Page 71 of Mafia Princess

“You are incapable of love, you sick son of a bitch.” With another step back, I felt the cold wall behind me, and I swallowed hard.

“I might not be the soft and gentle type like your Detective Stone, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”

“Feelings?” I scoffed. “Did you have feelings when you allowed me to give myself to you, when you knew it was all lie, just a trick to get a bargaining chip against me and my family?”

“That was business.”

“Exactly. I was nothing more to you than business. While you had me on that bed, naked and overwhelmed with all these new feelings, you were only taking care of fucking business, and all the while I was in love with you!” The last words stormed out of my mouth in a rush, and all I could do to keep the tears from falling was ball my fists and grab hold of the anger that festered in my gut.

I took a brave step forward, the fury now stronger than my fear, and I lifted my chin to meet his gaze.

“You knew I loved you. You knew I would have done anything to be with you, and you used that. You didn’t give a shit about me or my feelings. All you cared about was doing what Daddy told you to do. And you know what that makes you?”

I pushed myself up on my toes, wanting to be face to face with him.

“That makes you nothing more than Daddy’s little lapdog. A coward without a goddamn spine.”

It happened so fast, I didn’t even see it coming. His palm collided with my cheek, fire and heat spreading over my skin. The sting was excruciating, and my ears rang from the blow.

“That will be the last time you ever speak to me that way. As my future wife, you will treat me with fucking respect, or you will carry the consequences.”

My hand was on my burning cheek as I righted myself, biting back my tears. “Did you show me any respect the night you defiled my body?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Defiled? Oh, my dear Karina, if I remember correctly, you loved everything I did to your body that night. Would you like me to show you the little homemade video again? How your face lit up when I gave you your very first orgasm with my cock buried inside that sweet little pussy of yours?”

The wry, wolfish grin on his face made my stomach turn, and I realized it didn’t matter what I said or did. I was stuck here, and there was no way Enzio was going to let me go. For years, the war between us and the Mancusos had been raging, and I was now the ultimate weapon Enzio intended to use in destroying my family…my father. He knew I would never allow him to show that tape to anyone. It would kill my father to see images of his only daughter willingly being fucked plastered all over the world. The shame of a daughter’s betrayal by claiming to love and marrying the enemy would be a far lesser burden to carry.

And even if I was brave enough to deny him and risk my father’s humiliation, Enzio had a second bargaining chip hanging over my head. He promised to go on a murderous rampage and frame Antonio if I didn’t do as he said. So there was no other way. I had no choice, and Enzio knew it.

Enzio moved closer and reached for my hand, covering my cheek, and slowly pulled it away from my face. I hated his touch. I hated the way it felt on my skin, how the cold seeped through to my soul.

“I suggest you get comfortable. This is going to be your home for a very, very long time.” He stared down at me, and I could see all the malicious, dirty thoughts running through his mind. I sucked in a breath when he placed his palm over my stinging cheek, his touch doing nothing to soothe my pain. It only aggravated it, making it worse. I flinched, and he slipped his hand behind my neck.

“And if you’d prefer a life without pain, I strongly advise you to get used to my touch, Karina. Because I plan on touching you every day,” he forced my head forward and pressed his cold lips against my forehead, causing me to whimper in anguish, “for as long as we both shall live.”

Chapter 22

LORIK

If someone had asked me two weeks ago if I had any plans to sit in the study of the Valenti mansion while plotting a rescue mission with both Valenti brothers, I would have killed the poor sod. It would have been a mercy kill because that person was clearly fucking crazy.

But true as fuck, there I was, staring at Dante after I got all the fucked-up details of how Enzio used Karina in the worst possible way. I suspected all along that Enzio had hurt her somehow, but never did it cross my mind he had purposefully seduced her, made her fall in love with him as a ploy to get leverage on the Valenti family. This war went much deeper than I thought, since the one person who remained innocent in all of this was the one who got hurt the most. And now that I knew what Enzio and his family were capable of, I understood why Anderson always suspected the Mancusos sat behind the crime statistics of this town.

I balled my fists, trying my best not to go bat-shit crazy while my mind tried to digest everything I’d heard. The thought of that son of a bitch’s hands on Karina, tainting her body, taking something he didn’t deserve, had me seeing red. It was like there was this demon-possessed beast inside me wanting to claw its way out, begging to tear Enzio Mancuso into nothing more than pieces of rotting flesh.

“So, you’re saying you suspect he’s blackmailing her with a…” I swallowed hard as the words got lodged in my throat. I dragged my hands through my hair. “A sex tape?”

Dante nodded.

I shook my head. “Jesus. What is he blackmailing her for? What does he want from her?”

Antonio, who hadn’t said a single word throughout the entire conversation, finally turned away from the window and faced us. “What do you know about our family, Detective?”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.”

Antonio crossed his arms. “I’m going to assume you know enough, then.” He sauntered over to the couch and took a seat. Was I the only one thinking we were wasting fucking time, that sitting around and looking at each other was not going to bring us any closer to finding Karina?

Antonio stared at me, unblinking. “Loyalty, pride, and respect are what we build our entire existence on. An Italian man is nothing if he doesn’t have his dignity and the loyalty of those closest to him. Our women, Detective, are the most fundamental parts of our pride. There is nothing as powerful as having a beautiful woman’s support and unquestionable loyalty, which is why you never fuck with another Italian man’s wife,” he pinned me with his serious stare, “or his daughter.”

---