He didn’t say it, but she heard it anyway.
The drive took them out of the city, into industrial areas she’d never seen before.
Warehouses.
Abandoned factories.
The kind of places where people disappeared.
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
The SUV pulled up to a massive warehouse, rust-streaked and decrepit on the outside, but when Marco punched in a code and the bay door rolled up, the inside was…
different.
Clean.
Well-lit.
And filled with men.
At least twenty of them, all dressed in black, all armed with guns that made Eve’s blood run cold.
“Boss.” They straightened when Dimitri stepped out of the SUV, their fists going to their chests in some kind of salute.
He nodded, then held out his hand to Eve.
“Come.” She took it because what else could she do?
Run?
She was surrounded by armed men in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
He led her through the space, past men who watched her with curious but respectful eyes, toward the back where a single chair sat under a bright overhead light.
And tied to that chair was a man.
Bloodied.
Beaten.
Crying.
Eve’s steps faltered.
“Keep walking,” Dimitri said softly.
“You wanted to understand.
Now you will.” He pulled over a second chair…clean, simple…and positioned it ten feet away from the bound man.
“Sit.” She sat, her legs shaking.
Dimitri shrugged off his suit jacket, handed it to Marco, and rolled up his shirtsleeves with methodical precision.
“Dante Moretti,” he said, his voice carrying across the warehouse.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch.
“Do you know why you’re here?” The bound man…Dante…sobbed.
“Please, Dimitri, I can explain…” “I asked if you know why you’re here.” “I…
I made a mistake….” “A mistake.” Dimitri’s laugh was cold.
“You stole from me.
You fed information to the Rossi family about my shipments.
You betrayed me.
That’s not a mistake, Dante.
That’s a choice.” “I didn’t mean…they threatened my family….” “And you think I don’t protect the families of my men?” Dimitri moved closer, and even from where Eve sat, she could see the shift in him.
The businessman was gone.
Something else…something ancient and merciless…had taken his place.
“You had a choice.
Come to me.
Tell me about the threat.
Let me handle it.
Instead, you betrayed me.
You stole three million dollars’ worth of merchandise.
You cost me a shipment.
You made me look weak.” “I’m sorry!
Please, I’ll pay it back, I’ll….” “You can’t pay back trust, Dante.” Dimitri picked up something from a nearby table.
Pliers.
Industrial.
Rusted with old blood.
Eve’s stomach turned.
“I want you to understand something,” Dimitri said, his voice conversational now, like he was discussing the weather.
“When you work for me, you’re family.
I protect you.
I feed your children.
I pay for your mother’s cancer treatments.
I ensure your sister gets into the best schools.
In return, I ask for one thing.
Loyalty.” He grabbed Dante’s hand, forced it flat on the chair’s armrest.
“You betrayed that loyalty.
So now, I’m going to teach you….and everyone watching…what happens when you betray the Devil.” He positioned the pliers around Dante’s pinky finger.
“Wait…wait, please…..” The crack of bone breaking echoed through the warehouse.
Dante screamed.
A horrible, animal sound that made Eve’s blood turn to ice.
She couldn’t look away.
Couldn’t move.
Could barely breathe.
Dimitri’s face was calm.
Unaffected.
Like he was performing surgery, not torture.
“That’s one,” he said.
“You have nine more.
Let’s see how many it takes before you beg for death.” He broke the next finger.
Then the next.
Each one accompanied by screams that seemed to scrape against Eve’s skull.
By the fourth finger, Dante was sobbing so hard he couldn’t form words.
By the fifth, he’d vomited on himself.
Dimitri didn’t stop.
When all ten fingers were broken, bent at impossible angles, he stepped back and surveyed his work.
“Marco.
Bring the bat.” Marco….loyal, silent Marco….handed over a metal baseball bat without a word.
“Knees are interesting,” Dimitri said, almost conversationally.
He was talking to Dante, but Eve felt like the words were for her.
“Break them right, and a man never walks again.
He crawls.
Like the insect he is.” The first swing shattered Dante’s left kneecap with a wet, crunching sound.
Eve pressed her hand to her mouth, tasting bile.
The second swing took out the right knee.
Dante’s screams had turned to whimpers now.
Broken sounds.
Barely human.
“Almost done,” Dimitri said.
He picked up a different tool….Eve couldn’t see what it was….and grabbed Dante’s face.
“Open your mouth.” “No….please…no—” “I said open.” When Dante didn’t obey, Dimitri forced his mouth open, and Eve saw the tool clearly now: dental pliers.
“You know what’s interesting about teeth?” Dimitri asked, his voice still that horrible, conversational tone.
“They’re connected to the nerves in your skull.
Pulling them out is one of the most painful experiences a human can endure.” He yanked.
Dante’s scream was unlike anything Eve had ever heard.
