AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Seven
SALVATORE
My phone buzzes loudly on my bedside table, ripping me from the sound sleep I was just in. Quickly, I rub my eyes and grab it from off the table. It’s now that I realize I don’t have the right phone. I own three phones, a burner for business with the Arcane, a personal for my family, and a third for associates to contact me. The phone I have for my associates is the one buzzing which can only mean one thing at this late hour. Or rather, I hope it only means one thing.
“Yes,” I answer the phone coolly, not wanting any bullshit, needing to hear whatever it is that has happened. This must be about Aria. It has to be.
“We were able to get her out without being seen, Sir,” the voice on the other end tells me. I don’t know who completed the job, and I don’t want to know. I just have to trust my friends’ people as well as my own the same.
I nod in the darkness of my bedroom, “Did any harm come to her?”
“No, Sir. She was able to flee on foot, and we followed her to an alley where she was able to obtain a cell phone and made a call. A short while later, a man in a Porsche came and picked her up. I believe this man to be one of her brothers, they look much like her. I had my men follow them, and she was taken back to the Funar estate.”
“Tell me about her escape,” I instruct him, my heart beating heavily in my chest as I wait.
“I don’t have all of the information, Sir. However, it seems that Miss. Funar was able to get out mostly on her own. There was a gunshot before the men saw her running out of the docks. At that point, our silencers were on, and snipers did whatever was needed to ensure her safety.”
I don’t bother replying, knowing a grumble will suffice. The only thing that matters to me now is my knowledge that Aria is safe and that I will be making the necessary steps to guarantee she becomes my wife. I promised Marcel, and I’m not a man who turns back on his promises. I hang up on the individual and make a call to Marcel, wanting to hear the information directly from him. Glancing over to the clock, I see that it’s a little past one in the morning.
“You seem to get news quickly,” he comments lowly into the phone. No greetings needed. He knows the reason behind my call.
I scoff, “Yes. You were the one who insisted I put your sister back on my radar. Now, do you mind telling me how she is?”
Marcel takes a deep breath, “She’s alive, so there’s that I guess,”
“What do you mean?” I stare out my window overlooking the lit-up Seattle cityscape.
“She isn’t the same. Whatever they did to her really fucked her up. I grabbed her from the bar, she was...she is...someone I don’t think I recognize.” I roll my eyes at what he says. Of course, Aria is going to be different. We don’t even know the full extent of what she’s gone through.
“She was with them for ages, doing god knows what to her. You need to give her time to readjust. Of course, she won’t be the same. How can she? She’s endured something traumatic no doubt,” I hiss out to him, my emotions getting the best of me. I’ve wanted her for years, and I know that the only way I will get her now is because Baptiste will deem her as useless. Only she isn’t, and she never will be. Old fool.
Marcel chuckles lowly, “I was right to trust you with her. She will be well taken care of.”
“There is never a doubt about that,” I say, rubbing my palm over my forehead.
“You know what you have to do now,”
“Yes,” I comment. I wonder if Baptiste will know I was privy to her situation, or if he will just think I’m the type of bastard who doesn’t give up. Either way it doesn’t matter much. I’ll have her one way or another. “I will have a courier deliver my terms to your father first thing this morning.”
“He won’t reject your proposal this time, Salvatore.”
“You sound so certain of that.” There is no such thing as undeniability. There is always a chance that Baptiste could reject me yet again, but the fact that Marcel seems to think he won’t tells me so much. It means that whatever Aria has been through is being shown to every member of her family, and that they want her gone. Truthfully, it sickens me. She’s gone through hell - literally, and they just want to be rid of her. It’s not like her depression will poison the rest of them. “I need to go make sure I have preparations in order. I’ll talk with you later,” I say to Marcel, ready to hang up the phone.
“Thank you for everything you have done for her,”
I grumble my response before I hang up.
