Marcello didn’t laugh.
He just shook his head and steered me past the helipad and the Olympic size pool, yanking on my hand as we passed the staff living quarters. Their backyard—if you could call it that—was the size of a city block.
Men with guns lined the perimeter, making it clear I would never leave here on my own. I was a prisoner in this castle for the foreseeable future.
We stopped in front of what looked like an indestructible metal shed. My eyebrows knitted together as he lifted a panel on the wall, revealing a digital scanner. He held his right palm against the glass that flashed green as it confirmed his identity.
Inside, it didn’t look like much. Steel walls with a bunch of monitors on them. A long desk occupied one side of the room and had at least a dozen more screens. I moved toward them, staring in disbelief at the live video footage.
“What is this place?” I asked, bewildered by all the secret spy shit. “Do you watch me from here?”
He shrugged, unaffected by my last question. “It’s where I work when I’m home.”
At least now I knew for sure there was a camera in my bedroom. There was footage of all the founders’ mansions, including Wellington Manor. My mouth lowered in shock at the sight of at least twenty feeds, some of which were of my apartment in Brooklyn.
A chill rolled down my spine as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on my head. I looked up at Marcello. “How long have you been watching me?”
He rubbed a hand across his chin and glanced at the monitors. “Years.”
“Why?”
I was afraid of the answer, but needed to know the truth.
“Because we have a lot of enemies. You don’t want to know how many times we’ve come close to losing you.”
“Why would anyone want to hurt me?”
Marcello turned to face me, staring down at me with those beautiful but sad blue eyes. “Because the future Queen of The Devil’s Knights holds a lot of power in our world. Men who are not used to taking orders from women will answer to you. They will fight for you, die for you, be whatever you need. We are all at your beck and call. It’s our duty to serve you.”
“So my grandfather wasn’t making that up?”
He shook his head. “We need you, Alex. Our lives are in danger. There are certain rules, a code every Knight must follow. Even in times of war, we can’t break the rules.”
“Then why have all of you been assholes to me for years?” I threw my hands onto my hips and held his gaze. “You guys could have been nicer to me if I’m so important to you.”
He let his eyes lower to the ground and sighed. “Have I ever hurt you?”
“Not physically. But you’ve hurt me in other ways.”
“It was never my intention.” He tucked a loose curl behind my ear and rubbed the pad of his thumb across my cheek. “I’m not like my brothers. I don’t take pleasure out of other people’s suffering.”
“I know. But you locked me in my room for days.”
“I did thatforyou, Alex.”
He stared at my mouth and wet his lips. For a moment, I thought he would kiss me. Not once had he ever tried, and I’d always wondered how he would taste.
As if this was too much intimacy for him, Marcello pulled away, dropping his hand to his side. Just like that, our brief connection gone.
He moved to the center of the room and dropped to his knees in front of a steel door built into the cement. I watched in awe as he turned the wheel on top of the door, spinning it with a groan.
“Stand back,” he said before the door crashed to the ground a few inches from my sneakers.
I poked my head inside the hole, surprised to find a metal ladder attached to the wall. “Who are you people? This is like something from a James Bond movie.”
Marcello chuckled. “My family is full of surprises.”
“I bet this house has tons of secret passages.”