Sold To Mr. Milano - Daniella Wright Page 0,11
she was still in nothing but a shirt and panties. I caught sight of a maid scrambling behind them with fresh sheets in hand.
“Hey!” I called out to her. “See to it that she gets some proper clothes put on.”
Once they were gone and the pounding of their boots had vanished, Felix and Pablo turned back to me with the same shocked expressions.
“Who is she?” they asked, almost in unison.
“Don Martino’s daughter,” I sighed through a puff of my cigar. They gaffed at my response, not sure how to reply. I decided to clear it up before they could. “She was at the black market being tormented by guards. I bought her at a steal of a price,” I lied to save face. “I’m sure we will find some way to use her to our advantage. A hostage deal perhaps...to keep Don Martino off our backs for a while. He can’t be bought with money, but maybe with the life of his daughter on the line he’ll be more cooperative.”
“Like hell,” Felix scoffed. “You know Don Martino would never submit to any threats or intimidation. He wouldn’t negotiate. He’d follow the law to a T and likely get us shot or thrown in jail. Anyway, you know how they all protect their own. It’d be like waging war against the police force.”
“Or would it?” I raised a brow, propping my boots up on the edge of my desk. “We do own the rest of the police force, after all. It would be interesting to see how it played out. And that disgrace of a woman is sadly all that Martino has left. I’m sure he would be very careful in how he chose to respond.”
“Not interesting enough in face of the risks we’d be taking,” Pablo crossed his arms.
He looked me over with confusion. He knew this wasn’t like me. Why would I have even taken the risk of bringing her here at all? Felix shifted in his seat and took note of our brother’s stance, following suit. I wasn’t about to have them start questioning me, especially not while I was in the midst of questioning myself.
“Even still, it’s a reminder to Don Martino that he doesn’t control us...regardless of how we handle it. Rest assured I have it all under control. Now, don’t you two have business to tend to?” I shot them a stern look, letting them know that any more skepticism wouldn’t be tolerated.
They were quick to obey. They finished their drinks and took their leave, finally giving me some peace and quiet to think straight...something I hadn’t had from the moment I spotted Alicia in that cage, and it was the thing I needed the most.
But with everyone gone and me locked away in the privacy of my study, it seemed the silence only confused me more. What permeated through my thoughts more than any practical solutions or ideas were completely useless flashes of memories from the morning. The vivid image of Alicia being tossed around by the guards with her fleshy thighs exposed, leading all the way up to the shadows under the hem of her shirt. The way her daring eyes sparkled at me with such hatred and rage. And the sound of her sharp tongue as she attempted to talk down to me in the car.
It all came together to stir something up inside. I didn’t know what it was, but I could only assume the unfamiliar feeling was what struck me in the market, and it was the very thing causing me to act so impulsively. It was dangerous to be off-kilter like this, and if Alicia was the reason for it, then I needed to stay away from her.
I decided I would let the staff tend to her and leave her hidden off somewhere, out of sight and out of mind. Maybe by the time I cared enough to make a decision about her, I’d be thinking more clearly. They would take decent enough care of her that if she ever did return to her beloved papa, she couldn’t say we had treated her too poorly at least.
I breathed a little lighter at my decision, and I had plenty of other things to worry about instead. I ignored the way it excited me to know she was dwelling within the walls of my estate, probably cursing my name with every breath.
4
Alicia
I didn’t know what to expect when I was left alone in the small, empty room furnished with nothing but