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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

ADELINA

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I drop my bags on the floor and smile. I’m here!

Everything I’ve worked for the past few years, and nearly lost thanks to a stupid sexy gangster, has finally come together.

My new home.

Staying at the motel for a couple of nights was unplanned, but all I did was eat and sleep. Like my soul was tired and just needed to rest.

Now I’m home. Or at least it will feel like home, eventually.

My last conversation with Dante comes flooding back.

Come home.

I don’t know where home is.

Maybe I’ll get a puppy. Or a couple of fish. Some potted plants and redecorate. Then it will start to look and feel less like an empty shell.

I walk farther into the small space and take in the chipped paint, the old fixtures. But it’s mine and I’m free.

It’s perfect.

My furniture arrives in the next few hours, most of it anyway, and I’m already filled with ideas about what I want it to look like. I might paint a wall in the living room to create a feature and put the sofa in front of it. A tall palm in the corner. A lamp and nice rug.

I glance down. The carpet isn’t as great as the photos showed.

Never mind. Rugs are fine.

I step into the bedroom and check the bathroom is decent. The shower curtain needs replacing...and I will be doing some scrubbing in the next few hours.

It’s a far cry from the enormous twenty-bedroom mansion I grew up in. No one needs a home that big—not when the price tag on it is blood.

I skip back out to the living room and grab my bags. I have a limited budget now but was able to buy a few more necessities. Shorts and t-shirts from Target. A six-pack of cotton underwear.

Everything I’ve previously owned has been designer and stupidly expensive. In fact, I have no idea what they cost. I just swiped my Baldoni credit card, and my father paid the account.

Or his people did.

I paid with my freedom.

It’s all left behind in New York.

I unpack my new wardrobe and hang the sundresses with the same care someone would an exquisite Versace or Chanel piece.

Well, now Gap and Target are my new look.

In fact, I’m getting a whole new identity.

Last night I went into LA to a supplier who is making me one. For over two years, I’ve been pulling out cash and tucking it away for this reason. Ten thousand dollars. That was my budget.

I knew I would have to do two things yesterday. Tell them who I was to ensure my safety. It did. The building was down an alley and rough. I was scared as hell.

But I had my SMALL gun and my name.

When I walked in and the gold-toothed man at the front sneered at me, running his eyes the length of my body, I introduced myself.

“My name is Adelina Maria Angela Baldoni. I am here to see Jamal.”

His face dropped. Everyone knows who Carlos Baldoni is. And they also know who Leo and I are.

When he glanced behind me, I played on that.

“Tell him I need to speak to him immediately and nobody will get hurt.”

I almost snorted.

No one was coming to save me. Especially not Dante Baldassare. My eyes had dipped when the man had disappeared to get Jamal.

Dante.

My heart clenched.

I hadn’t stopped thinking of him since leaving. I tried, but I missed his touch. I missed his overwhelmingly large body and presence stalking toward me or pressing me up against a wall.

His deep blue eyes watching me. Consuming me.

I missed the way his husky voice told me that I belonged to him and, strangely, made me feel safe.

Trapped, but safe.

When a large Black man stepped through the door wearing shades and smoking a joint, I almost faltered. I might be changing my name, but I am a Baldoni, so I straightened my shoulders and kept my feet solidly on the ground.

I don’t think it hid the way my body trembled.

He blew smoke in my face and glared at me.

“You trying to get me killed?” he asked in a deep voice.

“No,” I squeaked, then cleared my voice and said it again, less...dumb.

“You have thirty seconds.”

“I need a new identification. I have five thousand dollars. It needs to be the highest quality you have.”

“Twenty K.” Jamal had said, sucking in more of the joint.

Fuck.

I knew he’d try to negotiate, but that was a lot more than I expected. “Seven.”

“Fifteen.

“Ten is my final offer,” I said, surrendering to the reality that I might not have enough.

He studied me for what felt like hours, then finally nodded.

I almost hugged the guy.

“You get me killed. I will haunt down your Italian ass,” he said, turning and walking away. When I didn’t follow, he turned and lifted his brow.

“Right. Coming.” I rushed after him as he kept walking and shook his head.

So much for a badass mafia princess.

It took over an hour, but I walked out of the establishment ten thousand dollars poorer, hoping like hell that when I return in two days, I’d get what I paid for. And that it would work and keep me safe for the rest of my life.

Now I’m at my house and tomorrow night I can collect it.

A noise outside startles me and I jump.

Running to the window, I look around, and there’s no one there. Is this how life is going to be now? Always looking over my shoulder?

There’s no way anyone knows where I am. Yet, I can’t fully relax.

I flop down on the floor and sit with my back against the wall. Then I pull my knees up. I don’t even have my phone to look through photos. I can’t login to social media and see what anyone is doing.

Does Dante hate me?

Is Leo mad?

Is my father out killing people or accusing Dante of taking me again?

I know I’ve left a tornado behind me.

Tonight you will sleep in my bed.

I could’ve said yes.

I could have an enormous diamond ring on my hand and be Dante’s fiancé.

I could have finally experienced the feeling of his large cock filling me as his broad shoulders loomed over me possessively.

Fucking me.

Claiming me.

Owning me.

Hating him is what I should do. The idiot fucking kidnapped me and held me hostage in his house for almost two weeks. I nearly lost everything I’d worked for.

Who proposes to the woman they’ve kidnapped?

Dante.

That’s who.

Such an arrogant, domineering, and bossy son of a— God, I miss him.

I miss the way his eyes follow me and run down my body. I miss the way his tongue sweeps out as he’s trying to work out what I’m thinking. How he spins whatever glass he’s holding around and around, instead of closing the gap between us and taking everything he’s ever wanted.

Me.

He could’ve forced me to marry him. But he didn’t.

At any time during those two weeks, he could have had a priest marry us and yet he did not. He could have tied me up and fucked my wet pussy and done whatever he’d wanted to me.

My thighs clench.

What is wrong with me?

That should revolt me. Instead, I dip my head as my core pulses greedily, wishing he’d burst through the doors and strip me. Then lick every inch of me in punishment until I screamed.

I hear large engine sounds outside and I climb to my feet.

My furniture.

“Stop thinking about Dante and get on with your life, Addy.” I tell myself out loud.

Great, now I’m talking to myself.

I am definitely getting a puppy.

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FOUR HOURS LATER, I step out of the shower after moving all the furniture around and setting up my bed. I’m hungry and need to stock my pantry.

I dress in a pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt from Target, slide on my Nike sneakers, and grab my Louis Vuitton bag.

That’s going to have to go.

People will probably think it’s a fake.

I walk ten minutes to the supermarket because I can’t afford to catch a cab everywhere. I don’t have a driver or bodyguard.

And I don’t have a car.

One day I will. Right now, all my money has gone into setting up my home and my new identification.

Plus, a little in savings in case of emergencies.

I turn and glance around me as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I know it’s just my imagination and I need to stop being so nervous, but it’s only been a few days.

This will get easier.

It never occurred to me that I would be grieving those I left behind. All I focused on was getting away. But the reality is I’ll never see my brother and father again.

Or...the man who shall not be named.

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