Salva and Marco used her, and she still couldn’t see it. She was stubborn. They tortured her father, and now they were watchingher like a puppet on a string. I wanted her admission, just as she once swore she was innocent. I needed her to look me in the eye and tell me the truth.
“Alessia, I asked a damn question.” Her body recoiled as if she could disappear beneath the weight of my words. “Look the fuck at me and start talking!”
“I’m s…sorry,” she cried, her shoulders shaking.
Knowing the perfect place to break her, I moved closer. It would remind her who I was. I grabbed her hair and dragged her to the hidden door behind my closet. No one knew it was there—my torture room.
It was small, built to break whoever stepped inside. The oxygen was scarce. When the heater was on, it became unbearable, especially with the door shut. Only my fingerprint could unlock it, and no one but me knew it existed. It was my personal torture chamber. I use it to remind myself who I was.
Her body slammed against the walls as I threw her inside. She gasped, but I wasn’t done. I followed her in, the door clicking shut behind me.
“You’ll wish you had told me everything before I brought you here.” I moved closer, watching her squirm. “Silence has a price. And you’re about to pay for it.”
Her head shook, her chest rising and falling faster. Her eyes darted to the door, searching for an escape. But there was no way out for her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
A smile curled at the edge of my lips as I approached her, trapping her against the wall.
“Wrong answer,” I told her.
The look in her eyes stirred something in me that I thrived on. It wasn’t about weakness but control. The ability to make someone feel small, even before I began.
Her shallow breaths were music to my ears. She realized shewas helpless, and I could make it worse. I wanted to.
“Tell me what you know,” I ordered.
“I will. Just … just give me time, please.” I noticed how she pressed her hands against her chest, as if she was hiding something. It was the same damn behavior she pulled at the party. And I remembered all too well the sight of Salva’s hands on her chest.
“Time?”
She nodded quickly. “I promise.”
My hands moved against her back. Her warm skin quickened my pulse. I leaned in closer, my fingers brushing against the fabric of her shirt as I reached for her bra.
Her breath hitched.
“Don’t,” she whispered. She wasn’t as defiant as she seemed. I let out a quiet scoff. Her behavior told me I was right. She was hiding something. The way her hand kept drifting to her chest, gripping it like she was guarding a secret. She was afraid, but she wasn’t ready to break.
Stepping back, I said, “You fail to speak, you lose. Take off your top.”
Her eyes widened. She looked at me as though her eyes would make me change my order. But I was in control here, not her.
“Sir—” She paused when I pulled out my gun. Her hands trembled as they reached for the buttons of her shirt. She didn’t undo it. “Okay, I will talk.”
“Too late.”
The shirt came off first, and I took her smooth skin in. I let my gaze trail over her body, savoring every inch of her. She was a mess of contradictions: fear, defiance, desire, all mixed into one. But the more she tried to cover her chest, the more it fed my hunger. I couldn’t let her go until I had everything I wanted. And I would make her give it to me.
“Take off the bra,” I demanded again.
She flinched, but there was a shift in her. She was submitting, not because she wanted to, but because she was hiding something from me, something that was eating her up.
“No,” she murmured, but I didn’t need her to say it. I knew what would happen next.
Pulling her against me, I reached for her bra to unhook it, but her whispers caught me. “He’ll kill her, if I don’t do what he wants.” Alessia gripped her left breast so hard to hold together what she was hiding there. “Please.” She cried against my chest. “I’ll tell you, just give me time.”
Her shoulders trembled. I knew her well enough to know she always spoke the truth to save herself. But this time, the way she held herself was different. Someone had gotten to her and threatened her. And fuck me, I was falling into it. I let her drag this out, giving her time she didn’t earn. I paused, my hand dropping from her bra and landing on her ass by a damn mistake. I didn’t move back.