LORIK
Not even the devil himself had the power to stop me from finding her, and if that meant facing her father and two brothers, then so fucking be it. They were the only people who could help me, since I didn’t even know where to start, or what to start with. All I knew was Karina was with Enzio, and something told me she was about to become the center point of the war that had been raging between the two families for years.
I stopped in front of the security gates of their house with screeching tires and jumped out of my truck. I kept on pushing that goddamn buzzer, sure it was going to explode any second.
“Easy on the buzzer, there.” A voice came through the intercom, and I wasn’t sure whether it was Dante or Antonio.
“This is Detective…” I paused, thinking I was already approaching this wrong. “This is Lorik Stone, and I need to talk to you.”
“You’re the detective who came to our restaurant today.”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“What can we do for you, Detective?”
Fuck. There’s no time for this. “Listen, Dante?” I took a chance at guessing.
“Yeah.”
“This is about your sister, so please just open the fucking gates so I can come in.”
“Karina? Is she with you?”
“Goddammit, Dante. We don’t have time.”
“Where is Karina, Detective?”
I roughed my hands through my hair, feeling like I could pull it out of my goddamn skull.
“That’s why I’m here, for Christ’s sake.”
There was a long pause, and the gates finally creaked open. I didn’t bother getting back into my truck and weaseled myself through the gates as soon as the gap was big enough. My feet were unable to carry me fast enough as I ran down the long-ass driveway. Seriously? Who the fuck needed such a long driveway? It was like having your own scenic route on your way out of your goddamn estate. By the time you’d reached the gates, you’d probably forgotten where the fuck you were going in the first place.
I finally reached the house and didn’t bother admiring the huge building in front of me. I didn’t care that this house was one of the most immaculate, extravagant buildings in the city. I couldn’t care less about how the house represented some fucking Italian era.
As I rushed up the stairs, Dante came storming out.
“Where the fuck is my sister?”
I hunched over and placed my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. “Enzio. He took her.”
Dante leaped forward and grabbed me by the collar, his eyes shooting fiery daggers right at my forehead. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I told you. Enzio took her. That’s why I’m here.”
“What do you mean, he took her?”
I jerked his hands away from my collar. “Just what I said. We were in front of my apartment, and he appeared out of fucking nowhere, shoved her into the back of a car, and left.”
Dante stepped back. “What was she doing with you in front of your apartment?”
I kept my eyes on him, knowing all too well I was about to fucking throw myself to the wolves. Yeah, I totally went there.
“She was with me.”
His dark eyebrows drew together. “Doing what?”
Silence. The heaviest goddamn silence surrounded us, and the second Dante realized my not replying was actually his answer, he dropped the longest string of f-bombs I’d heard in a while.
“Goddammit!” He crouched with his elbows on his knees, his fists clasped in front of his face.
“Listen, Dante, I know this thing between your sister and me is complicated, but right now we have much more important shit to deal with, like where the fuck Enzio has taken her.”
“Fuck!” He got back up and started pacing. “Did he say anything?”
“Just that she belongs to him, and he already claimed her four years ago.”
“And then he kidnapped her?”
“Yes, well…no. I don’t know.”
Dante stopped pacing and glared at me. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“She was scared of him. I could see it. But he whispered something to her, and after that, she told me she wanted to go with him, and then she did.”
The front door opened, and Dante and I looked at the door when Antonio came out.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.
Dante glanced at me then back at Antonio. “It’s Karina.”
Antonio stiffened. “What about her?”
“Enzio took her, and we have no idea where he’s taken her.”
Antonio charged toward us with pure rage in his eyes. “What the fuck do you mean, he took her?”
I stepped in next to Dante. “She was with me when it happened.”
He turned his murderous glare to me. “And you let him?”
“Not exactly. She went with him.”
“Freely?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. But like I told your brother, he whispered something to her, and whatever he told her, it convinced her to go with him without a fight.”
Antonio’s eyes went wide, his face pale. “Do you know what he told her?”
“No, but whatever it was, it was enough to get her into the back of that car with him.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, and the expression on his face was like he just deciphered the entire Book of Revelation. He looked at Dante. “He’s blackmailing her.”
Dante rubbed the back of his neck. “The tape?”
Antonio nodded, and I was a second away from dishing out an ass beating if someone didn’t tell me what the fuck was going on.
“Gentlemen, mobsters, or whatever the fuck you like to call yourselves. Mind enlightening me?”
Two pairs of dark eyes glared my way. If I were any other man, I probably would have shrunk to a miniature of pathetic masculinity, but I wasn’t. I was a man who would turn this goddamn earth upside down to find her. I’d gladly take on the deepest pits of hell if it meant finding her as soon as fucking possible. But I saw the Valenti brothers hesitate. They didn’t trust me. But that was just too fucking bad. “Look, I don’t care if you’re hiding weapons of mass destruction in your goddamn back yard, but I will kick both your asses if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on and what tape you’re talking about…right fucking now!”
Antonio took an intimidating step forward. “Why don’t you tell us why you’re so goddamn concerned about her?”
I stepped closer to him, figuring if I had to punch him in the goddamn face to get my point across, I would do it. “Listen to me. Whatever is happening between me and your sister is none of your goddamn business. Now, either you help me find her, or I will do it myself.”
An epic stare-off between two testosterone-laden alphas commenced. We glared at each other as if whoever was stronger would stare the other one to death by turning him into fucking ash.
