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Luca Armani.
Everything and anything to know about Luca Armani is in this room.
I carefully curated every piece. I know him inside and out thanks to all the time spent researching him.
But knowing him and breathing the same air as him?
That’s something entirely different now that he’s standing in the very same room.
“I suppose I underestimated you, little stalker,” he says matter-of-fact as he flicks through one of my files. I still have the knife held in his direction but even I don’t know what it would do against Luca. The events from last night resurface. I’ve been exposed.
“Even down to my food preferences. I’m flattered. However, you should know seafood is no longer at the top,” he adds.
“Because you got food poisoning from it on the twenty-third of August last year. You had the chef killed the very same day.” I offer a feral smile. “I know.” There was no point in saving face anymore. He knew the ugliest version of me. “How did you get into this building? I specifically chose this building because of the security.”
“Oh, I bet,” he says with calm cruelty. He throws the folder onto the table, the slapping noise it makes echoing through the room until his cutting blue gaze narrows on me. “I own the building.”
“That can’t be right.” I know he doesn’t because I know everything about Luca Armani, including what he does and does not own.
“As of one hour ago. I do.”
Fuck. This is bad. I’ve never been caught. Never had my prey come to me. Not until I wanted them to, anyway.
Meow.
My gaze darts to Tuna who yawns lazily and begins to rub himself against Luca. My gaze flicks from the cat to him.
“Don’t worry. Killing animals is not my thing. One of my men, on the other hand…” He taps a finger against his lips. “Oh, wait you probably already know that.”
My jaw is clenching so hard I feel searing pain. It’s only us in here, but what can I do? Stab him to death?
He takes nonchalant steps toward me, his hands in his pockets. “What are you going to do, little stalker? Stab me to death? Surely, you know well enough knives are my favorite playthings.”
He steps into the point of the blade, his heart directly beneath it, with an arrogant cocky smile. My heart falters. Because in all the photos I’ve taken of Luca, he was not smiling. He is cruel and calculating. A monster unmasked. Suddenly, I am reminded of the taste of fear. I swallow it as he leans in, and I’m unable to move under his gaze. It’s like last night all over again. His piercing gaze is as good as a vice.
“Did you think you would get away with last night?” he asks, his piercing blue eyes watching me—studying me the same way I’ve been studying him. “Did you think I didn’t recognize you tonight? I must confess, I much prefer the black hair.” He lifts a tendril. “Perhaps we should follow up with where we were interrupted last night?”
His breath is a hot flush against my cheek, and his presence overpowering. I grit my teeth harder, freeing myself from my stupor. I will not be scared of this man, even if he is my undoing. “What do you want?”
5
LUCA
In all of my years, I’ve never stumbled across something so peculiar. I could snuff her life out within minutes and make it look like an accident. Hell, I’d even make a show of attending her funeral.
No one gets this close to me. That’s where the novelty has become curiosity. I also have suspicions of who exactly put her up to this. Just as easily, this could work in my favor.
Dead or alive.
I find it no coincidence that on the same night I flew back to Italy, I found out twenty million worth of my cocaine was stolen. Then when I arrived at the family mansion, this little viper was in my office. Of all the people it might’ve been, I was not expecting Alexander Barone’s do-gooding daughter.
“What do you want from me?” she demands. I inhale, breathing in the scent of her orchid perfume. Beneath it I can smell her fear. Fuck, I’m aroused by it. Where she didn’t give me any glimpse of it last night, I can detect it now. She’s been exposed, her dirty little stalking secrets out, and I find it intriguing to watch the calculative, sharp mind of hers at play as to how she might create an out.
“I wonder what Daddy would say if he found out his daughter was a little stalker,” I say as I pull away. From this angle the lighting draws flickers of blue from her green cat-like eyes under thick eyelashes. Ara has curves no woman should legally be entitled to. No wonder she found it easy to use my brother to sneak into the mansion. Something that pisses me off to no end. She was cunning, but manageable.
Because as of last night, I suddenly became interested in everything about Arabella Barone. I knew the moment I found her in my office she wasn’t just some little pretty thing my brother had picked up from the club. No, every wobble of her lip and expression in her gaze was cool calculation.
I wrap my hand around her throat with a bruising grip. I could choke the very life out of her right now. And if she dare tries to use the blade against me, I won’t hesitate to kill her. I’m certain the realization is what keeps her in place.
