Page 157 of Savage Don

With a full heart, I gather all of my strength and make one last push for the light.

I can only hope it’s enough.

34

Francesca

Even from beneath the blinding hood, I can already tell who’s taken me. The smell of this car is all too familiar.

I’ve been stuffed into the back seat of this stretch Cadillac countless times before, whether it was to attend mafia events, family functions, or funerals—or a combination of all three at once.

But never have I felt as trapped as I feel now. Never have I felt so alien to this dark world. Never have I felt so alone… even though I’m not.

Father is here.

I can feel him watching me, searching for just the right words to break this silence. All of my life, I’ve been this man’s prisoner. Now, it’s just more glaringly obvious than ever before.

Somewhere in front of me, the man who helped give me life shifts in his seat.

The pathetic, groveling don from last night is gone. Father is back in his element. He’s at home. Here, Domenico Galli is in charge. But since no one else will come to him, he’s had to kidnap the one person who’s always been at his mercy.

Me.

“Take this hood off and look me in the eyes like a man,” I finally find the courage to mumble. My voice stays low, though—there isn’t enough air behind the thick fabric to yell. I’ve already passed out more than once since I was taken from Ray’s home.

No. It’s not just Ray’s home anymore.

It’s our home.

“Do not speak to me like that,” Father growls. Those are the first words he’s uttered since I heard him open up the back door and step inside.

Since then, he’s just been staring at me. Waiting for something. The car hasn’t moved. Not as far as I can tell. And I think I know this ancient vehicle well enough to recognize when it’s moving. It may be elegant, in a finely-aged kind of way, but it doesn’t handle bumps on the road like it used to.

We’re stalled.

I need to know why. I need to know what’s going to happen before the dread of not knowing swallows me alive.

“I don’t belong to you anymore,” I remind Father, my fingers digging into my palms as I try to keep them from going numb.

My hands have been tied behind my back since just after I first passed out. My shoulder blades ache with a fiery burn. My heart is sore from hoping for the best, but constantly expecting the worst.

In my life, the worst always seems to be the option that pans out.

But I’ve also never had someone like Ray on my side before. The hope he inspires in me is intoxicating. It’s invigorating, even as everything else crumbles down around me.

“Don’t be foolish,” Father grumbles. “No paperwork is going to make you any less of my daughter, or me any less of your father. We’re family, Francesca, no matter how long you’ve wished we weren’t.”

A sharp pain shoots through my chest at the dark truth in his words.

The loneliness of my life has always been there, simmering in the background, deepening the ever growing darkness. It didn’t matter how close I was forced to be to what little family I had left, it never felt like I was part of anything more than a prison system.

Now, though, for the first time ever, it feels like I truly have someone on my side.

Ray.

A frustrated tear trickles down my cheek at the thought of him. Why does life have to be so complicated? Why can’t we just run off to our sunset, hand in hand?

Ray is the first person I’ve ever actually wanted to be around. The first person I’ve ever actually missed, other than my mother—though, I hardly knew her.