Before starting this chapter, I suggest you to read prologue first, for a more detailed version. Although, I've summarised the prologue here as well but still if you want to, you can.
I waited until I was sure he was sleeping. Lorenzo was a light sleeper. But I'd spent two weeks learning his habits.
It was 3:15 in the morning. I'd been lying still beside him for two hours, waiting.
I slipped out of bed carefully. I was wearing nothing, we'd fallen asleep naked after he'd taken me again against the wall, then again in the shower, then finally in bed.
I hated that I'd enjoyed it but that didn't matter now. I had a job to do.
My dress was on the floor. I picked it up and wore it. Then I moved silently across the room in the darkness. I had memorized every corner of this penthouse.
The bookshelf in the corner looked normal but I reached behind the second shelf and found my gun, I hid it when he was distracted. I checked the chamber by touch. It was loaded. I moved towards the door.
Part of me wanted to look back to see Lorenzo one more time before everything changed but I didn't.
The hallway was dark. Lorenzo's penthouse was massive. I walked towards the guest room where Yuki Tanaka was sleeping.
I was standing outside Yuki's door with gun in my hand. But my hand shook as I reached for the door handle. I stopped and took a breath. Then opened the door.
The door opened. It was dark. She was sleeping peacefully on the bed. I raised the gun, aimed at her head, my finger was on the trigger.
But suddenly someone grabbed me from behind.
The gun was snatched from my hand. My arm was twisted behind my back, my body was slammed against the wall.
"Did you really think I was asleep?"
It was Lorenzo's voice.
No.
"Let me go…"
"So you can finish what you started?" He twisted my arm harder. "I don't think so, piccola spia."
He knew.
I forced my elbow back, aiming for his ribs. He grunted but didn't let go.
"Good but not good enough."
He dragged me away from Yuki's door to the hall. I tried everything to free myself from his hold but he was stronger.
We entered his study. He threw me inside, slammed the door and locked it. He stood between me and the door, holding my gun.
"Two weeks." He started. "You've been in my bed for two weeks, and tonight you finally made your move."
I couldn't answer. My mind was racing, trying to find an escape, a weapon, a way out.
The knife. I still had the knife strapped to my thigh.
"You're wondering if you can reach the knife before I sh**t you." Lorenzo said, reading my mind. "You can't."
"You won't sh**t me. The noise would wake your precious Yuki."
"The gun is silenced, and Yuki sleeps like the dead." His smile was cold.
I moved fast, went for the knife, pulled it out, and lunged at him. He sidestepped, grabbed my wrist, used my momentum against me and pushed me to his desk. A glass tumbler fell and shattered.
He caught me. I bit his shoulder hard. He didn't even flinch. He just used his weight to drive me backward until my back hit the wall.
Then he held my hands, pinned them above my head. His body was pressed against mine. We were both breathing hard. His face was inches away from mine.
"When were you going to tell me?" He asked.
"Tell you what?"
"That you're Serafina Rossi. That you've been lying since the moment you walked into my gallery. That every touch, every kiss was part of your mission."
"How long?"
"How long have I known?" His smile was cruel. "Since before we met."
The words hit me like physical blows.
"What?"
"I knew exactly what you were the first time you looked at me with those beautiful eyes."
"Then why…"
"Why did I let you get close? Why did I pretend to fall for your act?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "Because I wanted to see how far you'd go. How good you really were at playing the innocent artist. And because turning my enemy's weapon against them is more satisfying than destroying it."
I spat in his face.
He didn't flinch. Just wiped his cheek with his shoulder.
"This is the real Serafina."
"Fu*k you."
"You already have. Multiple times. Quite enthusiastically, if I remember correctly."
I tried to knee him but he blocked me with his thigh, pressing it between my legs, immobilizing me completely.
"You're a bast*rd." I hissed.
"Yes but at least I'm an honest bastard. I know what I am. Can you say the same?"
"You don't know anything about me."
"Don't I?" He tilted his head, studying me like I was a particularly interesting specimen. "I know you were sent here to seduce me. I know your father is Giovanni Rossi. I know you have an older brother named Luciano, and a younger sister named Bianca who's apparently a psychopath. I know you were trained as an assassin at age sixteen by Matteo Ricci, your handler who's been in love with you for years."
Each fact was a nail in my coffin.
"I know you're wearing a tracking device around your neck disguised as jewellery. I know you check in with Matteo every day. I know you were supposed to k*ll Yuki tonight on your father's orders."
