressing a shudder, I dug my nails into my palms and forced more words from my tight throat. “Don’t waste your time. Kill me now.”
“We all have to let part of ourselves die to rise up stronger. Now sleep tight. I’ll return later for a proper video message for your family.”
“Why did you even save me from Simeone? Why not let him start the torture you have in mind for me? Why bring me here to your mansion?”
Remo regarded me as if he, too, was wondering the same thing, and his silence told me that my guess had been right; this was indeed the Falcone mansion. It surprised me that he would risk bringing me into his family’s home.
“Like you said, I will be the one to make you scream and no one else.” He closed the door.
I shut my eyes and pulled the covers tighter around myself.
A power play. A twisted game of chess.
I wasn’t going to be a pawn or a queen, and Remo wouldn’t be the king.
CHAPTER 5
REMO
I grabbed sweatpants to put on before I headed downstairs into our gaming room, where Savio, Nino, and Adamo were sitting. Since Kiara had joined our family, my days of walking through the house naked when I pleased were fucking over. My brothers regarded me as if I was a bomb about to detonate.
I flashed them a smile.
Adamo shook his head but didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to hide his aversion toward me or his reluctance about becoming a Camorrista.
Nino rose slowly. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
I grabbed the pizza menu. “Savio, order pizza for us and an extra one for Serafina.”
Nino came around the sofa. My eyes flickered over the tension in his limbs. “Remo, take her somewhere else.”
“No,” I said. “She will stay here, under this roof, where I can keep a fucking eye on her.”
My brother stopped in front of me, a deep frown pulling his brows together. That was the equivalent of an angry outburst from him. “This situation might cause another one of Kiara’s episodes.”
“Kiara is your wife, not mine. Make sure she doesn’t see anything that she isn’t supposed to see. Where is she anyway?”
“In our wing. The moment Savio told me you were bringing Serafina, I told her to stay there.”
“See? No problem.” I moved past him toward the bar and grabbed a beer. Nino followed as Savio ordered pizza in the background.
“It is a huge problem. Your captive is upstairs, free to roam the place as she sees fit. She could walk around the house and cross Kiara.”
“I doubt Serafina will do that right now. She’s too shaken and probably taking a beauty sleep as we speak. She can’t escape from the premises, and one of you will have to guard her to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.”
Nino assessed me. “I really hope you know what you’re doing. This is supposed to bring the Outfit down. Don’t forget that, Remo.”
My mouth pulled wide. “It will crush them. They will bleed out slowly, painfully, without ever feeling my blade. This will destroy them.”
Nino gave a nod because even if emotions were still hard to grasp for him, he knew the effect mind games had in a war.
“You disgust me,” Adamo muttered.
“Four days,” I reminded him.
He stood, jutting his chin out. “What if I say no?”
Savio shoved him. “You’d be a fucking disgrace, a traitor. What would you do? Where would you go?”
Adamo shoved him back. “I don’t give a fuck. Anything is better than becoming like you.”
I stalked toward him. He lifted his chin. “You say this because from the day of your birth you’ve been protected. You’ve never been subjected to true cruelty. You are a Falcone, Adamo, and one day you will be proud to be one.”
“I wish I wasn’t a Falcone. I wish you weren’t my brother.”
“Adamo,” Nino warned, looking at my face.
“Fuck you!” Adamo shouted and ran off upstairs.
“He’ll come around, eventually,” Nino drawled.
“How much time until the pizza arrives?” I asked Savio.
He exchanged a look with Nino before replying, “Twenty minutes.”
“Time for a phone call,” I said, nodding at Nino, who hesitated briefly but then took out his mobile and scrolled through it.
Nino handed me the phone with the number I didn’t recognize. “That’s Dante’s number if he hasn’t changed it from our last call years ago.”
“Good. Get some of Kiara’s clothes. A white nightgown if she has one.”
Nino frowned deeply but walked past me and disappeared into his wing.
“How are you going to keep her in check? Make sure she doesn’t try to run or kill herself?”
“She’s been sheltered all her life. She’s far from home, far from the men who’ve protected her. Freedom scares her more than captivity.”
Savio laughed. “You sound awfully sure of it.”
I grinned. Nino returned, looking as close to pissed as he ever did. He held the clothes out to me. Among them a silvery satin nightgown. Perfect. “Kiara suspects something’s the matter.”
I took the clothes, not bothering to comment, and walked past him toward my wing where I barged into Serafina’s room without knocking. My eyes wandered from the empty bed toward the wall behind it, where Serafina tried opening the window, which she couldn’t do without the necessary keys.