Chapter 9
At night this apartment feels too big. When I lie in my oversized bed all alone, I can’t switch off the crazy thoughts trying to corrupt my brain. I have tossed and turned trying to process everything I found on the Moretti family today.
Enzo might be married to Valentina, but he’s a massive player. He’s been photographed with many attractive young women over the years, they all seem to be aspiring actresses or models just starting out in their careers. From what I can tell, none of them have made it big in any way. They were pictured with Enzo at some big event, a charity ball or fashion show, then they just vanish. There’s no way that could be a random occurrence. I wonder if Valentina works it out and puts a stop to the affair along with their career. I wouldn’t put it past her to be that evil.
My search didn’t give me much more than a write-up on the casino and Enzo the philanthropist and high-profile businessman. Every story boasted about his amazing contribution to Ravens Hollow’s economy. His online presence is as fake as the man himself. Valentina was the same. Every story I found painted her as a saint, giving back to the less fortunate through her various charities. They’re like a mafia power couple.
Sick of tossing and turning, I throw my covers back, quietly sneaking down the stairs. The apartment is covered in shadows, the only light coming from the neon signs of the casino and the adjoining shops that never seem to close.
I make my way down the hall to Geovani’s office and spot him fixated on his massive monitor at the other end of the room. As I approach, I see he has headphones on. He’s watching something, maybe surveillance? Different images are displayed with various camera angles. I can’t help but gasp softly when I realize what he is watching.
After our conversation the other night, I had my suspicions, but seeing it firsthand is confronting. Among the screens, one of them is my room in this house, my empty bed with the covers pulled back just how I left it minutes ago. It’s exactly as I thought—he can see and hear every single thing that I do. But it’s the other various screens that captivate my attention the most. They’re from the boys’ safe house, their gorgeous faces filling the screen. A small ache forms in my chest thinking about them.
As I approach him, he senses my presence, even though his ears are covered, and he swivels around in his roller chair to face me. He looks like some evil character from one of those spy movies, flashing a cunning smile for being caught in the act. He shoves the earphones from his head and waits for me to react.
My hands fly to my hips in outrage. “So, this is why you don’t sleep.”
“What are you doing lurking around here at this hour, Red?” he asks, way too casually for someone who has just been caught spying on people.
“I woke up, didn’t know where you were,” I throw back at him, my attitude bitchy as hell. But it’s what he deserves.
He motions for me to join him.
I’m angry but also curious about this set-up he has going on, so I go to him, slipping onto his lap. “Don’t stop your stalking on my behalf,” I huff.
“It’s hardly stalking, these are just some of the measures I’ve implemented to keep you safe,” he mutters like it’s no big deal, but we both know this is a total invasion of all our privacy.
I wonder what other measures he’s been going to in order to keep me safe. Are they as fucked up as stalking people? Maybe I don’t want to know. The more I find out about this man, the more psycho he looks. But I’m the one here sitting on his lap, ready to indulge his sick habits, so what does that make me?
“I think placing cameras inside the Moretti safe house is a little extreme, don’t you?”
“Not my cameras, Enzo’s . All I had to do was hack into his server. Now I can see everything the boys do.”
A shiver runs down my spine, and I give him a look like oh fuck . Them being Enzo’s cameras is even worse. I always knew Valentina knew way too much about what was going on with me and the boys. This must have been how. A wave of nausea fills me knowing what Alessandro’s parents would have seen. “This is depraved. We have to warn the boys.”
“We can’t, Red!”
“What? But it’s dangerous for Enzo to overhear what they’re talking about; it could get them killed. If we can’t tell them, can’t you block what he’s seeing?”
He brushes my hair away from my neck. I glance over my shoulder at him. “What’s your obsession with those boys?”
My eyes narrow in on him. “What’s yours? This is kind of insane,” I throw right back at him. He has to know how this looks. Crazy, messed up, psychotic. All the things.
“I asked you first,” he demands, making it clear he’s not fucking around anymore. He’s jealous as hell about my relationship with the boys. Serves him right for watching us together. He got more than he bargained for there.
My teeth sink into my bottom lip as I look him over. “I’m not obsessed with them. Like you.” I roll my eyes, flicking my attention back to the screen. His hand comes to my chin, forcing me to look right at him, his eyes boring into me with a scary intensity. “I just…” I brush a strand of hair behind my ear, feeling self-conscious under his scrutiny.
“You fell for them.” Disgust drips off his every word.
It makes me feel guilty, even though I know I have nothing to feel remorseful for. The person who lied to me for six months was him, our entire relationship we had was built on falsehoods. He can’t hold this against me, when we both know whatever chemistry we had was him trying to earn my trust so he could get access to my papa’s businesses. I swallow the lump in my throat, wanting to find the words to stick up for myself and maybe explain my behavior.
