Gian (Trassato Crime Family #1)(19)

CHAPTER ELEVEN




Evangeline



My eyes fluttered open, and I blinked a few times, struggling to adjust to the inky darkness of the room. After checking into the hotel, I stripped off my shoes and my jeans and climbed into the bed in a long-sleeve shirt. Worrying had kept me from sleeping soundly for days, so it didn’t surprise me when I feel asleep almost immediately.

I glanced at the clock.

12:58 a.m. and I was fully awake.

Sighing, I moved to switch on the lamp on the nightstand. Mid-reach, the shadows shifted, and I realized what had woken me. A man stood at the side of my bed.

My heart banged against my ribcage with enough force that I was surprised I didn’t hear a bone crack. A scream burst from my lips, but like lightning, a hand covered my mouth. I dug my fingernails into the man’s hands, thrashing, my hair curtaining my face.

“Jesus, Evie. Relax. It’s me.”

I froze, and my vision focused on the man looming over me, his features hidden in the shadows.

“Gian?” I whispered when he lifted his hand. “What are you doing here?”

He flipped on the light next to the bed. “What do you think I’m doing here?” he asked, his quiet response laced with enough displeasure to make my stomach to flip over.

I scrambled to sit up, my back pressed against the wooden headboard, clutching the starched white sheet to my chest. “I…I…” I swallowed over the emotion stuck in my throat. “I don’t know.”

Pacing along the side of the bed, he pointed his finger at me, his eyes heavy-lidded. “You think I should ignore the fact that my fiancée climbed out of my bathroom window and checked into a hotel across town? You think I should go on with my life and pretend you didn’t make me into some f*cking joke and put both of us in danger with your half-assed plan to escape? You think that’s reasonable? You think that sounds like something I would do?”

I curled my fingers a little tighter around the sheet. “Fake fiancée,” I said through gritted teeth.

He halted. “What the f*ck does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything.” I tossed the sheet off my legs and jumped out of the bed. I wouldn’t get anywhere, cowering under the covers like a frightened child. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I planted my palm against the center of his chest, ignoring the wall of muscles underneath the pads of my fingers. “Nothing I do is your business. Not where I go. Not who I talk to. Hell, if I wanted to go out and f*ck strangers at the bar night after night, you couldn’t say a damn thing because we have a fake relationship. You get that? Fake. Let me spell it for you in case you didn’t catch what I said: F. A. K. E.”

His hand clamped around the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him. I could see every tiny fleck of green and gold in his volatile eyes. “You’re wrong. As long as you’re under my protection, you will do everything I tell you. If I say jump, you jump. If I ask you to demonstrate a pirouette or whatever the hell you dancers do, you’ll do ten. And if you so much as look at another—”

My heart rate skyrocketed, and my vision dwindled to a pinprick. I couldn’t hear over the rage swirling inside of my head.

“No,” I said without thinking about the consequences of my answer. I knew better than to taunt this man.

His eyes darkened. “No?” The single word floated from his lips in slow motion. He released my hand, and I stumbled backward, the backs of my thighs colliding with the edge of the mattress. “Let me be clear. If you so much as feign interest in another man, I will destroy him.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, my eyes flaring.

His temple ticked hard. “Exactly what you think it means. In my world, a man who can’t keep his fiancée in line loses respect. He isn’t a real f*cking man.”

Smoke-like tendrils of defeat coiled around my chest, and I plopped down on the bed, burying my face in my hands. “Why are you doing this? I just want out. I don’t get it. I’ll sign a blood oath, pledge my first-born, or get lobotomy. Whatever you want. Name it, and end this farce.”

The bed dipped next to me, and we sat side-by-side in silence. My skin prickled with awareness. The suffocating weight of my predicament flooded the air, making me feel more claustrophobic than I’d ever divulge out loud. Although I wanted to ask him to go, I knew the request would be in vain.

He pried my hands away from my face and pinned them to my sides. “I’m trying to protect you, Evangeline, I really am. You need to stop fighting me every step of the way. Play by my rules for a little longer, and you’ll get your life back.”

I twisted my torso to face him. “I will?”

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and the pads of his fingers tarried along the side of my neck. I could only describe the look in his eyes as torn and adoring. My pulse raced under his fingertips. “You will.”

I swayed toward him, and his arm circled my shoulders, pulling me next to him. “You promise?”

“Yeah,” he whispered, his warm breath ruffling the top of my hair. “You need to stop fighting me, though. Tony is already suspicious, and while I trust him with my life, he could say something to someone who wants to take me down.”

“Like who?”

“All you need to know is that the threat is real. These people kill first and ask questions later. What you saw that night at my club is nothing. They don’t give second chances.”