police had questioned her. She had been the last person to spend time with him. They wanted to know if sheâd seen anyone out in the parking lot, or near his car. The wine was in the trunk. She didnât understand how Angelo could have put the wine in the trunk of his car and not see the robber.
Sheâd cried for days over Angeloâs death, her grandfather trying to console her. Never once had it occurred to her that any of those deaths were related. Not one time did she put it together that she had been the last person to see all four men. The deaths were weeks and months apart. Could her grandfather really have had those men killed? Murdered? His friends? Men who sat at their table with them frequently. Could he really be such a monster and she not know?
Marco worked for him. Heâd been around as long as she could remember. She knew Marco would never act on his own. He was quiet, unassuming, but his eyes were watchful and often very cold. Not necessarily when he looked at her or her grandfather. Marco had headed the team of men rescuing herwhen she was kidnapped that first time when she was ten. Heâd held her in his arms and rocked her back and forth once they found her, shielding her from the sight of the bodies of the dead men. He always watched over her grandfather, and cared nothing for the business, only for the protection of Antonio Arnotto.
Elijah clearly had been waiting for him ever since sheâd driven up. He knew a hit man would be coming, and he probably knew who that man was. Her face turned scarlet. Her heart shifted in her chest and her stomach lurched alarmingly again. Elijah had deliberately had sex with her. He hadnât been overcome with passion as she had been. Another sob escaped. Sheâd been a complete and utter fool.
The worst I ever had.
She knew she would never get his assessment of her abilities out of her mind until the day she died. Heâd branded her in more ways than one.
Donât even know how to suck cock.
âOh. My. God. What did I do?â she whispered. There was no taking it back. No way to change what happened. How did she live with it? With being the distraction that allowed her grandfather to have his friends murdered? With wild, dirty sex that she wasnât any good at. With Elijah knowing what she was, a whore her grandfather sent out to distract his friends while he sent someone to murder them.
With shaky hands, she pulled on her jeans. She was sore and achy. Worse. That horrible, disgusting hunger was beginning to build again. She hated herself. She hated her grandfather. She hated her life, and most of all she hated Elijah. She wasnât the person he made her out to be. He had to have known it was her first time. She couldnât have been whoring herself out for her grandfather. And if her grandfather was guilty of being the man it had been rumored he wasâwhat did that say about Elijah? He ran in the same circles.
She got back in the car barefoot. He could keep her beautiful strappy green sandals that gave her four inches when she wore them. She never wanted to see them again. Or the camisole or her bloodstained jeans. She was going home toinform her grandfather Marco was dead. Then she was packing her bags and leaving.
She cried all the way back to the estate. Parking in the cavernous, heated garage, she ran up the back stairs and let herself in that way, going through the kitchen, hoping to avoid everyone. She needed a shower, although she didnât think she could ever scrub hard or long enough to erase what had happened. Erase the feel of Elijahâs hands and mouth. She couldnât brush her teeth long enough to ever get the taste of him out of her mouth, or the scent of him out of her lungs.
Siena hurried through the house to the stairs leading to the upper story. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to confront her grandfather and the more she wanted to just leave. She dashed at the tears still
Elmore - Carl Webster 03 Leonard