“In their own way, they were trying to protect me,” I whisper, losing my edge under his scrutiny.
“By getting you shot, chaining you up, forcing you into a marriage you didn’t want so the family can control you and steal your family’s businesses. That doesn’t sound like protection to me.”
“I said in their own way.” I stare him down, knowing he’s right, but also, I know what I felt when I was with them. They do care about me. He’s no fucking better. “Sometimes things aren’t as simple as they seem. You know that as well as I do. Look who used me to get access to my family’s businesses. Don’t try to pretend what happened between us wasn’t a ploy.” I glance at the screen, watching the three of them in the living room. I wonder what they’re talking about. An ache in my chest forms when I think about the last time I saw Ricky and Alessandro. I was so angry with them both. I’m still so angry with them both.
“You want to hear what they’re saying?” he offers, a cunning look in his eyes.
I bite into my lip, considering what he’s asking me. If I do, that makes me just as bad as him. A voyeur. But I’m dying to know. Even more than that, I miss them. I nod. He passes me the headphones. Their voices fill my ears, making my heart race a little faster. I miss them like crazy.
Ricky sits on the kitchen counter drinking from a tumbler. “We’re running out of time, Alex. Enzo’s furious Marco’s disappeared. He knows he had something to do with Harley escaping, and he wants us all to pay.”
Alessandro looks up from his spot on the couch, a shadow of the man I know. He looks like he hasn’t shaved or showered or eaten since I saw him last. Instead of his usual sharp suit, he’s in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.
Maddox is leaning against the kitchen counter next to Ricky, his arms crossed. “I’m booked on a plane for Italy for the end of the week because he won’t take fucking no for an answer. Ricky’s going to be forced to marry Elisa D’Amico if you don’t fucking fix this shit. Is that what you want, both of us gone?”
Alessandro runs a hand through his long hair. His handsome face is tight with rage, and there is also a dusting of unkept stubble peppering his jaw. “You think this is what I fucking want? You think I have any fucking choice. This is all her fucking fault. If she stayed and went through with the wedding, none of us would be in this position. I would have the fucking power to fix this fucking mess,” he growls out, every sentence getting more aggressive. He’s a man on the edge. Part of me feels sorry for him, even if I’m the she he is blaming for his current hell.
Maddox shakes his head, disappointed in his brother. “She was never going to marry you. Enzo made sure of it when he signed that deal with Carlo,” he snarls back.
Alessandro stands, rushing at Maddox. “Bullshit. He wouldn’t. He knew what she meant to me… to the family,” he corrects himself. “She was fucking valuable. He wouldn’t just let him have her.”
I gasp, my heart racing a little faster. What I meant to him? He really did want me for his own and was trying to manipulate Enzo into making it happen. Fuck.
Ricky stands, trying to get in between the two hotheads. “Boys, everyone’s had too much to drink. We all need to just cool it. We’ll talk about this again with clear heads tomorrow.”
Maddox shoves past Ricky, staring Alessandro down. “That’s exactly what he was going to do. That’s why we had to get her out of there.”
Alessandro’s face turns murderous. “You fucking helped that traitor.” Alessandro runs at Maddox, shoving him into a wall, causing me to jump back in shock at his violence against his brother. “You turn on your family for a girl.” Alessandro hits him with a right hook, making me flinch.
Maddox pushes him back, forcing him into the fridge and holding him by the throat in one swift move. “I’m not the fucking one you need to worry about turning on the family, it’s Enzo who’s turned on all of us. If you can’t see the way he’s manipulating all of us, then you’re just as bad as he is. Marco didn’t deserve to be treated like his fucking lap dog, and Harley isn’t some fucking slave to be traded to that pig. Be the boss you want to be. Stop moping around mourning the loss of a girl who was never yours and do something to get the control back.”
Mourning the loss of a girl who was never his. Is that what this is? Marco said he was furious and desperate to see me. I knew he would be angry about losing all the control and power he wanted, but part of me had really started to believe that was all I was to him. This paints a very different picture.
Ricky moves in to say something, but the earphones are removed from my head, so I don’t hear what it is.
“That’s enough,” Geovani cuts in.
I shuffle on his lap to meet his eyes, frustration clawing at me. “What? They’re talking about me. I want to know what they’re saying,” I say, desperately trying to take them back.
“You need to go back to bed so I can do my job.”
“Enzo can’t hear this conversation.” The words tremble out of my lips, knowing what this means for Maddox, for my brother. Enzo will destroy them if he knows the depths of their betrayal.
“Do you think I wouldn’t have this already taken care of, Red? Enzo won’t know a thing.” He chuckles.
