Page 15 of Wretched Choices

I didn’t know he would be here. That is the truth. But now I’m intrigued. If this place is being investigated by my boss andmy badass lawyer friend, then there is more to it. And Salvatore conducting business here could mean various things.

“He shouldn’t have brought you here. Nor was he supposed to be here,” he mutters, shaking his head.

“Why not? You’re here, but from what I see, neither you nor he will get money from Adkins.” I grin, finding pleasure in his defeat. “The other guy is playing the cards he wants. It makes me wonder what kind of person brings people to a place like this for a business meeting, and what the hell is this place, anyway?” I raise my eyebrows at him, baiting him. I try to pull my hand away, but he pins me with his body to the wall.

There is a moment of silence. Minutes pass, not seconds, before he, like awakened from some trance, grabs my chin between his fingers. “It is none of your business. And keep it out of your business.” He places his thumb on my lower lip and pulls it down, leaving a salty taste on my lip.

“Now, you will go back to that table and sit like a good girl. After ten minutes, you will ask Ethan to leave, because as you said, there is no reason for him to stay. You will leave, and I don’t want to see you again. I don’t want to see you researching any kind of story that is within a ten-mile radius of me.”

He takes one last look at me before letting go, leaving me pressed against the wall with his spicy scent filling my nostrils.

six

Salvatore

“You have a problem!” Dante enters my office, not waiting. He slips into the chair in front of my desk.

I don’t look at him because I always have a problem. “What kind?”

“Isabel Roberts.”

Two words. Two words that have me on alert.

I have been thinking about her for the last few days since I saw her at that dinner in that damn dress that fit her perfectly. From the moment she entered the room, I lost my common sense. I forgot why I was there and all I could think of was how her skin felt under my touch. How would her body feel under mine?Instead of concentrating on why I was at that dinner, I watched her and Ethan. I wanted to break the hands that touched her, for no reason other than he is the one she is allowing to touch her.

I raise my eyes to his and he continues. “She was seen with the senator’s wife in front of the hotel a couple of hours ago. Mrs. Wilson wanted to enter but was stopped and escorted out. She demanded to seethe manager,and Isabel was there to get every word said.”

“Fuck!” I lean back in my chair. “Who handled the senator’s wife?”

“Patricia. She handled things discreetly.”

I exhale, leaning back in my chair. “And Isabel?”

“She took the senator’s wife's side, asking Patricia what was going on and we weren’t to treat customers like this and other crap. After that, they took off together.”

I run a hand over my face. “I told her to stay away, but she’s like a dog with a bone.”

“What about the senator’s wife?” Dante questions.

“She wouldn’t dare to speak. If she does, her life is done. She knows I will destroy her and her husband and that I’ll leave her penniless and tossed out of her big house. She is the one with a lot to lose. For me, it would be a scandal that would die after a while. However, I need her cooperation. I still need the information she provides me.”

“I see. I can scare the journalist,” he says a little too enthusiastically.

Dante is always ready to torture someone.

I narrow my eyes. “You want to hurt an innocent woman? What happened to your code?” I ask. Dante is a killer, but even he has a code. When he was on the streets, he killed only those who deserved to be killed. Sometimes that had a different meaning.

“I won’t be hurting her, just scaring her away. I’ve had little fun lately. I need something to get me off and no one is doing it for me. Scaring her would bring me much more pleasure, and then I could get off.”

The mention of him getting off and Isabel in the same sentence makes my blood boil. An image of me smashing his head in appears in my mind.

“No!” I say, harsher than I meant. I shake my head slowly and exhale to calm myself. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to her. I’m still waiting for Marco’s report on her. You should go find that fucker who is sniffing around me.”

The corner of his mouth moves, but he doesn’t say anything. Was he baiting me?

He stands. “Well, I’ll see myself out.”

I say nothing to him as he walks to the door, whistling on his way out.

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