It’s been a long twenty-four hours. I should learn to always be prepared for the unexpected, but it’s not something you ever get used to. I’ll never get used to taking someone else’s life. Even someone who deserves to die. It’s still hard. It’s something that stays with me forever, and it makes me that much more of a monster than I already am.

Matteo walks over to me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Thanks, man, I owe you. I didn’t see him.”

I just nod. He owes me dozens of times now for saving his life. If he was anyone else other than my brother, I would have made him sign a contract showing exactly how much he owed me and how he would be paying me back. But he’s my brother. He’d do the same for me.

Matteo starts to remove the bullets from his gun.

I grab his hand, annoyed that I have to explain things to him for the millionth time. “You are never safe. You are always a target. The second you let your guard down is the second that you die. As much as you annoy the fuck out of me, I’d prefer it if you wouldn’t die.”

Matteo smiles like he always does. Like this is all just one big game to him.

I sigh and shake my head. That’s why I need to be in control of the family. I have to protect him and everyone else. Enrico used to care enough to do it, but he doesn’t anymore. He turned cynical after my mother died. And Matteo doesn’t take anything seriously.

He glances down at my shirt where the blood is pouring out. “Come on, let me stitch you up anyway.”

“I can do it myself,” I say, frustrated. All I really want to do is go find Nina and fuck her senseless. I desperately need a distraction.

Matteo laughs. “No, you can’t. This is the one thing I’m better than you at. Let me stitch you up. I need you to stay alive and not die from an infection or some shit so that you can protect me in the future.”

I roll my eyes. I don’t need anyone to take care of me. Least of all my brother. But I don’t really have a choice. The bullet went through my stomach and out my back. I can deal with the stomach wound, but I can’t really do much about the wound on my back.

“Fine,” I say and follow Matteo to his section of the house.

The second I step into the hallway, I can smell Nina. The light perfume smell that still lingers from the day she applied it on her wedding day and the tiniest hint of fear but mostly sex. She smells like sex.

“What did you do?” I glare at my brother as I run into his bedroom. The whole time, I think that Enrico broke in because Matteo forgot to lock the damn door or tell security to alert us the second that Enrico returned. All I can think about is her body and soul being broken again. And I can’t handle it. Not so soon after the last time it happened.

I burst through the door to the bedroom and see Nina tied to the bed. Naked.

My cock hardens automatically at the sight of her naked body. It doesn’t do that for just any woman. I’ve walked in on countless naked women before. But there is something about Nina that my cock just can’t resist.

I quickly look around the room for my father or one of his minions, but I find no one in the room.

Nina’s eyes travel from mine to the man behind me. I glance back and see Matteo standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face.

“It looks like I forgot about someone. Oops,” Matteo says, although he doesn’t sound the least bit apologetic.

She’s been tied to the bed for at least twenty-four hours. She’s not going to be happy.

I walk over to the bed, pull out my knife, and cut the ropes that Matteo used to tie her to the bedposts.

Her hands immediately go to the tie around her mouth, undoing it, and then she spits out the panties in her mouth. “You asshole!”

It’s not entirely clear which one of us she is calling an asshole.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Why don’t you suck me off while I clean up Arlo’s wounds? And then I’ll fuck you. Was it hard and fast that you wanted or slow and sweet? I can’t really remember,” Matteo says, laughing.

I take a step back after already getting a piece of Nina’s rage and knowing better than to be near her when she’s this pissed.

She smiles sweetly as she walks toward Matteo, but I know that her feelings beneath the surface are anything but sweet. She acts like she is about to kneel in front of Matteo to suck his dick, but instead, she knees him as hard as she can in the goods.

I smile. Good girl, I think, but I don’t dare say it because I don’t want to be the next target of her wrath.

Matteo doubles over in pain.

