Chapter 18

Ricardo went out yesterday, he said to look for Juan and Diego, but it seems he didn’t find them. I’d planned to meet up with Jen, but when he came home and I saw him sitting in the library, I knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to get drunk, he wanted to get wasted like he had by the pond.

I managed to distract him, managed to give him something to do outside of the house, and it worked. I just didn’t know if I could do it every night. Part of it felt like too much hard work.

It was as if I was putting all his needs in front of mine, buying time maybe, but it gave me a purpose, and I loved being with him. And even more, I loved him being inside of me when he wasn’t drunk. He was a completely different person when he wasn’t drinking, one I could imagine not only spending another thirty days with, but a lot more.

“I want to go to the Chicago Symphony again. It was magical, the night you took me. It was fantastic. You have a different side to you, one I didn’t even think existed.”

He laughed. “A romantic side?”

I shook my head as I flirted with him in the hallway. I wanted us to go to my room, but he was insistent on staying in his.

“A human side!”

Then we both laughed as he chased me and started to tickle me. A game we played once in a while, with a view it would end one way, with sex. But we were tired. It was as if the two weeks of constantly having sex had tired us both out. His cock was tired, and my pussy was sore. I didn’t think I could sit down straight, even if I wanted to. But I didn’t because we seemed to be spending more time in bed every day.

“You know one thing I could never figure out,” Ricardo said as he stretched and got out of bed naked. Watching his muscles flex and tight butt was a sight any woman would dream of seeing every day. I'd seen it for the past two weeks and I still couldn’t get enough of it.

“What?” I purred as I stood and started to rub his shoulders.

He sighed for a second, most likely debating whether to join me in bed, before he moved away and said, “Some of us have to work.”

I laughed. “Is that a hint? I don’t have a job!”

“My poor baby,” he said as he came towards me and wrapped his arms around my waist, teasing me and pulling me closer to him.

“I lost my job the day I bumped into you.”

“Crashed into me, as I recall it. Your car nearly set the whole street on fire.”

He kissed me, and I kissed him back, wanting so much more.

“Okay. Well, not everyone’s rich like you or my old boss, Mr. Gold.”

He laughed. “Shit, Gold as your boss, that must have been fun.”

I shook my head. “Far from it…” and then I kissed him back, but he was moving away from me as he said, “What do you mean?”

I sighed, thinking I wanted his lips on mine, his cock inside of me and a conversation about pervert Gold would only make it limp.

“He said if I wanted to keep my job, I had to fuck him,” I summed it up for him, trying to remind him I didn’t want to talk about Gold, only us. Time was running out. The thirty days was nearly up and we’d heard nothing from Vedova Nera, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I couldn’t just stay here, or could I?

He pushed me away, the sensitive man who wanted to be with me went away, and a man on fire was in front of me. I could tell by the way his eyes lit up. I had to choose my next words carefully.

“Adrianna, don’t even think about pretending that you said something else. Tell me exactly what happened with him.”

I started to quiver, concerned Gold could wind up dead, even if he did deserve it.

“I’m scared. You’re scaring me,” I confessed as he sat at the end of the bed, legs closed, dick no longer ready for action, but very limp, and he was waiting. “I’d…” I started to stutter.

He nodded his head. “Go on.”

I closed my eyes and in one swift breath relived the moment. “I’d fucked up a couple of accounts. He called me to his ivory tower and said if I wanted to keep working there, I had to keep him satisfied; I refused and he told me I would be back. I stormed out of there, all teary-eyed and then when I drove away from the building I crashed into your car.”

I opened my eyes, but I was too late. Ricardo had stormed out of here after my big revelation. I called out to him and heard nothing in reply. I didn’t know which way he had gone, but the house was silent.

“Adrianna, are you okay?” Lourdes called out, it was then she looked up the stairs and regretted it. I remembered my nakedness and went back into his room. What had I done? Somewhere along the way I’d forgotten I was with a man who didn’t slap people around; he killed them. I didn’t want blood on my hands, but somehow, I felt as if I was too late. I knew exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

I sat waiting patiently for him to come back. I didn’t even bother showering, even if I did need it. I went to my room, got changed and then tried calling him. Every single time I did, it went to voicemail. It got to the stage where not only did I call, but I left a message, too. Every message felt more desperate than the last one.

“Ricardo, please don’t do anything. I won’t be able to live with myself. He’s a father. He doesn’t… please call me back.”

He was a dad, but him not deserving to be hurt wasn’t exactly true. But being killed was a whole new level. I’d been living with Ricardo, cut off from the rest of the world, and for some reason this side of him. The part I’d shut out had come to life in the flash of a conversation. I could have told him something else, anything to stop this from happening. Why didn’t I think about it more? A life with Ricardo would mean always watching what I said about other people, if not, then they would end up dead, like Gold. This was my new reality and I had to face the fact my actions had consequences and none of them were pretty. They were all so fucking ugly.

