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All I have are questions with no answers. This isn’t the way I want things to be. I am Carlo Vietti, king of the Mafia, and what I want, I get.
I can’t trust Darius Stone. I can’t trust anyone from the Barone family to be truthful with me. The note was explicit. Taking her home where she belongs can mean only one thing—she is with the Barone family. But her father is no longer around to lead that family.
Who else in the Barone family could be calling the shots right now?
Chapter 16
Isabella
Where am I?
Everything’s blurry as I wake in a dimly lit room I don’t recognize. When I try to lift my arm, I feel something heavy slip and hear a clanking sound. Sitting up, I see a chain around my waist that’s padlocked to the bedframe.
Closing my eyes, I try to remember what the hell has happened to me. Two men took me from the store. I was stabbed in the side and then began losing consciousness, but I remember being put into a car.
And now I’m here.
One tiny window at the top of the tall wall gives minimal light to the small room. There’s the bed I’m chained to, and I see a small bucket on the floor near the end of the bed. I see no other doors, and I assume the bucket is meant to be my bathroom. Wherever I am, they only mean to give me the bare minimum.
Trying not to cry, I hold onto hope that my husband is looking for me. Carlo will kill every single person who had anything to do with this kidnapping. All I have to do is hang on until he finds me.
Leaning my head against the wall, I take deep breaths to calm myself as fear and anxiety bubble inside me. I can’t let it get to me. I have to be strong.
Something moves in the far corner of the room, and my eyes immediately go to the area. “Is anyone there?” I can’t figure out why someone would want to sit in the shadows and watch me, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
I lean back and think about what I can do to help get myself out of this predicament. The first thing I need to figure out is who has kidnapped me. My father is the only one I knew of who had plans to take me.
I take a chance and ask, “Are you Daniel Barone?”
“Don’t you dare speak his name,” a woman’s voice says from the shadows.
“Who are you?”
I watch as a woman’s shape emerges from the corner. “I’m your stepmother, Isabella.”
She moves closer, and I finally see her. She’s an attractive older woman with dark hair and eyes. “So, my father did have me kidnapped.”
“Your father is dead,” the woman says with no hint of sadness in her voice.
This seems like good news.
“What happened?” I don’t even know why I ask when I don’t really care.
“He was murdered. Shot while on his way to mass in his limousine. A hitman did the deed.” She steps closer. “He wasn’t a nice person. He had many enemies. Me included. But I didn’t want him dead. Not yet, anyway. His death has left a mess for me to clean up. Starting with you.”
“From what I’ve been told, I haven’t been anything to my father since I was two years old.”
“Ah, but you are his firstborn, and he never forgot that,” she says.
“I know he never forgot about me, but I’m sure he had only bad things planned for me.”
“Your father left everything to you, his long-lost daughter. He left me and our daughters out of his will completely.” A smirk tugs at the corner of her mouth. “But I have a plan to get what’s ours.”
The wheels inside my head are spinning out of control. “Are you saying that I’m an heir to my father’s money? Well, I don’t want it. I don’t want any of it. You can have it all.”
Shaking her head, she says, “An heir?” Her chest rises as she inhales deeply. “No. You are his one and only heir.”
“I’ll give all the money to you. I swear I will. I’ll sign anything you want. What’s your name? I don’t feel right not calling you by name.”
