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After they’d dressed, they’d both picked their guns up without any comment. Elvira had put the bullet she’d shot at the pillow on the windowsill. It looked undamaged, but she supposed she wouldn’t know for sure until she fired it.
Mattia thrust the phone in front of her face. There was no gloating in his stare. “Smile for your brother.”
Her brother’s relief at the sight of her was visible. “You okay?” he asked roughly.
She nodded, and to her horror, found herself swallowing back tears that had come from nowhere. Smiling widely to mask it, she said, “I assume Esposito told you my secret gun worked beautifully and I’m no longer chained up, but escape from this shit hole is impossible. How are things your end?”
“I’ve been better, but everything’s under control.”
The phone was whipped away before anything more could be said between them.
Mattia pressed something on the screen and put the phone back to his ear. “My mother is to call me in an hour. If she doesn’t, you know what will happen. If she makes the call, I’ll message you in the morning with the address for the handover. Don’t fuck any of it up – believe me, I really do not have any wish to blow your sister’s face off.”
The call over, he lifted his stare to the ceiling and closed his eyes.
“Your mother’s free?”
He nodded. There was still no hint of gloating from him. Not even a hint of relief that the first part of his demands had been followed.
“Satisfied she wasn’t mistreated?”
His laughter was hollow. “I think your definition of mistreatment is different to mine.”
She had a sudden itch to throw something hard at him. “Your mother has spent decades living a life of luxury,” she said tightly, leaving her gun on the arm of the sofa and getting to her feet. “Going from that to a life of penury wouldn’t be easy for anyone, but we both know your mother’s as tough as they come, and also, we both know she totally deserved it. She should be counting her lucky stars to have been set free so soon.”
Padding to him, she put her hands on his chest. “Ten days in captivity as punishment for being the brains behind God knows how many murders and leaving four small children orphaned? Does that really sound fair to you? And no one laid a finger on her. Not one little mark on her body.”
Clasping one of her hands, he took a deep breath and lowered his gaze to hers. “No, it doesn’t sound fair, but where does fairness come into play in our world? It never has, and it never will. The strong will always eat the weak.”
She slipped a hand up the nape of his neck and buried her fingers into his hair. “And those who escape being eaten when they’re weak grow big and strong and take their revenge.”
He brought his face down to hers. “She’s lost everything. Be satisfied with that being her punishment.”
“Satisfied? Mattia, if you succeed in taking back the Esposito Group, your family will be as rich as you ever were, and your mother will retake her place as the Livia of your dynasty.”
“Maybe.” He gave a tight smile and slid an arm around her waist, pulling her flush to him. “Or maybe I’ll be like Tiberius when he became emperor after Augustus and limit her influence.”
She tightened the knot of her fingers in his hair. “That’s if you live.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his lips brushing hers. “That’s if I live.”
Mouths fusing, all thoughts and talk about revenge and life and death scattered under the weight of the impossible desire that made Elvira feel more vital and alive than she’d ever felt in the whole of her life.
Chapter Thirteen
His face buried in the crook of Elvira’s neck, the rest of him meshed to her sweat-slicked body, Mattia had to physically force himself to move off her. He couldn’t stop himself from placing a kiss on her irresistible mouth before rolling over so they could both catch their breath.
How the hell had he let that happen again?
He’d told himself in the moments before the scheduled call with Elio that this madness had to stop. He’d taken the phone into the living room to fulfil his end of the bargain, filled with resolve to show Elio that his sister was alive and well and then keep his distance from her for the rest of the time they had left together.
Just because he couldn’t cuff her back to the chair didn’t mean he had to spend his remaining hours with Elvira screwing her. It didn’t matter that his desire for her felt more like a craving. Mind over matter. That’s all it needed, and if anyone knew how iron will power worked, it was Mattia.
Just because he couldn’t, as yet, put a bullet in her didn’t mean he wouldn’t be forced to when the handover happened. Anything could happen. Anything at all. It might be her life for his.
Doing anything but keep his distance in the time they had left together would be more than madness.
Damn it, he’d never had to fight his own body before, and instead of all the sex they’d shared easing the fight, it had made it worse. More wanted more.
