He snorted, laying back. “So you’re saying all I have to do is take you in the woods—”
“No more woods, that was not comfortable,” I cut in quickly. He rolled on top of me, grinning.
“I think we’ve both grown… Someone is a little affectionate this morning.”
Rolling my eyes, I tried to push him off but he didn’t budge, “Don’t you have work to do? I’m still the boss and can sleep in for another half-hour.”
“Five more minutes, ma’am.” He smiled before kissing me.
Reach into the pillowcase, take the knife, slit his throat! the voice in my mind screamed, but instead I kissed him back, forcing myself to bear it for now.
I’d play along.
I’d let him and Savino think I was sitting in the palm of their hands. Then I’d get to Ethan.
DONATELLA - 14 DAYS AGO
“I know what you’re up to, Savino,” I said, sitting across from him at The Vocelli, one of his many restaurants throughout the city, Toby standing right behind me.
Savino ignored me, cutting into his duck and spreading it around the sauce on his plate, finally shoving it into his mouth, his tongue yapping like a dog.
“You can either work for me, or die trying to get a slice of what was never yours in the first place.”
He snickered, licking his lips as he asked, “What’s the difference between working for you and working for your brother?”
“For one, you aren’t kissing the feet of the man who killed your daughter,” I said coldly…so coldly that he seemed to freeze then glared up at me, nostrils flaring. I smirked, reaching for my knife and fork. “Don’t get pissy with me; you’re the one who asked a question you weren’t ready to hear the answer to.”
“Get the fuck out!”
“Why would I do that? I haven’t even touched my steak,” I asked him, stabbing the meat on my plate.
“I’m not asking you again!” he yelled and pointed his fork at me. “Take her out of here!”
I looked around the mostly empty restaurant at the ten…no, twelve men all around us, none of them moving. It took him a minute to realize that, too.
“Are you deaf!” he yelled, spitting duck out of his mouth.
But still they didn’t move.
“That awkward moment when you thought you had bought my men, and they ending up giving that money straight to me,” I said as if I were speaking to myself, lifting up my wine glass. All I had to do was look to one of them, the very same men he’d demanded drag me out of here, and each one of them lifted their guns, pointing them at Savino. He froze, staring at them blankly. “Don’t feel bad…” I said, leaning back in my chair, bring the glass to my lips, “My family has always made being powerful look too easy. It makes people like you think you can be the same. Truth is many of them might even like you. Might even believe you and want to support you. But unfortunately, their fear of me…of the Callahan Family… outweighs everything else.”
Well trained dogs never leave…not even if their owner abuses them.
Licking his lips again, he put his fork and knife down, leaning back as I did, folding his hands over each other as he gave me his attention. “If you were going to kill me, I’d already be dead.”
“Who says you aren’t in the process of dying now? I could have already poisoned your duck… It tasted off, didn’t it?” I finished the rest of the wine in my glass, never taking my eyes off him. “My father always told me not to play with my food… But seeing the fear in your eyes right now makes me wonder just how much further I can push you.”
Still he didn’t reply but he did swallow slowly, the lump of his Adam’s apple pressing against the collar of his shirt.
“Ms. Callahan—”
“Call me Donatella,” I cut in, holding the glass closer to my face. “You and I are about become much closer.”
“How so?”
At that, I stood up and Toby, who hadn’t said word since arriving, pulled out my chair to make room for me to move. “I hold your life in my hands. How much closer can you and I possibly be?”
He opened to his mouth to speak, but I cut in once more.