“I’ll let you get back to your night.”
“So? What did you find out?” Elana asks the moment I pull my phone away from my ear.
“I told you to sit down and wait.” I brush past her, into the bedroom.
“No, you just said to sit my pretty ass down. Which I did. But then I got back up.” She leans a hip against the dresser as I pull out a clean shirt from my duffel bag.
“You still think I’m playing with you?” I step up to her, wrapping my hand around her throat, I push her against the wall. Her throat works beneath my hand as she swallows.
“Artem.”
“No, Babygirl. What do you call me?” I squeeze just enough for her to feel the pressure.
Her eyes widen, but so do her pupils.
“Why?”
“Because, I told you to.” I get closer, leaning into her, I brush my nose along her jawline, to her ear. “You’re being naughty again, and so soon after your first spanking. Tell me, Elana,what do you call me when you’ve been naughty and need your punishment?”
Her tongue runs along her bottom lip. Those plump fucking lips that I want around my cock as soon as humanly possible. Which isn’t tonight because I have to get her somewhere safer than my apartment. Janis and his little street thugs probably wouldn’t be able to find me, but if they’re tied up with the Irish, I can’t be as sure.
“Go on, say it.”
“Daddy,” she whispers and the soft tenor of her voice goes straight to my cock.
“That’s right. Daddy. Now tell Daddy what those men were looking for. What did you take that they want back?”
“Bearer Bonds.”
I take a slow breath in, keeping my grasp on her tight, though my grasp on my patience is getting a lot less stable.
“How much in bearer bonds, Elana?”
She swallows hard. Her brows knit together. There’s a long pause but then she answers, “Three million.”
“US dollars?”
She gives a little nod. “You’re hurting me.” She wraps her hands around my wrist, trying to push me away.
“How did you get three million dollars in bearer bonds?”
“Tony had them. He was going to make a deal with Janis. He had them so he could fund whatever he was going to do without having to get cash from his brothers. He said he was going to start a business on his own, away from them.”
“Did you believe him, that he was separating himself from his family?”
Tears build in her eyes. I’ve struck a nerve.
I let her go, taking a step away from her and dragging my hands through my hair.
“I didn’t know at first, about his family. And when I found out, he said he wanted nothing to do with them. That he was the outcast.” That fucker knew exactly what to say to get her on his side.
She blinks away the tears before they can fall. “I wanted to believe him, but I don’t think I ever really did, but I was too busy telling myself all sorts of lies to be able to untangle his.”
Silence falls between us. This is the most she’s said about her relationship with Tony, and I don’t want her to freeze up on me, or worse, try to run away. So, I don’t push her.
Besides, if she tells me she fell in love with him, I’m not sure I could keep my heart from jumping straight out of my chest to die a dramatic death at her feet.
“You still have them?” I ask instead.