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“A necessary evil. I don’t particularly enjoy killing people.”
Something clicked into place in my head. “Those goons at my mom’s house. You sent them?”
He shrugged. “I needed to find out what the hell happened to that whore Dolly. Whether her death would mess things up. That wasn’t part of our plan.”
“So you had nothing to do with that?”
“Of course not. That was that fool Landry. He almost messed up our entire plan. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on him.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Hiding out. But I’ll find him.”
“Were the men who broke into my apartment Marco’s men?” I asked bitterly.
Fear filled me because I already knew Jacob couldn’t have done all this alone. Were Marco and his family being guarded by people who’d betrayed them? Oh God, was Chiara in the same house as the man who had attacked her?
“That was dirty cops we have on our payroll,” he said, as if bored.
He took a switchblade from his pocket and flicked it open.
I tried to rise to my feet to run, but fell over instead. He chuckled. “Relax.”
He used the blade to cut the ties off my ankles. Pain screamed in my feet as my blood flow returned. He dragged me upright by my arm. Marched me out of the room, into a dim corridor where a lone lightbulb flickered.
“Please don’t do this,” I begged. “My mom has no one else. I need to look after her. I swear, I’ll keep my mouth shut. I’ll never talk about anything to anyone. Please!”
And my baby, I wanted to scream. Please don’t kill my baby.
But I knew he wouldn’t care. And that he knew full well I would tell Marco everything the moment I was free.
He hustled me down the corridor and down some steep steps into a dim and musty basement.
“Relax. I’m not going to kill you. We’ll even keep you fed and watered until we find Landry.”
“Why?” I gasped. “What kind of game are you playing? How is that going to get you the gold? Please don’t do this. You said you don’t like hurting people.”
He threw me down onto a musty, old mattress. In sheer desperation, I screamed, “You’ll never get away with this! Marco will kill you when he finds out!”
Jacob crouched beside me. “Marco isn’t going to find anything out, thanks to you and the app you downloaded to his phone.”
I frowned. “The verification app?”
He laughed. Shook his head. “Tech isn’t my forte, but it’s some kind of spyware. It’s going to let us open his precious vault when the moment is right.”
My mouth dropped open. I could have screamed when it hit me what a fool I’d been.
“And when is the moment right?” I babbled.
I had to keep on talking. Had to find some way out of here. Why hadn’t I tried to make a run for it when he’d cut the ties off my legs?
He stroked my cheek almost tenderly. “You’re a beautiful girl. It’s a pity it has to end this way.”
I retched suddenly, and don’t know how I managed to control the need to throw up.
He looked sympathetic. “Morning sickness, huh? Did they tell you the baby’s gender at the scan?”
My eyes widened in horror.
