She licked her lips, searching for the right words. “I’m sorry about your friends.” He inclined his head once, his expression remaining stoic. Gently, she stroked her fingertips over his skin. “We could leave.”
His frown deepened. “What?”
“You and me. We could just leave this all behind.”
Shane snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
Mia blinked her eyes to hold back annoying tears. “I don’t want to lose you to this craziness. I don’t want your bosses to decide I have to go with Aldo, because I’d rather die than let that happen. If you love me, Shane—”
“Stop right there.” The warning in his voice was too strong to ignore. “Don’t play that kind of bullshit game, Mia. You know I love you, and I would do anything to keep you. I have done all kinds of things already. Leaving the Murphy family is not an option. We would never be safe, and I couldn’t live with the lack of honor in such an action.”
His rejection hurt, though she understood his dedication. It didn’t make it any easier to bear, to know that loving Shane included the part of him devoted to his mafia family. She didn’t think she would always come second, and she didn’t doubt his obsession, love, and devotion to her, but her nerves were too raw not to feel like he’d chosen them over her. Rather than say something horrible she couldn’t take back, she simply nodded.
He got out of bed and dressed quickly. When he came to get his phone, he bent down to kiss her. Mia turned her head at the last moment, and his lips brushed her cheek instead. His sigh cut through her, and she grabbed his hand. “Be safe and try to come back.”
“I’ll always come back to you.”
She looked up, struggling to hide her pain and fear. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, love.”
His eyes closed for a second, and he drew in a deep breath before opening them again. Pain, anger, and tenderness mingled in his expression. “I will come back. I promise.”
She squeezed his hand once more before letting go, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. Mia watched him leave with a heavy heart. When the door slammed behind him, she scrambled out of bed and ran to the bathroom. The sting of hot water sluicing over her in the shower washed away the bitter saltiness of the tears flowing, helping her hide her weakness even from herself.
She sat on the floor of the shower until the water turned tepid. Finally, with a deep breath that helped restore some of her equanimity, she stood up to turn off the water. Wrapping a fluffy towel around herself, she stood in front of the mirror for a long moment, practicing a cool expression.
It would do no good to show Shane how much she hated his lifestyle. He already knew, and he’d taken her anyway. Even—or maybe especially—loving her, he’d never let her go, and she had already decided she didn’t want her freedom anyway. She had accepted earlier that loving Shane meant the good and the bad, and he hadn’t deliberately set out to hurt her by refusing to walk away from the mafia and take her somewhere else.
It had been impractical anyway, and she’d known it when she made the suggestion. Still, her heart had urged her to get them both far away from Aldo and the rest of the families, so they could live a life together free of this burden. Knowing it was impossible didn’t make it any less desirable.
When she was composed, Mia finished drying off and swapped the towel for a fluffy robe on the back of the door. Hers hung there too, but she deliberately selected Shane’s, enjoying the crisp masculine scent clinging to the fabric.
Wrapped in the next best thing to his arms, she exited the bathroom and was pleased to find a breakfast tray waiting. Shane must have ordered it on his way out. Touched by his consideration, she did her best to eat every bite of the hash and fruit.
As she drained her coffee, the door opened. Expecting Charla, it was a nasty surprise to see Selena instead. Mia scowled. “What are you doing here? I thought Shane fired you.”
The little Hispanic woman sneered. “He demoted me to kitchen staff and forbade me to interact with his whore.”
Mia was in no mood for her today. “Then why are you in my room? Do you want to lose your job?”
“I am here to take care of you.”
The words were innocuous, but her dark eyes were unsettling. Mia kept her expression bland, though a niggle of fear stabbed her. “Why do you hate me, Selena?”
The other woman seemed surprised by the blunt question, but shrugged. “Why not tell you everything? Your father is a terrible man.”
“I won’t disagree.”
If Selena had any reaction to the agreement, it didn’t show. “In Mexico City, I was beautiful, but poor. The men who wanted me were unworthy, so I came to America with my cousin. We were determined to have a better life.”
