I couldn’t allow that.
It looked like Luca was going to have to end up killing me in the end after all.
I willed myself to stop crying and looked him in the face as I lied my acceptance. “Fine,” I said. Luca knew I was lying to him. He knew I wasn’t going to give up this easily, but what could he do? He couldn’t prove I was lying until I did something proving it.
Luca let go of my throat and the hold he had on my hair. He took a step back and regarded me coolly as he said, “You can’t win, Remy. So, whatever you’re thinking of doing, I suggest you hold off and really think about it.”
“Or else what?” I asked, not afraid of the answer anymore. “You’ll kill me?”
I stared as he picked up my phone off the counter and handed it to me. Wordlessly I accepted it, but the words he spoke next crushed everything inside me. “No,” he replied. “I won’t live without you. But, then, there’s always your parents, Remy. Don’t forget that.”
His words were like a physical blow, ruining everything I was beginning to feel for him. Luca walked out leaving me alone in the kitchen, and not even looking back once as my heart broke all over the floor.
Chapter 17
Luca~
I never should have said those words to her.
I never should have threatened her parents. I knew she was close to them, and they were good people, but Remy challenged me in a way I couldn’t lose.
She was new to this life, so she had no idea how paramount her safety was. Francesca and Robbie understood because they’d been victims to it. If Francesca had never gotten kidnapped or if Robbie had never dated that asshole Randy, they might be in the same boat as Remy. But they had, and they understood better now.
Remy had no clue who she was.
I wasn’t going to take it back, though. I needed to keep her in line until we could reach a compromise and her parents were the only way I could do that right now.
I let the hot water beat on my shoulders as I tried to come up with a way to make things right. I meant what I said about her safety mattering more than her happiness, but I wanted her happy too, damn it. I didn’t want her to regret marrying me. I didn’t want her to lose her smile or her fight. But her job was too dangerous for her right now.
I got out of the shower and changed into a suit. It was Sunday, but I had shit to do still. I always had shit to do. We had three different gun shipments coming in and I knew Sal was finalizing a drug deal that would land us millions.
I also had to go over my finances with Phoenix. I asked him to lay out a financial plan for Remy. She needed access to my bank accounts and credit cards, and she needed her name on all my deeded properties. With all the apartments and condos I owned throughout the city, Remy needed to understand just want she was coming into. There’d be no prenup. However, she’d have no access to the Benetti Family assets. Those could only be willed down to Benetti blood. In the event something happened to me, everything would go into a trust for my children, to be overseen by Sal or Leo. If no children were involved, they’d get split evenly between Sal and Leo.
When I finished getting dressed, I went in search of Remy, but she was exactly where I had left her. She didn’t look up or even acknowledge my presence as she spoke on the phone. I started to put the pans away that I had taken out for breakfast and then popped a couple of bagel slices in the toaster. Breakfast had been ruined, but I still needed to eat something before heading downstairs to speak with Phoenix.
Remy didn’t lower her voice or try to pretend I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Her side of the conversation sounded like an everyday talk of gossip and catching up between her and her mother. And the way she sounded, you wouldn’t know that she had been in tears not fifteen minutes ago.
I was done eating by the time Remy hung up the phone and, as I cleaned up, she asked, “Do you have a list of what I’m allowed to do?”
I wanted to tear the fucking room apart.
Instead, I turned to face her. “Excuse me?
Her face was as lifeless as a corpse’s. “I can’t work. I can’t go back home,” she replied. “I’m guessing you have a list you hand out to your women, letting them know what they can and can’t do.” Remy shrugged a shoulder. “I’m just asking for mine.”
She was deliberately provoking me.
I knew this.
I knew this, and it was still working.
“You don’t need to work, and this is your home now,” I answered, my teeth aching with how badly I wanted to yell at her.
“Right,” she drawled out. “Or else you kill my parents.” She rolled her lips in between her lips. Weight settled heavily on my chest. Remy was up to something and I knew it was probably going to send me over the edge.
“Remy…”
She jerked her head towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “I’ll just go hang out in my prison, with my legs spread, for whenever you’re ready.”
She had reduced herself to a kept whore.
I was going to put my ring on her finger and give her my last name in a matter of days, but she saw herself as my whore. A plaything to entertain me when I had the need. I had one of those already. I didn’t need to put a ring on Remy’s
