Except she was doing that now.
Maybe it was because she woke up, and realized this was the longest she had ever gone without speaking to her siblings. Even after she turned eighteen, and moved out of the house to begin classes at a community college, she still called them every single day. And her mama, too.
She’d made an effort not to think about it since coming here. She knew it was dangerous, and calls could easily be tracked. This morning, it was all she could think about.
Funny how that worked.
What was happening in New York, now?
Were her sisters safe?
Had Siena kept her promise?
What was happening?
Nothing could drive a person to do crazy things more than the unknown. She’d spent the last week acquainting herself with the penthouse, and the different things to do inside it. She bet Corrado paid a good amount for this place.
Ten rooms.
Three bathrooms.
A few thousand square feet.
There were lots to do, too. Like the gaming systems in the sitting room, or the library. There was also a small gym with the same floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the heart of Toronto. A hot tub on a balcony that was enclosed with more glass walls.
Despite the fact a maid came three times during the week to clean, and bring in groceries, she also had a whole stack of takeout menus for restaurants she could order from. Corrado had also taken her into the city to shop, and grab whatever she needed by way of clothing or personal items.
Mostly, she tried to stay busy because then, she didn’t focus on those unknowns back in New York nearly as much.
And still ...
Here she was, eyeing that damn phone.
Ginevra sighed, and forced her damn gaze away from the phone so that she could focus on something else. It didn’t matter how much she wanted to call, the rules were clear—she couldn’t. Not until she knew it was safe.
Because that was the thing, right?
It was more than just her.
It was her sisters, too.
She had to be smart—and strong—for them. She was sure they were terrified and wondering what in the hell happened to her. She highly doubted their half-brothers were treating the young girls well, but at the same time ... they couldn’t hurt them, either. Greta and Giulia were literally Kev and Darren’s last thing to use to reach for the top, right?
That’s what Siena said.
Trust them, her mind whispered.
Except, who exactly was she trusting?
A man who led her to believe he was going to marry her right up until the point she was almost ready to walk down the aisle? A half-sister she barely knew, but always seemed kind enough for her to let down her defenses?
Corrado?
A man who barely spoke to her.
Who was Ginevra supposed to fucking trust?
Maybe that was the thing that bothered her the very most. Beyond the fact she was in a whole new country, or couldn’t speak to her sisters. Separate from the fact she felt stir-crazy here, and didn’t know anything that was going on back in New York.
It was that she didn’t know their motives.
Andino.
Siena.
Corrado.
None of them.
She didn’t know their motives, alone or with her, and that bothered her. The very last thing she ever intended to be was someone else’s pawn, but right now ... that’s exactly what she felt like at the end of the day.
A pawn.
Being moved.
No control.
It was only once she had poured a bit of cream into the mug that she turned back around to sip on her coffee, and stare at the phone again. She didn’t know what made her reach out to pick it up, but she did. Staring at it, but not deciding to make that call, she simply held it.
She didn’t hear Corrado until he was right there, grabbing the damn phone from her hand. He moved like lightening, silent and dangerous. She jumped when he came up behind her, and nearly rammed right into his naked chest when she spun around fast to face him.
With the phone in one hand, he cocked his head to the side, and smirked a bit. “What were you doing?”
“Uh ...”
It was hard to focus—hard to talk—when he was standing this close to her. She could blame it on the fact he wore nothing but a pair of boxer-briefs, and she had a glorious view of the hard lines, and ridges of muscle that made up his lean, yet muscular, form. He reminded her of a runner in the way he was built, and the way the waistband on those boxer-briefs rested against the hard V of his groin had her gaze lingering before he cleared his throat.
Ginevra’s gaze traveled back up his body.
Jesus.
Skin uninked.
Though he had scars.
A few.
Yeah, she could have blamed her inability to speak on the way he looked—because he was shamelessly gorgeous, and he probably knew it—but that wasn’t what did it. No, it was the way Corrado stared at her that always seemed to silence her.
He did it when she was looking.
And when she wasn’t.
Did he even know how intense his stare was? Like he’d found prey, and was ready to go in for the kill?
A part of her wouldn’t mind that.
Being his prey.
Not at all.
Corrado’s right eyebrow arched when Ginevra’s gaze drifted over his strong features, and she couldn’t stop that heat from rising up her cheeks. This close, there was no hiding the fact she just stared at him like a foolish girl for at least two minutes.
Just stared.
He was kind enough not to say anything.
His smirk deepened, though.
“Well?” he asked.
“I was just ... looking at it,” she said lamely.
Corrado cocked his head to the side. “You know the rules.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No calls out. Yes, I can take you out of the penthouse, we can go do things, and whatever else, but if there is any chance someone could track you back here, then that’s a no-go. From what I understand, you were mostly unknown back in New York, being that you were only recently brought into the folds of the Calabrese family, right?”
Ginevra swallowed hard. “Yeah, my mom ... was Matteo’s mistress for a time. We were kept a secret until—”
“They needed someone to marry off.”
“Basically.”
“So like I said,” Corrado replied, shrugging one shoulder, “you’re mostly unknown, and that means you’ll be able to do other things here besides stay hidden away in this penthouse. But if you go off doing stupid things like calling people, which will make it far easier to track us, then we’re going to have to move again. I doubt you’ll like where we’ll go, or the fact you won’t be able to leave the place. Got it?”
Well, when he put it that way ...
She nodded.
What else could she do?
“I understand.”
“Perfetto.”
Corrado leaned around Ginevra, making her entire body seize when heat shot through her gut at the feeling of his body grazing hers—how?—and he froze, too. She felt the way he stiffened, and a jolt of something passed through her before he sucked in a quick breath, too.
Like he felt that, too.
Electricity, maybe?
A shock.
Ginevra lifted her stare to find he was staring at her again, his hand holding the phone hovering over the charger like he forgot what he was supposed to be doing again. She didn’t know how long the two of them stared at one another like that—a few seconds, or more, but it could have been longer, too.