19. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Olivia
T houghts of deadly ultimatums and curses fill my head. You agreed to this? The monster stared at me with accusation, like he wasn’t the one who brought me here. I really had no choice. Emilio, his brother and the head of his family, made my options very clear. Follow his plan and when my brother is dead, I am free to live my life without Riccardo’s dark cloud over my head. If I didn’t, I would remain a prisoner of the Greco family. My fate would be decided if and when my brother is killed. Emilio’s plan might be full of its own dangers, but the promise of true freedom without strings attached is too great to deny. And all I have to do to get my hands on a future is to put my trust in Emilio and Alessandrio—the monster who dragged me into this world. That thought makes my stomach drop.
“You will remain with Alessio.” Those words rip me back to reality.
I cast a wide-eyed glance up at Emilio. Remain with Alessio? Remain with my tormentor? The thought fills me with dread. What if he keeps me trussed up in that chair between social events? I won’t do that. I won’t go back to that room or that chair.
“Why can’t I stay with him?” I point a finger at the older man, Lorenzo. I don’t know him, but he’s human and has to be a better option.
Lorenzo shakes his head. “I have a wife and children.” Even better .
“Lorenzo’s family would be in danger,” Emilio fills in.
I feel my face pull into a frown. How much danger am I about to walk into?
“This will be dangerous. Your safety will be our business,” Emilio continues on, heavy brow narrowing. “The safest place for you will be with my brother.”
“He tied me to a chair.” He doesn’t even flinch. “And chased me through his apartment.” Did his lips just twitch? “He plays heavy metal music obnoxiously loud and invades my personal space.”
His lips actually pull into a smile at that, and I blink at those sharp teeth so similar to Alessandrio’s. I want to add the sex incident, but I am fairly sure he was just watching porn, because there is no way it was actual sex. Emilio’s reaction, though, infuriates me.
“I’m glad you think that it’s funny. But if you want my full cooperation, and you want me to stay with that… that…” I see the smile fall from Emilio’s lips and a cold sharpening of his eyes. I bite my tongue on the word Monster.
“ You are misplacing my humor. I smile because you just confirmed something to me.” He shoots a knowing look at Lorenzo, whose own look is thoughtful and amused.
I want to demand what, but honestly my head aches knowing that I will stay with that monster. If he is the safest person for me to be around, I seriously am second guessing my choice. Because I have a feeling when he says I will remain a prisoner if I don't help them, he also means with his brother.
“I have my own negotiations in all of this, then.”
I am going to have to fight for the things I want. Emilio sits back in his chair and crosses two enormous arms over an alarmingly broad chest. My eyes are momentarily distracted by fur covered forearms. He’s wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and his long fingers end in black tips, but his claws appear to be trimmed. Emilio is so different from his brother. Images of Alessandrio in grey sweatpants, his broad shirtless chest with its darker patches of fur decorating its expanse, float to the surface. No.
“I want a bed,” I blurt out, making myself jump as I bury the unsettling image deep. “A room preferably that isn’t the torture chamber your brother has put me in,” I careen on. “I want to move about the apartment. I want him to stop treating me like a captive and more like an equal. You offered me my protection in all of this. Are you willing to protect me from him?” I take a gulping breath, meeting his eyes.
There is a moment of quiet. I see Emilio mulling over my words. Lorenzo, beside him, also seems to add things up in his head. The older man leans forward and whispers something in the Don’s ear. Emilio nods in response to whatever secret business they have going on.
“You have my word on a bed, a proper room and on freedom to move about. As for my protection against my brother? I can promise you he won’t hurt you. It’s not his style. He is a dick though, and that unfortunately is his nature.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” I snap with a roll of my eyes.
Both beast and man smile at that, two little knowing smiles that niggle at me. As if I am missing something. Again, that powerful feeling of exhaustion sweeps through me, a deep and overwhelming feeling of absorbing too much physical and mental stress. The thought of sleeping in an actual bed right now sounds like a dream, and despite my best efforts to suppress it, I yawn.
“I can imagine the stress you have been under these past few days.” No, you can’t. “We are done here. Lorenzo will escort you up to Alessandrio’s apartment and inform him of the change in your living circumstances.” Emilio pulls a phone from his pocket, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he stands. “It was—” he pauses for a moment, as if thinking of what to say as he tucks his phone in his pocket—“Enlightening to meet you, Miss Dolmino.”
My family’s name sounds like it goes against everything he is to say it.
