Page 100 of Savage Don

“You go where I say you go. Don’t forget who I am, kit—” Stopping myself, I look back over my shoulder.

No one is standing in the open doorway, but that doesn’t mean no one is listening.

“What was that?” Francesca teases. My slip up seems to have finally caught her attention. A small taunting smirk comes over her plush lips. It gives her tired face some much needed life.

She doesn’t even wince away as I close the distance between us, and I don’t speak another word until I’m right beside her bed. Then, I lean over and whisper directly into her pretty little ear.

“I have your laptop and your phone. Come with me, and you can use both to your heart’s content. I might even help you smuggle them back here, if you have anywhere to hide them.”

My offer is real. And I’ve made it because I know it will make Francesca happy. She’s probably been worried sick about school.

But that doesn’t mean I can ever turn off the dark side of my brain.

I’ve rigged both her phone and her laptop with listening devices. If I allow her to return home tonight, she’ll be my eyes and ears in this shithole. And hopefully my key to catching her father in the act of betraying me.

Then, we can put all of that ugliness behind us and concentrate on conquering the future. Our future.

“I’m not allowed to leave.”

“You are if I say you are. Don’t you listen, princess? Now, get up. I’m taking you out to dinner.”

That seems to give her another shock. Those tired eyes light up a little brighter, and my heart stirs.

“Dinner?” she asks.

“At a fancy restaurant.”

“I can’t picture you at a fancy restaurant.”

“Then, you’ll have to see it for yourself.”

Francesca shakes her head, but I’m sure it’s only to hide the tiny little smile that’s lifting up her lips. The sight nearly makes my heart sing. Maybe I haven’t lost her, after all.

But maybe I am losing myself.

Since when does my heart do anything but pump frozen blood?

“Won’t my father be suspicious if I walk out of here in an elegant dress?” she asks, her imagination clearly already running wild.

“You won’t be walking out of here in an elegant dress. What you’re wearing is fine enough for now. It will get you back to my place. I have an outfit for you there. Before dinner, you can rest in peace, behind a closed door. Then you can shower and change. Then we’ll have our fun.”

The first part of my offer seems to intrigue her, but the second I say fun, a weight seems to come over my kitten’s pretty little face.

Fun.

I already know what she’s thinking about. She’s thinking about how we fucked. She’s thinking about how I threw away her birth control pills. She’s seen past my charm, and into the dark part of my soul. The part that is only concerned with power.

But then a floorboard creaks behind us, and when we look back over my shoulder, we both spot the same thing.

Her father. He’s standing in the open doorway, glaring at us. The bastard. What kind of animal rips the door off of his daughter’s bedroom?

I’ll make him pay for that offence, even if he has a thousand more dire convictions to suffer through first.

“Fine, let’s go,” Francesca huffs. Her father’s overbearing presence is clearly the last straw.

For as drained and weary as she looked when I first arrived, she sure moves like a young fox as she pushes herself off of her bed and jumps to her feet. She’s already brushed by me by the time I turn around to watch her push past her father.

“Francesca!” Domenico booms after her, but he has no control here. Not when I’m his competition.