Primal.
Agonized.
Dimitri pulled three teeth before he stopped, tossing them on the ground like trash.
“One more thing,” he said.
“I want to make sure you understand the gravity of your betrayal.” He nodded to his men, who brought over a large bucket of water and a cloth.
Waterboarding.
Eve had read about it.
Seen it in movies.
But watching it happen…watching Dimitri hold the cloth over Dante’s face, watching him pour water over it again and again while Dante thrashed and choked and drowned without dying…was something else entirely.
After the third round, Dimitri stopped.
Dante hung limp in the chair, barely conscious, broken in every way that mattered.
“Marco,” Dimitri said, his voice still calm, still controlled.
“Take care of him.
Lock him up.
Let him think about his choices.” “Yes, boss.” Marco gestured to two men.
“Drag him away.” They cut Dante loose, and he collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
They dragged him….literally dragged him, because he couldn’t walk, couldn’t even crawl…toward a door at the back of the warehouse.
Dimitri turned to face his assembled men.
“Let this be a lesson,” he said, his voice carrying.
“Betray me, and you pray for death.
Because what I’ll give you is so much worse.” The men nodded, fists to chests again.
Then Dimitri turned to Eve.
She was still sitting in that chair, her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.
And….God help her…her thighs were pressed together.
Her pussy was wet.
Her nipples were hard beneath her blouse.
She was aroused.
By watching him torture a man.
By watching him break bones and pull teeth and drown someone without killing them.
What kind of monster was she?
Dimitri walked toward her slowly, and she saw something flicker in his eyes.
Recognition.
Satisfaction.
He knew.
He knew she was wet.
“Come, cara mia,” he said, offering his hand.
“We’re done here.” She couldn’t move.
Couldn’t speak.
Could barely process what she’d just witnessed.
He pulled her to her feet, and her legs nearly gave out.
“Walk,” he commanded.
She walked.
One foot in front of the other.
Through the warehouse full of dangerous men.
Into the SUV.
Into the back seat where she pressed herself against the door as far from Dimitri as possible.
Marco started driving.
The silence was suffocating.
Eve stared out the window, her mind a chaotic mess of horror and arousal and confusion and shame.
How could she be wet?
How could her body respond to something so brutal, so inhuman, so….
“You’re aroused.” Dimitri’s voice cut through her thoughts.
She shook her head, unable to look at him.
“Don’t lie to me, Eve.
I can smell it.
I can see it in the way you’re pressing your thighs together.
In the way your nipples are hard.
In the way you can’t stop trembling.” “Stop,” she whispered.
“Why?
Because the truth is uncomfortable?
Because you can’t reconcile wanting a monster?” “You’re not a monster.” Her voice cracked.
“You’re worse.
You’re…” “I’m the Devil,” he finished.
“I told you that from the beginning.
I told you who I am.
What I am.
And you chose to stay anyway.” Tears burned her eyes.
“I didn’t know….” “Yes, you did.
You just didn’t want to see it.” His hand reached across the seat, and she flinched.
He paused, then withdrew.
“I won’t touch you until you ask me to.
But understand this, cara mia: what you saw today is a fraction of what I’m capable of.
And if you can’t accept that, then we need to end this now.” She should say yes.
Should tell him to stop the car.
Should run as far and as fast as she could.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Because as much as she was terrified, as much as she was horrified, as much as she hated herself for it…..She was still wet.
Still desperate.
Still his.
The rest of the drive passed in silence.
Eve cried quietly, her forehead pressed against the window, while Dimitri watched her with those cold, calculating eyes.
When they finally pulled into his building’s garage, she practically ran for the elevator.
He followed, unhurried, predatory.
The elevator ride up felt like descending into hell.
When the doors opened to his penthouse, she headed straight for the bedroom.
“Eve.” His voice stopped her in the doorway.
“We need to talk about what you saw.” She turned slowly, and the look on his face…dark, hungry, knowing…made her blood run cold and hot all at once.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“I can’t reconcile…I don’t understand why I…” “Why you’re wet?” He started walking toward her, and she backed up instinctively.
“Why your body responded to watching me break a man?
Why the violence made you ache for me instead of running from me?” “Stop.” “No.” He kept coming, kept stalking, kept pushing her back until she hit the wall.
“You need to understand something, piccola.
You’re not broken for being aroused by power.
By dominance.
By the knowledge that I would do far worse to anyone who tried to take you from me.” His hand came up, cupped her face.
“You’re aroused because you finally saw the truth.
I’m not a good man.
I’m not a safe man.
I’m the monster under the bed, the nightmare in the dark.
And some part of you…the part you’ve been suppressing your whole life….wants exactly that.” “No….” “Yes.” His thumb traced her lower lip.
“And tonight, I’m going to prove it to you.”