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He was being nice to me, and I’d overestimated my importance in his life. I’d forgotten my place. Despite the diamond shining on my ring finger, I was still nothing but a prisoner.
Andrei finally turned his head to me. “You’re not going back to Dante Paolo,” he said. “I’d be dead before I let you go back there.”
“Then what is this?” My stomach fluttered nervously, and my hands were quivering with fear. “Are you selling me off to another one of our enemies?”
“Do you trust me, Adrienne?”
I couldn’t believe it. He was calling me by my name for the very first time, and it had to be at a time like this. He was trying to mess with my head.
And it was even crazier because I trusted him. I wasn’t going to admit it, but I did. “No, I don’t trust you, Andrei. You’re still just a man in this dark underworld, and you wouldn’t bat an eye before you sold me off if that was what you needed for your dirty business to go on.”
Andrei’s eyes remained on me for a few minutes. I wasn’t certain, but I thought I saw something in them. A glint of hurt. My words hurt him, or maybe I was imagining it.
His fingers fisted around his thighs. There was no way I was imagining that. “If you don’t trust me, then there is nothing to talk about.”
He looked away from my direction and peered outside the window for the rest of our journey.
The driver pulled over in front of a minimalistic brown building made mostly of glass. It looked like a private suite made for mayors, crime lords, and the like. It was chill.
Apart from a fleet of similar cars parked in the parking lot and the golden chandelier lights pouring out of the glass walls, there was no sign of life here.
One of Andrei’s men opened the car door for me while Andrei climbed out through the door at his own side. He tugged the knot on his tie, positioning it in the middle of his white button-up shirt, and then arranged his cufflinks as he walked to me.
“Stay closely behind me, and don’t say a word.”
“I’m not an idiot, Andrei.” I sucked in air. “Tell me what the hell is going on with you. You’re scaring me.”
He cupped the back of my head and tilted my face so I could look at him. I couldn’t read his blank stare. “Don’t say a word unless I tell you to.”
I should’ve run when Andrei started to lead the way into the building.
But I didn’t. I just went along with him. If he was here to give me up as a sacrificial lamb, then so be it. I wasn’t going down alone though.
We entered a checkered floor hallway with an obscene chandelier. The walls were as white as a torture chamber and the silence made my adrenaline pump.
It was really chilly in here, but I kept my back straight, refusing to shiver as I followed Andrei.
The hallway led directly to a white door with men in black lined outside. Andrei nodded to his men and they joined the line, keeping their faces stern and their hands flat on their stomachs. It reminded me of the Ken dolls I used to have as a kid.
Lifeless and immobile.
“Shall we?” Andrei opened the white door in front of us and gestured for me to go in. I hesitated by the door frame, peering at his face for a clue. I needed to know what the outcome of my stepping inside the room would be. Was he going to kill me or let them hurt me?
I wasn’t religious, but I said a silent prayer and went in.
The room was dimly lit—but bright enough for me to make out the faces of the men sitting behind a long conference table.
They were all dressed in black suits, and they were all older than Andrei. All eight of them. My stomach was fluttering now; I could throw up.
Andrei took a seat at the head of the table, far away from the edge of the table where I sat beside one of the strange men in the room.
“Is this the girl?” one of them asked. “Dante Paolo’s daughter?”
My heart sank into my stomach as soon as I heard my papa’s name. I gave Andrei an urgent stare. Was he really here to trade me? Really?
The man beside me drew his eyes all over my body as if I was a bowl of Chinese food and he couldn’t wait to devour me. “Italian whores are more beautiful than I thought.” He smirked.
“I bet you won’t think I’m beautiful when I slice your throat,” I spat. I didn’t know what Andrei was up to, but I’d had it up to my neck with being insulted by filthy men like this old geezer sitting beside me.