"Are you going to k*ll me?" I asked.
"I haven't decided yet. Depends on your next answers."
He released my wrists but didn't step back. His body still caged me against the wall.
"Why Yuki?" He asked. "What did she do to earn your father's death sentence?"
I could lie. But what was the point? He obviously knew everything.
"She's close to you." I said. "She provides intelligence and protection to Vitales. My father wants to eliminate anyone you trust."
"And then?"
"And then you'd be alone and easier to k*ll."
"Were you supposed to k*ll me too?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"After I'd extracted enough intelligence. After you'd served your purpose, depending on how much you trusted me."
"And did I trust you?"
"I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who's apparently been playing me this whole time."
Instead of answering, he stepped back. He walked to his desk, put my gun down, then poured two glasses of whiskey. He handed me one.
I took it, surprised.
If he was planning to kill me, he wouldn't waste good whiskey.
"I should k*ll you. Send your body back to your father in pieces. Let him know what happens to spies who enter my home."
"But you won't."
"No. Because I'm going to marry you instead."
I dropped my glass.
"You what?"
"Marry me, Serafina Rossi." He set down his own glass, moved toward me with predatory grace. "Be my wife."
"You're insane."
"Probably. But I'm also your only chance at survival." He stopped inches away. "So I suggest you hear me out before you refuse."
LORENZO'S POV
She was staring at me like I'd grown a second head.
"You can't be serious." She said.
I walked to my desk, took out the folder I'd been building for weeks and dropped it in front of her.
"Open it."
She hesitated, then picked it up with shaking hands. I watched her face as she flipped through the contents.
"These are…"
"Photos of you with a gun aimed at Yuki Tanaka. Time stamped with multiple angles. I have cameras everywhere, Serafina including thones you can't see." I moved closer. "Keep looking."
She flipped to the next page. There was video stills of her searching my office, going through my desk, taking photos of documents with her phone.
"That's you stealing intelligence about your uncle. I let you take the documents because I wanted to see what you'd do with them. Did you give them to your father?"
"Yes." Her voice was barely audible.
"Did he seem surprised by the contents?"
"He already knew about everything."
"Of course he did. There's more. Keep looking."
The next pages were transcripts. Recordings of her conversations with Matteo.
"You bugged my safe house?"
"I've been listening to every word you say to your handler." I leaned against the desk. "And you know what I learned? That Matteo keeps reminding you that I'm the enemy because you keep forgetting."
She threw the folder at me. I caught it easily.
"You had no right…"
"I had every right. You were a threat to me. I neutralized that threat by learning everything about you." I put the folder back on the desk. "Now here's what happens next. I could send these photos to your father. Let him know you failed your mission."
"He'll k*ll me."
"Yes. He'll see you as weak. And we both know what Giovanni does to weak operatives." I moved closer to her. "Or I could send these recordings to the Council. Let them hear how the great Giovanni Rossi sent his own daughter to assassinate me in violation of the peace treaty. That's grounds for sanction and possibly war."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
We stared at each other.
"So what do you want?" She asked. If you're not going to k*ll me, if you're not going to expose me, what's your play here?"
"I told you. Marriage."
"Why?"
"Because it solves multiple problems simultaneously." I started counting on my fingers. "One: It binds our families together legally which prevents all out war.
Two: It makes you untouchable. No one can k*ll my wife without Council approval, and they'll never approve killing a Vitale.
Three: It turns you from Giovanni's weapon into my asset. You'll have access to Rossi intelligence, which you'll share with me.
And four it pisses off absolutely everyone. Your father, my enemies, Yuki, that pathetic handler of yours. Everyone loses except us."
"You're using me."
"Yes. Just like your father was using you. The difference is I'm being honest about it." I moved even more closer . "Marry me, Serafina."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I make one phone call. I send everything in that folder to your father. I expose Luciano's meetings with Isabella to the Rossi family, yes, I know about those too. And I watch the Rossi family tear itself apart from internal betrayals.
Your brother will die. Your sister will probably be the one to k*ll him, and your father will hunt you down for failing him. Is that what you want?"
"You're blackmailing me into marriage."
"I'm offering you a way out that keeps everyone alive. Call it what you want." I took out another document from my desk drawer. "I had my lawyers draft a contract. Read it. You have one hour to decide."
I handed her the marriage contract. She took it like it was a snake that might bite.
"One hour." I repeated. "Then I make that call."