“Let’s get one thing clear,” she says as she stands, completely naked and unashamed in front of us. “I’m done playing both of your stupid games. I understand that, for whatever stupid reason, I am in your debt for the next seven years. Something that I plan on getting changed ASAP. But, in the meantime, I will do normal things that people do to pay back a debt. I will clean for you. Do your laundry. Cook for you. Work for you. But there will be no more sex unless I say so. Got it?” Her voice is raspy after not having anything to drink for twenty-four hours, and her eyes are dark.

Her body shakes a little as she stands, and I know, despite how tough she is acting, she doesn’t even have the strength to stand much longer.

“No,” I say.

Nina turns her glare toward me. “No?”

“No,” I say again. “You are ours. We can fuck you whenever we want.”

She smirks. “You can, but you won’t. I don’t know why you two don’t rape me like your father did, but I know that you won’t.”

I take a step toward her. “Are you sure about that? I’ve fucked you before against your will.”

She pushes back. “That was because you were protecting me.”

“Was I? Or did I just tell you that to get you to trust me?”

“Enough with the games. I know that you both have some sort of truce. I’ve figured that much out. I don’t understand what it is or why, but I do know that neither of you will fuck me again without my expressed permission to do so. You can’t hurt me.”

Matteo finally pulls himself off the ground where he was writhing in pain. “You sure? Or do you just wish that it were true? Because the thought of either of us fucking you against your will like our father did is too much for you to bear?”

Her eyes dart back and forth between us. She crosses her arms over her chest. “You won’t hurt me. I’m going to go get a drink, food, and clothes, and then you two are going to start explaining. Everything.”

Nina storms past both of us and into the kitchen inside Matteo’s rooms.

We both let her go. Both amused and turned on by the fact that she thinks she has any control over us. She thinks she has everything figured out, but she doesn’t. She’s not even close to the truth. Still, she has figured out a lot of things much sooner than most women who have been enslaved to us.

Matteo and I follow her into the kitchen where she has already pulled out a bottle of water and is quickly downing it. When she finishes the bottle of water, she starts pulling everything she can find out of the small fridge. Pizza, chicken, and pasta. She opens the box with the pizza and starts eating it cold.

She looks at Matteo. “Clothes. Now,” she demands.

He smiles as he pulls his own filthy button-down shirt off his body and tosses it to her. She catches it.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you? But I haven’t showered in weeks, so I really don’t care. I’m just tired of you two staring at my boobs and ass.”

She puts the shirt on, making sure to button it all the way up so that we can no longer see any skin before she continues eating her pizza while sitting on the counter.

She opens her mouth as she looks to me, about to say something but then stops when she sees the blood. She hops down from the counter she was sitting on and hobbles over to me. Her muscles must be sore from being tied up and still weak from my father’s beatings.

Nina grabs the hem of my shirt and lifts it up, and her eyes go wide from what she sees. “You were shot,” she says calmly, still staring at my wound.

I nod. “I don’t expect much sympathy from you since you already shot me.”

She looks up at my eyes with a narrowed stare that might almost mirror concern if I didn’t know her better. She looks back at my wound. “What happened?”

I push my shirt down. “Just a normal day at work. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. It looks worse than when I shot you.”

“I’m fine.”

Nina looks over at Matteo. “Can you help him?”

He nods.

“Then, what are you waiting for? Stitch him up before he bleeds to death. I want you both alive because I still plan on killing you both myself before I finally get out of here.”

I smile a little at her sass. She doesn’t understand what power she holds. If she commanded me to do anything but rescue her, I probably would just because I couldn’t help but give in to her smart mouth.

Matteo smiles, too, as he walks to his dresser to get the supplies he needs to stitch me up. She has both of us under her spell. She could get either of us to do practically anything she wanted. If only she understood what was really at stake. That this is much bigger than her.

