Chapter 23
Alessandro
Two things have happened since I rejected Sofia's advances a little over a week ago: she started acting distant and her family stopped paying mine. Do they not care about her at all? I know I could never harm her for her family’s failures, but they don’t know that.
Antonio stands next to me to help me translate. I should be able to understand them fine enough, but I feel self-conscious only being able to respond using basic sentences and phrases.
I pinch the bridge of my nose as the video call rings, reminding myself that I need to pretend that I don’t care about her well-being for the next few minutes.
I’m greeted by her brother Max’s face alongside a man I haven’t met formally before, but I believe he was at the wedding.
“It has been over a week and no contact, no payment, nothing!” I bark, not bothering with any type of greeting.
Antonio relays the message.
“Oh, that’s a shame.” Max gives me a warm smile that almost seems genuine. What the hell is going on? The man next to him smirks.
“And who the fuck is this?”
“This is my cousin—”
“Nick Marino—”
“He’s the head of our human resources department here to smooth over any disagreements—” Max snickers.
“And Maxy here—”
“Do not call me that in front of this guy!”
Antonio leans close to me. “Are you getting this?”
“Yes… and also no.” I don’t know why they’re acting this way. Where is John Sr.?
“Would you two shut the fuck up!?” I snap.
They both laugh at the camera, not a care in the world. Something is off—I feel like these two were instructed to get on this call and annoy the piss out of me. What else could be happening right now?
“I don’t care what you think you know, but I swear to God I will chop off all of Sofia’s fingers after this conversation. Your family hasn’t paid me, has ignored my calls, and now this?”
Antonio translates, then Nick winks at me. “Sure, you will.” He turns to his cousin and begins having a conversation about something mundane, as if me and Antonio aren’t on a call with them.
“You can expect the package in the mail.”
I grind my teeth and move to end the video call.
I force myself to calm down once my office is silent and I’m no longer on camera. I thank Antonio for the help, then I rush out, wondering why they were having a laugh instead of worrying about Sofia. She must have found a way to tell them something. Is she even in the castle anymore?
I pull my phone out of my pocket and call Dante. He’s the perfect man for this job.
“Yes?”
“Dante. No need to kill or harm anyone but find a dead body, a woman of similar complexion, build, and age as Sofia, then cut the fingers off and send them to her grandfather.”
“I can get that done by tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
I stalk into my new living room, which is slowly feeling more and more like my space rather than living in the discomfort of Marco’s domain.
I replaced his taxidermy and his gaudy artwork and furniture with my art and sleek, modern furniture.
The space feels massive now compared to the cigarette-smoke riddled, antique-store hellscape it once was.
There are probably a dozen balconies in this place, so I don’t know why he insisted on smoking indoors.
I find Elena in the living room, sipping a cup of tea. “Do you know where Sofia is?”
She nods. “She’s working out in the gym.”
“Thanks.”
I head down to the basement, an area I haven’t taken advantage of yet since moving in. Once things calm down, I intend to swim laps or do something positive for my health, but I’ve had too many distractions.
And one of those distractions is squatting what appears to be a recklessly heavy weight. And she’s wearing something that I’d barely call a shirt—the sides are cut off so her front is covered a little, but anyone can see her midriff.
She catches me looking and steadily puts the bar back on the rack.
“Hey! Do you finally have a free afternoon?” She chirps. I can’t tell whether her cheerful demeanor is fake.
My mind races, trying to determine the order of operations for what I should deal with first. Her family not taking her situation seriously or that she paraded through my home looking like that.
My eyes trail down her body: at her purple leggings that make her ass look amazing, her tanned skin; her toned body. Even her ponytail drives me insane.
I stuff all of those feelings down and try to look as cold as possible. I can’t let her family walk all over me like this. If word gets around, it’ll make me look weak. And there are already whispers of unhappiness with the change in leadership.
“Bad news, Sofia. Your family doesn’t care about your safety anymore.”
She laughs, but there’s a look of uncertainty on her face as her eyes dart away from mine. She turns her back on me and reaches for one of the weights in an effort to clean up.
“Face me. We’re having a serious conversation.”
