Page 77 of Nights At Sea

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I hit the bag harder. God, it feels good.

The sound of my heavy breathing echoes through the room. My fists collide with the bag over and over again. My lungs burn. I’m so out of control.

Control. It’s my middle name, but I lose it where Ella is concerned. I need her to toe the line, obedient like a woman should be.

Why is she defying me continuously?

Sweat is running down my face and body. I’m drenched. My arms and legs tremble.

But I can’t get a grip on myself.

What is happening to me?

Nothing ever rattles me. I can count the times I’ve lost control of myself on one hand. I’m always calm, and I always know what to do. I can think under the most stressful circumstances.

How do I find my center again, when everything inside of me is burning like an out-of-control inferno?

I’m used to just taking what I want. I never have to wait. Now I’m waiting for her a second time around. I was so close to taking her.

Fuck, I need to be inside her again… my need for her is like a bottomless pit. I want her. I need her. My body is burning up but I need her love even more.

Do I wait till she comes around?

Surely what we have is too strong for her to deny?

Despite the onset of fatigue, my fists pummel at the bag relentlessly.

Sweat is dripping off me in rivulets, but I don’t care. My hands are screaming in pain, begging me to stop, but I don’t care. The skin on my knuckles is split, bleeding, and it burns like a bitch, but I don’t care.

The tension in my body demands to be released. Like a tightly wound spring, my arm coils back and releases forward, the impact with the bag an explosion of energy.

The bag swings… satisfaction… I imagine it’s Molinaro’s head, snapping back with the force of each blow, his blood streaming from his wounds. I want his blood.

Fucking Molinaro.

We just managed to put out one fire and he hits me with a double whammy. Undoubtedly in retaliation for beating him.

Yesterday we were holed up with Molinaro’s IT rat. Our phones were turned off to ensure our location remained untraceable. The negotiation was easy, but it took hours to verify there weren’t other cloned copies and for him to re-hack our systems to demonstrate how they did it. The backdoors were soon closed by my team, and we added extra security.

It was a valuable lesson, and, in the end, we got off lightly.

Making the weasel a very rich man was a small price to pay for what could have happened. Now, he’s on the run and not my problem. I have no doubt Molinaro will find him and deal with him appropriately for his betrayal.

This failed attempt at ruining my digital products will have infuriated Molinaro, and he tried to hit me where it counts most.

The fucking bastard tried to steal Ella from me.

A fresh wave of rage surges through me. I hit the bag harder, my pulse pounding in my ears.

It was my worst nightmare come true. And he came so fucking close to succeeding.

On top of that, he cost me one of my warehouses. By sheer luck, we shipped the weapons stored there to their new owners ahead of schedule this morning. Otherwise, the loss would have been in the millions.

I plant my feet wide apart, cracking my neck from side to side. I pull back my right arm as far as I can and punch the bag with a roar I’m sure can be heard in the depths of the earth… that’s where I want to bury the fucker.

Molinaro was clever about it too, luring me away from the birthday party. He planned and executed it well… I give him that.

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