Chapter 21 Stockholm
❄︎ Viktor ❄︎
She was not a pretty sleeper.
In her defense, it might have been the ketamine. But the vindictive streak within me settled on the first guess.
Her long, smooth legs splayed apart, no matter how many times I pushed them back together. So I threw a towel over them, but not before catching a glimpse of her naked, fuzzy cunt.
A glass of vodka in hand, I distracted myself with thoughts of anything else, but the image of her kept reappearing.
I would blame her and say she did it on purpose, part of her ploy to distract me from the bigger picture, her wanting my head. But she literally didn’t have anything to wear… yet. Just stacks of white T-shirts outfitted in all ten guest rooms.
I’d take her shopping, buy her all the dresses she wan—wait. Fuck. The woman sent assassins after me, and when that failed, removed the bullets with her own soft hands, probably while hatching out her next plans. And here I was, thinking about buying her stuff.
My chuckle reverberated in the room, bouncing off the wall and back into my own ears. I sounded insane. I was insane.
She Stockholm-syndromed me. Injured and treated me in one breath. She was dangerous. Sexy. So fucking sexy.
I missed her voice already, and I mentally checked if I hadn’t given her too large a dose of the drug. I wanted her to wake up and yell in that deceptively genuine tone, argue her innocence, threaten me, curse me—wait. Fuck.
With a shuddering breath, I rose, left the room, and sat at the bar opposite Adrian, who also served as an unpaid bartender. The man consumed alcohol like camels with water, yet he could function whenever I needed him.
I picked up the glass he slid my way. “Is it taken care of?”
“Mmhm. Toni and Gracia picked it up.” He threw his head back, unbuttoning his shirt. “They scare me. Where do you find your employees?”
I snorted. “You employed them, Adrian.”
“Shit. You’re right.”
I smirked as I watched him press his palm to his forehead, no doubt trying to remember his history with our cleaners, Toni and Gracia. They were a sociopathic couple joined at the hip, who shared the same lust for blood. They killed and cleaned. Efficient, if you ask me.
I glanced at Adrian, worry behind my eyes. He seemed to be drinking away something.
“What’s wrong? You look tortured. Existential crisis?”
I sipped my drink, checking my wristwatch to see how much longer it would be before she was supposed to wake up.
“Something like that.”
I perked up. Adrian was one of my strongest soldiers, and just now, when dons were dropping like flies, I couldn’t have him distracted.
“Knocked someone up?” I asked.
“I wish. No woman I’ve met is worth my seed.”
Ouch.
“So, you want to knock someone up, then?”
“Something like that.”
“Are you seriously saying you’re looking for love?” I couldn’t hide the surprise in my tone.
“I’ve about had enough of the empty fucks. And the drama that comes with it.”
“Katarina looked like she had you locked in…”
“Katarina is a whore. And not my brand of whore.”
“Oh?” I couldn’t help but laugh at his bitterness. “What brand of whore do you prefer?”
“A woman that’s a whore just for me.” With that, he refilled his glass, downing it in a single gulp.
The image of a certain tied-up heiress flashed in my mind. I shook it off.
Adrian looked so wasted I knew I’d have to reduce my own intake just to give us both a higher shot at surviving.
My watch beeped twice. My heart thudded in an anxious beat that made my veins boil.
“Well, I do wish you luck in your endeavors. I have a captive to interrogate.”
“Should I prepare the torture chamber?”
The question stopped me in my tracks.
“What? No. Why would you even ask me that?”
“Because it’s a captive. And you interrogate captives in the torture chamber.”
“She’s a woman, Adrian. She will not require much pressure to break.”
“You didn’t see it that way when you tortured Jade Blythe.”
The reporter who’d gathered the incriminating evidence that earned me eight years in prison. She was vicious, and I certainly returned the favor as soon as I regained my freedom.
“This is different.”
“Riiight.”
Without responding, I walked back up to the room that held my… captive.
Quick calls between myself and her consigliere had ended in threats. They wanted their heiress back unharmed, and immediately.
I told them to go fuck themselves.
If they were in on her plans to take out the most powerful Don in New York, then they only had to join the line. Because after I’m done with their Donna, my wrath would extend their way.
I walked up the stairs leisurely, my skin buzzing with heat, my pulse thumping harder with every step.
Halfway there, I heard it.
“Let me out!”
Scream.
“Help me! Anyone! Please!”
Then another wilder, angrier scream.
My hand hovered over the doorknob, letting the anticipation settle.
I was too damn excited to mentally spar with her. The blood rushing down to my cock confirmed it.
I didn’t need a second opinion.
I was caught in the sorceress’s web.