It’s quiet for a long moment. I sigh and look down at my ring. “Do you feel as trapped as me?” I ask him.
He looks toward me. “I guess I do. Eivor expects information from me and I have nothing to give him. Eventually it has to end but…when?”
“And I’m married to his niece. What does he expect to happen even if you do hand him over some kind of information? Which you won’t be, but…” I shake my head. “This is all a fucking mess.”
Damian scoots closer to me and I watch as his hand moves closer to my leg before finally resting just above my knee.
“We’ll figure it out,” he insists. “I won’t let him use you.”
“But he’s using you,” I remind him. “How are we going to deal with that?”
Damian shakes his head. “I don’t know. You’ll need to let Carmine in on what’s happened. He’ll have a better idea of how we should handle things.”
I unfold my arms and brush my fingers against the back of his knuckles.
“Yeah. If we need to take Eivor down…Carmine and Soren are going to both need to know.”
Damian nods. “Rosalie should know too. I don’t think she does,” he tells me.
I squint. “You don’t think she knows what Eivor is up to?”
He shakes his head. “If she does, she’s done a good job at hiding it.”
“Well…it’s settled then. You’ll find Rosalie and clue her in, and I’ll get back to Carmine and Soren,” I say slowly.
Damian stands up from the bed and pulls something out of the pockets of his slacks. “Just in case you need it.” He hands it to me.
It’s a folded-up piece of paper. When I unfold it, I see that it’s a list of all the Fiorelli locations. Including ones that Carmine and Soren haven’t heard about.
I look up at Damian with my heart squeezing in my chest.
“Hopefully we won’t.”
14
Chapter Fourteen
Damian
Three-forty-six in the morning. Sneaking back into the Fiorelli Estate with an absolutely destroyed dress shirt is not as difficult as I expected. Mainly because everyone is knocked the fuck out. Luckily for me.
By the time I get up to my bedroom, strip my clothing off and climb into bed, I’m close to passing out myself.
Instead, I spend several minutes staring at the ceiling thinking about my night with Alessio. The intensity of it is still fresh in my mind and on my body. My shoulder bares the mark of his teeth and tongue; and I swear I can still feel that smack on my cheek. I hadn’t expected it, but it had felt better than I could have imagined.
Rough sex isn’t exactly new to me, but I hadn’t gone over to Alessio’s expecting anything other than him chewing me out.
Which, I guess he did—in his own way. The punishment he branded me with brought me more pleasure than anything I’veever felt in my life. I deserved it, but did I? Do I deserve his forgiveness and trust now after everything?
Sure, I burned the pictures, but the fact that I had found them at all showed that he couldn’t trust me. At least before.
I’m determined now to never lie to Alessio again. To never search for information that Eivor desires to destroy them.
This means I’ll need to come up with a way to get out of it. I need to get the hell out of dodge before Eivor discovers that I’m not looking for information at all.
This thought brings me enough anxiety that I don’t manage to get to sleep until almost five in the morning. Meaning I only get a few hours of sleep before I’m expected to be awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
So, I am.