I take off my bloodied shirt, tossing it to the floor of the kitchen, as I take a seat on one of the backless barstools at the counter. Nina stares at me the whole time with wide eyes that I’m even still standing and not about to pass out on the floor from blood loss. The wound isn’t good, and it hurts every time I breathe, but it is far from lethal. It’s worse than the graze that Nina caused in my shoulder, but it’s nothing compared to what Nina went through with my father. She could have died. I’m merely in a lot of pain.

Matteo returns with a box of supplies and sets them on the counter next to me. I can tell he’s still concerned about my wound from the grimace he has on his face every time he looks at me, but he’s trying to act like it’s no big deal. Matteo starts pulling out the different equipment.

“Are you sure he doesn’t need to see a doctor?” Nina asks Matteo as she stares at my deep wound.

Matteo opens his mouth to answer, but I don’t want them to join sides and gang up on me. I’m not going to a doctor. I never have and never will.

“I don’t need to see a doctor. Matteo is the best. He did a good job of taking care of you, didn’t he?”

Nina nods.

“He has always been the best when it comes to medical care. He would have been a doctor if it wasn’t for being born into this messed up family.”

“You weren’t allowed to become a doctor? Why?”

Matteo brushes off her question. “I can teach you how to stitch him up. It is a good skill to learn. We could use more than one person in this family who knows the basics about medical care for as often as someone gets shot around here.”

Nina’s eyes narrow as she looks back and forth between us, obviously wanting more answers but too concerned with my wound to distract either of us by asking them. “What if I mess up?”

Matteo laughs. “Then, you get to cause my brother here a little more pain. But, since you hate him as much as you hate me, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Nina smiles a little at that while I give my brother an I’ll-kill-you look because my jealousy is going crazy right now. It makes no sense. I have no claim to Nina any more than he does. He helped me save her. She’s never been mine. But, still, my jealousy rages inside like a fire I will never be free of.

Matteo starts cleaning my wound while I memorize every freckle, every look, and every scar on Nina’s face.

“First, you want to make sure the wound is clean of debris before you stitch it up.”

Matteo pours cold, sterile liquid onto the wound, making me wince at the sudden sting.

“Shouldn’t you give him pain medicine first?” Nina asks.

Matteo chuckles. “Do you want me to give you pain medicine?”

He cocks his head to the side with a sly grin because he already knows my answer. I’ve said it countless times before.

“No.”

“My dear brother is a bit of a martyr. He thinks he deserves every bullet he takes and deserves to feel the pain. That it is the only way he will care enough to stop the bullets in the future. I vehemently disagree with him. Not even you, dickhead, deserve to feel this kind of pain,” Matteo jokes as he starts pulling debris out of the wound.

I growl when he does. This is the worst fucking part, and he’s intentionally making it worse to prove a point. He thinks he’s stronger because he knows his limits when it comes to pain. I think I’m stronger because I can take any amount of pain.

He hands the tweezers to Nina. “Your turn. Dig around and see if you can get anything else out.”

Nina takes the tweezers from him but hesitates.

“Go on. I know you want to hurt me for stealing you and fucking you. Now is your chance for a little payback.”

She places her left hand on my stomach, holding the wound open, as her big brown eyes stare into mine. I don’t know what she is feeling. She’s closed off whatever it is to me. But, when she digs the tweezers into my wound, I know.

I growl loudly at the sharp pain that feels like being shot over and over again in the stomach.

“Does that hurt?” she asks sassily even though she already knows the answer from the growls leaving my body and the stinging tears in my eyes. “Good. Now, you know how I felt when you fucked me even though it was for my own good. It still hurt like hell.” She pulls the tweezers out along with a small piece of the bullet. “I think I got everything,” she says.

Matteo studies my wound with a smirk on his face, happy that Nina is just as pissed off at me as she is with him. He takes the supplies he needs out of the box and moves to my back where he begins stitching.

He’s done this countless times, and he knows just how to move the needle so that I can barely feel the sting as he pushes it through my body. The sting of a Novocain shot would be worse than his stitches.