Mia nodded, though she got the feeling her participation wasn’t exactly required for the tirade. Still, she made an effort to smother a yawn that crept up on her, not wanting the maid to think she was mocking her when she genuinely wanted to know why the other woman had such hatred for her.
“Women are always prey to men, but especially beautiful women.”
Mia could barely hold back the urge to roll her eyes. She supposed Selena might have been beautiful in her youth, but her constant harping about it was ridiculous. “Yes, you were a victim of your own beauty.”
Selena’s eyes narrowed, apparently recognizing the slight mockery in her tone. “I was tricked into an auction. It was supposed to be to find a wealthy American husband. Instead, Vadim Kasilli purchased me as his esclava.”
“Slave?” At the other woman’s nod, pity stirred. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like.”
That seemed to further irritate her. “You? Ha! You have been the pampered pet of Mr. O’Mara. I was held in a basement in chains. Beaten, raped, and starved, depending on Kasilli’s moods. He brought in his doctor to perform abortions on me, because he did not want to bother with a condom, and I gained weight when he let me have contraception in the beginning.”
Mia closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.” It was surprisingly difficult to open her eyes, and she blinked a couple of times as a wave of lethargy swept over her.
“I would kill him with my bare hands if I could, but he is beyond my reach.”
She nodded. “How did you escape?” She politely hid another yawn.
“Your mother, Olga, discovered what was happening. She felt badly for me and helped smuggle me out of Kasilli’s house.” A trace of emotion besides anger briefly flitted across the older woman’s face. “She paid dearly for it. He murdered her.”
Mia blinked. “No, she died from a drug overdose.”
“He gave her that overdose, I am sure, if he didn’t beat her to death. She was a quiet woman, afraid of her own shadow, but she risked everything to help me, knowing he would kill her if he found out. She told me this herself.”
Her head spun as she tried to assimilate the new information with what she thought she knew about her mother. “He told me she was an addict. I rarely saw her, and she was out of it the times I can remember.”
Selena shrugged. “Perhaps she was an addict, or maybe he used drugs to control her. It is a favorite technique to break a sex slave. It would work just as well on a wife.”
Nausea crept up her stomach, and she cupped a hand to her mouth. “He is a horrible man, and I understand why you want him dead.”
“At first, I thought I would just kill you as repayment for my broken dreams and the lives of my babies, and the horrors I suffered at his hands.” Her smile was cold enough to make Mia shiver. “But then I received a better offer.”
The room was spinning alarmingly, and Mia couldn’t focus. “Please just leave, Selena. I’m not feeling well enough for this discussion right now.”
The woman laughed harshly. “The sedative is taking effect.”
She struggled to open her eyes. “What?”
“Mr. Peretti pays generously for your return to him. He has given me enough to start over far from here in the kind of life I should have had.”
> Her vision had been reduced to a blurry tunnel, so it took her a moment to realize Selena had moved closer and now loomed over her where she had slumped on the bed. “You don’t have to do this.”
“No, of course I don’t.” Selena suddenly held up a knife. “I do this because I want to, Miss Kasilli. I would have killed you for free, but he made it easier by luring Mr. O’Mara away and providing all the tools I would need. I would like to see your death, but I must content myself with knowing you will be Peretti’s esclava.”
Mia tried to shove the other woman’s bulk from her when Selena pinned her down. Her confusion made it difficult to figure out why the other woman had a small box she ran over her arm until it beeped. Vaguely, she realized it was a microchip scanner.
A second later, she screamed as the maid dug the tip of the blade into her arm, hacking and slicing indiscriminately in the process of removing the chip. The question of how the maid had known about the tracker flitted across her mind, but she assumed the other woman had either listened at doors or had a source of information, like Wallace.
