Hold You Against Me (Stripped 4)

His words are blunt, without sympathy. He might as well be made of rock for all he seems to understand grief or pain. “He deserved what happened to him.”

“Because he tried to force your sister to marry.”

And because he hurt me. That information is too private. It hurts too much to share with stone.

“There’s only one way out of the mafia,” I say, repeating words I’ve heard a hundred times. When my father whispered them to me, they were a threat. They still feel like a threat, now that I’m here again.

?

??Did you think you had escaped?” Giovanni’s tone disturbs me, detached and curious. His expression disturbs me too. He looks as if he’s inquiring about the timetable of some business takeover, something with a foregone conclusion. Something he will no doubt win.

In the face of his cold regard, tears prick my eyes. “I should have escaped. God, you helped me escape. You risked your life to help me, and now you’re the one to bring me back? Why, Gio?”

He studies me, his eyes dark and tumultuous. “That newspaper article. I couldn’t let anyone else take you.”

I won’t let him off the hook that easily. “Then why not warn me? I could have run.”

His head shakes slowly, almost regretful. “I let you go once because it was the only choice. The only thing I could do to keep you safe.”

“And I’ll be safe now?”

Violence flashes across his face. “Anyone who touches you will die. I’ll kill them myself.”

A shiver racks my body. “Then who will keep me safe from you?”

Chapter Nine

The tour ends upstairs, in my old bedroom.

Everything is exactly where I left it, down to the pink ruffles on the bed and haphazard makeup on the cream wood vanity. I wasn’t allowed to actually paint the walls, but I had four large canvases hanging that must have twenty coats of paint each.

Giovanni hasn’t spoken to me since we left the office. Now he turns to face me in the center of my room. “You’ll stay here until I can trust you. The door locks from the outside.”

I know very well that the door locks. My father had the key.

There’s one way I can leave, though.

Gio’s dark eyes flicker with amusement. “The window’s bolted shut.”

Of course he knows about that. It was the only way I could meet him in the pool house. My eyes narrow. “And what happens when we get married? Am I still going to sleep here?”

His expression is impassive. “I won’t force you to sleep with me.”

Anger rises up in me at how casually he discusses our marriage. It should be something sacred, something beautiful. Now it’s depraved. “So we’ll be husband and wife in name only.”

He takes a step toward me, then another. I’m backing up before I can stop myself, shoved flat against the door. Somehow it’s closed. We’re trapped in here together, and my breath is coming too fast.

His broad shoulders block the light, casting his face in shadows. “We’ll consummate this marriage. After that it will be your decision.”

My throat tightens. “It should always be my decision.”

He runs his hand up my arm, sending shivers over my skin. Inexplicably my nipples tighten beneath the cups of my bra. “You’re right, bella. But that isn’t the world you grew up in. You were bred for this.”

As if I’m a horse. An animal. “You don’t own me.”

“Ah, but I do.” He sounds almost sad. “No one is coming for you. Not your sister. Not your sister’s husband. Not even the owner of that club you were at would dare to touch you now.”

I shove at him, but he doesn’t move an inch. Instead my palms encounter hard-packed muscle covered in thin white fabric. “You can hold me captive, but you’ll have to use that lock forever. I’ll never stay.”