I can only nod. Enlightening? That’s the gentle way of putting into words what happened here today. From start to finish, this has felt like my doom. Ultimatums that might still see me put in the ground. My introduction to their world will see a monster placed at my side, and for what purpose other than that to ensure I grab the attention of a man who wants to put a bullet in my head? Riccardo might just succeed. I don’t care how much faith Emilio has in Alessandrio, he severely underestimates my brother’s desire to end me. Alessandrio seemed less than thrilled with the idea himself. He hates me; the feeling is mutual and I don’t doubt living with him will become a fate worse than death, even if I have a room and a bed.
My head falls into my hands. The pain radiating inside my skull is breathtaking and the tears seep between my lashes, relieving some of the pressure. My ragged breath fills the silence in the room.
“Come Miss Dolmino.” The older man’s voice breaks through the despair.
I dash the tears from my eyes and muster the last dredges of my physical strength to stand. Fuck. Stop crying, I chastise myself. We are about to go up. If Alessandrio sees me upset, he will undoubtedly exploit it and I can’t take anymore today. Forcing calm through my body, I glance around the room. Emilio is by the door, and Lorenzo is motioning me towards the other exit. The Greco Don nods his head in farewell, and I tilt my own back, ignoring the pain as I follow Lorenzo from the meeting room. With every step, it feels like lead has attached itself to my feet. There is irony in the feeling, given who I am dealing with.
I find comfort because I don’t have to share the elevator with either of the cursed brothers. Lorenzo seems to me like the kind of man who doesn’t fill silences with unnecessary small talk. There is an air of importance about the man, and yet he hasn’t abused it in my presence. When the elevator doors slide apart and Lorenzo steps off, a whispered curse fills the air in his wake. I take a hesitant step out, my entire body screaming for me to step back inside and hit the ground button. Escape, however, would be virtually impossible. I now know who owns the entire building.
Lorenzo continues to curse under his breath as I follow him into the apartment’s open space. Silence and chaos. I wince at the state of the place. It definitely isn’t how I remember it when I attempted my escape. Clearly the same goes for Lorenzo, whose murmured curses have become a full exclamation in Italian. I don’t understand a lick, but from the punctuation of his words, it doesn’t seem good. For a long moment we stand in the centre of it all, broken furniture trails to the balcony doors. Exposed wires and a sizable hole decorate the walls in the place of artwork.
“Let’s find you a bedroom, shall we?” There is a frosty edge to the older man’s voice as he strides across the space to the hall off the kitchen.
I hesitate. What if Alessandrio is still here? He could be waiting to confront us—confront me.
“He’s not here,” Lorenzo soothes, picking up on my fears.
“How do you know?” I question, eyes still raking the shadows.
“His anger isn’t a quiet simmering thing, it’s loud and provocative.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” I spit sarcastically.
He chuckles and the knowing look he gives me unsettles something in me. “You need sleep.”
In answer, I yawn, eyes watering under the weight of the pain in my head and the sheer exhaustion. No truer words seem to have been spoken in this moment, and with no more hesitation, I follow him down the hall. Three doors line it, a gaping hole at the end where the fourth should be. My guide seems to know the space because we bypass the first two doors, and without hesitation, he opens the door into the room where I showered. I knew it wasn’t Alessandrio’s personal room. Its tranquil, with its light wood and pale decor, he was out of place amongst its warmth.
There is a mechanical whirring sound and the heavy drapes close across the floor to ceiling view. Two lights on the nightstands spring on in answer, their warm glow soothing.
“There’s a flatscreen that comes down from the ceiling. The remote should be in one of the nightstand draws. If you press the power button, it will lower down, and there is access to all the streaming services,” Lorenzo directs, and I nod dumbly, my eyes not leaving the plush pillows topping the bed. “I will have Alessandrio put together a list of necessities and clothes for you. You will need them for your debut. Is there anything you need right now?”
I shake my head, words abandoning me with the promise of sleep.
“I’ll leave you then.” Before he’s even finished speaking, I am moving towards the bed.
“Thank you,” I croak as I pull back the covers, the door closing behind him.
He says something, something I think I miss hear amongst the softness that envelops me.
‘ No. Thank you.’
I am too relieved to give thought to the ghost of those words. My head hits the pillow. The world could be falling apart outside of this room, and I couldn’t rally the energy to care. There is a soft click, and the light evaporates. Exhaustion is a blanket to my consciousness.