I couldn’t face Curtis—not directly, anyway.It was already hard to look at him and not think about my dream from the night before but did he have to walk around shirtless too? I caught myself staring at his back for the third time and I had only been in the kitchen for five minutes. He was resting his elbows on the kitchen counter, humming gently as he waited for the timer to go off on the waffle maker. On the other hand, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing here. I would lie and say I was hungry and waiting to prey on some of his waffles but I would be deceiving myself. I didn’t know he had stopped humming until he spoke. “Enjoying the view?” My cheeks flushed. Where were snarky comments when I needed them? Instead of saying something smart, I said the stupidest thing ever. “What’s there to enjoy?” I could imagine the smirk on his face without having to see it. “Sweetheart, my back would have a pair of holes through it if eyes could burn.” As if it was not enough that he wa
CurtisGrandfather was a cunning old man with the most twisted sense of fun. What did he gain from putting me in this pickle? First, I had to grab a woman out of nowhere and make her my wife, and now I had to share a room with her for a week? “Why are we sharing a room?” She asked the same question on my mind when we were finally in our room—a wedding suite. Just great. “Maverick has someone following us.” “How do you even know that?” She crossed her arms, clearly calling me out for what she thought was a lie. “Because it’s someone I know.” I was already annoyed and her tone wasn’t helping. “Listen, I have no interest in women who don’t want me. Forget a different room, I would let you sleep in a different hotel if you wanted. But if we want to pull this off, we cannot even take a room with two beds.” She looked around as if a bed would magically appear. On the bright side, the king-sized bed in the middle of the room was big enough for both of us to sleep in and still keep our
Curtis My phone rang and saved me from having to answer that trick question. Giancarlo. I saw the name on my screen and knew I couldn't talk in Angelica’s presence."I'll take this." I got up before she could respond and walked several feet away, only answering when I was certain I was out of her earshot. "Why are you calling now?" "I spent the last few days doing nothing but helping you find answers. A 'thank you' would be nice, brother." He snapped. That was exactly why he shouldn't be calling me. He knew I would be spending the next six days with Angelica glued to my side like an accessory. "What did you find?" I asked. "Nothing. She's all clean. No reason to be suspicious of her." He said. It was exactly because there was no reason to be suspicious that I was suspicious. No one was innocent. But again, my brother was the best investigator I could ever think of. No matter what was erased, he could find it. The fact that he found nothing worth noting about Angelica could e
AngelicaHell hath no fury like a woman scorned. That’s what I was thinking when I asked Curtis about his dating history. For a man like him, there had to be a woman—or five—who couldn’t get over the heartbreak she suffered thanks to his assholery. Initially, I had intended to ask what he knew about my family. That phone call had saved me from making that stupid mistake. Alas, not only did I not get a helpful answer, but I ended up blowing up and nearly revealing the truth about my parents. Since when did I let my feelings erupt like that? The Viper was right. I was not patient enough for a long-term revenge plan. I had to be done with this insanity soon. Luckily, it didn’t take a genius to guess who had called him. The fact that he went so far to answer the call was enough. Giancarlo. As if I didn’t already have enough ticking time bombs to skirt around. “Do you want to go back?” He offered. “Good idea.” I couldn’t handle the awkwardness that followed after that outburst eit
My body was stiff. My attempt at moving was blocked by something—no—someone. His arms were wrapped tightly around me when I woke up. I looked down at his forearm at my torso, then his leg on top of mine locking me in place. No cuddling, my ass. He was the one clinging to me like an octopus—not that I was complaining. The more I stayed in that position, the more aware I became of him, his pulse against my back, his gentle, slow breaths at the back of my head, his morning wood pressed firmly against my butt. A blush crept up my cheeks. Luckily, he was asleep. I used the chance to gently peel his arm off me. It weighed like lead. After several failed attempts, I gave up and decided to catch a little more sleep—as much as I could get with his cock prodding at my ass, that is. I closed my eyes and ended up stirring, unable to fall asleep. My mind was flooded with all kinds of thoughts, none that had anything to do with what I wanted to think about. Instead of thinking about my strategy
CurtisI would explode if I stayed within the same space as Angelica for a second longer. Whether in anger or desire, I wouldn’t know until it happened—not that I wasn’t halfway there already. For a woman whose existence I wasn’t supposed to notice for the next six months, she was more infuriating than Siren. It wasn’t lost to me that she had gawked at me the whole time and my reaction to her was even crazier. I had almost shut her up with my lips. The fact that I even considered that was proof that I should keep my distance. So it wasn’t such a bad thing that I had a meeting scheduled with Lance today. He was yet to arrive at The Pearl when I did. I hated to wait for anyone more than I hated whiny women. If he wasn’t the CEO of Arciero Industries, I would have walked out. I glowered at him when he finally wobbled in ten minutes later, out of breath. “I’m sorry. My wife kicked a fuss about me having a business meeting. I almost couldn’t make it out of the house in one piece, I ha
