Twisted Games of Revenge (Sinners of Ravens Hollow #3)

Chapter 10

Lying on the couch in Sloane’s office, staring up at the shadowy ceiling, I sigh heavily. It’s mid-afternoon and she’s catching up on some paperwork at her desk while the club isn’t busy. Not wanting to be left alone in her apartment, I decided to join her for the afternoon shift, even though I’m not working until six.

I’m consumed by pain, a heavy, aching knot that feels like it’s constricting my stomach. The boys’ angry faces from last night keep flashing in my mind. Feeling the way they held me, it was all so different to the Moretti boys I know. I let my eyes close, wishing things could be different but knowing I’ve done irreparable damage, but so have they. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have just helped me in the first place. We could have avoided all this drama.

“I need something on the boys to take back to Enzo.” I let out another heavy sigh, the sound echoing in the quiet room. I don’t want to tell him shit but know I can’t go back to him empty-handed. Sloane was listening in on the entire conversation, so she might come up with something that I can tell him without actually giving anything of value away.

She closes her laptop, the screen’s glow fading, and looks up. “I was wondering when you would be ready to talk about last night. That was one fucked-up predicament you found yourself in.”

I sit up, knowing there is no avoiding her judgment after I climbed into her car with her and Onyx took us home. She didn’t ask any questions, and I didn’t tell her anything. “We both know I shouldn’t have left the party with Alessandro, but I was finally getting somewhere with Enzo. He trusted me to seduce him, so I had to give it a go.”

She shakes her head, her sleek ponytail bobbing. “You agreed to seduce your ex-boyfriend, ex-fiancé of sorts, so you could take information about him back to his psycho papa and you left a party in his car. I’m glad you know it was a terrible idea. If it was one of my girls, Viv, I would be reprimanding them for their stupidity. What the fuck would you have done if I wasn’t listening in?”

“You were, though, I knew you had my back. You make it sound so fucked up.”

She raises a brow. “It is kind of fucked up, babe. But I get it. This really is the best way to get Enzo on your side. Shame the boys worked out who you were so quickly. I thought our disguise was unrecognizable, and didn’t the press say you had been announced dead?”

“My disguise is brilliant, no one else has any idea,” I huff. “But those assholes still had a tracker on me. They would have known from the moment they stepped into your bar the other night that it was me. Disguise or no disguise. I don’t know for sure, but I figure it was them who somehow faked my death.”

“Shit! That’s messed up.”

“You think? If you didn’t turn up to save me last night, I would probably be chained up in their fucking basement right now and no one would even know I was still alive.” The knot in my stomach tightens, making me feel nauseous.

Her laughter fills the air, but I cut her off with a sharp look, making it clear I’m not kidding. “They’ll simmer down, they just need time,” she tells me. But she doesn’t know them like I do.

Alessandro won’t stop until he gets what he wants. And I have pissed him and his brothers off by taking control over my life again, and they want me to pay. Hell, even I have no idea what they were actually going to do with me in that hotel room last night. I could feel how badly Alessandro wanted to fuck me before we entered the room, but maybe that was just a ploy to trick me. But it felt real. I wanted him every bit as much, and part of me is bitterly disappointed I couldn’t just have fucked him anonymously, have it be like it was when I first met him, without all the angst that exists between us now.

“It’s fine, it’s better this way,” I mutter, wishing my body would get with the program my brain is on and see this for what it was. This was the best thing that could have happened; now we all know exactly where we stand. I can get on with what I’m here to do, no distractions. Even if my chest has a constant ache in it. I tilt my head to see Sloane staring at me. “Have you ever been in love before?” I ask her, feeling silly as the words leave my lips.

A wave of emotion washes over her face, softening her normally sharp features. “Love’s a complication girls like us don’t have the time for,” she answers cryptically. “But tell me something, Viv, Alessandro isn’t the only one you’re in love with, is he?”

I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes, and I try to blink them away. I want so badly to be strong like Sloane, but seeing them last night has complicated things again. Knowing how much I hurt them is tearing me up.

