Focus on the road. There is no reason to argue semantics with her right now. She’s mine, even if she won’t say it.
But I see her damn lips curl up. She knows her not saying she’s mine fucks with me.
I try to figure out what gave me away. Usually, only my sister can read me. My grip is loose on the steering wheel. I’m driving fast, but not excessive. My body is relaxed, sunk into my seat. And my facial expressions are blank.
Gia looks at me dreamily.
“What?” I snap a little too loudly.
This earns me a full smile. Damn it. She likes getting under my skin.
“Gia, I don’t like being disobeyed. You will learn that soon. So when I ask you a question or give you a command, I expect you to follow it. Understand?”
/>
She giggles. “Yes, sir.”
I glare at her, unable to hold in my rage at her little mistake.
“Why are you giggling? You think me risking my life to take you is funny?”
She takes a deep breath, calming her giggles. “No.”
I hesitate before asking my next question, but it’s the one I want answered the most. “Are you afraid of me?”
She pauses. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you call me Gia.”
I shake my head. “That won’t stop me from raping you when I get the chance. It won’t stop my temper from beating you when you disobey me. It won’t stop me from breaking you.”
She nods. “Maybe not. But you call me Gia instead of whore. You see me as a human instead of property. That’s a start. You can’t be worse than him.”
I shake my head. She has no idea.
My phone buzzes, right on cue. My car has the ability to answer calls hands-free, but I don’t want Gia to hear; nor do I want Dante to have a chance at hearing Gia next to me.
So I retrieve my phone from my pocket and answer the call privately on my phone.
“Hello, Dante. What can I do for you?” I answer, loving how much it pisses him off to use Dante instead of Mr. Russo. It will never get old.
“You can get your fucking team to my office ASAP. My whore is missing. Stolen, no doubt. Your fucking fancy security system and team did nothing to stop it!”
I grin. I can’t help myself at hearing his panic on the other end of the line. Even if I didn’t want Gia for myself, I should have stolen her to listen to his panic.
“My team wasn’t responsible for you or your whore’s security this afternoon. I told you, you shouldn’t have left the house until the team was set up to escort you.”
“You don’t get to fucking lecture me, Caspian. Not today! Fucking fix it, or your whole team is fired.”
“I will have my team meet you at your office. We will find her. If she’s still in Italy, we will find her.”
“And if she’s not?” Dante’s voice trembles as he speaks.
“Then, we will find you a new whore while we track down her kidnapper and kill him.”
I end the call. Pocketing my phone.