The ViperI stared at the pictures in my hands for several seconds before tossing them off, sending them flying across the floor. “Does Curtis Arciero have a golden dick or something?” I growled. I wasn’t asking anyone in particular but I got an answer from Enzo anyway. “Would you like me to find out?” I glared at him. He was my right hand man but sometimes he forgot his place and assumed he was my equal. This was the problem with having the same minions for years. He picked up the pictures and inspected them even though he was the one who had brought them. “Do you think she likes him?” I sneered. I knew that look. I had seen it on several women’s faces. Women were only useful before some knight in shining armor swept them off their feet with false promises of rainbows and unicorns. Then they became a liability. It was why I had chosen a vengeful eighteen-year-old with enough hate to override every other emotion and made sure she remained that way for the four years I kept her
AngelicaMy skin felt hot and it had nothing to do with how long I’d danced. I looked up at Curtis who was as stunned as I was. “Would you believe me if I said that was an accident?” I averted my gaze from him. “Not a chance in hell.” He swiped a wisp of hair off my face and replaced it with his lips, shocking both of us.He pushed himself off the bed and straightened his suit jacket, but not before raking his eyes all over me like he wanted to devour me. “Get dressed. We are going out for lunch.” He ordered. What made him think he could tell me what to do? More importantly, “what’s wrong with what I’m wearing? It’s a beach city. Everyone is wearing shorts and crop tops.”He looked down at me. “The last thing I want is the whole city getting a front-row view of my wife’s tits spilling out of her top.” My retort was cut off when I looked down at myself and caught sight of my left boob nearly all the way out of my top. Oops. I shoved it back down, ignoring his shocked glare. In m
Angelica"What is it like being a mother?"Klara paused with a spoon of chocolate ice cream halfway towards her mouth. I only realized how odd my question was when I saw how she was looking at me. I dug into my ice cream and shoveled a spoon into my mouth to calm myself down."Why would you ask?" she asked. "Are you planning to have kids?"I was glad I wasn't looking at her so she wouldn't read my mind—not that I still believed shrinks could read minds but it was awkward nonetheless."Maybe," I gave a vague answer. Considering Curtis's stance on kids, her surprise was understandable. However, I didn't want to tell her I was pregnant yet. It didn't feel right to tell anyone else before Curtis."Well," she shrugged. "That's a broad subject. But I had all these plans for my kids. Rowan and I always wanted two, close in age, and we planned everything including what parenting methods we would use, which schools they would go to, what kind of friends we would allow around them, how I would
Angelica I groaned as I forced my eyes open, adjusting to the blinding light that had just been flickered on. I didn't know how long I had slept. Hell, I wasn't sure if it was day or night. There was no window in this dingy cell and the door was a solid hank of metal that didn't allow any light through it. The only source of light was the offensively bright bulb above me, which had been kept off until now. I had alternated between sleeping and pacing in the dark the whole time and it was driving me crazy. The only thing I could feel was the chains around my wrists and ankles, reminding me that I wasn't dead yet. I didn't know how long had passed since Curtis interrogated me about The Viper. It could be a day, a week, or a year. Hell, it could be ten years for all I knew. I looked down at my stomach and my lips twitched. At least there was a way to know if months had passed. My belly would bulge out. This was Curtis's idea of torture.To be fair, solitary confinement was one of the
Curtis“Angelika Giannelli, Angel of Death…is there any other identity I should know of?” I mocked.“Tell me everything about The Viper,” I demanded.She averted her gaze, dragging the long chains with her so she would walk up to me. I smirked when she stopped, her radius finally running out.“Is this necessary?” She bit back.Yes, it was. This woman killed Miles right under our noses and we didn’t think she was at fault. She played us all like a violin with that innocent smile on her face, all while taking out one Arciero after another and pitting us against each other. However, that was not why I was here.I pointed at her chains. “That will be the least of your problems. Answer me.”She shook her head. “I can’t tell you anything. You’re going to kill me anyway. Just do it.”“I knew you would say that.” I grinned. Someone with her skill could endure a lot of pain.Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to torture her. At least not physically anyway, which was odd, considering how willing