“I don’t envy you then. Breakups are a bitch at the best of times, but three at once... Ouch, that’s got to hurt.” She shakes her head. “I think you’re very brave.”

I drop my head into my hands, sucking in deep breaths trying to calm myself down. “I’m not, I’m literally running away in fear.”

She moves across the room to sit beside me. “You’re not running away. You could have gotten on that plane to Australia and lived out your days lazing on the beach, but you stayed to fight in a world where us women have little control, knowing it would break the hearts of the three men you love, and that is brave.”

“Four,” I mutter, needing to confess it all to someone. The thoughts bouncing around in my head are making me feel crazy. Who falls in love with four men?

“Four what?” she asks, confused.

My eyes meet hers. “Geovani,” I admit, wondering where he was last night. I thought they had all joined forces, but doesn’t that mean in controlling me as well?

Her eyes go wide. “For fuck’s sake, girl. I’m not sure what kind of magic pussy you have but that shit must be devastating.”

“If something happened to any of them because of me, I would never forgive myself. That’s why I have to do what they can’t and deal with Enzo.”

“That’s right. Last night you made inroads. Valentina likes you enough to set you up with her beloved son, and Enzo already trusts you to work for him. You did good. Now we start fucking with him.”

“Yeah, except I got out of there before I got Alessandro to agree to fake dating me. Without him, I’m kind of back to square one, maybe worse because now I failed at the only job Enzo gave me.”

“You didn’t fail, you went back to the penthouse of Sinners’ Paradise with him. To Enzo, it could still look like you played your part. And I wouldn’t discount Alessandro being on board. He’s had time to think about it all and cool off. He knows where you stand, and we both know he’s an overbearing controlling ass. I reckon you won’t have to wait long, and he will come to you again. He won’t be able to help himself.” She raises a brow. “Fuck, girl, you two messing around down at the bar had me all hot and bothered, and I could only hear what was going on. He was there and he’s obsessed with you. Right now, he will be working out how to see you again, I know it.”

My cheeks glow with heat, imagining what she must have heard. “Did Malachi hear everything as well?” I bury my head in my hands, embarrassed.

“Yeah, girl, it was hella awkward.”

“Oh my God. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me, but when he’s around, I just lose my mind.”

She laughs. “Yeah, and your panties.”

“Fuck, don’t remind me.” I bury my head in my hands again, my face burning with shame.

“I guess that’s what love feels like?”

I glance back at her, not sure if it’s love or more just lust mixed with stupidity. “I hope you’re right about him coming around on his own. My only other option is to get involved in this auction Valentina is running. She said something about them needing models for the designer gowns. Least that way I will still be close enough to both of them that I can work out who is in their inner circle and start working on how to stop the awful things they have been doing.”

Her face turns serious. “Fuck, Viv, we don’t sign up for shit like that with the Morettis.” She leans in closer even though there isn’t anyone else around us. “That auction isn’t about the designer gown, it’s about the girl in it.”

My eyes widen in astonishment when she connects the dots for me, and I finally see the bigger picture. “They’re auctioning off people and calling it charity? What the actual fuck.”

Her nod is barely noticeable, but it speaks volumes.

“Is this how so many girls go missing? They’re sold off to creeps the Morettis invite to the auction, never to be seen again.” A shudder runs through me at the thought. This is proper horrifying.

“I don’t know anything for sure, most of the girls who participate in their events are willing participants, in it for the extra cash and a bit of fun. They come back to work with stories to tell, but I do have a hunch the Morettis are also using them to run their own type of sex trafficking. That’s why I tell my girls not to get involved.”

I’m running out of time before he does this to other unsuspecting girls. “Fucking hell. I want to start pinning shit on Enzo. I know most of the cops are corrupt, but there must be some that are good. Someone has to be able to lock him up, right?”

“Did you hear all the people she was introducing you to? The police commissioner, two top detectives, the chief medical officer, all powerful influential people in this town. They hold all the authority, that’s how they have gotten away with their crimes for so long.”

A knock sounds at her office door. “Sloane, there’s a massive fucking delivery out here on the bar for Viv,” comes Myriah’s voice from the other side of the door.

