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All I did was have a nap. That’s all. That’s why I’m so hungry now.
When I emerge from the bedroom, Jessica’s already gone. I walk downstairs, hearing men’s voices, lots of them, talking loudly.
I find out why when I reach the dining room. Leo is at the top of the table, a beer in his hand. Barb curled up on the floor next to him.
Taking up most of the seats are men I’ve not met before. All in suits, though none as sharply cut as Leo’s.
I pause in the doorway, backing up when I hear my name mentioned, hiding around the corner. “Why not just kill her?” someone asks. “That would fuck him up far more than all this bullshit.”
“Since when did I turn to you before I make a decision?” Leo replies and I can hear the anger in his voice. “This is not up for debate. She is my wife and you will show her respect when she appears or you’ll never leave this island. Is that clear?”
A momentary silence and then the voice that asked the question says, “Yes,” with a hint of fear as they add, “Apologies, Don Barone.”
“He’s right,” someone else says. “Or at the very least we shouldn’t talk about this shit in front of her. What if she’s feeding it back to Paolo?”
“Paolo is not a concern. If he’s not bleeding to death right now, he soon will be.”
I clasp my hand in front of my mouth. How can he talk like that about my father?
I walk away, not wanting to hear anything else. My appetite’s gone. I thought I was getting through to him but it’s clear it was a lie. He’s the monster I thought he was. Everything else was faked for my benefit.
There was me wondering who I am. I should have been asking the more important question. Who is he?
Answer, a coldhearted beast. Happy to torture my father and leave him to die. Happy to take me from my career and everything I know and trap me here. I’ve been shot at. I’ve nearly drowned. I’ve been spanked. I’ve been humiliated. And for what? To get back at my father?
I’m not even a person in his mind. I’m just a pawn to be sacrificed when the time is right. It wouldn’t surprise me if I found out he was planning on selling me to this Amato guy.
I go back to my room and sit on the bed, my head in my hands. Two minutes later, I feel a shadow over me. I look up and Leo is there. “Jessica told me you were coming,” he says, looking concerned. “Is something wrong?”
“I heard what you were saying to those men down there.”
“What did you hear?”
“That my father can bleed to death for all you care.”
“He will not die if he has told the truth. I made that clear to him.”
“So what was that talk down there? Just banter with the guys?”
“I was making clear to them what happens when you cross me. They worked for my father. This is their first time working for me. I must lay down the law. You only get one chance for a first impression. I need them onboard for the job we’re on tomorrow. Now are you coming down to eat or should I send something up?”
“I’m not hungry.”
A smile flickers across his lips. “I think you are.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. You know everything about me. Well, can you guess what I’m thinking now?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve cursing, you can think what you like.”
“Get out.”
“I’m going but when I come back, we’re going to have a talk, you and I.”
“Are we?”
“We are. You’re going to understand that this is a marriage and it is going to work. I know you want it to work. You think you can sit on a moral high horse because I’m mean about your father. You don’t know what he did to my family.”
“I know he crashed his car into yours when drunk. I know your mom and brother died. I know you got badly burned. I know he didn’t pay for his crimes and I’m sorry for that but I’m not him.”
