Page 51 of Isle of Seduction

My beautiful warrior.

I finally enter the car and don’t look back.

* * *

When we arrive at the police station of West Hill, the officers place me in a cell, taking off my belt in case I’d consider ending my life with it.

I have something to live for, thank you very much.

They take my wedding band from my finger. An icy type of calm spreads under my skin. I clasp my hands together and fix the indent of the ring on my finger with single-minded focus, entering an altered state of mind where only Giulia and I exist.

I berate myself for having been married to Giulia for three months and still not having sealed it with real rings. I’m a fucking idiot. She deserves all the fucking gold and diamonds my money can get her.

I’m daydreaming about fucking my wife with nothing but my ring on her finger, the one I’ll get from her dad, when the custody officer delivers me the notice explaining my rights and my charge sheet.

Then come the pictures, fingerprints to match those they already have and DNA samples. How did they even fucking get my fingerprints when I’m not in the West Hill police database?

I know everyone at the station so they’re all being respectful and on their best behaviours. Except Taylor, I’m sure most of them know I won’t spend more than seventy-two hours here.

Since I’m being charged with murder, I could be held here for up to ninety-six hours and then transferred to a prison until my court hearing. But I know my solicitor can at least get me bail. A court hearing could be months from now and I’m not rotting away in jail when Addams wins the fucking elections and takes everything I want.

Taylor comes into the cell and clears his throat.

It’s gonna be a fucking waste of time for everyone. DeRossi isn’t here, they’ve assigned a legal advisor to my case who’s probably gonna piss themselves when they see me and ask me to “cooperate”.

Pain lances behind my eyeballs at the fucking headache this mess is.

When the interview is done, and everyone’s frustrated, I’m brought back to a cell. No one else occupies it because apparently, I’m high risk, so I might hurt other people. That’s fucking bullshit, but I’m content to have the space for myself. It’s late and I’m sure nothing will happen tonight on Giulia’s side.

I know I won’t stay long in whatever hell hole Taylor will drag me to, but it doesn’t help the sensation that all my carefully constructed image just exploded. My face will be on all the news channels by morning.

I sit with my elbows on my knees, grappling at my roots and pulling. Trust isn’t something that comes naturally to me but locked in between four grey walls, there’s nothing else for me to do but wait and trust. In DeRossi, in my brother, in my wife.

Laying on my back on the small cot at the end of the room, a hand behind my head, I close my eyes, and it’s green I see. Deep green with speckles of gold. I see dark sheets and red hair. I smell the leather of the seat I always use to watch over my wife. My body’s reaction is visceral and I groan, squeezing my cock and willing it to soften.

I’m not getting a hard-on in fucking prison.

Despite my best intentions, my thoughts trail back to my beautiful warrior and how her lips landed on mine earlier tonight, how fierce she looked tearing that officer a new one. She can be so sweet when her guard is down. But only for me. Only ever for me.

I imagine sitting on the club seat facing her bed and watching her sleep in her silky shorts and random cotton shirts. It doesn’t hold a candle to the real deal, but it will have to do.

I don’t know how long I’m going to rot in here, but every night I won’t spend watching her is time getting me closer to madness. She’s my calm in the raging storm of my thoughts and plans and emotions.

For the first time in years, I ask myself if this road to politics is the right one. I’m not sleeping better for it. My brother isn’t safer for it. Nico will always have violent tendencies and even at the highest power, I won’t be able to protect him. Only I can do that in the shadows. I know the leaders of the underworld aren’t happy about my path and I’ve built relationships with these assholes and cut-throats that’ll last longer than political alliances. Nothing passes the test of time better than favours and debts inked in blood.

The only positive is Giulia. That’s how she entered my life, but even I know she isn’t a saint and would rather deal with death threats from a rival scorned than with the snakes of politics. Though she’ll shine wherever she goes. That’s her gift.

Am I fooling myself with that path?

In the musty cell, I lose sight of why I decided to walk it.

TWENTY-TWO

TIME TO COLLECT ON THOSE FAVOURS

Once the police car is out of our driveway, I hurry back inside and call Nico. He answers on the first ring. “What happened?”

“Andrea’s been arrested for Mia’s murder. Taylor was just here.” I sound distraught even to my own ears. While I pace back and forth in the living room, our cooking dinner taunts me, the sauce boiling out of its simmering pot and plastering the counter the same colour as blood.