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I told Ara about my first gunshot wound at seventeen but I’d left out the part it was Lorenzo who found me. I’d barely been conscious at the time. Because of that, in many ways I was grateful to him for protecting me then. I’ve made sure to never be in a similar position again. It took me years to convince my father to permit Lorenzo to be my personal bodyguard. Perhaps it was only because of that he has more leeway than anyone else who serves under me.
Then she twisted the mood. I have every right to any of her belongings including her. But her words… They stir an unsettling realization in me. Is this more than an attachment and twisted obsession?
Is this little viper actually taking more from me than I realized. Because I have grown attached, I even sought her out last night for comfort. A prickle of unease and tension ripples through me. It’s disturbing. This feeling is foreign and intoxicating and, in some ways, might be exploited as a weakness if I don’t clearly define her role to play. She is my whore. So why is this…a problem now?
Ara seems to be the one problem I can’t resolve.
“I’m not entirely sure what to do with her, Lorenzo,” I admit placing the paper down, defeated.
He seems almost surprised I’ve said it out loud. When was the last time I’d had a conversation with him on a personal matter. I never spoke of such things and yet I have to air it out somewhere or I am inclined to gun down half the employees here because that woman is driving me mad.
“If I may say so, I’m surprised you haven’t already disposed of her. I know you suspect she might be involved with the cargo being stolen considering the timing of her breaking into the mansion. Perhaps it’s her father’s hand in connection at play. Anyone else you would’ve tortured to death for answers and been done with them. You seem to be treating her…differently. If I might be so bold in saying, I think she’s acquired your attention for entirely different reasons.”
I don’t like his insinuation and the complication that it’s become obvious to him I am treating her any differently. The reality is I think she quite likes the way I’ve been torturing her. And I the same. Immensely. I’ve come to the realization that as much as I want to break her… I don’t want to kill her. I don’t want her so far away where I can’t protect her. Nor do I want attachment to her.
Had anyone else spoken in the same tone as her this morning there would be dire consequence and yet I felt a sense of shame and guilt when I left her apartment. A notion I hadn’t felt for…years. I go to pull out the necklace from my pocket, stupidly remembering again it’s not there. It’d become habit to pull it out and stare at the cross with her initials on it as I thought about Ara and tried to figure her out. This obsession was ruining my rational thought.
Ara was right. The game I’d been playing had shifted into something else. I should kill her and be done with her because of that merit alone.
“Do you think she’s poisoned me?” I ask Lorenzo.
“Sorry?” he asks, taken aback.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I look down expectantly. She’d finally replied to my text message. I don’t know why but I couldn’t help sending her a message over an hour ago. She also seems to forget her situation, that she does belong to me. She has no choice.
Me: Join me at tonight’s event.
Ara: No.
Me: You can’t still be annoyed about the necklace thing.
No response.
Me: Remember our agreement?
Ara: I’m already going with Lily. I don’t want anyone knowing of our association. I hope you have a terrible day.
I can’t help but smile at her sign-off, knowing all too well that she genuinely means it. I have no doubt Ara is avoiding our association if her father’s serious about her marrying within the next six months. Still, I have no intentions of allowing that to happen, either.
Lorenzo is looking at his phone when he grabs my attention. “Sir, the hounds found some new evidence close to where the shipment was stolen.”
He hands over his phone. We’ve had men working for weeks trying to find anything peculiar about that night. Besides the few we’ve brought in and tortured to death the process was seamless. The second attempt was definitely half-assed considering how well executed the first one was. No one had tried to steal our shipments since.
The footage on the phone handed to me is from a security camera attached to a local bakery two streets away from our warehouse. Only a few seconds into the video, two men wearing white masks casually walk past, identical to the ones our hounds wear.
Lorenzo points to the one wearing a black leather jacket. “His build looks similar to Ricky Carton who we killed. I don’t know who the second man is.”
My jaw tics. Whoever this other man is, I’m certain he has a bigger part to play in all of it. I’m self-imploding by the fact I’ve allowed my fixation on Ara to drive me. I’m missing something and can sense I’m so close to the truth that it’s infuriating.
“Round the hounds tonight for another meeting.”
Lorenzo takes his phone back. “Do you really think one of them would betray you?”
They all had reason to be loyal to me—lifelong. However, it doesn’t stop anyone’s motives if they think something better is to be gained elsewhere. Instinctually, I know their loyalty is unwavering. We’ve watched them individually for weeks now to prove exactly that.
If I were to find out one of them was an accomplice, I’d burn them alive.
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