Chapter5
1080 Words
Dominic POV
I had been up since five, not because I couldn’t sleep, I rarely had trouble with that but because a meeting with Lorenzo and Rafaele had taken longer than it should have.
We had been going back and forth over the Marini territory issue for the past two hours and it had finally come to an end.
Lorenzo had pointed out certain loopholes regarding their arrangement and I let him finish before I responded.
“Fix it.” I said.
He looked at me, thinking for a second.
“There are a few ways we could go about this, I was thinking—”
“Lorenzo.”
“Yeah?”
“Fix it.”
He closed his folder and stood up. “Understood.”
Rafaele, who had been quiet through most of the meeting, spoke up then.
“The Marini’s won’t take it well, they’ll see it as a provocation.”
“Good.” I said, standing and buttoning my jacket. “Let them.”
They turned to leave and just then my phone buzzed on the desk.
I picked it up on the second ring.
“Hello brother.”
He always sounded so carefree, most times I envied him for it.
“You’re up early.”
“What do you want Alessio?”
“How is Palermo?”
Sneaky bastard, answering my question with another. I shook my head but answered anyway.
“Fine.”
He was quiet for a second and I already knew what was coming.
“That’s it? Fine? Dominic, you could be standing in the middle of a burning building and you’d still say fine.”
“Is there a reason you called Alessio?” I took a deep breath, trying to keep my irritation under control.
“There’s always a reason,” he said. “I’m just getting there at my own pace because, unlike some people, I actually enjoy having a conversation.”
“Then get to it.”
He laughed but there was an edge to his voice now, relaxed but more focused.
“The Moretti situation.” He started
“Rafaele told me what happened. Have you figured out what you’ll do with the girl yet?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Does grandfather know about her?”
“No,” I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing he was going to make a fuss when he found out.
“Call me when you do,” Alessio said quietly, and I could hear the smile in his voice even through the phone, which I found irritating.
“Don’t wait by the phone,” I said and ended the call.
I set the phone down and looked at it for a second longer than necessary before standing and making my way to the dining room.
While on my second coffee and halfway through the morning’s reports, she walked in.
I knew exactly where she stood and how long she’d been standing there without even looking up, and for some reason that bothered me.
I reached for my coffee, took a sip, kept my eyes on the page even though I’d stopped reading the moment she walked in.
She stopped at the chair across from me and didn’t sit.
She was testing my patience, and she knew it, but I was amused, curious to see how long she’d hold out.
Eventually she lowered herself into the chair, hands folded in front of her, eyes locked on mine without a single flicker of hesitation.
I’ll admit she has courage. It had been a while since someone looked at me without flinching.
The room sat in silence for a while before the questions started, and I gave her nothing.
Most people would have crumbled under that kind of silence. She just got angrier.
When she told me her father had sold her, I was surprised, but I covered it quickly. Each word landed heavy, like something she’d been carrying and had finally decided to set down, and it only thickened the air between us.
Still watching her, I gave her what she needed to know, and when she asked what that made her to me, I let the question sit for a moment longer than I should have before answering.
I was still deciding, and that part was true.
What was also true, and what I had absolutely no intention of accepting, was that I had been watching her since she walked through that door in a way that had nothing to do with assessment and everything to do with something I couldn’t name.
She seemed to take it all in without issues, which surprised me, though I should have known better.
She picked up her fork, looking at her plate, while I went back to the reports.
Then I heard the chair scrape against the floor and looked up to find her running toward the door.
I set my papers down, more curious than concerned about what exactly she thought she could do.
Before I could say anything, one of my guards cut her off before she made it halfway, another closed in from the side, and she fought them.
Small as she was, she gave them hell, kicking, twisting, refusing to make it easy.
I stood slowly, buttoned my jacket and crossed the room until she had to tilt her head back to look at my face.
Her jaw was clenched tightly, chest heaving and eyes burning with a fury that made it hard to look anywhere else.
“I was wondering how long it would take.”
“f**k you!” She spat the words at me, and then spat in my face.
I held her gaze a moment longer, nodded slowly, and chuckled as I wiped it away.
“Take her back to her room,” I said to the guard, and turned to walk back down the hall.
Rafaele was waiting outside my office, stoic as ever.
“The girl—” he started.
“Not now Rafaele,” I said without stopping, and walked past him into my office, closing the door behind me.
I stood in the quiet for a moment, then sat down behind my desk and pulled a blank document from the drawer.
No one needed to know. At least not yet.
“Valentina Moretti.” I whispered into the quiet of my office.
By the time I was done with her, she would be begging me to let her go.
- Writer
