Greed (A Sinful Empire Trilogy Book 1)

by Eva Charles

  As I say my silent goodbyes to Valentina and Isabel, I sob uncontrollably. I’m sorry I brought you into this, but you’ll be safe now. I love you. Take care of each other.

  I had hoped for so much more time. I dreamed of watching Valentina graduate and take on the world with her brilliant mind and an open heart. And I dreamed of falling asleep in the arms of a loving man, and for babies who called me Mamai. Despite everything, deep down, I always believed in fairy tales—even for me.

  You’re a foolish girl, Daniela. You were never destined for a fairy-tale ending. Your ending will look very much like your mother’s. But this time there won’t be a ray of hope that sprouts from the garden of evil.

  52

  Antonio

  I sit in the villa and watch her on the screen. Tormented, tears running down her cheeks. We put her through hell today.

  Lucas and Cristiano have caught glimpses of her chained in the cave, but the only one who sees her agony is me. That’s how I want it.

  I’m still irate, but the longer I watch her pain, the more the anger dissipates.

  I never wanted to break her. I wanted her compliance, her obedience, but it had never been my intention to destroy her spirit.

  But even as I relented, inch by inch, she never made the same effort. She pretended to adjust, but she was just biding her time. That’s all. Daniela wants to go back to the US, and nothing, not even the possibility of death, is going to stop her.

  Aside from betraying my trust, she took a stunning risk. We never lost sight of her, and the situation was never out of our control, but she had no way of knowing it. One misstep on our part. One missed connection. Or just some good old-fashioned bad luck, and things would have ended differently for her.

  Cristiano puts a cup of coffee in front of me.

  “Thanks,” I mutter, never taking my eyes off the screen.

  Cristiano and Lucas have been with me through the entire ordeal, and aside from a nap here and there, none of us have had any sleep. We’ve been focused on Daniela.

  Apart from the forty minutes I spent in my apartment—or the brief interlude with Sonia—my attention has been on her. And even when it wasn’t, I never stopped thinking about her.

  Cristiano and Lucas have been doing double duty, concentrating on Daniela and on the shipment. Fortunately, the cargo wasn’t an issue. It arrived in the UK on schedule—and intact.

  Daniela, on the other hand, was a conundrum. Although I’m not sure if the biggest challenge was staying one step ahead of her or the thought—no, the reality—of her taking such an enormous risk with her life.

  Cristiano, Lucas, and I are experienced at high-stakes endeavors, and we’re not easily surprised—let alone stunned. But her perilous decisions were astounding.

  Stopping Daniela is essentially like trying to stop a terrorist attack. You can thwart dozens of attempts, but sooner or later the bastards are going to be successful, because they’re willing to die in the process.

  She got lucky because we were tipped off. Chances are if she had boarded a random cargo freighter—rather than the one we lured her to—it would have been an ugly end for her. After they used her like a whore, they would have dumped her body into the middle of the ocean for the sharks to feast on, or sold her into a life that would have made her wish for death every minute of every day.

  I don’t have time to babysit her constantly, and we can’t afford another day like today, where our best minds and too many resources are being used to track a 120-pound woman.

  I need to make a pact with her. I’m not one of those men who believes you don’t negotiate with terrorists. Never have been. I negotiate to get what I want. Period. The key is to seize control over the situation—and to never, ever, let them know they won a single inch.

  That’s why Daniela is chained to a chair in the cave. She has to be fully broken to know that I’ve won before I can show her any benevolence.

  “How many people know?” I ask no one in particular.

  “A handful of staff, although for the most part that can be covered with a simple excuse, and a dire warning not to gossip. We don’t need to worry about Victor,” Cristiano adds. “There were a few people at the pier whose silence was easily bought, and the captain of the ship—who wouldn’t have had any idea who she was if she hadn’t told him.”

  The captain of the ship. Our freighters are all at sea, and on short notice the best I could do was to borrow a docked ship. That sonofabitch captain is lucky he was nowhere to be found when I got there. Otherwise I’d have plunged a knife into his gut. He was told to scare her, but no one said one word about talking to her like she was a whore. Then, to make matters worse, he had the audacity to rub his cock as he left her room.

  I have men scouring the docks for him. Eventually that fucker will show up, and when he does, he’s mine.

  “The guards know,” I grumble. “She has to be punished.”

  “She’s been punished enough,” Cristiano replies quietly. “But I don’t see any other way around it.” He says the words, and he knows it’s inevitable, but he saw what she went through today, especially once she got to the pier. Cristiano likes her. He was the one overseeing her safety while she was in the US. He’s always liked her.

  Today hasn’t been easy on anyone. Especially me. As I watch the fight in her crushed—maybe beyond repair—I remember the fearless little girl on the spirited stallion, eyes twinkling at me from the saddle.

  I’ve had enough. It’s time to end this.

  “She’s sufficiently broken, and she’s had plenty of time to ponder her fate.”

  The time also gave me an opportunity to take the edge off my anger. Two hours ago, I wouldn’t have trusted myself to punish her. I’m still not entirely sure if I’m ready—but she’s had enough of the waiting.

  “It’s time to finish it.”

