Page 120 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

I thought I’d forgotten how.

CHAPTER 58

Frankie

I’m a prisoner.

A prisoner out in the open, walking down the Vegas Strip, dressed in a sleeveless silk Prada dress so tight and so sheer that a passerby could give me a pelvic exam.I’m well aware of what I look like in this dress, the fuck-me heels, and the crazy-heavy dangly earrings that’re pulling my earlobes down toward my shoulders and giving me a splitting headache.

Not to mention the teased hair and makeup that completes my ensemble.

But I do all this to please Niko, to distract him—at least temporarily.Because he doesn’t believe a woman’s a woman unless she’s wearing an entire face of makeup.That includes eyelashes, foundation, concealer and cheekbone highlighter, lip liner, eyeliner, contouring, powder… enough for a drag burlesque performance.

I’m Niko’s fantasy come to life today.My fake eyelashes are so thick and long that if I blink I can barely see where I’m going.The only difference between me and a street whore is that I’m not carrying a bag.

A bag would mean I have possessions, like a real human being.And Niko has made it perfectly clear that I’m no longer human in his eyes.I’m not even an animal.I had dogs when I was little, and they were treated far better than what I’ve endured in the past two weeks.

But I’m alive, and there’s been no talk of any of the MacLaines coming to harm.Niko would absolutely tell me if they had because he’d enjoy watching me fall to ruin.

Niko ranted and raved at first about the MacLaines, but when no one came looking for me, he eventually stopped.I made sure he did.I offered myself up for punishment to keep him focused onanythingother than Sweetbriar, Yosemite Ranch, and the MacLaines.

And I made sure he had all the drugs he wanted.

And that’s been my strategy, and I’ll stick to it for as long as it works.If it loses its appeal, I’ll figure out another way to keep him engaged.

Like a toddler.

Niko squeezes my hand so hard that I nearly yelp in pain.I clamp my mouth closed.He’ll see any kind of reaction as a complaint, which makes me nothing but trouble to him.I can’t be trouble.I have to make him happy because if Niko’s not happy, he’ll punish me.

I have to keep him entertained because if he’s not entertained, he’ll do far more than punish me.

All this means that if Niko ever gets bored or displeased, he’ll have no reason to keep me around.

“What the fuck are you thinking over there?”he snaps, yanking me tight to his side.“Shoes too tight on your little whore feet?”

My pulse spikes but I hide my fear, leaving a quick kiss on his cheek.“No baby.Not at all.I love them!”

“Good.You should—they cost a fucking fortune.So did that fucking dress.”

I remember when I used to find his thick Slavic accent sexy.I have no idea what I was thinking back then.Now, the accent sends shivers skittering up my spine.That accent makes me feel like puking my guts out.

“Don’t piss me off,” he adds.“You have no idea just how bad things will get if you ever cross me again.Understood?”

“Of course, baby.Understood.”

The threat isn’t even necessary.It’s just extra fun for him, because we’re in public, and he loves to see me cower in public.The real threats come in private, multiple times a day.His favorite threat—the one that gets him leaning into my face to judge my reaction—is the one where he threatens to kill me and dump my corpse in the middle of Sweetbriar’s Main Street.“That way, all your new friends will be able to see you one last time.”

I pretend that I have no idea what he’s talking about, that I haven’t made any friends in Sweetbriar, that I was only passing through.

Niko isn’t a stupid man.A stupid man would’ve gotten himself killed long before he could climb to the highest echelon of a crime syndicate.He knows I’m lying when I tell him I came back to him because I can’t live without him, that I’m madly in love with him.

He knows I came back because the jig was up.Because he found where I was hiding.Because someone beat his men to hell and back on a public street trying to defend me.He knows I ran back to him to protect others.

He’s not stupid, but he’s evil.And the truth is, he gets off on the game.The torture game.He loves forcing me to pretend that I love him, that I love to suck his cock and fuck him whenever he wants.

He loves the game more than he would ever love another human being.

I hate him.I want him dead.True, I don’t have the stomach to kill him myself.But I sure wouldn’t stand in the way of someone else taking out the trash.