“What?” I demand, my face scrunching up in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
Ariana lets out a frustrated sigh. “Do you not know anything?” she spits. “Roman and I were together in high school. He was everything to me. The only person who ever truly understood me, and while our relationship was toxic and dangerous, he always stood by me. Roman is my whole fucking world, and at one point, I was his too.”
I suck in a gasp, my eyes going wide as I take it all in. She was his girlfriend in high school, probably the first girl he ever really cared for, and still to this day, they are close, despite everything that’s gone down. But I guess that explains why she looks at him as though the sun shines out of his ass. So why the hell didn’t he do anything about it? He just let his father take her away and then marry her to rub it in his face. “How the hell did you end up married to Giovanni?”
“Because that’s just what Giovanni does,” she says, not really giving me the answer I want to know. “When he sees the boys getting too close to someone, he finds a way to destroy it, just like he did to me. We were only sixteen when he took me away from Roman. He did the same to Felicity, only she wasn’t so lucky as to get away with her life, and now you. What do you think is going to happen now that he’s watched you sitting at his dining table, doting on his sons and giving them hope for a brighter future? I know you might think you’re strong enough to change the system, but you’re a nobody, just like me. I’m not the only dead man walking.”
I let out a shaky breath, her words rocking me right to my core, but all I can do is stare back at her as she continues. “I fuck because it’s all I’ve got. It’s the only way that I can stab Giovanni in the back and it just happens that his sons love both a good fuck and screwing over their father. Fucking is a win-win situation for me, and if that makes me a whore, then so be it. But you, you might as well be fucking those boys right on the goddamn table. We’re both playing a dangerous game, but you’re the one rubbing it in his face.”
Without another word, Ariana pushes past me and pulls the door open. She walks straight out without even a glance back at me as she leaves me standing here, my heart racing with fear.
It’s a pattern. Giovanni has taken every girl that the boys have gotten close to. He took Roman’s high school girlfriend and then killed Felicity right in front of their faces. If they were to get close to me like that … fuck. No wonder Roman has been keeping his distance and insisting his brothers do as well, though I can guarantee that’s to save their heartbreak. He probably doesn’t care all that much about my life.
If I were smart, I’d keep them at arm’s length and be the perfect little house slave. I should move back down to the torture chamber and keep myself far away from them. Though, if they really cared for me, they’d let me go and send me somewhere their father would never find me.
My heart races with the fear of what’s to come, and if I were anywhere but here, I’d hide out in this closet all night long, but the thought of being left alone in the DeAngelis mansion has me breaking out into a cold sweat.
I scurry out of the closet and make my way back to the dining hall, and despite it only being a few steps away, I can’t help but watch my back, the nerves quickly getting the best of me. The dining hall looks just as I left it, people talking among themselves while waiters scurry around, desperate to make the night perfect for their boss, but the boys look anything but comfortable.
They speak quietly with their father, but they’re all too aware that Ariana returned without me. All three of them glance my way as I hover near the entrance, relief settling over their ruggedly handsome faces as I make my way back to the table.
Keeping my gaze down and not drawing attention to myself, I drop back into my seat and shrug off the boys’ touch as they attempt to take my hand under the table. Marcus looks at me with a concerned and suspicious stare but I immediately drop my gaze, determined not to give Giovanni another reason to want me dead.
“Why haven’t you found this guy yet?” Giovanni says, continuing whatever conversation they were having before I came waltzing back in here like my life was hanging in the balance.