  “Let someone else handle it,” Cristiano suggests warily. “It doesn’t matter who punishes her as long as it’s on your orders.”

  Cristiano is right, but she’s my problem. And I won’t allow anyone to lay a finger on her.

  “I’ll do it,” Lucas says, getting up.

  “Sit down.” I glare at him.

  Cristiano and Lucas know something that no one else does: I’m not giving her up. Ever.

  Her life will not be what it could have been, because I’ll never trust her. But I made a promise to her father, and I intend to honor it. What my friends don’t know is that it’s about more than a promise. I want her.

  Maybe I’ve always known it—at least since the morning I spent with her after Manuel died. But it became crystal-clear that first night we had dinner. When she turned up her nose at the inferior grapes, or the way her eyes lit up when she tasted the special young Port, or how her face glowed with excitement and happiness, genuine happiness, at the prospect of a vintage year for the entire valley—I knew then she was made for me. Her beauty and her good heart are a bonus.

  But none of this gives her a free pass. Not in our world.

  I look from Lucas to Cristiano. “She betrayed me, and I’ll exact the punishment.”

  “Do you think you’re calm enough for this?”

  After her reckless behavior, I don’t think I could be calm enough if I waited ten years. “She gets what she gets.” I turn off my screen.

  “I want all surveillance shut down in the cave during the interrogation. Nothing is to be recorded.” I stand and push my chair in. “I’ll let you know when you can send a few guards in close enough so that they can hear the punishment. Send the ones more likely to spread the warning that no traitor is spared.” Not even a beautiful woman who will be my wife. “It was a public betrayal, and it will be a public punishment.”

  I stop before the doorway and turn. “Do me a favor. Find out everything, and I mean everything, you can about Isabel.”

  “We’ve looked at her pretty close,” Lucas says, eyeing me.

  “Not close enough. Comb through what we know about her relationshi
p with the D’Sousas. Go back as far as you can into her family history. Something doesn’t add up. No one risks what Daniela risked today for a maid.”

  “Antonio,” Cristiano pleads. “Let Lucas or me handle Daniela.”

  I leave the room without another word.

  53

  Daniela

  In the distance, a door creaks, rousing me from a dreamlike sleep. The perimeter of the room lights up, softly, and the light directly overhead is dimmed.

  I listen carefully as the footsteps approach. One set. This is reassuring. Not that one guard can’t do a lot of damage, but not the same kind that two or more could do.

  Like something out of a movie, Antonio appears from a dark aisle, flanked with wooden barrels.

  He positions a metal chair a few feet from me and straddles it. His expression is unreadable—at least to me.

  The ancient cave is eerily quiet, as though the spirits have melted into the stone walls, to await news of my fate.

  Antonio observes me intently but doesn’t say a word for several moments, and I don’t dare say anything either.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?” he finally asks.

  While his voice is neither warm nor forgiving, the hatred seems to have lessened. Or perhaps a bit of sleep, as little and disturbed as it was, has given me a renewed sense of strength.

  I can’t just give up. I have to appeal to his sense of humanity—for Isabel and Valentina. And for me.

  Be humble, Daniela. Above all, be humble and contrite.

  “I’m done,” I croak. “You won. I’ll marry you, and we’ll live in Porto.”

  “You’ll marry me? This must be my lucky day.” He’s sarcastic, but not caustic. “I always win, Daniela. Always. I thought you would have learned that by now.”

  “I’m sorry I ran.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I made a mistake.”

  “Just one?”

  “I wanted to be with Isabel and Valentina. They’ll have a hard time surviving without me until Valentina is old enough to work.”

  “You wanted to be with them? I don’t believe it’s a thing of the past. You’re never going back to the US.”

  I feel a lump forming in my throat. “I wanted to be with my family—what’s left of it. That’s a normal thing. I won’t run again. But you’re right. I’ll never stop missing them.”

  “Your maid and her daughter are not your family.”

  I need to make him understand that they are family—it’s true.

  “They are my family, Antonio. In the same way Cristiano and Lucas are yours. If either of them were in trouble, you would risk everything to help them.”

  “I would never take the kind of risk you took today.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I say softly, and respectfully. “They’re like your brothers. Not all family is blood.”

  Antonio’s phone buzzes, and he gets up and disappears down the aisle he came up before. The door opens and closes seconds later. One set of footsteps approaches.

  I hope it’s him returning. My best chance for survival is with him. No one else can make that decision.

  When he comes back, he’s holding a small plate with a mug and some tea biscuits. He places it on his chair and unchains my wrists, briskly rubbing his palms over my arms and shoulders. I soak in the warmth of his hands—the humanity I so desperately need right now.

  Before he sits down, he hands me the cup of tea and the biscuits.

  I’m overwhelmed by the small kindness. Maybe he’s not going to kill me. I start to cry. I’m leaking from my eyes and my nose, and no amount of sniffing can stop it from dripping off my face and onto my shirt.

  He gets up and comes back, holding a wet facecloth and a clean T-shirt. He hands me the warm cloth. The heat feels so good against my face.

  “Take off your shirt, and put this dry one on.”

