Page 17 of Ruthless

Pressing my forehead against the steel, I try to remember how to breathe.

He’ll go easy on her. He has to.

No matter how much he might hate me, Dante can’t afford to have two nurses from the same hospital go missing within a few hours of one another. Not when people may have spotted the two of us together last night at the club. It’ll attract too much attention. Unless he has men on the inside at the hospital who can create a good cover story.

So far, his hostility is strategic.I’mhis target, not Angela,and any man calculating and patient enough to plot out a kidnapping years in advance won’t jeopardize things by lashing out over a few whispered words.

On the other hand, maybe I’m totally wrong and he’s about to strangle her.

Chapter 6

Dante

Angela struggles in my grip, but I only release her with a little shove once we’re far enough away from the basement door to keep our conversation relatively private.

“What the fuck are you doing?” My blood boils as I stalk toward her. “Yourfriendshipwith Sara ended the second I brought her into this house.”

Angela stiffens and opens her mouth to reply, only to pale at my expression. She stills like a mouse attempting to avoid a predator’s eye after it’s already too late.

Satisfaction surges through my veins.

These days, doling out punishment is the only thing that helps banish the lingering sensation of helplessness.

My jaw clenches. My mother would be ashamed of what pain has turned me into.

Luckily for both of us, she’s no longer around to see the monster I’ve become.

Leaning in, I drop my voice to a whisper, and the warning coils like a snake between us. “If I catch you talking to her without myexpresspermission again, you’ll regret it.” I allow her a glimpse of the violence thrumming beneath my skin. “Understood?”

She swallows audibly. “Yes, sir.”

I jerk my chin toward the stairs and watch as she scurries away. It’s nearly impossible to think past the biting, thrashing beast behind my ribs.

Again.

Sara’s trying to flee meagain.

Straightening, I fix my collar and cuffs until they sit on my wrists exactly as I like them. Normally, I would have changed out of my suit after work, but as soon as I walked in the door, Tony, one of my soldiers who works as extra security a few times a week, told me he saw Angela on the basement security cameras.

All thoughts of routine flew out the window in favor of dealing with Angela’s insubordination. An irritation I didn’t need on top of everything else.

Instead of heading to my room, I retrace my steps and punch in the code. The impact of the cell door slamming open against the cinder block wall reverberates down my arm.

The noise jars Sara out of her fetal position, and she surges to her feet, brandishing a glass shard. She looks good like this, all furious and bloodthirsty, her neck draped in bruises and red lipstick still marking her cheek.

“Sleep well?” I stop just out of reach and stare down at her.

Sara’s knuckles tighten until the skin flushes red. “Don’t you dare hurt Angela.” Despite her defiance, her voice shakes. That telltale sign of fear stiffens my cock. “This was my idea, not hers. If you’re going to punish anyone, it should be me.”

Blood rushes through my ears. “Punish you?” I grab her wrist, squeezing until she drops the glass with a hiss of pain. “That was always the plan. But now?” I study the lines of her face, committing her terror to memory as if the image will be enough to lull me to sleep without nightmares. “Now it’s going to be so much worse.”

Sara shudders. “Dante?—”

“Pleasure or pain?”

She’ll be a weakness only so long as I allow it. I can’t give her a chance to poison my head with lies or prey on my sympathy.

Not that I possess much of that anymore. My captors tried to beat it out of me, but like a fool, I clung to the shattered pieces of my humanity for Sara’s sake, so she would recognize me once I was finally free.