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I took a step back, giving her some breathing room.
“Somewhere safe,” I said. And then, once I’d deposited her ‘somewhere safe’, maybe I could see about getting someone to do something about the goddamned knife wound in my back. That son of a bitch hurt.
She scoffed. “I’m just supposed to trust you?”
“This isn’t about trust; it’s about survival. If you want to survive, you’ll do as you’re told.”
She scowled. I don’t think she liked that answer. But since most men in my position would have put a bullet in her head and been done with it, I was clearly being more than reasonable here.
“You won’t get away with this. Someone will—”
I smirked, my amusement not quite hidden beneath my menacing façade. “Oh,signorina,I’m always getting away with things. It’s what I do best. But as you can see,” I said, motioning between us to emphasize the distance I’d given her, “I’m not hurting you. I have no interest in hurting you. But youwillcome with me, one way or another. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”
Her eyes flickered to the doorway, and I could feel it—I could practically see the wheels turning in her head, telling me exactly what she was going to do. I don’t think she appreciated just how reasonable I was being.
Nevertheless, I was prepared for it when she turned on her heels and darted back through the kitchen. What I hadn’t expected was that the woman would be so damn fast.
She’d made it through the kitchen and halfway across the living room before I caught up to her. I wrapped an arm around her waist and yanked her back to me, ignoring the warm, soft feel of her lithe body against me.
But this was pointless. The stubborn woman wasn’t going to see reason. How many times had I argued with Greta, only for her to go and do whatever the fuck she wanted anyway?
Before Heidi could start flailing again, I reached into my jacket pocket and withdrew the syringe that had been intended for Elio Bianchi.
But since the man wasn’t here, I yanked off the cap with my teeth and jabbed the needle into Heidi’s neck.
She squealed in shock and tried to jerk away from me, but it was too late. The injection did its work fast, making her knees buckle and taking her away into sweet oblivion within seconds.
She collapsed into my arms, and I lifted her up, carrying her out of the apartment and down the service elevator to the car waiting for me in the lot below.
When I imagined having this woman at my mercy,thiswasn’t what I’d had in mind.
Chapter Four
Amadeo
Four hours. A four-hour drive to the middle of fucking nowhere. My back was aching, the leather seat of the slate gray Bentley Bentayga was covered in blood, and my stubborn little witness was starting to come around in the back seat.
She’d been silent, near-motionless throughout the long drive, but now, as I pulled into the long gravel driveway that led up to the Luciano’s… cabin, three hours outside of New York City, she began to make quiet noises, not quite a breath, not quite a moan, that were making their way into my ears and heading straight to my cock.
As I shifted the Bentayga into park at the top of the drive, I pulled out my phone and dialed my father’s number. Enzo Luciano, the don of the Luciano family.
Had I deliberately waited to let Vito share the news about the turn of events this evening? Hell, yes.
“I’m at the cabin,Papà,” I explained to him the moment he answered his phone.
He made a rumbling sound in his throat. My father was fond neither of phones nor surprises.
“Si,Vito filled me in on this evening’s events,” he said in a voice that sounded very much like an impending earthquake. “I assume you didn’t eliminate the woman. What is it you plan to do with her, Deo?”
Good question. I had no better answer now than I had four hours ago. At least, not in the long run. For now, she had a purpose to serve.
“She’s involved with Bianchi—she let herself into his apartment. And since the asshole in the apartment didn’t know where to find him, she might. I’ll see what she can tell me.”
“And you think she’ll be amenable to handing over that information?” he asked, his tone full of doubt.
Amenable? No. Scared into offering it up to save her own hide? Absolutely.
I didn’t much care for scaring the shit out of innocent women—as opposed to scaring the shit out of sinful women, which I kind of liked—but this was more than business; it was personal. Even Greta would understand.
