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“I really think you are looking at this the wrong way,” Dom started, grabbing one of the metal chairs and pulling it over to her. He sat down as he spoke. “I have done my research. You work as a receptionist at Reed’s Funeral Home. You make barely thirty thousand dollars a year. Your rent, in a quite frankly shitty apartment for a one-bedroom, is just shy of half of that. You can’t afford to raise a baby. You can barely afford to provide for yourself. You have to think about the big picture, Natalie. Medical bills for pregnancy and delivery are costly. You also need a bigger place, all the items for the baby, plus you will need to provide for the next eighteen years.”
Dom was a natural snake oil salesman. He could convince anyone that what he wanted was actually their idea. A lot of the previous women had fallen for it. He made sure to pick the right women. The desperate ones earned a low income, had no hope of raising a child and giving them the best life. He knew exactly how to play this. The thing was, I wasn’t getting this from Natalie. Yes, she had a dead-end job and wouldn’t be able to give the child everything they ever asked for, but she seemed more capable of love than the previous women.
“If you give me the baby, I will have you in a nice house while you are pregnant. You will have one of the best doctors looking after you. I will pay for all your medical coverage. And once the baby is born, you will be given a cheque for a hundred grand to put toward a new life. Then later on, you can always make another baby when you have a stable home life for the child. I am not the bad guy in this scenario.”
“Said the scorpion to the frog. Your smooth-talking works on many women, but it won’t work on me. You’re not a good man. You’re the devil trying to offer candy, and I don’t have a sweet tooth. You will never get my baby.” Fear laced her voice, but she kept her edge. I had no idea how she was doing this, but I doubted she would be able to keep this up for long.
“Fine, hard way it is,” Dom said with an edge to his voice. He stood as he continued. “Armando is going to be taking you to your new home. He will stay on guard until after the baby is born. And should you go against any of the rules, he’s been ordered to shoot you in the head. I suggest you be a good girl and do as you are told.”
Dom turned and headed out with the rest of the guys, leaving me to deal with her. Under different circumstances, I would be kind and gentle with her, but that couldn’t happen here. I needed to keep my cover intact, which meant being an asshole. I kept my eyes on her as I pulled out my switchblade from my back pocket. His eyes traveled over to it, most likely expecting me to hurt her with it.
I spoke in a dark and cold tone as I stepped closer to her, bending down just enough to hold her wrist while placing the knife against the zip tie. “You don’t want to get that precious cargo hurt? Then don’t fight me. I cut you loose, and you get up and walk to my truck. You sit in the front seat and you don’t talk or make a move to leave. You even think about escaping and I will kill you. Do you understand?”
She looked me dead in the eye and gave a simple nod. I could see her throat muscles moving up and down. I knew she was fighting to keep up this farce of not being scared. Apparently, I was more intimidating to her compared to Dom and the five others. I cut both of the ties off, and she instantly moved to rub her wrists. I firmly gripped her left bicep and forced her to stand. I held onto her as we walked out and got her into my truck. With us both settled, I headed for the safe house, where I would be trapped with her for the next nine months; it wasn’t something I was looking forward to.
Chapter three
Natalie
I kept my eyes glued to the window, making a mental note of every turn, and every street sign I saw along the way. I couldn’t escape from this car, but that didn’t mean I would be trapped within whatever safe house I was about to be locked up in. I was still fighting with the tremors that had overtaken my body. I was thankful I could keep my head on straight and get through Dominic’s speech, but I could barely hold on. Internally, I had been screaming for him to just let me go. This was supposed to be some of the happiest times of my life, and now it was utterly ruined thanks to my own father.
I knew he had a gambling issue and a drinking one to boot, but I didn’t think he would try and sell his own unborn grandchild just to pay off his debt. I could only assume that he had figured that I couldn’t get pregnant so Dominic would never come and collect… that his debt would be wiped clean and Dominic would never be of the wiser. Only he would think he could con the head of the mafia and get away with it.
He was an idiot, I knew that before, but he had taken this to a new level. And now, because of him, I was being held captive and my baby’s life was at risk. I had no doubt that Dominic meant he would make sure I had a doctor, but I also knew it wouldn’t be the best. Any doctor worth their salt wouldn’t be working for an illegal faction. It would be some doctor that had gotten their license pulled and now had to freelance within the criminal world to make ends meet. They wouldn’t be qualified for my unique position and one I was not about to disclose.