  I don’t bother to ask if there are people watching, because it almost doesn’t matter. Despite my tears, I’m numb inside.

  “The cameras are off,” he murmurs.

  He remembered my fear of being watched. I almost start to cry again.

  “You’ve had a hellish twenty-four hours, and I’m sure there are people who feel you’ve been punished enough. I’m not one of those people.”

  I nod, the hope evaporating.

  “Aside from being reckless, your actions were traitorous. You attempted to dishonor me, and your father, by subverting our blood oath. I can’t have my enemies, your father’s, or anyone else, believe that kind of behavior will be tolerated, even from you.”

  The last sliver of hope sinks into a cavernous abyss. I hear the thud as it hits bottom.

  Not that I’m surprised by his decision. Deep down, I knew he would need to make an example of me. I grew up in this world. I was too young to be privy to all the dreadful details, but I’ve always known that traitors are punished by death.

  “I have two favors to ask before you punish me.”

  “You’re in no position to ask for favors, and I’m in no mood to grant them. But let’s hear it.”

  “When my mother died, Isabel was there for me, every hour of every day,” I begin, a slight wobble in my voice. “In the aftermath, when I didn’t think I would survive, Valentina was born. She brought sunshine and happiness back to my life—to all of our lives. Isabel let me help care for her, and every day I got stronger. Even if you can’t understand it, they’re my family.”

  I lift my chin and meet his eyes. “I was disloyal and dishonest, and I accept your punishment, but please don’t let them suffer for my behavior. If I’m gone, they have no way to pay the rent or to eat. Please send them some money. They don’t require much, just enough to live decently. You don’t have to do it for me, but do it for my mother. She was your mother’s best friend, and took her in when it wasn’t safe for her to be around your father.”

  His brow furrows, not like he’s worried, but as though he’s parsing through my words, trying to make connections. I can’t afford to make those connections for him—not even as my time runs out.

  “You said there were two favors.” His gaze narrows. “What’s the second?”

  “Instead of giving me to your guards to do as they wish, put a bullet in my head. Preferably when I’m unaware. You don’t need to torture me to make your point. Simply murdering Daniela D’Sousa will send a resounding message through the valley.”

  He eyes me carefully. “If I’m going to grant you just one favor, which should it be?”

  “Send money to Isabel and Valentina.” I don’t hesitate, because really, every sacrifice I’ve made in the last six years has been for them.

  A single tear runs down my cheek. He tips his chair forward and catches the drop on his thumb.

  “You will not die by my hand, or at my order. I’m not done with you,” he says quietly. “You’re mine, Daniela. I’ll never be done with you.”

  His voice is soft but resolute. For the first time, I notice the black circles under his eyes. He’s been up all night too.

  “Giving you to my guards…I made that threat in anger—and I was wrong,” he concedes without apology. “But even if I toss you to the guards, they won’t lay a finger on you. The men I allow to be anywhere near you would never rape a woman. I’d stake my life on it.”

  I take a sip of tea. My head is spinning and my emotions are a snarled morass. I can’t even begin to process everything he just said. But I’m not going to die. I’m not going to be raped by the guards. Although I’ll never go back to the US—maybe one day, though, they’ll be able to come here.

  “You may continue to have money sent to Isabel and her daughter for rent and food and other necessities. That’s up to you. I already agreed to that, and I don’t go back on my word.” He pauses for a long moment. “On our first wedding anniversary, if you don’t make my life hell, I’ll fully fund a college trust for Valentina. I know you have an account set up for her, but at five dollars a paycheck, it will ne
ver be enough.”

  I don’t think about the price I’ll have to pay for his generosity—not right now. If Valentina goes to college, she’ll have life-changing opportunities. It’s what I’ve always hoped for her. “Thank you,” I reply, my heart filled with true gratitude.

  “We are getting married,” he continues, more forcefully than he’s been. “We will live as husband and wife, with everything that entails, and you will never, never take the risk you took today, or betray me in any other way. Is that clear?”

  I nod. “Yes.”

  “But there will be punishment. Here, today, at my hand.”

  “I understand.” I don’t know what it is, but I don’t care. I just want it over with, and the humiliation behind me. My life won’t be what I’d hoped, but Isabel and Valentina will be taken care of, and things could be worse for me. I’m sure many women would love to be married to Antonio.

  Just not me. Not under these circumstances.

  “I have a proposition for you,” he says, his dark eyes glimmering.

  I eye him suspiciously, because any deal he makes will be for his benefit, not mine.

  54

  Antonio

  “Since you like to run and hide so much, I’m going to give you an opportunity to test your skills. If you’re successful in evading me in the dark cave, there will be no punishment. Remain hidden for twenty minutes, and you win. I’ll even give you a five-minute head start. But if I catch you before the time is up, I’ll do with you as I please.”

  “Because you haven’t hunted me enough in the last twenty-four hours.”

  There’s a hint of sass in her voice. A spark among the ashes. Maybe she’s not irreparably broken. That should concern me, but instead it makes my dick hard.

  “I’m going to spend the rest of my life hunting you, Princesa. And every time I catch you, you’re going to worship my cock. Get used to it.”