She does as I say, but her attitude does not improve. “Are we? Because I don’t believe a word you’re saying. I know they care about my safety.”
I feel my face flush with anger as she grins at me.
“I got on a call with your brother and your cousin. They more or less laughed in my face, and I ended it by telling them I would cut all of your fingers off.”
Her hand reaches up to grip the bar, and I watch as she sweats even more than she did from working out.
“That doesn’t concern me.”
“You look concerned.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m a wimp when you mention things like that, but I know it’s an empty threat.”
Subconsciously, I roll my sleeves up. Her lips part as she watches.
“I understand that I may have over-used these empty threats on you so far, Sofia. But this is serious. Your family hasn’t been keeping up with their payments, and they aren’t even treating me with respect.
As the new boss, I can’t allow that to happen.
Now. Tell me why the sudden change in their behavior? ”
She turns away as if putting the weights back is more important than this conversation. “I have no idea. All I do is work out, find various ways to entertain myself without a phone or wifi, and sleep.”
I take a few steps towards her and pull her hair back so she has to look up at me. “Say that to me again. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t know what’s going on with them.”
“I have no idea.” Her voice wavers, and I can sense fear and apprehension in her.
“Are you lying to me?”
“No.” She struggles to make eye-contact.
“You are, aren’t you?” She has had nothing but time on her hands to figure out a way to contact her family.
She could have found a spare phone in this wing before I swept the place, or maybe she convinced one of my guards or staff to help her.
This makes me realize that one employee quit without warning recently—Tommaso.
Something seemed off with him, so I question whether he’s the culprit, but I want to hear it from Sofia.
She rapidly shakes her head.
“You want to do this the fun way, then?” I purr, spotting some resistance bands across the room. I’m angry with myself because I know I’m going to treat this situation the same way when I found out that she tried to escape. But I can’t stop myself.
I let go of her, causing her eyes to glance towards the door out of the gym.
“Run and we’ll have a fun chase, but there’s nowhere for you to go without me or one of my men catching you first.” She takes a step back, meeting my eyes again. “Now, grab one of those resistance bands.”
A rosy blush grows on her cheeks as she pieces together what my plans for her are. And, surprisingly, she doesn’t hesitate to do as she’s told.
She hands me a red band. I test its flexibility and decide it will work well enough for binding her hands. My eyes scan the room, landing on the pull-up bar mounted on the wall. I nod towards it. “Stand beneath that.”
Again, she obeys. It’s as if a switch flips with her anytime there’s a sexual undertone. Instead of being defiant for the annoying sake of it, she follows what I say to a tee.
She even holds her wrists towards me as she stands under it.
That makes me chuckle. “You want this, don’t you?”
I bind her wrists together and then pull her arms up over her head, tethering them to the bar above her.
It’s the perfect height as she’s forced to stand on her tiptoes underneath it.
She doesn’t answer me as I pull a knife out of my pocket.
Still closed, I flip it around in my hand, playing with it and watching her face.
She looks afraid for a second, but she gnaws on her lip in a way that shows she wants to play.
“Does this frighten you?”
“Should it?”
I don’t answer her and flick the blade open. “I want you to know in the future that I don’t consider this tiny piece of fabric to be a shirt.” I cut at it until it drops to the ground. “I will go through your closet and burn anything similar to it.”
Her brown eyes are nearly black from how dilated her eyes are.
“Don’t you have anything to say about that? No snide remarks? No calling me names?”
“No, sir.”
I take a step back, wondering if those two words were in fact a snide remark, but she looks at me with earnest anticipation. No smirk lingering on her face.
Blood rushes to my cock at those two words. With Sofia? There’s something about her submitting to me… trusting me. It drives me insane, making me forget the reason I came down to find her in the first place.
I toss my knife to the ground and then undo the zipper in the front of her sports bra. I palm one of them and feel her nipple harden to my touch.
“Can you tell me now?” I purr. “What did you do to make your family stop paying?”
“I… I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Progress.
I take one of her breasts in my mouth. I can taste the sweat from her workout, but surprisingly, it only turns me on more, closing my teeth on her nipple just enough where she lets out a squeal. “In that case, I’ll have to hurt you then.”
She whimpers.