Sold To Mr. Milano - Daniella Wright Page 0,9

was doing as I shuffled Alicia into my car and started driving, and her incessant raging didn’t make it any easier to decide. I wasn’t used to being caught off guard, to act without a plan. Frivolous, impulsive actions were what led to mistakes...they led to getting caught. And when you built your fortune on the fringe of what was legal, you couldn’t afford to behave that way.

I was surprised by myself and the situation I had gotten myself into, but even more so surprised by Alicia’s tongue. She was bold and sassy, maybe more so than any woman I had ever encountered. It was why the thought of her had always stuck with me since the day eight years ago when she and her father stormed my new property, making demands and accusations so flippantly.

The spark I saw in her that day hadn’t faded a bit, even though she found herself knocked up and alone being sold off in the market. She had some nerve to criticize my way of life, but then that was the way of Don Martino. It shouldn’t have surprised me at all, but it did.

I should have been able to throw her to the wolves, or even to the side of the road like she asked, but I couldn’t. For as tough as she seemed to think she was, I felt this strange overwhelming need to protect her...at least for now. She had a way of drawing a fury out of me, one that made it tempting to see to her lowly fate myself. Maybe that was it. Maybe I just saw it fit that if anyone was going to teach her a lesson, it should be me. Surely I had earned such a right after feuding with her high and mighty father all these years.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I couldn’t let her go running back to him and tell him what happened. I doubted the story would be painted in the proper light, which was that I saved her life. She would probably spin it to make the whole deal my fault. Don Martino was waiting on the slightest misstep to bring me and my entire empire down, and this would be all the ammunition he needed to strike.

At the very least, I needed more time to figure out what to do with this mess I had found myself in. At some point in the drive, my muscle memory took over and started heading for my estate. I decided that was the best I could do for now. I’d have to figure the rest out later.

My main property was settled in the middle of nowhere down a long, winding dirt road. It was the kind of road that you’d assume nothing could be found on, and any unsuspecting person would continue to believe that if they drove past the clump of barely manicured shrubs that the driveway was hidden behind. They would drive right past, not noticing the gate that rested behind them. They also wouldn’t notice the men I kept on watch behind them, carefully hidden. As my car pulled up, they’d emerge from behind the bushes and open the gate for me to drive through. Anyone else snooping around would be interrogated and likely sent on their way. No one came to see me without an appointment.

Should an unsuspecting visitor ever find their way through, they’d have to navigate their way down another long driveway lined with tall, thick trees. I had it constructed so that it didn’t lead all the way up to the house. It stopped abruptly a few yards away, and the manor was without a courtyard in the front as well. The stone path to the door was narrow and discreet.

The manor itself was a giant square cream-colored building with black shutters, usually kept shut. The front of it was lined with big trees and hedges all the way around the circular entryway. To a stranger, it would be hard to see where exactly you entered the mansion at all. That was intentional. The point of the entire design was to make the place seem uninviting. I wanted visitors to feel off and at a disadvantage. It helped me keep the upper hand in whatever their business was there.

Alicia would find herself in the same position as I pulled her from the passenger seat, once again keeping a firm grip on her arm, ensuring she didn’t have a chance to run off