Page 26 of The Beast Who Broke Me
Just as I’m sucking in the air to scream, I hear it.
A familiar click and whirr. The sound of the machinery engaging. The elevator descending.
It used to scare me. In this moment, it’s the sweetest sound of all.
I only have seconds to get myself under control. I reach up to wipe my eyes, horrified to find them damp, and rub my face lightly while I tell myself toget a fucking grip.
The elevator hits the landing. The doors slide open. Damiano strolls out, hits the lights, and looks at me. A slow smile lifts his lips. “You got anything else you wanna prove to me, golden boy?”
It hurts to hear him call me that. He did it on purpose, just like I’ve been calling him “Dami” on purpose.
But he came back. The beast returned as commanded.
“Come over here,” I say, and my voice is steady. A minor miracle.
He ambles over, taking in my disheveled state with visible enjoyment. “What now?” He drops into the chair at the foot of the bed, the throne he liked to sit in while watching me. Spreads his knees wide, arms on the rests. “You want to crawl over and suck my dick for me?”
He’s crude and violent and filled with hatred. But his suggestion triggers a taste at the back of my tongue, salt and musk. His hand fisted in my hair. My jaw stretched wide and aching.
“Take off the collar,” I order him.
He laughs. “Oh, I musta left the key upstairs.”
“Take it off,” I repeat. “Now.”
“Jesus. You need to learn to take a joke.” He stands to fish in his pocket, and I wait with what I hope looks like impatience rather than the desperate need to have this collar off of me.
Was this whole endeavor pointless? He picked up on my discomfort so easily. He’s disdainful about my orders unless I threaten Rosa and the others.
And I don’t want to threaten them every time I need something from him.
I need more than one chain around this beast’s neck if I’m going to compete with his Boss’s prior claim. More than the threat of the Morellis.
I need a carrot as well as a stick.
He steps forward, and I bend my neck forward to allow him access to the lock. His fingers graze the nape of my neck this time, and a shudder goes through me that I can’t suppress.
He pauses. His thumb traces a slow half-circle against my skin, just below the collar’s edge—deliberate, proprietary, nothing to do with the lock.
Then the lock clicks open, the collar falls away, and I can breathe again.
When I look up, his eyes are still filled with that odd hunger, the look of a man who doesn’t know if he wants to kill me or fuck me.
It’s exactly the kind of weakness that I’m looking for.
“Thank you,” I say. “Now sit down again.”
His eyebrows twitch, but he sits back in his throne.
“You understand what all this was about,” I begin. “To show you not only that youmustobey me, Dami, but that youwill. No matter how much you want me dead, no matter how tempting it might be. You will keep me alive and safe, and in return, I’ll continue helping you.”
“Helpingme?” he snarls incredulously.
“Helping you.”
He scoffs. “Big Gee said he’s handling the Obelisk thing. I don’t need you for anything.”
“Yes, you do. Luca D’Amato is not going to be thrilled that you gave the Bratva a legitimate grievance against the Families.” I’m glad I met the man, got a sense of him. He’s a more dangerous enemy than I anticipated—and I had no idea how lethal that husband of his was. “And you’re still supposed to be finding out who’s killing off my people,” I go on. “Your Underboss tasked you with that, and I assume you’ve still made zero progress on that.”
