“Listen to me very closely,” I say with pursed lips in a dangerous whisper, and her eyes focus on me, staring me down in disgust. An equal feeling.
“You will do what I say, when I say, and how I say,” I say threateningly. “You better be careful what comes out of your filthy little mouth, because there are things I can dowithyou andtoyou that will destroy you in a way that you will beg me on your knees to kill you.”
With it, I let her go and push myself off her by sliding with my knee down over her clit to make it extra painful for her.
She lies on the bed, gasping for air. And I cannot say what it is in her eyes, but there is a flicker in them. Probably from the pain.
“Make yourself ready to escape,” I say before I leave.
“What do you mean by that?” she calls after me, pushing herself into a sitting position. Interestingly enough, her voice is quite unbothered, and I cannot help the growing suspicion that she might be a very good actress after all.
I stop, turn, and say, “You will escape here, you will run to Giuseppe, beg him for help, and then we’ll see what happens.”
“So fast?” she asks.
“Of course, so fast, you look exactly like what he needs to believe you. Oh, and if you try to game me, please be good. Because I will be coming after you, and I won’t stop until you take your very last breath.”
With that, I am gone. In me, the dire need to either murder or spank the life out of someone with a geared flogger until they bleed.
When I come back downstairs, Kat is gone, and so is the body. It would be my chance to vanish the girl without a trace, but I would never break Kat’s trust.
I open a bottle of Primitivo and sit on one of the leather sofas with my glass, reconciling what happened.
Suddenly, there is a loud banging noise upstairs, followed by several thuds, as if a shelf were thrown over.
I roll my eyes, get up, draw my gun, and walk upstairs, gun first. I open the door to her room, but she’s not there, so she wandered.
I check every room, one by one. The first floor is all guest rooms and a study that I almost never use.
I enter, and there is a shelf with books fallen off it and an open window with flying curtains.
“Nice try for a distraction,” I whisper to myself, only to realise I massively underestimated her.
A pole hits me in my legs from behind, and before I can turn, I fall. Pushed. The gun slips from my hand and falls to the ground. She steps on my hand with her shoes and crushes my fingers forcefully with them as she picks the gun up, pointing it at me.
“Too bad I’m not a killer,” she says, before she kicks me in the face. Infinite rage burns through me, but my senses are indistinct.
“Ti scanno,” I whisper as she searches my pocket and takes my phone. “I am going to find you, and when I do, I will slaughter you.”
“But I am merely doing what you told me to do. Really, you should be clearer in your orders,” she says carelessly, and with that, she is gone.
Never, in my entire life, did I meet someone who dared to touch me and get that far, except her, and I know it has all been an act. An act to get to me. An act to betray me. An act to find out where I am and what I know. She is his spy. She is, after all, Antonio’s daughter. Was. Because I am going to murder her now.
7
SOPHIE
PLAYLIST: AKA’S WHITE WOLF – AMÉLIE FARREN
Islip out of the house, my heart racing and beating up into my chest. I still can’t believe what I just did. It was probably the stupidest idea ever, but it was also stupidly brilliant. Because I now have a phone and a gun—well, and also, Rosalia coming after me.
But if she does hunt me down, I might be able to convince that Guiseppe character to kill her for me. I will tell him everything they told me to do, and it’ll hopefully be enough for him to act on it.
I thought about running away, trying to hide. But I am a realist. And right now, I am in Sicily. With no money. Not speaking the language. And since Kat has found me before, she will most likely find me again. There is no running from them, unless I run into the arms of a mob boss. But he is my only chance right now.
The question is, how do I find out where he is before Kat finds me via Rosalia’s phone? They said he has a Masseria, a villa somewhere, but how can I find someone who probably doesn’t want to be found?
And then Luisa.
