Page 19 of Jealous Vows

With my emotions and purpose in check, I watch with detached amusement as Sienna makes the purchase and orders the items to the car.She even leaves me in the dust as she exits the shop, but she waits like a pampered princess for me to open her door.

I join her in the backseat.She offers me my card.I grab her wrist to steady her hand and wait until she meets my eyes before I speak.

“Keep it.Make sure your uncle knows I took good care of you.”

I note the slow death of her triumph as the meaning of my words sinks in, but I struggle to find the same level of satisfaction as before.

Now she believes I helped her solely because I wish to flatter her uncle.

I guide her hand to her lap and lean back.She doesn’t say a word as we drive back to the hotel.Instead of sending her up alone again, I employ a bellhop to help her lug her new items to her room, and after quick instructions, I exit the hotel without a backward glance.

After checking in with Alan and catching up on a bit of work, I head back to the hotel and settle in one of the rooms beside Sienna’s.

Long after I’m certain she’s gone to sleep, I sneak into her room and creep up to the bed in the darkness.

Even before I cross the room, a sense of wrongness twists my insides, so when I realize pillows create the shape on the bed instead of a sleeping body, dread forms in my gut.I check the couch and bathroom but find no trace of my little doll.

Anger festers in my chest.She must have snuck out, but to where?I stalk around the bed to check the window and nearly trip on the desk chair.

Sienna lies scrunched underneath the desk with her back against the wall and a blanket wrapped tight around her.

I stare in disbelief, certain my mind is playing tricks on me, but even after glancing back and forth between the big, soft, comfortable mattress and her tiny, awkward choice on the floor, she still remains asleep under the desk.I squat and weave my arm through the rungs of the chair toward her face.When her breath warms the back of my fingers, undeniable relief pours through me.

I retrieve my arm and sit back on my heels for a moment.The situation is so bizarre I’m not sure how to process it.

Is she simply hiding from me or is there more at play than I realize?

She did say José had been chasing her for two years, but I figured she’d succeeded because she was still under her father’s protection.No man in the mafia worth his honor would abandon his daughter to fight day and night against a gang of bikers.

This must just be her coping mechanism for being in a strange place.After all the travel and stress of the day, she must not have felt safe out in the open.

I bury the sympathy sneaking into my chest and lean on my need for revenge.

Her father may be a piece of shit, but her uncle wants her at his wedding.

She’s pathetic for sleeping on the floor under the desk.I sneer and stalk to the door but look over my shoulder at the room.

Her pillow set up looks well practiced.I didn’t realize it was fake until I was close enough to see there was no rising and falling of a chest.

Doubt bubbles along the edges of my mind, but I grit my teeth and slip into the hall.

Sienna Luciano will not deter me from my revenge.Nothing will stop me from destroying her.

Nothing.

Chapter 7

Sienna Luciano

I pace from the windowto the full-length mirror in my hotel room, unable to settle but also hesitant to leave early.

Romeo said he’d have a separate car sent to pick me up since he had other duties to attend before the wedding ceremony, but now I wish I had gotten his phone number.I could have used the hotel line to call him.

Even though the invitation requested I be part of the bridal party, my stepmother hasn’t forwarded me any other information and I figured, at the very least, Romeo would know when Valentina wants me to arrive.

I don’t trust him, but he’s my only way to get to the venue.My forty dollars won’t go far in a taxi, and I won’t dare risk ruining my dress by walking.

I swear I catch a faint whiff of cigarettes and cologne lingering in the air every time I pass the desk, but I shove the smell away as fanciful thinking.I often have dreams of shadows looming over me, so of course my brain insists Romeo knelt beside me last night.He couldn’t have visited me.I locked the door.