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I’d been grateful for the duct tape a moment ago, but suddenly, it was excruciating that I couldn’t lash out at him or cover my stomach to protect what’d only just begun to grow inside me. “Cristiano won’t play your games. He knows I’d rather die than let that happen.”
“It’s not your choice.” He checked his watch, then walked to one of the large windows to look into the warehouse. “Costa, Cristiano, and I each love you, but we’ve all used you as a pawn.”
While his back was to me, I glanced at the surveillance screens. Two men guarded the inside of the warehouse, though I couldn’t tell where they were in relation to us. Two more milled out front, while one guarded the gated entrance to the park. Five. Numbers six, seven, and eight held assault rifles and walked the perimeter, which was surrounded by large trees.
“Cristiano will comply,” Diego said, still looking off into the distance. “He loves you, and he of all people knows that being with me is a fate far better than the hell I could arrange for you.”
It took a moment for his threat to sink in. He could sell me. As his father had Angelina. I didn’t want to believe he was capable of it, but the truth was, I didn’t know the level of depravity I was dealing with. And the worst part was that Diego knew exactly what a threat like that would do to Cristiano. It may even be enough to convince him to cooperate.
With a series of beeps, Diego took his phone from his pocket and hit a button to speak into it. “Bueno.”
“Listos,” came a man’s voice through the speaker.
Ready.
Diego returned to the computer beneath the monitors and the security footage flickered off.
My insides twisted. Something was happening. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry. Cristiano will cooperate to keep you safe.” Diego opened a closet and removed a tripod. He set it up behind the desk, in front of the control panel. Next, he took a smartphone with a bulky case out of a desk drawer and swiped his thumb over the screen. “Knowing I have you will torture him. You saw the way he tried to feed me to the Maldonados. I couldn’t let that go, Natalia—you know that. Cristiano deliberately provokes his enemies, and he shouldn’t be surprised when that comes back around to him.”
I couldn’t argue that Cristiano was a good man, or even deserving of what he had. He, like Diego, my father, and myself, had committed many sins. But I loved him for who he was, flaws and all. I couldn’t ask for a better partner or for a better father to our future child.
When did one become a mother? I wasn’t sure, only that I already felt extremely protective. Maybe it had to do with what lay ahead more than anything. Since I’d suspected the pregnancy, I’d started to envision a new life with Cristiano. Our latest adventure—parenthood. Gruff, rough-around-the-edges Cristiano cradling a newborn son in both hands. Me, passing on the lessons I’d learned to a daughter and thereby honoring her grandmother and her father, who’d both taught me strength.
I had to do whatever I could to protect that.
Survival, no matter what.
Red lights flickered on the TV screens directly in front of me. After a flurry of beeps, images flashed on and off.
Diego hummed with satisfaction, screwed the smartphone onto the tripod by its case, and stepped back before spoke into his own phone. “We’re connected. Put them through.”
“What is this?” I asked hoarsely, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
He aimed a small remote at the smartphone and pushed a button. “We’re streaming. Look into the camera and say hello to your husband.”
24
Cristiano
It took me a moment to register what I was looking at.
A well-lit office. A metal chair in the center. My wife.
Blood rushed in my ears. My heart thrashed hard enough to deafen and disorient me.
My team and I had scoured the abandoned parade.
As soon as guns had come out, people had cleared the area quickly, except for a few bodies in the middle of the road who’d possibly tried to stop them. Who were they? Who’d taken my wife? All anyone could tell me was that men in black, some costumed, had put her into a van and vanished.
Just like that.
Costa’s and my choppers had been dispatched but come up with nothing.
I’d trampled fallen crepe streamers, glitter, and plastic plates and forks looking for a clue. Anything. Until we’d received word that her abductors wanted to make contact, then we’d rushed back to the Badlands.
Now, Costa and I stood in the basement control center as Gabriel patched through a live video feed to our security monitors.
Natalia.
Her dress, colorful against a gray backdrop, remained intact—gracias a Dios. There were no injuries that I could see. Her hands appeared to be bound behind her back, but she wasn’t gagged.