If I wanted to get out of this, I would have to play it smart and wait for the right moment to escape. I would also need to scope out the house and make sure I knew where all of the exits were and have multiple plans in place. I had to be patient and clever if I wanted to get my baby and me out of this alive.
We pulled up to a surprisingly lovely house on the outskirts of town. From what I could see of the house itself, it looked like a decent shape. It was two stories, with a long driveway. You could have easily fit six cars in it. The grass was well-kept. There was a fence all around it, and I wasn’t sure if I could climb it. I would have to come up with a plan for that because there was a locked gate. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the code. If I hadn’t known better, I never would have suspected it was a safe house for the mafia.
There wasn’t much in the area, either. No next-door neighbors, no businesses, no one I could go to for help. I was on my own, but at least we were on a road and not off in the woods somewhere. My guard punched the numbers into the keypad, but I couldn’t see it from my position, not that I expected to.
The gate opened and we drove through it and up to the house. He hit a button and the garage door opened. After getting inside, he closed the door and started to get out. I followed suit, as there was no point in fighting. I had to wait until I could slip out. I wasn’t going to win against him, and there was no point in trying. It wasn’t worth hurting my baby over. I followed him into the house; he spoke as he headed into the living room.
“You can go anywhere within the house and on the grounds. There is a fence all along the perimeter that is electrified and always armed. For the safety of you and your baby, I would avoid it. You follow the rules and Dom has no reason to enforce new ones.”
I suspected the new rules wouldn’t be ones I would enjoy obeying. That was fine with me. All I had to do was buy my time.
“And when will a doctor come by?” I asked because that was one of my main concerns right now.
“In a few days. There’s food and you can pick a room upstairs.” He paused and started to walk back toward me. I could see the danger in his eyes; under different circumstances, it might have made me pulse with need. I had always been a sucker for the bad boys. “As for any jailbreaks you might be planning, don’t bother. None of the windows open, and there is that pesky fence that will fry you the second you come in contact with it.”
“I’m not an idiot. I’m not about to kill myself just to escape. The police will find me eventually, and then I will get the pleasure of watching them throw you to the floor and cuff you,” I said as I started to close the gap between us. Keeping my back straight and with a fearless tone in my voice, I added, “I’m going to be there at every trial. I’ll visit you in prison just to see what the other inmates think of you helping your boss sell innocent children. Criminals are funny that way. You could slaughter a hundred men, but if you dare raise a hand to a child, they’ll torture you slowly. That’s the part that I am really going to look forward to. For both you and your boss.”
Was I getting ballsy? Yes, but he needed to see that I wasn’t scared, even though my heart was pounding in my chest and the trembling I was fighting to keep down was getting to be a herculean task. I wasn’t going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing me scared and weak.
A smirk spread across his face as his tongue darted to wet his lips slightly. “You’re brave. I’ll give you that. But it won’t last long. Dom is very good at breaking the rebellious ones. You would do well to remember that, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart. And you would do well to stay the hell out of my way.”
That was all I had to say, and I turned and headed for the stairs. I needed to get away from him and put as much distance between us as physically possible. I quickly made my way up the stairs and down the hallway. I checked into every door to see what was behind it. I found there were three bedrooms, a bathroom and a linen closet. The one bedroom had an ensuite bathroom, and I took that room as my own. At least within this room, I could hide in it, not even having to come out for the bathroom.
I would need to eat, but that was a problem for later. The room itself was nice, and I hated that it was nice. I knew that was ridiculous; why would I want to be trapped within a dump? At least if it was a shitty place, I could hate more easily. I could feel like I was a prisoner instead of a guest at some bed and breakfast inn.
I closed the door and noticed immediately that there was no lock on the inside, so I couldn’t lock myself in. There was a keyhole on the other side of the knob, so I knew I could be locked in by one of my guards. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that because if they did lock me in, it was to keep me from getting out, but at the same time, it kept them from just walking in. It was a double-edged sword.
The room itself was nice, just like the rest of the house. There was a king-size bed with a material frame. The headboard was tall, giving a person plenty of room to sit up comfortably in bed. A long eight-drawer dresser was placed across from the bed. Above it, mounted to the wall, was a flat-screen television. I wasn’t sure of the size, but it was big enough to watch movies in bed and not miss a thing.
A desk was off to the right of the bed, placed underneath a window that didn’t open. There were even some romance novels by Amber Row arranged on top of it. I didn’t have my phone, and there wasn’t a landline in the room. A quick look through the desk's drawers and dresser told me there was no laptop or tablet I could use. I found a bunch of clothes, all different sizes, in the dresser and the closet.
