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“My brother and I are not men to cross, and you don’t want us as your enemy. Betrayal equals death.” He took one step toward me, and I flinched as if he had just punched me in the face. “But you know that. You know what could happen to you right now.”
My mind ran rampant with all the ways this man would make me pay. Every single horror movie I ever watched played back in my head. My ragged breath came out in gasps as my vision dimmed. My ears rang, and my body began to quiver. This was it.
This was it.
The man reached for my chin and tilted my head back so I had to look up into his eyes. “My name is Stefano Bennato. I am one of the brothers who you screwed over.” He paused for a moment to give me time to absorb his words. “You couldn’t possibly think that my brother, Thomas, and I were going to allow you to share our secrets to the Feds, now did you?”
“I was scared. I didn’t know what to do, and they were pressuring me. I wouldn’t have done it, but…” There was a note of hysteria in my voice as I asked, “Are you going to kill me?”
“Death would be easy compared to what we plan to do to you. And we would rather not kill women. It goes against a code we try to live by. We’re far from men who live by a moral compass, but we do have limits.” He paused and tightened his lips together before adding, “You may wish for death by the time we’re done with you.”
“Torture me then?”
He smiled, pleased with the question. “In the most wicked of ways. Yes.”
I flinched when I heard the door to my right open and close. I turned and saw another man who looked exactly like Stefano enter the room. Thomas Bennato… the twin brother. Staring up into the other brother’s eyes, I asked, “What do you plan to do to me?”
The unknown might very well kill me from fear before the brothers could even lay a hand on me.
“Marry you,” Stefano said.
“Make you carry our baby,” Thomas added.
They answered so simply with zero emotion. It was like a slap to the face, and I could barely process the words being spoken.
“You can’t testify against at least one of us if you’re married, nor will you want to put the father of your baby behind bars. You’ll need us.” Stefano stated the plan so bluntly and so simply. “And once you have our seed in you, we will never let you go. Never.”
“How can I have a baby who belongs to both of you?” I asked in genuine curiosity rather than trying to insult their plan as impossible and stupid. Were they going to expect back to back pregnancies and have me give them an heir one at a time?
“We don’t care whose seed created the baby,” Thomas began. “We just need one Bennato heir to continue our line. Neither one of us care to truly get married out of love, nor do we care to have a family. We just need an heir, and you are going to provide it. We don’t care who the father is just as long as the Bennato blood runs in the baby’s veins.”
“You’ll stay here with us until the baby is conceived,” Stefano announced. “After that, we’ll move you and the baby around for safekeeping. We know many would like to see the Bennato family end with us, and we’ll do whatever it takes to assure that doesn’t happen.”
“But first,” Thomas said, “punishment.”
The sob I had been struggling to hold back released. It was even louder as it was amplified by the barren walls of the entryway. My shoulders shook with every desperate wail. I could no longer wear the crown of the brave queen. It was broken, chipped, destroyed by fear. I was so very scared, and all I could do was watch my tears fall to the floor before my knees.
“Don’t cry, my naughty girl. Not yet.” Stefano bent down and caressed the back of my head, once again lifting my face so I was forced to look into his unforgettable eyes. He then took a handful of hair and yanked my head back hard. “Not until we give you something to cry about. And we will.” He bent his head down, brought his lips to my exposed neck, and kissed it. Tugging on my hair harder, he inched back and looked me squarely in the face, so close that I could feel his breath on my lips. I could smell his manly scent of spice and control… if control had a scent.
He was so close. I could almost feel him. I knew his touch wouldn’t be soft or gentle. There was nothing but raw power exuding from this man. “We most certainly will.”
