A sob escaped me suddenly, and I clamped my hand over my mouth, forcing the rest to remain. It wasn’t time to break down. Not yet. Not until I knew who bought me this time. I needed to find out if I was going to survive.
I refused to be a pawn any longer. I was going to put up the fight of a lifetime, one that would give me what I needed most.
I needed my freedom.
Or I would die trying.
Either way, I never wanted to see Lucas Valentino again.
Just thinking about his name hurt, but I forced it away. There would be time, if I could get out of here, to mourn the loss of the fleeting happiness I thought I had found with Lucas.
And plan his demise. One thing was for certain. Lucas had better stay far away from me in the future, or the next time I saw him, he might get a knife to the gut for what he had put me through. This wasn’t love. I didn’t know what his reasoning was behind it, but it wasn’t going to be good enough.
I just hoped that it had been worth it for him.
Steeling myself against any further thoughts about Lucas, I did the same thing as before and looked for something I could use to defend myself against whoever was going to come through that door. There were no sheets on the bed. The bed frame itself was iron and bolted to the ground.
Aside from the black negligee I was wearing, I had nothing else.
Stupidly, I tried the door. It was locked from the outside. If I got out of this alive, I was going to go somewhere that no one could ever find me. I would change my name and just disappear.
Stepping away from the door, I ignored the bare mattress and chose to stand in the furthest corner instead. Maybe I would get lucky and my new owner would be old so that I could rush past him when he entered the room and find my way out of this hellhole.
Or maybe no one would come at all. Maybe this was Lucas’s perverse game, one where he got his kicks by putting me up there repeatedly so he could purchase me.
At least I would know what to expect.
I hated this feeling. The anxiety for what was going to happen next was awful, but not as awful as feeling betrayed by the way that Lucas had walked away earlier.
It was like I didn’t even matter to him.
It wasn’t the same act he had put on back at the penthouse, but none of that mattered any longer. Right now, I was focused on making it through the next moment.
And after that, I was going to erase Lucas from my brain, my heart, and my body.
The door opened, and my hopes died as a guy around Lucas’s age walked in, a smirk on his face. The door shut almost immediately, and I pressed myself against the wall, not bothering to move from my spot.
“Leda D’Agostino,” he replied, his voice full of malice. “You are every bit like your father described.”
I clenched my jaw, choosing not to respond. Maybe if I irritated him enough, he would leave me alone.
“You know,” he continued, clearly not caring about my actions. “I’ve dreamed of this moment for quite some time. And I have to admit. You’re no disappointment.”
I didn’t blink, hiding my fear from him. What the fuck was he talking about?
“And as much as I would have loved being the first man you fuck,” he said after a moment, stripping off his coat. “It seems that thewhoregot to you first.”
The whore? What was he talking about?
“That fucker,” the stranger seethed. “A whore who thinks he was a Don. It should have beenme.Not him. It was my uncle’s legacy, and that senile old man just gave it away.” His grin turned into a snarl. “But that doesn’t matter right now, does it, Leda? You and I? We’re going to have alotof fun.”
“Don’t come any closer,” I finally said, hoping that my voice was steady.
He laughed and stepped closer. “Did you tell him the same thing? Right before he fucked you bloody and raw? I promise you, I’m twice the man that whore is. Valentino will be nothing more than a smear in your thoughts when I finish with you.”
His words were chilling, and I felt the first frisson of fear snake through me. Unless I was able to somehow get away from him and out of this room, I wasn’t going to survive him. It was his snake-like eyes. Where Lucas showed me a degree of warmth, there was nothing of that sort in this man.
And the fact that he had a personal vendetta against Lucas made things even more complicated.