Angelica I needed my head examined. Was I seriously considering having this child? I had bought a dozen pregnancy test kits in the hospital’s pharmacy and couldn’t wait until I got to my hotel room, so I took the tests right there in the hospital washroom. Unsurprisingly, all of them came positive. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know what I thought pregnancy felt like but this was not it. I had expected a little more drama. Aside from my boobs feeling like they were about to fall off, the doctor mentioned I was lucky enough to have a morning sickness-free pregnancy. Maybe that was why I still couldn’t believe I had an actual baby inside me. It sounded like a joke—until I remembered I had to tell Curtis. Between upgrading and downgrading my way through as many cars as possible in the last two months, and spending each of those nights at a different hotel, I had about a thousand dollars to my name. It was a drop in the bucket in relation to how much I needed to bring up a child. I
AngelicaI felt like crap. Where the hell am I? I wondered. I forced one eye open and squinted, wincing from how horribly my head hurt. I patted around for my phone and remembered dropping it the night before. I hadn’t stopped to pick it up. I was too busy running for my life with Curtis hot on my tail. I didn’t know how he found me but I wasn’t going to be able to hide from him forever, I guess. My plan was perfect if I do say so myself. I ran around the city, leaving Curtis a trail that would make him think I was headed for Arcron, then I circled back and returned to Silverwood, where I rented two apartments; one in my name and the other under Klara Arciero. I stayed at neither. I spent every night at a different motel far from both apartments. The apartments were only a way to keep Curtis busy if he found out I was still in the city. Which is why I couldn’t understand why the fuck I thought it was a good idea to check out my fake apartment. I was yet to enter the building when
CurtisTwo months later. Why was I still on this wild goose chase? I hadn’t caught a whiff of my wife even though I felt I had searched the whole of West Auburg. She couldn’t have left the country. There was only one person capable of helping her get a fake passport and he was currently on our side. Sometimes I could swear she was leaving me a trail. Though when I got to it, she was gone like a puff of smoke. I was more frustrated by the realization that the longer it took to find her, the farther away she could go. If she found a way to get a fake passport from somewhere else, she could be halfway across the country and there was nothing I could do about it. But I wasn’t giving up. I meant it when I said I would tear down the whole world to find her. I was not giving up now. I was still staring at the road with my hands gripping the steering wheel. What if I was approaching this from the wrong angle?I took a U-turn at the next exit and returned home. Klara was visiting, which was
The Viper “Angelica left.” I glared at Spider. “What do you mean she left?” He shrugged, letting me know there was nothing else to explain about it. She ran away. “And you let her?” He scrunched his nose. “You know there’s no such thing as ‘letting’ with Angelica. You could lock her up in a cage with an active electric field all around it and she would still find a way to leave.” His words conjured up a memory of that feisty little kitten she once was. She’d been looking for me for a year and I knew every bullet she put between a target’s brows, every throat she sliced was to get my attention. She did get it, but it was way too much than she bargained for. She ended up in my dungeon after putting down one of my most loyal men. I made sure the shackles were way too small for her to wiggle her hands free, and the chain was too short to be of any use. I was going to decide whether she was worth keeping that night but I walked into the dungeon only for her to head-butt me and make
CurtisLyra Giannelli, now known as Eloise Dalton, was as hard to find as her sister. I already knew she was Samantha’s cousin from overhearing their argument but I still couldn’t find her, not even with Giancarlo’s help. Eventually, I had to ask Samantha and I had to promise not to harm a hair on her head before I got any useful information.Good, because I didn’t plan to hurt her. She was more useful to me alive, anyway.I watched as the debate played out on her face, if she would be able to run past me if she tried. She decided against it. Smart girl. I didn’t track her down just to let her escape.She sat down opposite me. “Make it quick. I have to get home.”“Of course.” I let her settle down before I asked what I knew she was already expecting. “Where is she?”“Who?”“Don’t play dumb with me.”She crossed her arms at her chest. “What do you expect me to tell you? That I know where to find your wife? Why would I know that if you don’t?”I knew what she was worried about. “Look, I
Lyra “Come with me.” Angelica urged me. When we made it to her car, she had floored it out of the Arciero mansion’s garage and only stopped about half an hour later. We were far from the Arciero mansion and certainly not being followed. How nice of her to ask if I wanted to leave with her after grabbing me without much choice earlier. I was yet to figure out why we were running away. Wasn’t Curtis her husband? So what if her maiden name was a little different from what everyone thought? “Why?” I asked. “You said your life is in danger. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She said frantically, and I knew she was hiding something. “Curtis might just take his anger out on you.” “I’ll be fine.” I assured her. Samantha was my cousin. Not biologically, but if the Carlo she always talked about was Giancarlo Arciero as I was starting to think, Curtis wouldn’t hurt me. And Andre…well, I wasn’t about to put Angelica in more danger than she already was in. “No one wants to mess with