And while I sit, I plan how I’ll punish her when I find her, before I truss her up and drag her back to Tuscany. My pretty, willful fiancée will learn that she hasn’t even begun her punishment for the betrayal she inflicted on my family. She’s changed the entire course of my life with her deception.
No more.
We’ll start with a good, long spanking. I don’t know if she’s ever been spanked before. A part of me hopes she hasn’t. I’d like the novelty of it all to be on my terms.
I adjust myself, hard from the image I conjure of her over my lap, squirming and begging for mercy.
Tears don’t sway me, or mournful pleas.
Guests begin to dwindle until the only people left are my immediate family and Marialena’s best friend, redheaded Sassy.
“Hey, Tavi,” Sassy says, sitting down beside me.
“Hey.” I take another sip of my drink.
“You waiting on something?”
“Yep.”
When I don’t offer more details, she rolls her eyes. “Like pulling goddamn teeth,” she mutters, before she says in a louder voice, “Who are you waiting for, Ottavio?”
I place my cup down on the table. “My betrothed, Sassy.”
“Ooh,” she mutters, pursing her lips. “Touchy, aren’t we?”
I grunt under my breath. “Have you seen her?”
Sassy smirks at me and examines her fingers. Goddammit, we need more brothers in this family. This girl needs a firm hand just like they all fucking do. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. What do I get if I tell you?”
“The chance to come back here?”
Sassy blows out a breath and rolls her eyes. “You can’t kick me out of here, Tavi, you know that.”
“Wanna test that theory?”
She holds my gaze.
“Fine,” I mutter. “What do you want?”
“I want Marialena to go with me to Tuscany on spring break.”
I roll my eyes and blow out a breath, as if she’s asking a lot. Romeo already told me he’d allow it. I think he feels bad he nearly exiled Marialena in a fit of rage recently. Got a bit of a hot temper.
“You know that’s Romeo’s call, not mine.”
She shakes her head. “Now, Tavi, I’ve been here long enough I’m practically a member of this family.”
True.
“And you know as well as I do that Romeo might call the shots, but you are the Underboss. You’re his right hand man. You ask him to let us go and he’ll let her. Guaranteed.”
I pretend to think this over. “Fine, I’ll talk to him, but I want you to tell me where Elise is, and you owe me another favor, too.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know, when I need it.”
She rolls her eyes. Sassy alright. “Okay, fine. Deal. I’ll let it go only because I know you’re getting married so the terms won’t involve sexual favors.”
As if the fact that any of us were getting married would impact that at all. My father had a fucking harem.
Leaning closer to me, Sassy lowers her voice. “I’d check the coat room if I were you.”
The coat room. What’s she doing in the fucking coat room?
Standing, Sassy beckons to Marialena, and the two of them head out.
I polish off my drink and slide it onto a nearby tray to be taken to the kitchen. I’m grateful I wore soft-soled shoes today, Italian leather. They make no noise when I head to the coat room, adjacent to where I am now.
The guards at either exit watch me, but I signal for them to stay.
Not far from the reception room, between the Great Hall and the main entrance, lies the small coat room. We hid there when we were younger, a favorite place for hide-and-seek, but we took cover when my father was on a rampage as well. I don’t know why he never sought us in the coat room, but it was the one place he never looked.
The house is usually bustling with servants, family, and guests, but it’s quieter now that evening’s fallen.
With the Great Hall at my back, I walk past the sun room with its large, arched windows now darkened after sunset. The rocking chairs strewn with quilts sit idle in shadows as I make my way to the small coat room adjacent to the main entrance.
During parties it’s a forest of jackets, furs, and leather in here but only a few coats remain right now, stored during the warmer months until the colder weather returns. It’s old-fashioned to have one of these, but it’s useful. Guests have a harder time concealing weapons when they’re required to check their coats.
I don’t see Elise at first, but I doubt that Sassy’s bluffing. She might be a tease and sarcastic as fuck, but I’ve never known her to be a liar. Quietly, I glance around the small, darkened room.
I see her shoes before I see her. In the far corner of the room, three heavy woolen coats conceal her, but the toes give her away. They’re pointed inward as if she’s grown tired or relaxed instead of sitting upright and watchful. She hasn’t heard me, then, or she’s fallen asleep.