Chapter 14 – Delphine
Chapter Fourteen
Delphine
A fter three days with Angela, I have no choice but to soften up to her.
I don’t know where her brother went, I have no contact with the outside world, and so far, she hasn’t drugged me again.
Whenever I make efforts to probe her for information about the mob family she comes from, Angela artfully dodges my questions.
All she wants to talk about is ballet, dance, and how much she resents her brother for leaving us alone without considering our needs for mental health or delicious meals we don’t have to cook ourselves.
I would complain about our captivity more, except I have too much to worry about on my end. Angela isn’t exactly my ally considering she drugged me to get me here, Luigi could return at any minute, and as of today, I officially missed work. Someone at the library is bound to report me missing.
Considering we spend more time telling people not to do heroin outside of the bathroom than introducing people to a love of literature, I don’t know if my coworkers will really notice my absence.
They might assume I have one of the crazy ass winter viruses going around and then nobody will know what happened to me until… I show up with a baby.
Actually, according to the contract, I’ll have no baby and a lot of money.
If I get pregnant, that is.
On day four of my imprisonment with Angela, her patience snaps.
She craves escape from her brother’s clutches and spends all morning on the phone yelling at…
someone. I don’t think it’s Luigi, but it must be someone who has influence over him, because Angela gets off the phone around 11 a.m. and takes a metal pasta maker out of the cupboard.
“Luigi will be here for a late lunch. Can you make meatballs?”
What the hell is going on with my life? Can I really stand here making meatballs with the crazy woman who drugged me for none other than the kidnapper who thrust his cock inside me a few days ago and then used my mouth for his pleasure?
I nod and follow Angela to the kitchen. Either I make the meatballs or freak the hell out about seeing Luigi again.
“So… are you going to talk to your brother about your differences?” I ask Angela a few minutes into massaging the Italian spices into the ground beef. She has a glass of wine in her hand halfway finished, so it seems like the best time to ask.
“Luigi is a real asshole,” she says. “I’m negotiating more freedoms for us, that’s all you have to know.”
“So what? You did this to have company?” I ask her.
Angela gives me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, okay? I got caught up in the moment and you seemed like… someone who could change my brother.”
It’s hard to hold back a laugh. I’ve barely made a dent in Luigi’s gruff, cruel personality and considering he’s gone days without so much as a peep back here after cumming inside me, I’m not hopeful that I’ll make a difference in his cold, aloof attitude.
“I don’t think that’s me.”
Angela smirks at me beneath blue-green eyes that look a little like her brother’s, but a lot like a cat’s. “You never know.”
“He hasn’t been back here in days.”
“Don’t tell me you miss him,” Angela says with disgust before releasing a handful of her hand made flour pasta into boiling water. “He’ll be back and when he’s back… it’ll be nice for him to have someone to spend time with. Someone kind and funny.”
“Buttering me up won’t make me forget that you drugged me.”
“I know,” Angela sighs, surprising me by wrapping her arms around me from behind. “I’ve never been great at making friends.”
She lets go of me and empties the rest of the wine down her throat. Her comment surprises me. Angela has pretty eyes, and dark-red hair that’s eye-catching and alternative without being as scary as the more popular bright teal hair color for unconventional Western New York women.
Her loneliness and desperation feel real, maybe because I’ve been there myself and maybe because I just want to believe that if nothing else has been real, our friendship forged at the bar before all the drama with Luigi had something with it.
I lose myself in cooking with Angela, joking around with her about her formal white girl dancing compared to my less refined, but sexier ass shaking at the bar.
No offense to Angela, but nobody asks for a ballet dance at the strip club.
It’s scary that I have such a naturally easy friendship with this crazy ass woman enough to make me forget that she is just as criminal as her brother.
I feel a connection to her that’s so strong, only broken when I hear her brother outside the door.
His presence immediately causes my body to stiffen with discomfort and I quietly stir the meatballs in Angela’s red tomato sauce as Luigi enters the lake house. I don’t want to respond to him or show him that his presence has any effect on me, even if his presence chills me all over.
Luigi addresses Angela first.
“How long until lunch?”
Angela scoffs at her brother and quips back immediately. “Good afternoon, asshole.”
“You drugged someone, Angela,” her brother responds in a deep voice that sends a throbbing sensation from the top of my stomach straight between my legs. “I’m not happy about it.”
“You spent four days out of the house. That didn’t make you happy?”
“Pour me a glass of wine.”
I hear Luigi walking across the room and I hope he’s heading off to a suite for a shower, but I smell his cologne and then feel his warmth as he stands next to me stirring the red sauce and meatballs.
“Hello, Delphine,” he says softly. His deep voice stirs up my insides. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of looking at him.
I should have expected that not to matter to him.
“Come to the bedroom. Now.”
Angela clears her throat.
“Ring the bell when it’s time for lunch,” Luigi commands his sister, then he takes the wooden spoon from my hand, setting it on the stainless steel spoon rest with the ‘T’ engraved on it before he takes my hand and drags me off to the bedroom that he left for me over the past four days.
Once we’re alone, Luigi uses my hand to force me to face him. I have to look up past my glasses into his deep blue eyes. I can’t help but feel deep fear when I finally look at him and see that he’s just as cold and heartless as when he left.
How could his sister have thought for a second I had a chance at softening this man’s heart?
He scowls at me, as if he can read my mind and wants to prove my point about how cold he can be.
I hold his gaze despite the tremors of fear slowly taking over my limbs and grimly reminding me of the last time we saw each other.
“I hope Angela hasn’t been filling your mind with poison.”
I don’t answer him. Luigi swallows slowly.
“I don’t like you being close to her,” he says.
“You left me here for four days. I can’t just stare at the walls. We’re housemates.”
I’m surprised he allows that attitude to slide. But he does. Luigi’s shoulders relax along with his tight jawline.
“I will no longer leave you alone with Angela then.”
Fuck. That’s not at all what I wanted, but I can’t show Luigi that he’s won even an inch over me. He reaches into his coat pocket and I fight back the urge to flinch before he does anything. The box he holds is much worse than a weapon.
“What is that?”
“An early detection pregnancy test. It’s been blessed by a priest.”
He doesn’t find anything weird about that, apparently.
“We had sex only a few days ago. I can’t be pregnant.”
His voice gets deep and husky, getting me frustratingly wet as I try to stuff my feelings and ignore both his content and tone.
“If I fucked you at the right time…” Luigi says crudely. “We could be well on our way to fulfilling the contract.”
“Why are you so eager to find out I’m pregnant?”
“If it’s negative, I’ll finish the job,” Luigi says coldly, but for a second, I detect a flicker of his true cravings behind his icy stare. The peek into his authentic desires scares me almost more than Luigi’s coldness. Why does it excite him to get me pregnant considering this situation?
“Perfect.”
“You’re getting money out of this,” he says with genuine frustration. “Protecting you is about to become my biggest problem and trust me, it’s a big one.”
“Is that my fault somehow?”
I shouldn’t push him. Luigi’s body stiffens and his face grows even colder than before.
Pushing up against him just a little provokes such a strong reaction from him that regret and fear creep over me.
His gaze flickers with knowledge of his complete control over me.
That I’ll listen to him regardless of what he asks me to do.
“Go take the pregnancy test then return with the results.”
There’s no escape. It’s ridiculous to take the pregnancy test so early, but Luigi won’t allow me to exit past him.
I want meatballs for lunch and an end to his cold-hearted bullying, so I snatch the pregnancy test from him and stomp into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me, defying him in the little ways I can.