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She still hoped to get out of this with her baby. A part of me wanted to protect that hope and didn’t want to see it fade. I didn’t know what it was about her, but the fact that I seemed to care, even slightly, was dangerous. I had to stay focused on my mission and not let my mind get clouded by a beautiful woman.
I headed up the stairs and toward her room with the tray. I might have had ulterior motives for bringing her breakfast. Dom was coming over today, and the last thing I needed was her coming out of the room and overhearing us. Or worse, thinking she could escape while I was busy. Dom wouldn’t tolerate it and would do whatever he had to ensure she didn’t try again. Typically, that meant having me break her leg, which I couldn’t stomach. If she were in the room and had food, she should stay quiet, and Dom wouldn’t be the wiser. I knocked on the door but didn’t hear her granting me permission. I didn’t need it, anyway.
I opened the door and saw that she wasn’t in bed but standing up looking out the window. I could see the longing in her eyes from her reflection in the glass. Her shoulders were tense, and I knew she was still on guard around me, not that I could blame her. There were no words of comfort I could offer that she would believe. Besides, saying them wouldn’t mean much if I had to hurt her because she did something stupid to piss Dom off. I spoke as I placed the tray down on the bed.
“Breakfast.”
“I’m not hungry,” she instantly said, not even turning around to face me.
“Eat it, don’t eat it. I don’t care. Dominic is coming by shortly, and this time you need to listen to me and stay in the room.”
“Whatever,” she said dismissively.
She wasn’t in the mood for company, which was fine with me. I headed back out, but I couldn’t trust her to listen. I pulled the keys out and locked the door. I knew it would piss her off, but it was the only way to ensure she would be safe while Dom was here.
I was sure I was already going to hear shit about hitting Lorenzo. I went down the stairs and headed into the kitchen for a quick clean-up. It wouldn’t be long before Dom arrived, and I needed to work off my undeniable urge to kill him. Patience was a virtue, but I didn’t always have one. I just needed to hold on a bit longer, and then I would have my revenge.
It was roughly an hour later when Dom arrived. He walked in and immediately headed for the kitchen, where I knew he would grab a beer. It didn’t matter that it was only noon, as he often drank early. Part of the reason he was starting to lose ground with his men was that he was becoming unhinged. Not that anyone would say that to his face. Or whisper behind his back while he was on the other side of the city. It mainly was the middle-ranking men who had seen it and had problems with it. The lower-ranking men didn’t care as long as they continued to get paid.
The higher-up men like me could see it, and we were just waiting for the shit to hit the fan. The middlemen, though, were trapped between doing what was ordered and knowing it was insane and would bring the police around. The middlemen had the most significant risk of getting arrested because the police knew they couldn’t flip one of the higher-up men, and the lower men never knew anything of value. The middle-ranking men were the ones that could get you the intel you needed to shut the whole organization down.
“Five o’clock somewhere?” I asked with a smirk. I didn’t care what Dom did; he knew how valuable I was to his organization, so he let me get away with shit that others didn’t.
“Fucking right it is,” he answered as he came and sat down in the living room with me. “How’s the product?”
“Fine, as far as I can tell. Though, she’s gonna need to see the doc soon. We’re gonna need a baseline.”
We had a doctor within the organization. He wasn’t much of one, but he could get the job done. He had lost his medical license after administering more narcotics to patients who didn’t need them. In exchange, he was paid cash. Then there was the issue of being arrested for having sex with patients who couldn’t pay. Dom had gotten word of it and swooped in to rescue him; in return, the doc had to work for him. From what I had been told, we only had one doctor, and so far, he had lasted longer than the last guy. It was before my time, but apparently, the last doctor was killed after sleeping with Dom’s girl.
Safe to say, he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch. Dr. Holland, or Doc, as most of us called him, was more of a general doctor. He didn’t specialize in anything but could take a bullet out of you and stitch you up pretty well. He didn’t know anything about pregnancies or babies, and I hated that he was the one trying to take care of these women. We’d lost a few because he missed something vital.
“He’s coming by in a couple of days. She just saw one, and she’s early. She doesn’t need to be monitored all that much. Once that baby is born, then you’ll kill her and dump her with the rest. I am already working on the next target.” He was always looking for the next woman to impregnate. It never ended with him, and with the number of illegal casinos he had, he had a lot of potential targets.
“I am aware of my duties. I’ll make it happen. You said you needed to discuss something with me.” It was the whole reason why he was here. Dom didn’t tend to come by the house to check on any of the women. He kept himself away, so he didn’t have to worry about getting caught in case the police somehow had gotten word of this place.
“The father, Jake Grant, needs to be taken out. I want you to do it and make sure it is bloody. He was in one of the casinos last night, gambling away. He thinks he can rack up debt all over again, and nothing will come from it. He’s only one daughter and no sisters or cousins we could use as a trade next time. I want the dead weight cut off permanently.”
I had already assumed I would kill him as we had killed all the others. As a loose end, we couldn’t afford one of them to grow a conscience and speak to the police. I was surprised Dom hadn’t already sent one of the other guys out to kill Jake. What wasn’t surprising was that Jake was gambling again. I had to give it to the man; it took balls to go back into a casino owned by the man holding your pregnant daughter captive. There was clearly no love within the man, not that I expected much. If I had a child, I would never put them in harm’s way. I would never give them up just to save myself. Jake clearly didn’t feel the same, and I was looking forward to killing him.
“I’ll get it done tonight.”
This would be the last day on Earth that Jake got to spend. Tonight, I would leave Natalie with Gabriele. He has been my best friend and right-hand man since we were kids. He would make sure that Natalie was safe and taken care of. I refused to think about why it would matter if she was taken care of. I couldn’t let any potential feelings cloud my judgment. She was just a woman, all she could ever be.
Chapter nine
Natalie
It was nearing two in the afternoon, and I was still stuck in this room. I had eaten Armando's breakfast, but only because I was hungry and needed to eat for the baby. Otherwise, I would have left it there to go wrong. The very last thing I wanted was anything from that man. I still couldn’t believe he had locked me in here. I knew I was a prisoner, but he didn’t need to trap me in this room.
I would have stayed here. I didn’t want to see or interact with Dominic, especially after Lorenzo yesterday. It was only solidifying what I already knew: they were all cold-hearted killers, and I couldn’t put any trust or faith in them. I also couldn’t let my growing attraction to Armando cloud my judgment. I needed to get out of this house and away from them all. I just needed a plan for that.
At first, I thought I could get Armando on my side or one of the guards coming and going. It would be easier with Armando, though, because he seemed to be the one who would be around me the most. It would be easier to flip the guard that I was around more often than one of the guards who fills in whenever the need rises. I didn’t think I could flip Armando, though. He was cold; you could see it in his eyes. The few small fleeting moments when he was nice to me didn’t counter what lived within his heart and soul: pure darkness. There had to be a way, though. I just wasn’t seeing it yet.
At the sound of the lock disengaging, I looked over at the door and watched as Armando entered the room. He didn’t look even slightly remorseful for trapping me in here, not that I was surprised.
“Why don’t you come outside? Sit in the sun. It’s good for the baby,” he said.
It seemed random for him to ask me to come outside. I was allowed outside thanks to the killer fence, but he was inviting me out there this time. Warning bells went off in my head, and immediately I started thinking that this was some sort of trap he had planned. Maybe Dominic was outside with more of his men, and they were looking to make me the entertainment. Well, that wasn’t going to happen.
