“I don’t, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter? Leo, he could send his men here to kill you and take me, men who are in Italy that can get here in no time.”
“Let them come. They won’t find you.”
“What? How? I’m right here.”
“Not for long. I’m taking you somewhere else. Somewhere safe. I just needed to make sure the video showed you were here.”
“So when he sends his men and they don’t find me, they’ll have to keep you alive to tell them where I am.”
I smirked. “Then he’ll have to come down here with Lina and my brother.”
“Then what?”
I didn’t answer. Wouldn’t. She’d just have to wait and see for herself.
“Leo, do you still love my sister?”
That was a plea, not a question. She wanted to appeal to my feelings for Lina to spare the guilty sister. Like love had anything to do with punishment. Parents punished their beloved children as much as enemies punished each other.
“Don’t hurt her. I’m begging you, Leo, don’t hurt her.” She broke, repeating her pleas like a mantra.
I didn’t like it when she begged. I didn’t want to see her break. The things we’d lost to people who didn’t deserve us hurt, and her humiliation reflected mine. My arms folded around her shoulders and brought her to my chest in a gentle embrace.
She didn’t reject my touch, and her tears stained me. With a frown, she lifted her head, slowly, reluctantly, and her eyes roamed my face. Then, without introduction, they settled on my lips as she shrugged off the jacket.
I frowned back at her, noticing the rush in her breath, and the allure of her naked breasts while they heaved with it. Without taking her gaze off my lips, she parted hers and touched mine.
For a split-second, raw, animalistic desire of a man being kissed by a beautiful, naked woman, fogged my mind. But it didn’t take long for me to snap out of it. I pulled her by the hair and got her off my mouth. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Punish her through me,” she whispered, “and let me punish Dom through you.”
Do it. Do it. Fucking Nicky will be like fucking Lina, Dom, Enzio and Tino in the ass. Do it. They’ll never recover from it. Do it.
“No. No. Fuck no.”
“Are you rejecting me?”
“No, Nicky. I’m saving you.”
“That’s not your job.”
“Well, someone has to do it. You gotta stop shattering yourself to pieces every time to protect her. Someone has to start protectingyou.”
Quivering, she shook her head, as if she didn’t want to listen. “I’m not just doing it for her.”
I didn’t believe her. “Nicky, listen to me. This whole thing I’m doing is just to bring them to their knees. I was never going to touch you, so don’t…”
“You’re not raping me. I want this. I want you to do this for me. It’s the only way I can punish him. The only way I can save myself from him. Let us both punish him for what he did to you and me.”
I held her face between my hands and wiped under her eyes with my thumbs. “Not like this. You have a conscience that will torment you more than you can take. I know a lot about guilt.” Even if she didn’t believe I was capable of feeling it. “It ate you from the inside out until your soul is black and nothing is left but destruction. Your guilt will destroy you, Nicky. I can’t do this to you. I meant every word when I said I’d protect you and your baby at all costs. Even from yourself.”
“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe I’m hearing this fromyou. You’re making me the bad guy here.”
“You’re not bad. You’re beautiful.”
She gazed at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. Then she laughed under her breath. “You really love her, don’t you?”