Blood Ties (Dinero de Sangre #2) - Lana Sky Page 0,66

sacrifice me?” I ask him, gathering the nerve to meet his gaze. I expect to find the same bold, mocking man I’ve been battling with all morning, poised to deliver an insult at my expense.

“No.”

The figure I’m faced with now is a man I’ve almost forgotten he used to be these past few days. The stoic, cold Domino Valenciaga with a wealth of secrets hidden behind that searching stare. Even without the aid of his cowboy hat, his mystery returns in full force—and I can’t escape the feeling that I’m only seeing a fraction of the real danger he’s thrust me into. Only what he wants me to see.

“No, Ada-Maria.” He plunges his hand beneath the water’s surface, skirting my parted legs, to withdraw the rag. Deliberately, he takes time wringing out every drop of moisture from it. “You haven’t been paying attention. If selling your cunt could save the world, Tristan Lucas would be a very happy, very alive, and very wealthy man. You have value only to the right people. The right kind of men.”

I’m more frustrated than ever. It feels like he’s spinning me around and around, taking immense satisfaction in watching me squirm and question. He loves keeping me blind and off-balance.

What’s the point of even attempting to resist him? Why not give him exactly what he wants?

“I want you to protect me,” I ask him directly. “I’m asking you to.”

I expect him to grin evilly over the prospect of me pleading for help. Instead, he frowns, his eyes narrowing.

“I was wrong,” he says, rising to his feet. “Begging doesn’t look good on you. Get up.”

I obey, letting him dry me off and dress me in the outfit he procured from the closet—a black dress with spaghetti straps and a neckline low enough to rival Alexi’s.

I wonder where she is. Has she left now that Jaguar is arriving? Was she the one who called him in the first place?

“I’m sorry if I caused a rift between you and your little friend,” I say, as he withdraws from me and heads for the hall.

“Don’t be.” The look he shoots over his shoulder is eerily calm. Composed. Too composed when paired with his rage from last night. “You did exactly what was expected of you.”

He leaves without grunting out a command, and I don’t race to follow him. Damn the smug bastard. He has my head spinning again. Just what was he hinting at? That he knew I would lose my cool around Alexi and blow up his little plan? Then why tell me to keep quiet in the first place?

Because he’s lying, obviously. He didn’t plan this, or he wouldn’t have been on the phone earlier, confessing to a change in timeline. But that just brings up the bigger question of what exactly he is planning.

And why.

I must lose track of time, because the next time I startle to awareness, my hair is nearly dry, and Ines is standing in the doorway to the bathroom.

“Mr. Domino requests you join him for lunch,” she says with a respectful nod. “He is on the terrace.”

My heart pulses as I move to obey, entering the circular foyer to find that it’s mid-morning already, if not the early afternoon. Domino is lounging alone this time, a platter of food on the table nearby.

I square my shoulders before stepping out from the archway, prepared to do battle yet again.

Instead, he gestures to the seat across from him. “Eat.”

It’s strange how he’s broken down the one bastion of control I’ve ever maintained in my life. Hunger has always been a beast of my own making, always at my discretion for how gnawing it could become before I’d finally give into it.

Around him, hunger means nothing but a tool with which he can use to escalate any standoff to his advantage.

So I sit and snatch something from the tray at random, bringing it to my lips. I chew woodenly, holding his gaze for as long as I dare. When I finally look away, I hear the cushions of his lounger creak beneath his weight as if he shifted his position.

“Alexi was a pawn brought in by Jaguar to help me navigate the more delicate intricacies of the Terra Rodea social scene.”

In other words, to fuck the men in my orbit.

“Why are you telling me this now?” I ask, glancing at him again.

He leans forward, staring past me, his expression harder than ever. “She fed me intel and kept me updated on the whereabouts of