She was barely conscious when Selena rolled her into a large laundry cart and dumped several towels atop her. Mia tried to form words to scream for help, but her mouth and mind wouldn’t cooperate in the effort. Her last moment of awareness was the jolt of the laundry cart as Selena pushed it from the bedroom and down the hallway toward her ultimate destination as Aldo’s plaything.
Chapter Eighteen
Mia woke with a crick in her neck from her head slumping against her chest, and drool running from her mouth down her chin, leaving a wet patch on her neck. It took a few moments for any real awareness to return, but as soon as she recognized an unwelcome voice, her head snapped up as though she had never been drugged by that awful Selena.
“Aldo.” The name felt thick on her tongue, and waves of nausea surged up her throat, as though her body was trying to reject the syllables. Her blurred gaze made it difficult to find him for a second, but when she did, his features came into sharp relief.
“Ah, Mia, it’s about time you joined us. You’ve been asleep a long time.”
“Us?” Still fuzzy, she moved her head cautiously, first looking down at herself. Shane’s robe was long gone, and someone had dressed her in a slinky white negligee that barely covered her nipples and appeared to end about an inch below her butt. A small wiggle of her hips revealed she wore no panties, and that surge of nausea rose again at the thought of being unconscious and naked. “What did you do to me? Where are my clothes?”
“No idea.” He laughed, and the cold sound slithered around in her skull. “It wasn’t me who got you ready. I would have left you naked.” Sounding a bit sullen, he added, “Mia helped you dress.”
“What?” How could she help herself dress? She blinked as her arm throbbed. Looking down, she saw a lumpy bandage covering the spot where Selena had cut the chip from her arm.
He waved his hand, and she followed the motion, realizing they were sitting at a small dining table. A plate of food was before her, along with a set of dull disposable silverware. Surprisingly, her hands weren’t confined.
Still slow from the sedative, it took her eyes a moment to focus on the face across from her. When she did, she gasped with shock. “Who is that?”
“Mia,” he said casually. “Though to avoid confusion, she will now be called Spare.” He turned to look at the girl. “Do you understand, Spare?”
The girl nodded, her face betraying no emotion. “Yes, Master.”
“What did you do, Aldo?” Horrified, she stared at the girl, who was probably a few years younger than her. It was like staring into a slightly distorted mirror, as though the angle wasn’t quite right, or tiny imperfections marred the reflection. Her nose was smaller, and her eyebrows fuller. A scar down her cheek showed through a layer of makeup, but otherwise, they shared almost identical features.
“I secured a substitute.” He patted the other Mia’s hand in a patronizing fashion. “She looked a lot like you before Dr. Sandoval performed his magic to transform her. It was a bit harder turning her into you, but she soon broke.”
Mia glared at him before meeting the placid gaze of the girl across from her. “I’m so sorry you’ve gotten dragged into this. What’s your name?”
“Mia.”
She exhaled. “I mean your real name, honey? What were you called before this sick fuck got hold of you?”
“Mia,” she repeated, no trace of emotion visible. “I am Master’s Mia.”
Mia’s heart thumped with bewilderment and pity. What had Aldo done to the other girl? “Okay, how old are you?”
“Twenty-one.”
Perhaps, but she looked younger. “Your birthday?” Mia asked with a sinking sensation, unsurprised that the other Mia’s answer was the same as hers.
“February second.”
“Tell Mia your parents’ name, Spare.”
The girl jumped slightly at the sound of her new moniker, but immediately obeyed. “Vadim Kasilli and Olga Kasilli. My stepmother was Stefania Peretti, but she died a deservedly painful death after she helped me run away from my master.”
Mia gasped, once more turning to Aldo. “Did you kill Stefania?”
He snorted. “No, but at least her disease made her die in terrible pain. After forcing me to promise to leave you alone, and hiding you from me for so long, it was what she deserved.” With a dismissive shrug, he said, “Don’t get me wrong. I would’ve loved to have smothered her with a pillow, but I couldn’t get rid of her without enraging my grandfather. The bitch got too sick to speak and died without breaking, but your father tracked you down for me even before she croaked.”
