Unknown: Actions have consequences, Amanda.
A shiver of fear lanced my heart.
The next message came in quickly on the heels of the first.
Unknown: PS, I can’t wait to see how you take your punishment.
I closed the screen and sat up straight. The fuzzy feeling in my head wasn’t strong enough to erase the obvious. My panties were damp.
“Oh, hell no,” I growled to myself. “You do not like this. It isn’t a book.”
Rising on shaking legs, I hurried to the front door and double-checked the locks. There would be no break-in tonight. Just for good measure, I placed a barstool against the door.
“There!”
Looking at it, I couldn’t help the manic laugh that clawed out my throat. What the hell was that piece of decorative metal going to do?
I pushed it to the side and went for the couch. Using my overly tired muscles, I heaved the thing across the open-concept and butted it against the door. I would hate myself in the morning on my rush to work, but for tonight there would be ample warning if anyone tried to enter the condo.
Just to be safe, I tucked myself on the cushions and added my weight to the barrier. This way, I would hear a disturbance and be able to call the police.
Or be bait waiting for some deranged soul to walk in on. With that unhappy thought, I shut off the light and closed my eyes. I strained to listen, hearing nothing but silence. That whisper of energy was all in my head.
Chapter 3 – Vincenzo
Fiore Mio, tu seimiserabile….
Squatting before her, I reached out. It was as if my hand wasn’t controlled by my own mind. It was that damned scent. Exotic florals. Moonlight and jasmine. Earthy.Her.I inhaled deeply, grounding myself to the reality that she was real. And that she was right in front of me. The time wasn’t right for me to come back, and yet, here I was, brushing the hair off her face.
I fucked up tonight.
In a moment of desperation, I’d tried to warn her. Typical Amanda, she didn’t listen. Now I had to fix the mess before something terrible happened, like a judge ordering me back behind bars—this time for life.
If that happened, I could kiss my plan for revenge goodbye.
Two years….
That was how long it took to build myself an empire in the dark. To arrange the pieces on the chessboard in a precise order that my nemesis would never see coming.
And tonight, I reached out, broke the veil, and nearly shattered my carefully laid plans.
There was nothing else to do but come and fix the rash act. Getting into her building was easy, picking the lock was tedious, but pushing into her apartment? Well…that was interesting. It was a wonder she hadn’t woken when I moved the couch to open the door.
The little troublemaker had barricaded herself in her home.
I was almost proud of her, if I wasn’t equally annoyed.
It wasn’t the challenge of breaking and entering, though. It was that she’d slept through it. She didn’t sense the danger. She had no idea a monster loomed over her. She was too exhausted, plus that worrisome concoction kept her comatose.
“What are you doing to yourself?” I growled softly.
The longer I watched, the more I saw. Being this close, the truth was painfully obvious. Cavolo! She looked haggard. Miserable. This sweet girl was utterly miserable.
It frustrated me to no end that I needed to be a helpless observer. My hands were tied. This was New York, not Boston. I was here as a guest. The kings of the city would string me up and feed pieces of me to their dogs if I stepped a toe out of line.
Those same rulers of the underworld were also good for business. I would need them when it was time to strike. Archibald Loring had powerful friends. To defeat him, mine had to be equally fearsome. His reign of terror was coming to an end, and the fucker didn’t even see it coming.
If only I didn’t have a weakness, an enchantress who tempted me to fuck up and risk everything for the smallest of infractions.
