Page 4 of Captivated with Them

Chapter Two

Rue

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“YOU’VE GOT THIRTY MINUTES. I expect you to be ready by then. Don’t let me down, Rue.”

Frankie Capello stood in the doorway of the room that was now my bedroom. After what had gone down at the pizza restaurant the Capello brothers used as a cover, I’d been bundled into a car and brought to Frankie Capello’s main residence on the outskirts of the city. Though I’d already accepted what was to become of me, my heart had sunk with every mile the car covered. I’d spent time at this place before, and I knew what was expected of the girls who were forced to live here. Frankie Capello liked to entertain, to make sure his colleagues knew he was a bigshot, and providing a little female company was only part of that.

Despite knowing exactly what Frankie meant when he asked me to be ready, I couldn’t help but try to get out of it.

“Joe Nettie’s men might still be after me. What if one of them is sitting around your table tonight, and you just don’t know it?”

There was an annoying little whine of desperation in my voice, and I hated myself for it.

“There won’t be. It’s a small group, and I’ve vetted each one of them. Besides, Nettie’s men are substantially thinner on the ground than they were only a few days ago. You’ll be safe.”

There was a reason I’d been given to Dillon, Kodee, and Ryan in the first place. They’d known Nettie’s men would want to take me out so I wouldn’t be able to testify against their boss. They’d thought hiding me with a handful of nobodies would keep me safer than if I was with them, but they’d thought wrong.

I tried again. “You can’t know that for sure.”

His eyes narrowed, his lips thinning with displeasure. “I know each of the men who’ll be here tonight, and none of them would ever be stupid enough to betray me. Stop trying to get out of your job and do as I ask.”

I clenched my teeth to prevent myself from begging. I wondered how his wife and kids put up with this bullshit. Were the big house, and the power, and the money enough to make her ignore the fact her husband was spending time with much younger women? They were all at it—all the men I came across who associated with this gang. It didn’t matter if they were fifty years old, they would happily pull some eighteen-year-old, scantily dressed girl onto their laps in the middle of dinner or a business meeting. Some of them probably had daughters the same age, and woe-betide any man who did something like that to their precious little princesses. But it was different with us. They didn’t see us as girls or young women, with feelings and ambitions, like they did their daughters. We were no more than meat to them—a vessel to give them what they wanted. It was easier for them if they didn’t consider us to be fully formed people, more like cardboard cut-outs who existed only for their entertainment.

I’d been to these kinds of dinners often enough. I knew what was expected of me. I guessed I’d been hoping that since I was important to the Capellos because they needed me to get Joe Nettie sent down, they might have shielded me from some of the usual goings-on, but it seemed I was as wrong about that as they were about being able to trust Kodee and the others.

I tried a different tact. “What about my friend? The one who got hit with the gun. Is he okay?”

Frankie shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit pants and cocked an eyebrow. “He’s still alive, if that’s what you mean.”

I was worried about how badly Dillon might be hurt, the crack of the butt of the gun slamming against the side of his head echoing in my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the way he’d slumped to the floor and lain there, motionless.

I knew the chances of the Capellos getting Dillon to a doctor were slim to none. Though they wouldn’t have wanted him dying on them because it would have removed part of the leverage they held over Kodee and Ryan, they’d have viewed it as only a minor inconvenience if he did.

He was the Capellos’ insurance policy to make sure I showed up at court and did whatever it took to get Joe Nettie sent away.

Where was Dillon? Had he been brought from the restaurant to Frankie Capello’s big home, like I had? Was he in this building somewhere? Or had they taken him to a different location? Moving him would have problems of its own. If they were pulled over, they’d have a hard time explaining away the unconscious man in the car. I hoped they’d decided it was easier for them to keep us both in the same place, at least, until they got what they wanted—to see Joe Nettie go down for a very long time.

I tried to take some comfort in the idea that I shared this building with Dillon, even if we couldn’t see each other. It was a tiny strand of solace—pathetic, even—but it was all I had.

Frankie took a step back, toward the hallway, his fingertips resting against the doorframe. “You’re wasting my time now, Rue, and my time is precious. Stop asking questions and get dressed, like I’ve asked you. I’ve got guests expecting me.”

Without waiting for another comment from me, he turned and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him with a bang.

I scowled at the closed door. Bastard.

I put my hand to my throat, touching the silver of the necklace the guys had given me for my birthday. I tried to cling to that memory of happiness, but we’d been lying to ourselves, even then. We’d acted like I was a free person, but I never had been. Our time together had always been finite. We should never have let ourselves get as carried away as we had.

You love each other. Love isn’t getting carried away. It’s real.

Maybe that was true, but it didn’t solve anything. I’d found myself back in the same situation as I’d been before I’d met them, and they were even worse off. If I’d never come into their lives, they’d have been safe and together, just as they’d been before.

It didn’t matter how many times they’d told me this had all been worth it, that those few weeks with me had been enough payment for the debt they were forced to pay now, I would never believe them.

How many days until Joe Nettie’s trial, I wondered? Six, now, I was sure.

What would happen after the trial?

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