Page 10 of Claimed Through Deception

"He acquired two kilos of product. He is having his guys plant it in the air vents of Livia’s apartment while she is at work I don’t have the day yet. By next week, the case will be complete. After that, the dirty cops kick her door down. They find the coke. They arrest her for distribution. Under civil forfeiture, the state seizes every dollar in her bank accounts. Her bakery fund vanishes. She catches a twenty-year sentence."

That low down dirty son of a bitch.

You give a worm a tree and suddenly they think they are the king of the jungle.

"Do you want me to intercept?" Enzo asks quietly. "I can have Marco and the cops buried before midnight. We pull the drugs. The girl never even knows."

My first instinct is an urge to hunt. Marco breathed her air. Marco put his hands on her. Marco plotted to put her in a cage. I want to drive a knife through his eye and watch him choke on his own blood.

I lean back in my leather chair. My fingers tap a slow rhythm against the armrest.

I look at the photograph of Livia. Her spine is straight. Her jaw is set. She is fiercely, violently independent. She relies on no one.

If I step in and save her, if I kill Marco and wipe the slate clean, she will just keep walking. She will keep pouring beers, saving her crumpled bills, and looking at me with that same defiant hatred. She will never come to me willingly. She hates men with power. She equates my authority with the abuse of her father.

She will fight me until her last breath.

Unless she has no breath left.

The logic is twisted. It is morally black. But I am not a hero. I am a predator who found something he wants to keep, and I will tear the world apart to secure it.

If she loses her apartment, her money, and her freedom, she will hit rock bottom. The world will chew her up and spit her out. And when she is sitting in a cold, concrete holding cell with her entire future completely obliterated, I will walk through the doors. I will be her only way out. I will save her from the streets, and I will pull her behind my walls where nothing can ever touch her again.

I will break her independence so I can be her absolute protection.

"Don't intercept the cops," I order.

Enzo’s eyes narrow slightly, but his face remains blank. "You want the raid to happen. You want her to fall."

"I want her to know she needs me," I correct him. "Let them plant the product. Let the cops kick the door down."

"And Marco?"

My blood runs completely cold. Marco's usefulness will expire after he has given the order. Keep an eye on him. Once he gives the go, have Alessio pick him up. Then take him to the docks. Make it last hours."

Enzo nods. He turns and walks out of the office, closing the heavy oak doors behind him.

I close the manila folder, stand, grab my suit jacket from the back of the chair, and slide it over my shoulders. I check the weight of the 1911 at my hip.

The alley behind The Neon Crow smells like rotting garbage and spilled beer. I stand in the deep shadow of a brick wall, out of the glare of the flickering streetlamp. The cold night air bites at my skin, but I don't feel it. I am entirely focused on the heavy metal door at the back of the bar.

It is 3:00 AM.

The heavy metal door groans open.

Livia steps out. She looks exhausted. Her shoulders slump slightly, the rigid armor she wears on the floor finally slipping. She carries a cheap, worn tote bag over her shoulder. She locks the deadbolt behind her, her keys jingling loudly in the quiet alley.

She turns to walk toward the street, and I step out of the shadows. She freezes. Her breath catches in a sharp gasp, and her hand flies to her chest. She steps back, eyes wide as she takes in my massive frame blocking the narrow alley.

"You," she whispers.

I walk toward her without saying a word.

Her survival instincts kick in. She turns, calculating the distance to the street, but I am faster. I close the gap in three long strides.

She backs up, her spine hitting the rough brick wall. I step into her space, bringing my hands up and planting them flat against the bricks on either side of her head. I cage her in, exactly the way I did inside the bar.

She is trapped.