Enthralled (The Enslaved Duet 1)

The man holding me wrapped a fist in my hair and half dropped me to the ground so that he could pull me, kicking and yelling in pain, out the front door and the down the steps to a waiting black sedan.

Mama and Elena hugged each other in the door, watching as I was thrown into the back of the car and the door was slammed shut in my face. I placed my fingers against my trembling lips and then against the hot, dirty glass in a distant kiss I hoped would bring them some minute degree of comfort.

The car started with a rumble and began to roll away from the house, but still I pressed my fingers to the glass until we were well out of sight.

“What a touching sight,” a familiar voice said from beside me. I snapped around to see the long, broad length of Edward Dante Davenport lounging in the seat beside me. “Now, Cosima, are you ready to have that discussion I told you about?”

Dante lit a cigarette and placed it at the corner of his mouth as he waited for me to respond to his arcane question.

“At least open a window,” I snapped at him, unable to move beyond the image of his insolence, lounging there without a care in the world while my life had once again turned topsy-turvy.

He grinned unapologetically and clicked the button to roll down the window.

“What the hell was all that back there?” I asked, realizing that perhaps the entire bizarre scenario had been staged. “Salvatore has never raised a voice or hand to me in all my life. Why did he order me dragged out of my home by my hair?”

“Fear is a powerful too, Cosima,” he told me, a curl of white smoke rolling sensuously between his full lips.

His mouth was redder than Alexander’s, but the shape was the same.

The impulse to kiss him was shocking and disgusting, but I could feel it in my limbs like a drug.

Dante’s smile was just as slow and curling as the cigarette smoke. “You of all people should know that. Living in the underworld, you learn to take every opportunity to strike fear into the hearts of your would-be enemies.”

“I doubt ancient Signora Moretti or the Bianchi sisters are eager to start a gang to oppose your own,” I said with an eye roll.

There was something about this man, something enough like Alexander to make my spirit buzz and something enough like me to put me at ease that made me feel reckless and brave.

He chuckled and took another drag. “No, I doubt it. Sometimes you have to look closer to home for your true enemies though.”

I caught the edge of his piercing look and deflected it by pulling through my tangled hair as if it fascinated me.

He was speaking of Pearl Hall, of his ex-brother and ex-father, of things he shouldn’t know because he didn’t live there.

“Rocco has been trying to outmaneuver Salvatore for years now. If he knew about your real relationship, it would not signal good things for Tore, or for you and Seb,” he continued. “Personally, I thought the hair pulling was a nice theatrical addition.”

“You’re crazy.”

Dante shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe. You’re a product of your upbringing, as much as any of us try to hide it, and mine was crazy enough for most.”

“I don’t understand what the motivation is here. Why are you in this car talking to me, why did you come to Pearl Hall after all these years and then save me from Ashcroft at The Hunt? What am I to?” I asked.

I didn’t have a good track record with getting my questions answered, but I was alone in a car with one of the many men who seemed to be pulling the strings of my life like a master puppeteer and it wasn’t like we had anything else to discuss.

Dante stared at me for a long moment with his undeniably gorgeous obsidian eyes and then when he spoke, it was in a voice more British than he normally seemed to allow.

“Let me tell you a story. It takes place in a home that is like a castle, but it is not about a beautiful princess and her prince. Instead, it’s about a man of great power who seduced a woman into marriage with false promises and then ruled like a tyrant over her for the entirety of her life. The only joy she ever had was her two sons, two boys she made a promise to herself would never turn out like their cruel father.

“She enlisted the help of her childhood best friend, a male influence to teach them about the difference between right and wrong, an important lesson they wouldn’t learn in the world of power their father ruled from.

“For a time, everything was bearable and then, the woman discovered an awful secret that changed her entire world. She vowed to take the boys and runaway with the aid of her friend. Only, her husband found out and before she could run, he killed her.”