Page 81 of Impenitent Claim

“Will you wake me up next time you come to my room?” I breathed before I could stop myself.

The side of his mouth quirked up. “Is that what you want?”

“I want us not to be caught,” I huffed. “But here we are, playing a dangerous game.”

He brushed the hair off my face. The motion was impossibly gentle, a sharp contrast to the brutal claiming we’d just experienced. “No one will hurt you, Isabella. That, I swear to you.”

I tipped my chin up. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, phantom.”

A soft hum rumbled in his throat. And then he lifted the lever and opened the hatch. The last thing I saw was the swath of blackness disappearing down the corridor of the ship. I leaned my head back, realizing that my torso was still bare. Forcing myself to scramble, I put my bra and blouse back on moments before Rosa and Benedetta found me.

“A monster trapped me here!” I rushed to say, the tremble in my voice not something I had to fake.

“We should go,” Rosa wailed.

Ilya’s warning ringing in my ears, I agreed.

Chapter 32 – Ilya

“Only you.”

That mass of silky dark hair was pulled up high on her head. Her skin shimmered under the streetlights. I should have left a mark, evidence of tonight. Because she looked completely unfucked—

And I took her hard. Mine to claim, but how could that be if no one knew? Next time, I would leave a mark.

“No one else…. Only you.”

I studied her, happy and seemingly carefree as she joked with the others, teased the boys, and giggled with the girls. The mirth didn’t reach her eyes, and her lips were strained in a tight smile. That tall lanky fellow had nothing on me. Special was how she’d describe the don’s only son. Yeah, I could see it. No matter the hours at the gym or the lessons his daddy gave him—and I saw the bodies afterward—there was no making that soft lump of flesh into the hardened criminal Alonzo needed to be to survive, let alone lead, in this underworld.

Memories trickled through my mind. There had been a boy like him once. He never grew that tall, never saw that manyturns of the calendar. No one could save him. Pitted against the commander’s ravenous dogs in a ring, he never made it through that frigid winter night decades ago.

I shoved those memories deep in my mind. That war camp was another lifetime, faded now to bad memories that would rise from their tombs to haunt my dreams.

Isabella exercised the same protective instinct over her fiancé as her brother. She looked up and down the street. Her gaze flickered over the shadows concealing me.

Can you feel me, siren?

It was hard to be jealous, when I understood all too well what was running through her mind. There might be four seemingly strong males in the group, but it was the lioness who defended this pride.

Still, this prick wasn’t ending up with my woman.

Am I willing to end him?

Turning away in disgust, I drove my fist into the side of a bus stop enclosure. I was on the warpath to destroy her world. Why did the idea of hurting those closest to her give me pause? Because it would cause her pain? Without admitting it to myself, I knew I wouldn’t hurt the don’s son, just like I wouldn’t hurt Isabella’s brother. It might be seen as a weakness, but I knew it was something far worse. Madness. I scrubbed my hands through my hair, pulling viciously on the strands. I was in over my fucking head. I should walk away. Go back to Chicago where my routine made sense. This world of chaos was messing with my control.

But I’d tasted her again! It was too late to leave. The rusalka smiled, beckoned me into the dark, and broke all my resolve.

I went into that damn ship to kill the sons of the inner circles, only sparing her brother and the don’s son per her requests. The other young men in her group were marked for death as were the four Conti brutes. I told Isabella it was dangerousfor her to be out and about during times of war. What I’d conveniently forgotten to mention was that I was also a threat the organizations would never see coming. Such a massacre as I planned tonight would have set the fragile alliance in flames and made another active enemy for the Rinaldi Mafia.

Instead of crippling the mob and causing conflict with their newest ally, I let her tempt me into the dark, where I found myself unable to resist her.

Which meant the Conti men survived tonight, and the Rinaldis weren’t blamed for their deaths. The Contis left the haunted ship with their lives, driving away to the safety of their neighborhood. A beautiful plan to sew chaos and eliminate more of my enemy abandoned. No matter, the Rinaldi Mafia’s days were short-lived. Only the complete and utter destruction of that organization would ensure Isabella’s, her brother’s—and yes, even her soft fiancé’s—lives were safeguarded in the future.

I couldn’t fake their deaths and kidnap them. I had to behead the serpentine monster and burn the kingdom to the dust.

That was my sole purpose here. That and winning Isabella’s heart.

Back slumped against the wall of a building, I rolled my head to the side, casting one last, lingering look at the diner the Rinaldi group was entering. Their laughter and boisterous energy trickled through the night street. Once the door fell shut, the silence snapped its reign over the neighborhood.

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