“Okay.” Dante placed his hand on Antonio’s shoulder, urging him to back off. “We need to figure out what the hell Enzio’s deal is, and finding Karina is our number one priority right now. You two can kill each other later.” Dante turned toward me. “I think you need to come in and sit down.”
Oh, fuck me sideways.
***
KARINA
A part of me always knew it was only a matter of time before my mistake would come back to haunt me. I’d had sleepless nights over what happened between me and Enzio four years ago. Crying myself to sleep became part of my nighttime routine for months after that night. Eventually, it got easier, or I just got better at suppressing the pain and compartmentalizing the memories. But now, after watching that tape, all the pain came rushing back as the memories resurfaced. The only difference was back then all my pain was directed at Enzio because of the way he hurt me, the way he broke my heart. Now my pain was consuming me because I knew it was my own damn fault for being here in the middle of this mess. It was because of a naïve mistake I’d made that I was currently staring at the man I hated most.
“Something on your mind, little lamb?” He leaned back casually in his chair and unbuttoned his suit jacket.
I glanced around the room. It still looked exactly as I remembered. Beige walls, white carpet, king sized bed covered with gold and chocolate-colored sheets. The only things missing from this picture were the hundreds of candles he lit that night, which at the time I thought was the most romantic gesture. But now I knew it was simply another brick he laid down while paving his road to my ultimate humiliation.
I walked toward the window and stared outside. It was dark, but I knew somewhere in the distance was the ocean, waves crashing over a few rocks to the left, while water calmly covered the sand just a few feet away. Amazing how the ocean could seem so calm and beautiful on one side, and then if you looked just a little further, you’d see its anger, the violence and destruction as it slammed against the rocks, the sound thundering through the air.
I wrapped my arms tighter around my chest. “I should have known you’d bring me here, of all places.”
“Where else would I take you? This place holds some of my best memories.”
I snorted. “I’m sure it does.” I turned back to face him. “Wish I could say the same.”
Enzio’s leering gaze swept over my body, making me feel naked and vulnerable. He got up from his seat, stalking toward me with an inscrutable look in his eyes that sent a chill down my spine.
I took a step back. “Don’t you dare touch me, Enzio.”
“Funny, the last time we were in this room, you practically begged me not to stop touching you.”
“That was because you deceived me into thinking you actually loved me and cared for me.”
He didn’t stop his slow approach. “I did love you. I still do.”
“You are incapable of love, you sick son of a bitch.” With another step back, I felt the cold wall behind me, and I swallowed hard.
“I might not be the soft and gentle type like your Detective Stone, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”
“Feelings?” I scoffed. “Did you have feelings when you allowed me to give myself to you, when you knew it was all lie, just a trick to get a bargaining chip against me and my family?”
“That was business.”
“Exactly. I was nothing more to you than business. While you had me on that bed, naked and overwhelmed with all these new feelings, you were only taking care of fucking business, and all the while I was in love with you!” The last words stormed out of my mouth in a rush, and all I could do to keep the tears from falling was ball my fists and grab hold of the anger that festered in my gut.
I took a brave step forward, the fury now stronger than my fear, and I lifted my chin to meet his gaze.
“You knew I loved you. You knew I would have done anything to be with you, and you used that. You didn’t give a shit about me or my feelings. All you cared about was doing what Daddy told you to do. And you know what that makes you?”
I pushed myself up on my toes, wanting to be face to face with him.
“That makes you nothing more than Daddy’s little lapdog. A coward without a goddamn spine.”
It happened so fast, I didn’t even see it coming. His palm collided with my cheek, fire and heat spreading over my skin. The sting was excruciating, and my ears rang from the blow.
“That will be the last time you ever speak to me that way. As my future wife, you will treat me with fucking respect, or you will carry the consequences.”
My hand was on my burning cheek as I righted myself, biting back my tears. “Did you show me any respect the night you defiled my body?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Defiled? Oh, my dear Karina, if I remember correctly, you loved everything I did to your body that night. Would you like me to show you the little homemade video again? How your face lit up when I gave you your very first orgasm with my cock buried inside that sweet little pussy of yours?”
The wry, wolfish grin on his face made my stomach turn, and I realized it didn’t matter what I said or did. I was stuck here, and there was no way Enzio was going to let me go. For years, the war between us and the Mancusos had been raging, and I was now the ultimate weapon Enzio intended to use in destroying my family…my father. He knew I would never allow him to show that tape to anyone. It would kill my father to see images of his only daughter willingly being fucked plastered all over the world. The shame of a daughter’s betrayal by claiming to love and marrying the enemy would be a far lesser burden to carry.
And even if I was brave enough to deny him and risk my father’s humiliation, Enzio had a second bargaining chip hanging over my head. He promised to go on a murderous rampage and frame Antonio if I didn’t do as he said. So there was no other way. I had no choice, and Enzio knew it.
Enzio moved closer and reached for my hand, covering my cheek, and slowly pulled it away from my face. I hated his touch. I hated the way it felt on my skin, how the cold seeped through to my soul.
“I suggest you get comfortable. This is going to be your home for a very, very long time.” He stared down at me, and I could see all the malicious, dirty thoughts running through his mind. I sucked in a breath when he placed his palm over my stinging cheek, his touch doing nothing to soothe my pain. It only aggravated it, making it worse. I flinched, and he slipped his hand behind my neck.
“And if you’d prefer a life without pain, I strongly advise you to get used to my touch, Karina. Because I plan on touching you every day,” he forced my head forward and pressed his cold lips against my forehead, causing me to whimper in anguish, “for as long as we both shall live.”