Mia closed her eyes, taking a moment to absorb the newest round of betrayal from her father, and to mourn the woman who had been like a mother to her. When she opened her eyes again, she felt a little stronger and hoped it meant the sedative was fading. “So why’d you wait so long, Aldo? You’ve known where I was for a while now.”
He grinned, but it held no amusement. “I do like to delay gratification. It enhances the pleasure when I finally yield to my desires. I was simply playing with myself, Mia, tempting myself with you and seeing how long I could hold out. When Spare fell into my lap, it was a perfect way to ease my more strident urges while still denying myself until the moment of ultimate pleasure.”
“How did she ‘fall into your lap’?”
He yawned. “I saw her one day in the museum. Her high school was there for a field trip, I suppose, and I had stopped to admire the Balthus collection again.” With a sigh, he glanced at a reprint dominating one wall of the small dining room. “There is no substitute for the beauty of the original Guitar Lesson.”
She grimaced at the painting, having seen it many times in his room when she had been forced to live in the same household with her disturbed stepbrother. “It’s funny how one pedophile attracts another.”
Aldo glared. “Don’t be crass, dear sister. He was a gifted artist, and a true genius with the female form.”
Having heard his praise of the artist before, which had led her to learn more about him, she countered, “He was a sick man who enjoyed painting little girls. And probably touching them too.” Sneering at the picture he so treasured, she sniffed. “And I’m not your sister.”
“Oh, Mia—”
“Yes, Master.”
Aldo blinked for a second at the interruption before backhanding the other girl. She flew from her seat with a small cry and landed hard against the stone floor. “Spare. Your name is Spare. You will no longer answer to Mia. Do not forget yourself again.”
Spare curled on the ground, hand pressed to her cheek, and gave him a look of complete adoration. “I’m sorry to fail you, Master.”
Mia nearly lost her battle with the nausea she’d been fighting at the display. “What’s wrong with you, Aldo? How can you do that to her? Is she even an adult?”
He looked unconcerned. “She was in high school when I collected her, and I�
��ve had her for three years, so probably.” With another shrug, he added, “It doesn’t matter. Soon enough, she’ll be superfluous.”
She shook her head, sickened. “What does that mean? Will you let her go home?”
His look answered volumes more than his simple, “No.”
“I hope Selena is happy with her blood money.” She pressed her hands into fists as rage swelled inside her. Knowing Selena had been a victim didn’t excuse her turning into a predator—or assisting one.
His laugh was full of genuine amusement that was even more chilling. “That fat little maid is dead. I don’t believe in loose ends.”
She stared at him impassively, not able to find a shred of compassion for the woman who had brought her back to Aldo because of sins her father had committed. “What happens now, Aldo? Will you be playing your waiting game?”
He smirked. “No, I discovered I waited too late.”
Mia didn’t expect it, so his vicious right hook slamming into her cheek caught her by surprise. Pain exploded behind her eye, and she whimpered as her chair rocked back, but didn’t spill her onto the floor.
His suave exterior was gone, replaced by the cold reptile within. “I discovered waiting deprived me of my property and the one treat I had waited years to enjoy.”
Her ear was ringing, and she had a hard time concentrating on his tirade. “What?”
“Your virginity. You gave it to that Mick bastard.” He hit her again, though her hand provided some blockage this time. “You stole what was rightfully mine and squandered it on him.”
The briefest flash of how Shane had taken her virginity in the shower made her shudder, but memories of the night when he had made love to her so gently in a similar scenario pushed them away. “It was mine to give, and I chose him. Not you.” Her conscience didn’t prickle at the lie, because she knew it would rankle worse for Aldo if he thought she had surrendered voluntarily to Shane.
“It was mine.” He stood up so quickly his chair slammed to the floor. Spare whimpered as wood hit stone, but she must have been too well trained, because she remained sprawled on the floor where she had landed several minutes ago.
MAFIA: Dark Romance Collection Page 17