And my heart sinks to the floor.
“Well, well, well. What are the odds of this?” Luis smiles with his teeth.
I back off, already beginning to run to the door.
But Luis whistles and the patrons that were glaring at me before get to their feet and block my path.
“You’re a long way from home,Isabella,”he sneers. “You didn’t come all the way out to Long Island to see little old me, did you?”
Long Island?
But I keep my gaze steady as I watch him finish his drink and slowly stand. “You left in such a hurry last time. I thought maybe I’d given you the wrong impression.”
“I tend to bounce when things get a bit heated,” I quip back, sparing a glance at the only other exit behind the bar. A staff-only sign is plastered over it. “I don’t really have the stomach for it.”
“But your little boyfriend does,” Luis continues. “Did you see what he did to my men? I bet you watched, didn’t you.”
I swallow back a retaliation. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“How much do you think Teo Vitale would pay to get his little plaything back?”
Everything within me is screaming at me to run, to get away. This isn’t a situation I can talk myself out of. This is a situation I’ll be lucky tosurvive.
But I’m outnumbered and unprepared, and there’s no way that I can make it behind the bar before Luis can grab me.
So instead, I say, “I have no business with the Guild.”
A few of the cartel snigger at this.
“No? Could have fooled some of us.”
I swallow. “I’m with the Prince’s Hand.”
Luis’ eyes flicker dangerously. “I know who you are,IsabellaNatali. I know who your brother is, too.”
“Then you know he would reward you handsomely for my safe return to Manhattan.”
This spurs another round of laughter.
“Do you know what your brother did this afternoon?” Luis begins to circle me. “Rumor has it, he burned down a Guild casino in broad daylight.”
Fuck. No.Leon.I said buy me some time, not start awar.
“A casino inBrooklyn,no less. Now, I hate the Guild as much as the next guy. But the cartel? Well, weownBrooklyn. And your brother just pissed in our backyard.”
It seems like the wrong time to inform him that Brooklyn is resolutely owned by the Guild, although the words bite at the tip of my tongue.
No. I can’t antagonize. Only delay. I can only keep him talking.
“I didn’t know,” I whisper.
“You dumb slut. You really thought we would just hand you back over to your brother?”
It’s only when my back hits the wall that I realize I’ve been retreating. “N-no.”
“SPEAK UP.”
I raise my head as confidently as I can. “What will you do to me?”
