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Sebastian’s name lights up the screen. Although it is just after midnight in Sicily, I am not surprised he is awake and wanting an update. As I answer, my eyes flick to the camera in the car. We have eyes everywhere and even from Sicily, I know he’s watching.
“What happened?” he asks, his tone harsh with no pleasantries.
I have known Sebastian all my life. We have been best friends since we were three years old. My father was his father’s right-hand man, and now, over three decades later, we both have stepped up into the same roles with each other. I would take a bullet for him any day of the week. Not because it is my job, but because he is the closest I have to a brother. We are family. After finding the love of his life Goldie, they are currently in Sicily on vacation. I’m sure, since he never really takes a break, he’s also building relationships and making deals while he is over there.
“Dominic is what happened,” I spit out, and Little Red looks at me wide-eyed. I see her chest rise and fall in renewed panic, and my thumb automatically rubs her hip to reassure her. I hear her gasp at the movement, her skin prickling with goosebumps, and my eyes bounce right up to hers because it is an act that has caught us both off guard.
What the fuck am I doing?
“You had to kill his men? Dante, this will start a war.” He sighs, and I can feel his frustration through the line. We both hate Dominic, and we always knew a war was looming. But my actions have just brought it closer to the present.
“Allure is a fucking pigsty; they have taken our money and have no intention of giving it back or providing any return on our investment.”
“Look, we all know Dominic and Frederico are the lowest of the low. I know they had a hand in Angelina’s demise, but fuck, Dante! You killed five of his men!”
“And I should have killed him too,” I say with a smirk as Little Red gapes at me, going pale and beginning to shake again. My move is automatic, the caress against her skin to bring her comfort.
I hate Dominic and Federico for many reasons, but mostly because of what they have done to my ex-wife and mother of my son.
Angelina and I had an arranged marriage; there was certainly no love between us, and while she was a pretty, blonde Italian girl, I still had to get drunk to fuck her. But arranged marriages are part of our life, and for a while, it was fine. I didn’t spend a lot of time around her. I kept busy with Sebastian, building our team, readying ourselves to take on the new roles of head of the New York mob. She got pregnant in the meantime and had little Leo, who is still the only shining light in my dark world.
Only, things changed after he was born. She was often seen drunk at Allure at all hours of the day, leaving my son at home on his own on more than one occasion. Even thinking about it now makes me furious.
Her role was to be at home. Be a mother to my heir and fucking get into line like the rest of us. Like me when I married her.
She didn’t want that role, though. And she made sure I knew that.
While I was in Sicily for business, she plied my men with drugs and participated in what ended up being a full-blown sex party. But that was the least of my worries, because she took little Leo with her. He was only five at the time, but he saw and heard things no five-year-old should have. It impacted him so severely, he hasn’t been the same since. My blood still boils whenever I think about it.
Afterwards, it became clear that she was hooked on drugs, and when her suppliers started coming to me, demanding payments, I locked her up and tried to get her clean. But nothing worked, so I had to let her go. She was banished from mine and Leo’s life, and for the past three years, I have raised Leo myself. She sees him annually at most and never unsupervised, as the drugs still hold on to her, her life barely hanging on by a thread.
Sebastian interrupts my thoughts. “Well, now you get your chance. They have already called me to threaten me, you, and our family, fucking imbeciles. He has assured me that you are a dead man walking, so watch your back. Kill them, get our money, and don’t get hurt.”
“No problem,” I say simply as I watch Little Red blink rapidly. I’m not hiding my side of the conversation, and she’s clearly listening in. But surprisingly, she doesn’t scurry off my body or lean away from me in disgust or terror. She may well be in shock because any other woman would be screeching at me right about now, I am sure. Regardless, my fingers continue to move against her skin, in the silent assurance that she will be fine, and her body listens as I can see her quick breaths slowing.
“And who the fuck is the redhead sitting on your lap?” Sebastian asks, and I smile slyly.
“I think she might be mine.”
4
Annie
Mine. I may not be able to hear the entire conversation, but I am pretty sure the man underneath me just claimed me as his. In the midst of my internal alarm blaring back to life, the light outside goes dark as the car drives off the side street and down into an underground parking lot. My breathing quickens as I realize the time for me to escape has well and truly passed. I trusted this man and now I have no idea where the hell I am or how the hell I am going to get away.
Aside from the handsome stranger who I am still straddling, none of the other men have spoken to me, all ignoring my existence as they remain focused. Even before we pull to a stop, they are out of the car and running in all different directions.
I remain in his arms, and he lifts us out of the car slowly, lowering me to stand. My feet hit the cement ground, but he doesn’t let me go. Instead, he waits, his hands encasing my waist to ensure I don’t fall, or faint – either option totally possible at this point.
Looking up at him, I ask with my eyes if this is the moment that I get taken into a dungeon and killed for being witness to a crime this morning? But his firm hands on my body don’t feel like they would harm me, and I hope like hell my instincts are right. My hands shake as we stand side by side, and it is almost comical how small I am next to him. He is even taller than I thought, and broad, his eyes dark as they watch me. His open shirt shows me a large black tattoo that licks up his neck, making him look scarier than I believe him to be. He saved me once, so surely, he won’t hurt me now…
Removing my eyes from his, I assess where I am. The underground lot houses a wide range of vehicles from sports cars to large trucks and vans. The cement beneath my feet is lacquered in clear gloss, with markings where vehicles park and large bright lights hanging above us. The entire lot is bigger than my old high school basketball stadium—not that it is hard, it was a small school and underfunded. I have never seen anything like it, and it certainly doesn’t look like a place where wild killers bring young out-of-towners to end their life. Regardless, I stay standing close to the man, not wanting to leave his side, where I have been safely residing for the past 30 minutes.
I was tired before, but now I’m wide awake as he takes my hand and pulls me toward one of the many doors that line the perimeter. My small hand grips his, not wanting to let go, and my little legs struggle to keep up to his long, purposeful strides. I continue to observe my new surroundings, watching as men dressed in black scurry around the place, moving cars, emptying guns and cleaning them, then stocking them in the many storage units. All of them armed, all of them looking lethal.
Like the obedient woman I am, I follow my handsome stranger through the door, and without letting go of my hand, he leads me down concrete hallways. Turning right, then left, the hallways begin to turn into more decorative corridors before we come to a large, black glossy door with a brass knocker. It looks just like a front door of a house, only this one is inside the depths of this building, only accessible via the maze of hallways we just walked through.
Looking behind me, I realize that I have no idea how to get out, my sense of direction nonexistent as we made numerous twists and turns that have left me slightly dizzy. Or is that my low blood pressure? It is too hard to know for sure as my body has changed so much lately.