I stand abruptly, shoving him back, a fresh wave of anger radiating through me. “But you do. You’re hearing it all. How am I supposed to trust this conversation isn’t going straight back to your pa? Who will then leak it to his new best buddy. You know as well as I do if you have this footage, others can find it.” Tears prickle in my eyes. I lunge at him again.
But he’s too quick for me, flying out of his seat, pulling me into him in a chokehold, my back pressed to his front. I suck in deep breaths as I try to escape him. “You need to start trusting me, sweetheart.”
“How can I when all you’ve ever done is lie to me,” I cry in frustration.
“For your own safety. I already told you I wouldn’t lie to you again. Start trusting me,” he demands like it’s that simple.
“Trust is earned,” I snap back at him, bringing my foot up and trying to kick him in the junk, but he anticipates it. Spinning me to face him, he presses me into the solid wall behind. My heart races wildly as I glare back at him. I know he would never really hurt me, but he’s scary as fuck when his crazy switch flicks.
Before I know what’s happening, his lips are on mine in an aggressive kiss. My eyes close, kissing him back for just a second. When I realize what I’m doing, I break the kiss, trying to get my hands in between us so I can get some space from him. I’m not done with this talk. I need to know how bad the depths of his stalking are. Especially when it comes to me. “What were you doing at my papa’s place on Christmas Eve?”
His eyes narrow in on me, and his breathing becomes more ragged as a snarl escapes his lips. I know he doesn’t want to answer the hard questions, but tough shit. I need answers.
I match his intensity, not ready to back down. I don’t care if he has the upper hand, with me trapped between the solid wall and his muscular body. “You told me you wouldn’t lie to me anymore. I want to know. Why where you there, Geo?” I ask him again, but my voice comes out as more of a plea.
“I knew what the boys were up to. The week before you came home, I overheard Marco telling them what your papa was up to and that he planned on murdering him for siding with my pa. So, I bugged your papa’s place and waited for you to run.”
Shocked, I blink back at him, unable to believe he’s actually telling me the truth. He was there just waiting for me. If that’s the case, why? “How did you know I would get out of there alive?”
A slight smile tugs at the corners of his lips. “I knew they didn’t want to harm you. Not the sweet little princess. Alex wanted you for himself. He had been adamant he would get you back after your papa sent you away to Paris, it was only a matter of time before he worked out a way to do it,” he replies, his voice dripping with smugness. Like the idea that I’m now here with him, not with his cousin, is amusing in his twisted brain.
As he moves his face closer to mine, I feel the intensity of his desire crackling in the air. My heart races with being so close to him. But I’m not done yet. “So that was when you started watching me?” I push, desperate to know the depths of his fascination with me.
I watch as he clenches his lips tightly. A wave of sadness washes over me, knowing that his expression reveals the undeniable truth.
My fingers become entangled in his shirt as I desperately attempt to force him off of me. “It wasn’t, was it?” I shove him again, but he’s like a brick wall, he won’t move. “Geovani. When did you start watching me?” I whimper, not sure I really want the answer.
“That’s not important now, Red.” The warning in his voice is unmistakable. I know I’m crossing a line he’s not willing to go over.
“It’s important to me,” I snap. Fuck him. Just because he’s a shitload bigger and stronger than me and because my body literally submits to him as soon as his lips touch mine, that doesn’t mean he gets to control every aspect of this relationship. I stand my ground, glaring at him without flinching.
“A few years ago.” He shrugs nonchalantly, but his casualness can’t hide the unsettling feeling it brings. This is creepy as fuck. The things he would have seen me do.
I break into a hot sweat. “Like when I was seeing Alessandro. You wanted me because I was with your cousin?”
“I wanted you, because I wanted you. Nothing to do with him.”
My mind races, thinking back to my time sneaking around with Alessandro. I was so inexperienced, the things we did together. My cheeks color just thinking about it. “How much did you see? Could you see me when I was at college?”
“Sometimes.”
Sometimes! “Oh my God. This is insane. Here I was thinking you just watched me now because you’re trying to keep me safe. But I didn’t need protecting back then. You’re obsessed.”
“Indeed, I am,” he growls out with a confident smile. He doesn’t see anything wrong with stalking me or hiding cameras so he can watch my every move.
My eyes go wide with panic. “You’re insane.”
In an instant, his smile contorts into a disturbing, unhinged grin. His eyes lock with mine as he nods. I catch the slight movement of his tongue grazing his top lip.
Oh, fuck. A delicious shiver runs through me. For some unknown reason, the knowledge that I am his obsession drives me equally insane for him. I’m fucked in the head.
He’s done with talking, and before I know what’s happening, his lips are locked with mine again. His solid body presses me into the wall as he devours me.