Sloane stands, and I follow her out of her office and into the bar, the faint hum of conversation and clinking glasses buzzing in the air. The bar is relatively quiet at this time of the afternoon, only a few small groups enjoying a quiet drink.

The overexaggerated grin on her face when she sees the delivery is priceless. It’s the largest bunch of red long-stem roses I have ever seen. Their petals are so soft they almost look like velvet. “They’re beautiful,” I gasp.

“What did I tell you. He’s had time to think and now he’s coming to you.” She smirks. “Poor boy’s probably had a motherfucking hard-on since last night. He’s gonna have blue balls by now.”

Giving her a look like shut the fuck up , I take the card and open the envelope, smirking at her when I see his words. I’m not really able to believe she’s right, but maybe after the shit show last night, he’s decided to play a different approach.

Vivian,

Last night was fun, let’s do it again sometime soon.

Alex xx

That’s all the card reads. On the other side of the card is a phone number.

“He wants to see you again?” She beams, reading over my shoulder, and I think it’s mostly because she was right.

“Yeah.” I sigh, knowing this is exactly what I need, but I’m not sure if it’s what I want. Fake-dating Alessandro even if it’s to get to Enzo is all sorts of insane. But it’s a better option than signing up for that auction, and right now, I have to take whatever I can. Dating his son will get me close to the family and give me all sorts of opportunities to find out specific information that could destroy him, and that’s what I need and fast. He can’t keep getting away with what he’s doing. “Can I use the bar phone to call him? I’m not giving him my number.”

“You are learning.” She smirks. “Use my office.”

“Thank you. You can keep the flowers for your troubles. They add a bit of romance to the place.”

“I just might do that.” She grins back at me, plucking one from its vase and inhaling.

I vanish back into her office and settle into her desk chair. Picking up the phone, I inhale deeply, trying to quell the nervous flutter in my stomach. I type in Alessandro’s phone number, ready to play the part of whoever I need to be to get this job done.

The phone rings a few times before he finally picks up. “That was fast,” comes his deep voice.

“It’s Vivian,” I mutter.

“It’s obvious you’re calling me from The Raven’s Nest, just minutes after I gave you my number.” He chuckles light-heartedly. Someone has had a chance to calm down after last night.

“Oh.” My mind races as I try to figure out the right words to say to him. This feels awkward over the phone. In person he has me so on edge, I just say whatever shit comes to mind. Normally stuff I regret later, but I can form a sentence. But maybe that’s because he has his hands on me, and I’m too distracted drooling over him to get my brain to connect.

“I have a dinner booking at Casa Moretti tomorrow night with my parents. I was hoping after the fun we clearly had last night, you might like to accompany me. If you’re free, of course,” he says, sounding every bit like the perfect gentleman I know he’s not.

Fuck, this is the jackpot, I can’t say no. I need to get close to these people or I will never get all the information I need, and going to one of his family’s restaurants is even better. “I’m free.”

“Perfect. I will pick you up from Sloane’s apartment at seven. I have sent you something to wear.”

Irritation crawls up my spine. How did he know I would say yes, and better still, that I would just do what he fucking said? Didn’t he get the memo last night that Harley is in charge of her own life now, because I thought I was pretty fucking clear. “I have my own clothes,” I snap.

“It’s a gift, Vivian, this is how I take care of the women I date. That is what you want, isn’t it? To date me?” His voice is light and airy and holds more than a question of if I want to date him.

Why do I get the impression this is him trying to trick me into something shifty? Or it could just be him doing the normal controlling bullshit. Play the game, Harley. Play the fucking game so you can get what you want this time as well. “Thank you, that’s so sweet. I can’t wait to see what you selected for me,” I manage to get out without sounding as sour as I feel. “See you tomorrow.”

“Good girl,” he purrs down the line, his voice way too playful for my liking. “Looking forward to it.”

I disconnect the call before I have a chance to snap back at him with some bitchy remark like I want to. Who knows who’s listening to the phone line here or on his end. I won’t take stupid chances. I have a date and a way into that family. Things are finally looking up.