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“What!?” he roared behind me. “Wait a damn minute,”
“Yes?” I said, daring him to challenge me.
“Please, anything else. What will it take? I will pay anything, but it cannot be at the expense of my daughter. Not my Sabina.”You fucking liar! You don’t care about that girl. You never did.
“There’s no money in the world you can pay. My price is too high.”
“Everyone has a price, even you.”
He’s right. Most men would renegotiate and leave with a big payday, but I have something better, and I’m not like most men. Marco appeared to look pale and sat back down on the chair. I remained standing and steadfast.“Did you not hear me the first time? Sabina,” I say in defiance.
“What about Sabina?” he questioned, trying the last thread of my patience.
“Is there something wrong with your hearing?” I said as I lunged forward and towered over him as he had to look up at me from where he was seated.
“My price is Sabina.”
“What I want is Sabina.”
“I’ll find her, and once I do, I’ll keep her as payment.” I stood tall, knowing the older man would be standoffish and come at me. But, instead, he did not disappoint; he was so predictable.
“My daughter? Are you insane?” he shouted back at me as he gripped the chair's handles.
“Why the outrage, Marco?”
“I would think that would be obvious. She’s my daughter, my little girl, and she belongs to me.”His loving fatherly act is growing tiresome, and I’m annoyed that he’s taken it this far, but I’ll break him, and then he will show me his true intentions.
“No, she belongs to me, and once I find her, and I will, that will happen. You decided her fate after you sent me the email with her picture included.”
“Lucas will never allow it,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Ah, there you are. The Marco Santoro, I know. Be honest with yourself and me; Sabina is an obstacle standing in your way. I see it in your eyes. You don’t care; if you did, we’d be having a different conversation.” I watched him closely as he consideredhis options, which he didn’t have once I became involved. Finally, he let out a sigh and then turned to face me.
“It’s complicated, Bourne, and too long to explain.”
“Fair enough, then this meeting is over.” He didn’t move from the chair. “Why are you still here?”
“I need time to think. Can we continue this in about an hour or so?”
“Very well, one hour,” Once I agreed, his demeanor changed, and then I hit him with a well-known fact. “Marco, as you well remember, I am always protected and will use any means necessary to keep it that way. Are we clear?”
“Yes, and considering what you just proposed, I don’t have any other choice. I’ll see you soon.” He said and then walked out of my office. I watched his departure on my monitors, and once he was down and in the lobby, one guard escorted him to a waiting car. I then pulled out my phone to dial Edric, my right hand.
“He’s on the move. I already got him on my screen. Looks like he’s headed out of the city.”
“Excellent, stay on him and let me know where he goes. Of course, he can’t be that stupid to try anything, but we are talking about Marco, and I believe I gave him plenty to think about.”
I tried to do some work and forget about the photo burning a hole in my suit jacket pocket. However, I never forgot the look on Sabina’s face the day we met. Edric returned a short while later to give me an update on Marco.
“So, you were serious about the girl?” he said, surprising me with the question.
“Quite. Have you ever known me to be anything else?” Edric was not aware of my connection to the girl, now a beautiful woman. I never shared it with another living soul, not even my father, who died and left this world with a crushed heart. He never got over my sister’s death, and one night, when the pain became too great, he took out his gun and shot himself. His bodyslumped over a picture of my sister. Another person I couldn’t help because I was away on yet another mission. After his death, I retired and tried to make some sense of my life now that everyone I loved was gone forever.
“No, never; I was checking.”
“I’ll admit when I offered the payment exchange with his daughter, I was acting purely on getting a reaction from him. He took the bait. You know I would never bargain with another human life to just kidnap this innocent girl and make her mine.”
“How do you know that she’s innocent? Appearances can be deceiving.”
