Unfinished Business
Diamond didn’t move.
Her hand still hovered near the light switch, fingers slightly trembling, but her body locked in place. Her breath came in shallow waves. Alessandro Greco hadn’t budged either. He sat with calculated stillness like a painting frozen in time, like he’d been waiting there for hours, for this exact moment. One ankle rested on his opposite knee, fingers steepled against his lips, his blue-green eyes pinned on her with unnerving patience. His expression?
Completely neutral.
The only sign he wasn’t a statue?
The purpling bruise on the bridge of his nose. The exact spot where her heel had slammed into his face.
“You’ve got guts, I'll give you that.” he finally said, voice deep, smooth, and laced with quiet menace. “Not many people touch me and walk away breathing.”
Diamond swallowed the spike of panic in her throat. “You're insane,” she hissed. “I’m calling the fucking cops!”
She didn’t waste time. Her fingers snapped to life, diving into her purse and pulling out her phone. She pressed the screen.
It never connected.
In a blink, he was off the couch. A blur in a black suit. One second he was ten feet away—the next, he was inches from her, phone ripped from her hand like it was nothing.
He shoved it casually into his back pocket. “Cute,” he murmured. “But no.”
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?!” she snapped, stepping back, heart racing. “What the hell is this? You break into my apartment, steal my phone, sit there like some goddamn Bond villain—”
“Oh please,” Alessandro cut her off, speaking calmly like she was the hysterical one. “Spare me the dramatics, Diamond.”
Her stomach twisted.
“Calm down. I’m not here to kill you. At least…” he tilted his head thoughtfully, “not yet.”
Diamond’s face stayed composed, but inside, her pulse thundered.
He began circling her. Not fast. Not aggressive. Just… deliberate. Slow. Like a lion at the zoo watching a gazelle on the wrong side of the glass.
Her hands curled into fists. “Then what? Why are you here?! Do you wanna scare me off? Rough me up for what I did back at the casino? Is that it?”
“No,” he said, taking a casual step toward her. “I’m here because I’m curious.”
Diamond blinked. “Curious?”
Alessandro shrugged his shoulders. “About you.”
Diamond whirled to face him, fury flaring in her hazel eyes. “You broke into my apartment for this? To throw tantrums and act all nosy?”
Alessandro’s smile barely twitched. “I broke in because you’re a liability. And I’m in the business of cleaning those up.”
There it was.
The threat behind the charm, death behind his eyes.
He took a slow step closer, eyes glinting. “I’ve seen Adriano lose his mind over a lot of things—money, power, revenge—but you? A stripper? That’s new.”
She didn’t speak.
“And that casino stunt? Hm?” he continued. “What kind of woman jumps into the fire like that for a man she barely knows? You risked everything.”
“Tell me,” he leaned in, voice low and smooth in her ear, “does he fuck you that good, or are you just really fucking stupid?”
“You don’t know anything.” she said coldly.
“I know enough,” Alessandro replied. “You’re not just a stripper with sharp nails and a temper. You’re something else. And I don’t like unknown variables in our business.”
She gritted her teeth. “You mean Adriano’s business.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Our family business,” he corrected. “Or what’s left of it, now that your golden boy’s playing cowboy in my country.”
She lifted her chin. “Sounds like someone’s a little threatened.”
His jaw tightened.
“I see it now,” she went on, pressing. “You’re not curious. You’re insecure. You see him doing things his own way, and it scares you.”
Alessandro chuckled, but it lacked any real humor. “You really think you’re untouchable, don’t you?”
“No. I just think if you were going to kill me, I’d already be dead.”
Alessandro stepped back slightly, adjusting the cuff of his suit jacket. His voice turned quiet. “You think this is a game, Diamond? You think you’re clever. But in my world, clever girls end up in body bags when they tend to forget their place!”
Diamond took a step forward now, emboldened. “And men like you end up alone and miserable. Watching younger, better men take everything they thought they were entitled to.”
Alessandro was instantly silenced, clearly caught off guard.
Diamond’s eyes darted toward the kitchen. She took the opportunity and spun on her heel, sprinting for the counter. She yanked open the drawer and grabbed a knife.
But the moment she turned around, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Pointing right at her forehead, was a gun.
Sleek, black and deadly.
Alessandro stood perfectly calm, his finger resting on the trigger like it was his second nature.
The kind of silence that fell between them in that moment was deafening. The only sound was the faint hum of her refrigerator and the whisper of her own breath.
Diamond’s hazel eyes didn’t leave his.
His blue-green ones never blinked.
She gripped the knife tighter then with a click, Alessandro cocked the gun.
“Drop it.” He said in a low, calm voice. “Or I'll blow your fucking brains out.”