Chapter 12

Adrian

I felt on edge all day, counting down the hours until I would see Victoria, who was feeling better. I wanted her in my home tonight, in my bed. I wanted her head on my pillow, my sheets covering her perfect body as she slept beside me. If I had my way, she wasn’t going home that night.

I was keeping her now and forever.

The day went by slowly, each minute feeling as if it took an hour. I was getting irritated at the slowness of the clock. I wanted it to be time for my kotyonok to be in my arms again, not dealing with everything else expected of me.

Late that evening, I had a meeting with Cristiano and Vito down at their warehouse. There were already two heavy duty, black SUVs waiting when my driver pulled up out front. I had four men with me, when I normally went alone or only took one of them. The warehouse was isolated, so I had brought the extra men just as a precaution.

Two of Vito’s men were waiting outside the building. They looked like secret service agents with their suits, dark sun glasses, and communication devices in their ears.

As I approached the door, I expected one of them to stop me and pat me down. Instead, I got a chin lift from one of them, yet they stopped my men from following me.

Inside, I found Cristiano and Ciro waiting with Vito and his right-hand man, Benito Donati. None of their guards were around, but with both younger men there, I didn’t expect there to be. Ciro was a badass motherfucker. He could have taken care of an entire roomful of people if needed. Cristiano was a legend with what he could do with a knife, or so my sources had told me. In a fight, I wasn’t sure which of us would come out on top, though my money would have been on myself.

“On time for once,” Vito grumbled as I moved farther into the room.

“I know how you dislike being kept waiting,” I said with a shrug.

Something flared in his eyes, maybe respect. I didn’t care enough of what he thought of me to worry about what it might have been. “What have you learned about Jr.?”

“He’s kept a low profile. Until last night when he showed up outside my sister’s club, I hadn’t seen him, although my men have spotted him a time or two around the city. None of them were able to follow him, though, so there have been no credible leads on him.”

Vito’s lips twisted in displeasure. “How the fuck can this little prick be like a ghost? He’s stupid, clumsy.”

“His second is probably calling the shots, Pop,” Cristiano told his father. “I told you, Fontana is smart. He has to be helping to keep Jr. in the wind.”

“Well, fucking take out Fontana!” Vito roared before forcefully making himself calm down when Benito touched a hand to his shoulder in warning.

“I dislike Jr. as much as the next person, but why are you in such a rush to get to him?”

The air around Ciro seemed to grow colder, electric, as he turned his blue eyes on me. “He approached Scarlett several days ago. Plus, he was working with a family in Connecticut in an attempt to set up camp here on the East Coast. They kidnapped a woman who is important to our West Coast contacts.”

If I had known that fucker had approached Victoria’s sister, I would have had my men all over him instead of just keeping their eyes open for him. This changed everything.

As soon as the meeting was over and I was back in the SUV, heading for my apartment building, I told my men to grab the fucker the next time they saw him. I would get that little dick and hand him over to Ciro personally.

By the time I got home, it was nearly time for Victoria to arrive. I wasn’t planning for us to go out, so after my shower, I put on a pair of sweats and was pulling an old T-shirt over my head when I heard the elevator arriving.

Fuck, I couldn’t wait to see her.

Grinning because just the thought of her in my home brought me the kind of peace I had been without most of my life, I left my bedroom. By the time I got to the living room, she was just stepping off the elevator.

I could sense something was wrong the instant I saw her. She wasn’t wearing her usual sexy little dresses and killer heels. Instead, she had on pink sweatpants that were at least a size too big on her and hung low on her hips. Her shirt was a thin cami in the same shade of pink, easily showing me that she wasn’t wearing a bra. It didn’t even cover her belly completely, giving me a flash of two inches of delectable skin between the end of her shirt and the top of her sweats. Her hair was pulled up into a messy knot on top of her head, a few strands falling down around her face like a halo. Dark sunglasses covered her eyes even though it was dark outside.

Dressed like this, I could honestly say she had never looked sexier to me. She hadn’t dressed up for me and I liked that.

The glasses, however, told their own story.

Something cold settled into my stomach as I crossed the distance between us, even as I realized what I was feeling right then.

Fear.

Before I could reach her, she froze up, and I forced myself to stop. This close, I could see she wasn’t wearing any makeup and there were tear stains down her face.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

She swallowed hard and took her glasses off, revealing swollen, red-rimmed eyes. It was obvious she had been crying for some time, but they looked painfully dry now. She just stood there, staring up at me for several long moments.

Somehow, I knew what was wrong. Why she was so upset. Why she looked as if I had betrayed her and now her heart was shattered. She wasn’t trying to hide it, wasn’t trying to play coy and make me beg her to tell me what was wrong. It was all there in her brown eyes, condemning me as I deserved to be condemned.

My heart dropped into my gut, and for a moment, I couldn’t make my voice work. Everything that I should have done, should have said and explained to her, echoed in my head, but it was too late now.

“Kotyonok—”

She lifted a hand, silencing me. “No,” she whispered, but it was just as effective as if she had screamed. “You don’t get to talk. You had your chance to tell me the truth. You had so many chances. Instead, you played your little game.”

“That’s not how it was. You are not a game to me.” I raked my hands through my hair, knowing if I didn’t do something, I was going to lose her. Fuck, I couldn’t lose her. “I knew that if I told you, you wouldn’t have given me a chance.”

“Of course not!” she cried. “You’re fucking married, Adrian. You aren’t free to be with me or anyone else but your wife. You lied. You … You …” The sob that came from her sounded as if it was destroying something deep inside her, making her body jerk from the force of it.

My own body ached at how destroyed she was. I wanted to take away her pain, wanted to absorb it into myself and keep it safely away from her.

This was my fault. I had caused this.

Fuck.

“Klara is only my wife on paper,” I tried to make her understand. “There isn’t and never has been any emotional connection between us.”

“That doesn’t even matter! You have a wife. Fuck. A wife. You married someone else. You gave her your name, and now you’re trying to make me your mistress.” She closed her eyes, the pain on her face tearing me apart. “I won’t be any man’s mistress. Not even yours.”

I closed the distance between us, catching her arms when she started to turn away from me and pulling her close. But it was like there was an invisible force between us, holding her back from me, making it impossible for me to truly reach her. “Don’t do this, kotyonok. Don’t leave. Let me explain.”

“There is nothing you can possibly say that will make this better.” Two tears fell down her cheeks, adding to the tracks on her face. Her head hung low, as if she didn’t have the strength to keep it upright.

This wasn’t her. My strong, capable kitten was gone. Replaced by this broken, hollow shell.

“Let me go, Adrian. I don’t belong to you. I’m not yours.”

“The fuck you’re not!” I roared in desperation and lifted her into my arms. Then I backed her into the nearest wall, my lower body locking her in place as I lowered my head and kissed her jaw, her neck, her shoulder. “You will always belong to me,” I told her with a growl against her skin. “And I will forever be yours.”

She was trembling against me, and I could feel the heat of her pussy as she pressed her lower body harder against mine. Maybe her heart was locked away from me now, but her body still responded.

“No.” There was a quiver in her voice. “We can’t do this, Adrian. We can’t be together. You have a wife.”

“Who means nothing to me. While you …” I captured her lips and kissed her long and hard, trying to put everything I felt for her into it. Trying to show her how much she meant to me. When I lifted my head, we were both breathing hard. “… You are my world, Victoria. You are everything. I won’t let you go. I won’t give you up.”

“You must,” she whispered, her chin trembling as another tear fell from her beautiful eyes. “I’m not doing this with you anymore, Adrian. I can’t be with you.”