The Devil I Hate (Devil's Knights 1)

“Have I ever broken them?”

“You just did.”

He stuck out his tongue, making a real show of him licking his finger, and it was sexy as hell. “Seems to me you liked that a lot more than I did. I don’t recall you telling me to stop.”

He was right.

Whatever.

And if we weren’t in his office, I probably would have allowed myself to get swept up in my lust for him. Around Luca, I could never think straight. He made my head fuzzy, my emotions out of control. Torn by hatred and desire, I never knew whether I should follow my body or heart.

“Please,” I shot back. “You can’t help yourself. I had a moment of weakness, and you took advantage of it.”

His top lip twitched. “You need to leave, Drea. We’ve wasted enough time with this charade.”

He was mad. Good.

“I’m so sick of the constant mind-fuck, Luca.”

“When will you see I am your future? You are my end game.” His fingers slipped beneath my shirt, digging into my hip. “I won’t stop until you give in to the madness, not until you allow your demons to play with mine.”

“Luca,” I whispered. “Just let me go. I can’t do this anymore.”

He clutched the side of my face, his lips inches from mine. “I’m never letting you go, so stop running from me. Until you do, no one is safe around you.”

I slapped his hand away from my face. “If you want someone to fuck, go pay one of your whores. I’m not interested.”

“What we have isn’t about sex.”

“What do you want? My love. Because no amount of money will ever make me love you.”

A delicious smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I don’t want your love.”

“Then what do you want from me?”

The question of the century.

I’d never understood why Luca was so possessive of me, why he needed to assert his dominance. But if I didn’t eventually follow through with the marriage, Arlo would destroy Pops, the only person other than Aiden who cared about me.

Luca rolled up his jacket sleeve, glanced at his Cartier watch, and shook his head. “Not today. Time is money, baby. Go back to Providence and get out of my city.”

Before I could respond, he shoved me out the door.

After we touched down in Hartford, Connecticut, we took a quick helicopter ride to Devil’s Creek, where we landed on the Salvatore Estate helipad. The sprawling mansion overlooked at least twenty acres of land and had three hundred and sixty-five-degree views of the bay. It reminded me of a medieval castle, large enough to have its own zip code.

We strolled across the blacktop to where my grandfather stood next to Arlo Salvatore. Both men dressed in dark suits, even at this hour. My grandfather’s face illuminated when he spotted me. I rushed over to him as Marcello handled my bags.

Pops wrapped his hand around my bicep and led me closer to the house, giving us some space from the Salvatores.

I hugged my grandfather, breathing in his Jean Patou aftershave. “Pops, what’s going on? Marcello won’t tell me anything.”

He cupped my shoulder with his hand, bending down to my height. “I need you to stay with the Salvatores.”

I stared at him in horror. “Why can’t I go back to Wellington Manor with you?”

With his back facing the Salvatores, he whispered, “I will explain everything tomorrow night over dinner.”

“Are we in danger?”

“This is a precarious situation, Alexandrea.”

“Does this have to do with Aiden?”

Pops shook his head.

We had to be careful with our words. They had eyes and ears everywhere. Men in suits, trained soldiers on the Salvatore payroll, guarded the house like a military base.

We walked toward the edge of the cliff and stood inches from where Luca had kissed me ten years ago. Arlo and Marcello were off to our left, their heads down as they whispered, probably plotting how they would torture and kill me.

I blew out a deep breath, trying to push down the nerves stirring inside me. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just do as they tell you,” he said with a pained expression on his withered face. “They won’t hurt you. I promise.”

“Do you really trust them? After what they did to Aiden?”

“No,” he muttered. “But we need to work with them.”

“I thought Luca didn’t want to marry me anymore.”

Pops sighed. “I thought so too, princess, but he’s changed his mind. And I owe the Salvatores…”

I’d never pushed him to tell me what he’d done to owe a life debt. The Salvatores had fixed something for him. That was the most I had ever gotten from Pops. He said the truth would make me an accomplice in his crimes and refused to tell me. Jail was not an option. I wasn’t letting my grandfather rot in prison when I could marry a sadistic asshole to save him from that nightmare.