“Pick up the damn phone!” I screamed as it rang once again. This time it wasn’t off, so there was some hope. I tossed it as it went dead, muttering if he wasn’t going to pick up the phone, I was wasting my time.

“Adrianna, come!” Ricardo appeared at the door, suddenly. I hadn’t even heard him climb the stairs, let alone walk in the hallway. Then again, it was his job—to be as quiet as a mouse, to come and go and he pleased. To kill or not kill as he saw fit.

“Where are we going?” I was practically running after him. Trying to keep up, but it was tough. Every stride he took meant I needed to take two, yet he was walking as if he was taking a stroll around the grounds, no pressure and admiring the view. Whereas I was speed walking as if I was participating in a marathon, and I was slowing down a bit to get my heart rate down. It was pacing out of control, and as much as I told him to slow down, he ignored me.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, and he made a switch to the right, I knew exactly where he was going. I stopped trying to keep up, as I knew he was going to the back of the house. The part Lourdes was forbidden to go to, and the part where he locked me up in a dungeon as if I was some unwanted animal. He stopped as he reached the back door.

“Are you coming or not?”

He raised his eyebrow, and I knew there was a double meaning in his sentence. If I went, maybe I could save a life. The one I’d put in jeopardy after opening my big mouth. I blamed myself, as I took a deep breath. The man I had been in bed with a few hours ago had been wiped off this hallway. He’d been replaced with his true colors. The big, bad wolf was going to do more than blow this house down. I put myself in the shoes of someone who would be in his life for good, not for the remaining two days which were left. A topic we hadn’t talked about, one we seemed to have forgotten about as we laid in his bed. I was thinking so damn hard on what to say. What to do, how to salvage this situation. I had on my sneakers and I felt like running, something I’d never done out of choice, only if I was late for work or something, only then would I run. Now, it felt like a necessity, maybe if I ran out of sight, then whatever Ricardo had planned would go away.

He opened the door, and then automatically we walked in and the door slammed behind us. I closed my eyes, trying to gain some kind of confidence in the words I would say to him, knowing the consequence may not be my life, but Gold’s too.

We climbed down the brick stairs, and like a maze, the lights came on with every step. The dungeon lit up, but still, I couldn't see what was in the dungeon or rather who, until eventually we got to the final step and I saw him.

Gold!

But he wasn’t alone. Diego and Juan were with him.

He was tied up, naked, bruised along the side, and whimpering on the floor like an injured lamb. They’d roughed him up pretty badly, or rather Juan had done the deed. I could tell by his knuckles which were dripping in blood. Diego stood looking not at Gold, but me. I didn’t tell him to hurt Gold. I told the truth, this was a life I wasn’t accustomed to, but it was an eye-opener to see the consequences of words, and what Ricardo was capable of. It was one thing to think it, but another to have it in front of you, begging for forgiveness. Begging for salvation.

“Levantarle,” Ricardo said, and automatically both Diego and Juan lifted Gold.

He cried, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Please stop!” And this was when I noticed, not only had he bruised his body, but his cock, too. It was as if it’d been nearly cut off and I hated to think of the screams which had occurred as a result of it.

Gold was crying, most likely because he was about to be put out of his misery and be killed. I couldn’t let this go on; it was too much.

“Ricardo, I beg you to stop. You’re going to kill him,” I pleaded as I sunk down to his feet. I was on my knees begging him to stop.

He didn’t say a word, but it was Gold who said, “Adrianna?” he whispered as he heard my voice.

“Sujetarlo,” Ricardo said, ignoring my cries, and moving his hand away from mine.

I turned to see Gold, who was now trying to focus, and he was looking around as if he was blind but could see a little bit.

“Mr. Precious Gold, how rich do you feel now?” Ricardo said with a smile on his face.

It was as if seeing Gold in this position gave him some sort of pleasure. I’d seen the same smile as I rode Ricardo many times. He always had the same grin, his lips curling as he received pleasure. He was doing the same thing now, getting off on Gold’s pain. No more did Gold disgust me, but Ricardo did as he unveiled his true colors.

“You want to save him?”

Ricardo asked, then offered his hand to lift me from the floor. I refused it, as I wanted to get as far away from here as possible.

“If we don’t take him to the hospital now, then he’ll die,” Diego said as he struggled to hold Gold up. “He’s losing consciousness.”

Ricardo gazed at me, as I moved away from him.

“Should they save him?”

I looked at Diego and said, “Take him to the hospital.”

He didn’t move.

“Now!”

Ricardo nodded, and I rushed back up the stairs. There were too many emotions going through my head. It started with coming down the stairs, the memory of myself being locked in the dungeon and then it came rushing back to me. Ricardo and I weren’t lovers, or even had the potential of a future together. I went to my room, needing to be alone. I’d done something so wrong, I didn’t know if I could sleep at night. Yet, fear took over me as I thought about leaving and the smile on Ricardo’s face. If I left, if I ran away, would he smile the same way if they killed me?

Would it bring him the same pleasure as it had when I was on top of him?