Adriana

 

Adriana flipped over the piece of French toast in her frying pan, focusing on creating a relatively healthy brunch for her father, who had been nice enough to wear headphones all night long while she fucked Ryder. In reality, though, her whole body was shaking a little bit, vibrating with energy that seemed to hum inside her blood cells, screaming at her to jump into action.

 

But what could she do? Ryder was taking care of everything, and there was no way Adriana could get involved and help him out without messing everything up. As far as Mama Rainieri was concerned, Adriana was permanently out of the picture. They needed the Rainieri matriarch to trust Ryder if they were going to gather enough evidence to take control back from her and Giovanni.

 

But still, it was driving Adriana crazy, sitting here doing nothing. There was no way she could clear her mind of worry, not when Ryder was in the belly of the beast, surrounded by people who’d be perfectly willing to have him killed if he posed the slightest problem.

 

Her phone dinged a moment later, tearing her out of her anxious thoughts. She flipped the last piece of French toast out of the frying pan and switched off the stove before reaching into her pocket to look at her phone. It was a text from Ryder, telling her that his mother had just arrived at the penthouse and that all systems were go—signaling to Adriana that he was taping the conversation with Mrs. Rainieri.

 

Good, Adriana thought, forcing herself to breathe a sigh of relief. Everything was going according to plan so far. Everything’s going to be okay. She slapped some maple syrup and fruit on the plate piled with French toast and walked over to her dad’s bedroom to surprise him.

 

She’d just dropped the food off with her dad, who was still listening to music with his eyes closed in his bedroom, when she heard a light knock at the front door of the apartment. That’s weird, Adriana thought as she walked to the main entrance hallway, just off to the side of the kitchen. They almost never got targeted by salesmen, and Ryder was all the way across town.

 

Adriana opened the door to reveal… Giovanni, standing there in a sharp suit with a bright, beaming smile on his face. “Hey, there, baby doll,” Giovanni said, pushing Adriana aside slightly as he forced his way into the apartment. Adriana was so caught off guard that she just stood there, watching with her jaw dropped open as Giovanni inspected the living room and kitchen area of her apartment.

 

“What are you doing here?” Adriana asked, struggling to keep her voice steady even as her heart began to pound in her throat.

 

“Just wanted to check in on my favorite girl,” Giovanni said, turning back around to face her, that vomit-inducing smile still plastered across his face. “How have you been holding up since you quit?”

 

“Fantastic,” Adriana replied in a deadpan tone of voice, walking back over to the front door and opening it wider to wordlessly tell Giovanni to get the hell out of her apartment.

 

“Well, aren’t you going to offer me something to drink?” Giovanni raised his eyebrows and wrinkled up his forehead in mock-surprise, as if he was utterly shocked that she wasn’t happy to see him.

 

“I don’t have anything to say to you,” Adriana said, gesturing for him to walk back out the door. Giovanni’s smile dropped then, and he stared at her with something cold and hard and mean in his eyes, but Adriana didn’t look away. She couldn’t show any sign of weakness, not now.

 

“That’s not very hospitable.” Giovanni stepped a little closer to Adriana. She inhaled deeply, steeling herself as well as she could as Giovanni approached her, stopping only a few inches away from her. “You know, without me, you probably couldn’t even afford this shitty place.”

 

“I think you mean without Paolo,” Adriana said pointedly. “But he’s gone now, and I don’t work for you anymore. So get out.”

 

“Hmm.” Giovanni clicked his tongue from behind his teeth in impatience. “You’re being very rude to me. I’ll have to think of a way to reprimand you.”

 

“Get. The. Hell. Out,” Adriana said again, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to show Giovanni that she wasn’t afraid of him.

 

“Or what?” Giovanni was grinning again, his eyes alight with dangerous glee, like he was literally getting off on torturing her this way. “What are you going to do, Adriana?”

 

“I’ll call the cops,” Adriana replied on reflex, saying the first strategy that popped into her mind.

 

But that clearly didn’t impress Giovanni or freak him out the way she’d hoped, as he just laughed and clapped his hands together, like she’d just told the most hilarious joke he’d ever heard. “That’s good. That’s really good. You know, Adriana, I figured that my dad was a complicated man. I thought he was interested in you for more than just your good looks. But I guess I was wrong. You’re not very smart, are you?”

 

Adriana didn’t say anything, staring at him with as much venom as she could muster.

 

“Why don’t you come back to the compound? If you’re worried about my mother, don’t be. I can deal with her,” Giovanni said, stepping even closer to Adriana until she felt his hot, sickly breath attack her skin.

 

Adriana cringed backward, colliding with the wall behind her in an attempt to put distance between their bodies. “You’re pathetic,” she spat out as Giovanni laughed at her again.

 

“Oh, yeah? Tell me why that is.”

 

“You think I’m going to go with you just because you’re the big boss now? You think you’re untouchable, don’t you?” she said to him, feeling hysteria start to grip at her heart, making her say things she shouldn’t. Be smart, she told herself, fighting back the wave of bile that rose up through her throat. Be smart about this. Don’t let him win just because he scares you. You have to give Ryder a chance to get the information from Mrs. Rainieri.