Nina closely studies him as he shows her how to stitch up a wound. I can’t see either of them, and Nina doesn’t say anything as she watches Matteo. It leaves me alone with no distraction.

I try to distract myself by counting the wine glasses hanging beneath the cabinet, but it’s not enough to keep me here.

I feel the adrenaline rush through my body as I’m brought back to earlier tonight. To the bullets whizzing by. Our men dropping as they were hit by bullets. Loyal men who would do anything for us. Men with wives and children dying, all to keep me and Matteo safe. I see the five men I killed. I see every single one of their faces. The terror right before they died. I feel their anger and their fear. Even the last guy who was about to put a bullet in Matteo’s heart. I shot him without a second thought at the time. I would do anything for my brother. But, every time I kill, it makes me want it more. It turns me into more of a monster. Even though I feel their pain, I want more of it. I like the control, the power.

“Arlo?” Nina says, standing in front of me.

I open my eyes that I didn’t even realize I had closed and look at the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. A woman who is strong and defiant. The only woman I’ve ever met who has a chance at actually surviving. Maybe she can put an end to this. Finally.

“I need you to sit up straight so that I can stitch up your wound on your stomach.”

I sit up so that Nina has better access to my wound. She pierces my skin with the needle, and I feel it. I don’t groan or growl or even grimace. I welcome the pain because it keeps me here instead of with the pain of earlier tonight.

She moves slowly with unpracticed fingers, allowing me to feel every pierce and pull of the skin as she closes my wound. After every stitch, she pauses and looks at me.

“Maybe you should finish, Matteo. I think he’s suffered enough.”

She begins to hand the needle to Matteo, but I grab her wrist.

“No. I need you to finish.”

She blinks a couple of times as she considers my command and then does as I wish. Every time her hand brushes against my skin, I grow hard, thinking about her naked body. About how strong she feels beneath me. How much she enjoys me in control, even when she says she doesn’t. She loves being tied up and fucked hard.

When she finally finishes, she takes a step back to look at her work. “How is that?”

I don’t look down to see how good of a job she did. I can’t think of anything other than her. And, if I do try to think about something other than her, it’s going to lead to a dark path that I can’t go down.

“I want to fuck you,” I say.

Nina chuckles a little as she puts the needle and thread back into the box. “You’re funny.”

“I’m not joking. I’ve never wanted anything more than to fuck you right now.”

Nina looks at Matteo. “As I said before, I’m not fucking either of you.”

My heart pounds in my chest, and my cock hardens at just the thought of taking her right now. Tying her up and fucking her even though she said no. I would win. I could have her and everything I’d ever wanted.

I stand up like I’m about to do just that.

“No,” Nina says without a drop of fear.

I stop. I can’t help but do what she says, and she knows it.

She doesn’t smile snarkily, like she should now that she controls me. Her face is sad. She wants to be controlled. It’s the only way to keep her obsessions at bay.

“I want to know what the fuck is going on. What games are you playing? What really happened that night that made me sign my life away to your family? What do you really do for a living? I need answers to everything. Now.”

“You won’t get answers from me. You don’t need answers. All you need to focus on is surviving so that you don’t get hurt again,” I say, staring at the scars and bruises still visible all over her body. A few I’m sure I caused myself when I raped her.

Nina crosses her arms as she glares at Matteo, like one look is going to be enough to get him to talk. But, when I look at Matteo and the softness in his eyes when he stares at Nina, I’m afraid that’s all it will take. Even though it would ruin everything and put Nina at risk even more than she already is. Something that I know Matteo doesn’t want. I’m not sure he can resist her charms anymore. Not after taking care of her this last week.

“I’ll answer your questions. My brother will, too.”

I glare at him. I’m going to kill him if he tells her anything that ends up hurting her.

“We will answer one question for every time you have sex with one of us.”

I grin. Most of the time, I hate my brother. But I’ll owe him the rest of my life for coming up with this idea.