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“Lucy,” someone calls my name, not my name — the name I gave tohim.I’m almost at my car, but I turn around and am face to face with seven-foot giant. “You need to come with us, your date is waiting.”
“My date can fuck off. I do not take kindly to being stood up,” I say to the behemoth in front of me. “He was late, he ghosted me, and left me in there humiliated and alone.” I cross my arms to emphasize my annoyance.
“Lucy, please come with me,” he asks again, and I decide I am not standing for this bullshit and dig in my heels.
“No, I have somewhere else to be now. If he wants to go on a date with me, he will have to ask me, in person, himself. He is going to need to grovel.” I push the button to unlock my car, and the orange lights flash twice.
“I said please,” he insists, stepping in my way now, “this is going to go one of two ways—” before he can say more, I feel a tiny prick in my neck and everything starts to blur around the edges. My eyes are filling up with thick black liquid, the same feeling you get if you drink until you pass out. Oh shit, I am going to pass—
CHAPTER6
Salvatore
The whole thing was too easy. I have a hard time believing she stupidly just went to meet with a stranger. A woman from her background should have known not to go anywhere without security. It would have been drilled into her from a young age, and to take such a risk, she must be crazy or dumb.
I watch the footage again. It must be the thousandth time. She did not even try run. Nothing about her body language was in flight mode, she froze — silly girl. The tape plays on repeat, I know it will be days before she gets here, there is no shortcut. I watch her face when she realizes that something is horribly wrong. That frame alone is priceless.
Raul has screamed all day today, and I sincerely hope the Russian boat has everything on my baby shopping list on board too. Because I am not sure I can do this for much longer without losing my mind, I’ve already had a dream I tossed him to the sharks. I know this is what babies do, and he has lost his mother and father, but fuck my life, why would they give him to me?
My poor security team has played pass the baby with me since we arrived. I think they know I am teetering on the very edge of sanity. This island is too small for a screaming baby and sanity to coexist. Even when they take him from me, I can hear him through the walls, so I put on my headphones and watch the security footage of Lucia before I took her, and that day when she so easily became mine.
I wonder if anyone has noticed she is gone yet? Her family is so preoccupied with their narrow-minded plans to overthrow The Kings I don’t think they have a clue she is missing — not yet anyway. Her kidnap insurance is worth almost a billion dollars, and I am tempted to demand a ransom, but I have no need for more money.
It was her that I wanted, a life for the lives they took. Lucia is going to pay the price for her father’s sins, and I am going to enjoy making her. The boat is about a day and half away, and it suddenly hits me that I have no idea what the hell I am actually going to do with her when she arrives here. Where will I put her? She might be full of shit and fight, I don’t know what her mindset will be.
I spin on the office chair and think about it. She might be dangerous if I let her loose in the house, but there is no need to lock her up. There really is nowhere for her to go. You cannot escape this island, anyone who tries will die. Shark infested waters, hundreds of miles from any other land in any direction. There is no escape. I do not keep a boat on this rock only my helicopter. Lucia Zagaria is not smart enough to fly one of those but might be dumb enough to try. I think it is best if I have a plan, a place to keep her.
There’s a storm cellar. It’s kitted out to withstand a hurricane and has done so a few times now. I will be able to keep her confined down there. I get up and go down into the bowels of my sprawling island palace and inspect the space. It will work. The one side of the space is set up to shelter from bad weather and can lock from the outside. I shall put her there, it has the comforts of a home without being too nice. She is not a guest — she is prisoner and I don’t want to give her the wrong first impression.
The thing is I have not yet decided exactly what I want to do with her. I might just kill her, so her family feels what I feel. I might keep her here as company so I don’t go crazy, she could watch the baby. If I can trust her, we will see… There’s still the ransom option, but I like the others better. The last thing on earth I can see her wanting to be is the help. I might just humble her and show her what her life will be without her family taking care of her.
Online she made no attempts to hide the fact she was gold-digger, she wanted a rich man to take care of her and give her a lifestyle she was used to. I will give her a private island, that was not a lie. I will give her a stunning house, and I will make sure she never gets a dime. There is no Gucci or Dolce here, this place isn’t paradise.
“I have a prisoner coming ashore with the Russian boat. She is to be locked down here until I decide what to do with her,” I say to the head of island security. “No one talks to her, no one gives her anything without going through me first.” He nods his head and walks the room checking the security and the camera feed.
“This room is storm proof, she will not be able to escape.” I snicker, and he smiles. “Not that there is anywhere to escape to. It’s not an Olympic swimmer, is it?”
We both chuckle at that and I shake my head. “No, this is personal. I would prefer it if no one except the few of us on the island know about it.” He nods his head, understanding that not everything is public knowledge. I still have secrets, many of them. “This is not a business matter.” I leave him, knowing he will make sure Lucia is treated like the traitorous enemy she is, and that her stay is as uncomfortable as she deserves.
I walk down the commercial dock to where it is over the deep water. This cove and deep water is what allows the Russian boats the stop here. We have a very strategic point in the middle of the open water where no law exists. International waters, and the cloak of nothing around us. Invisibility is a valuable commodity in my line of work.
I stand there allowing the wind to push against me, listening to the rage of the waves, watching the swell as it rises and falls, glowing in the late afternoon sunset. The weather will change tonight, the boat will have rough seas coming in tomorrow. I hope she isn’t seasick. Or maybe I don’t.
There is the thick smell of salt in the air, and the wind is wet with spray from the waves breaking on the concrete dolos that support the dock on one side. It’s as if you can taste the ocean on every breath you take.
“Sir.” I am brought out of my daydreams, “There’s a call for you in the house.”
The only phone on this island is a satellite phone, and only five people have the number, none of them would be calling for any good reasons. I walk back up the stone steps and in through the kitchen entrance of the house. I can hear Raul crying. Fuck.
“Hello,” I growl into the phone and am surprised to hear Elodie’s voice.
“Sal, how are you and the baby?” she asks, concerned. “I haven’t had a chance to check if you need help.”
“It’s fine, I found someone, they’re arriving in a day or two. We’ll be fine. Thanks, Elodie.” I don’t want her asking questions or looking too closely at what I am up to. I have gone against what The Kings wanted. I have taken revenge they did not think was mine. “We are good, you don’t need to worry.” I can tell she already is. And she can no doubt hear him wailing in the background.
“He’s going to miss them, Sal, you have to love him. He can’t understand it the way we do. He is used to being in his mother’s arms.” I only have my arms and he hates them. “Be gentle with him, and if you need anything you can call me.” I would rather remove my eye with a grapefruit spoon than ask anyone to help me.
“Thanks, Elodie, I need to go he’s awake.”