 

“I am untouchable though,” Giovanni said, slowly walking over until he was standing over Adriana, who was boxed in with nowhere to go. She couldn’t run from him, and she couldn’t scream for help, either. In this neighborhood, nobody was likely to come to her rescue. It was just her dad, who was probably half-asleep with music blaring out of his headphones. Besides, Adriana wouldn’t want to get him involved anyway. With his weak heart, there was only so much that he could do. “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.”

 

The desire to tell him what was really happening was so intense that Adriana had to bite the inside of her lip to keep herself from spilling every last detail about her plan with Ryder. No. You have to be strong. For both of you. For Paolo.

 

She thought about reaching into her pocket to tell Ryder that Giovanni was harassing her and making her feel unsafe. She knew that he would drop everything and run to her side to protect her, but even if she did manage to grab her phone and make a call or text before Giovanni could stop her, that would just endanger the plan with Mama Rainieri.

 

This was their one shot, the one opportunity they had to get Mrs. Rainieri to let her guard down and confess some of her crimes on tape so that they could use the evidence against her. Adriana couldn’t risk that, even if Giovanni were now squatting down next to her, reaching out to rub her leg and making her want to throw up just from the disgusting way he smirked at her.

 

“You’re going to come with me,” Giovanni said, reaching forward to cup the side of her face and move some of her hair out of the way. Adriana felt like retching right there in his lap, but she held herself back, glaring at him with all of the anger in her body just so he would know how much she hated him. “I don’t want to fuck you here in this heap of shit. Come back to the compound with me, and we’ll see about your new place in the Rainieri family business.”

 

“Fuck you,” Adriana spat out, shrinking back further against the wall and pushing Giovanni’s hands away.

 

His smirk dropped, replaced by a scowl, as he reached into his pocket to pull out a gun. Adriana held herself back from gasping in fear as Giovanni pressed the end of the gun against her head, the cold metal making all of her body freeze like she’d already been shot.

 

“Oh, you’re going to fuck me, all right.” Giovanni shoved the gun harder against her head until she skidded across the floor away from him. “Oh, yeah, run. Make it fun for me. I like a little entertainment before I fuck the life out of you.”

 

“Y-you’re a sick piece of shit,” Adriana stuttered out, crawling across the floor towards the front door, hoping against hope that someone would see her in distress and come help her. “I’ll scream, you know. My dad’s in the house. He’ll hear me and come fuck you up.”

 

“No, he won’t,” Giovanni said with confidence, grabbing the back of Adriana’s shirt and dragging her back into the house before slapping her on the side of her face. “I’ll shoot him if he even so much as walks out here. Trust me. I have a lot of experience killing, baby doll, and your dad won’t faze me even a little bit.”

 

Adriana swallowed to clear the huge lump in her throat, nodding to herself as she considered her options. Screaming wasn’t a viable choice, nor was trying to make a break for it by dashing to the street. Now that she told Giovanni that her father was in the house, he could just go and shoot her dad the second she tried to resist. Fuck, Adriana thought as she realized the severity of her situation. She was stuck.

 

“Now get up,” Giovanni said. “We’re going to the compound.”

 

Adriana forced herself to move, straightening up and following Giovanni out of the apartment into his car, every cell of her body screaming in protest the entire time. Giovanni nudged at her until she climbed up into the passenger seat before walking around the side of the car to jump into the driver’s side.

 

“Now, tell me, what’s your favorite kind of wine? I need to know how to make you loosen up,” Giovanni said as he put the car into drive and pulled away from Adriana’s apartment complex.

 

“Fuck you,” Adriana muttered, turning to stare out the window, fighting off tears as she took in the sight of the blue skies around her. What was going to happen to her? Was Giovanni going to keep her as a sex slave, permanently tied up at the compound? Or was he going to kill her after using her once, discarding her so that his mother wouldn’t get mad? Either way, this was the end of her life. She’d rather die than let Giovanni touch her.

 

But what about Dad? Adriana wondered, panic surging up inside of her as she thought of her father. Giovanni was definitely the type of vindictive piece of shit to take it out on Adriana’s father if she posed even the slightest bit of a problem to him. Even if Adriana managed to get herself killed before Giovanni could rape her that didn’t mean that her dad wouldn’t still be in danger. Goddammit. Goddammit, goddammit, fuck it all to hell!

 

“Be nice to me,” Giovanni said, reaching over to smack Adriana around the side of her head, almost making her collide into the window beside her. “Or I’ll have to find ways to punish you. You know we’ve got guys posted at your dad’s house. I can make this incredibly painful for you if you don’t listen to me.”

 

It took every ounce of strength in Adriana’s body not to spit in Giovanni’s perfectly smug little face. She held herself back, clenching her hands into fists underneath the seat just to hold on. Giovanni was serious about this. He wasn’t going to let this go after fucking her once. He was going to control her until she died, and once that happened, he’d probably give the kill order to the men sent over to her apartment, ready to murder her dad at any second.

 

That settles it, then, Adriana realized, a wave of calm washing over her as she settled on a solution. She’d have to find a way out of this without getting killed and wrest Giovanni’s power away. But how?