Page 94 of Sweet Poison

“You are a traitor and I should kill you, but I won’t. I have too much regard for your father to take away his only son. And now that you are back, it would be mean-hearted of me not to forgive you. I forgive you, Luca. I have known you since you were a child. You are almost like my own son.

He smiled again, but the smile never reached his dead eyes.

“All I ask is that you teach one of my men to do the things that you do so that I can let you go and live your life the way you want to live. This way I am not dependent on you and you are free. Today or tomorrow you will pick a few brilliant men from my team, and over the next few weeks or months, you will teach them how to wire the money across the world in a safe and untraceable manner. And all that time I will keep your daughter and your woman safe from harm. Is this understood?”

“Yes,” I replied.

His eyes narrowed at me. “Follow Gianni. He will take you back to your old office. I believe you have much work to do.”

Just then his phone began to ring, and he waved me out of his office.

I was led then through a door to the computer room I had spent so many days in I could probably draw every single feature of it in my sleep. I had promised myself when I left this place the last time that I would never return here again, but here I was.

“Get to work,” Gianni said and closed the door.

Chapter 56

Montana

My plan was extremely risky. We could all die, even Anya, but I didn’t see any other way out. Going on probabilities alone, Anya was probably in the best position to come out of my plan alive, but what were her chances if I didn’t carry out my plan? What happened to her after they had got what they wanted from Luca? It was hard to think of him as Luca, but that was his name. Luca wouldn’t have run from them and built that room for Anya if he thought they would spare her.

As for me I definitely had a very low survival chance. I was nothing to them. I had no value at all. For sure, they were not going to keep me alive, and if the bearded guy’s reactions were anything to go by, he would have no qualms about raping me and disposing of my body somewhere no one would ever find it.

I looked in the rearview mirror at Bianca and confirmed that she had her seatbelt on. She did. I stared at myself in the mirror, and it took a while, but eventually, I made the decision. I was precious as well. I loved Cole and Anya, I realized now, deeply, and so I had to make the brave choice for both myself and them. Sure, we might fail, but if I remained docile, we were all guaranteed to fail.

I stepped on the gas pedal and the car began to pick up speed.

“Why the speed?” the man next to me asked as he looked at my rising speedometer.

“We’re out of town now,” I said casually. “What's the point of going slow? Or should I slow down? You’d prefer we crawl?”

He stared at me, ticked at the insult. “You sure do have a mouth on you, don't you? Let’s see how well you’ll be able to talk when my dick is in your mouth.”

I turned away without showing any reaction. This was the second threat of the same manner within the space of a few hours. What was it with idiots wanting to clog my throat with their cocks? I went faster and faster down the road. I could tell he was becoming nervous by how he sat up and stared ahead. The seconds were drawing closer, and all I could do was count them down in my mind. Nearly there. All I needed to do was swerve to go off into the bushes, but my arms felt like they wouldn’t work. Suddenly, he began to panic.

“Hey, slow down,” he said.

Of course, I didn’t listen.

The guy at the back was leaning forward. “What the fuck?”

The phone of the guy next to me started ringing. I knew it was the guys in the SUV behind that were panic-calling. They wanted to know what the hell was going on.

“Slow the fuck down!” the guy next to me yelled furiously. He was sitting up straight. Desperately, he pointed his gun at me, and that was the moment I swerved. The car plunged off the road into the bushes and he was thrown back against the door. There was no going back now. We raced through bushes, foliage, and rocks towards the woods. I was being bounced around like a rubber ball, but I tightened my hold on the steering wheel and stomped my foot on the gas pedal even harder. The car hurtled and crashed through the undergrowth at greater and greater speed.

I went straight for the biggest tree ahead.

This was going to hurt like hell, but I had my airbag and seatbelt … and he didn’t.

“Hold on, sweetheart!” I shouted to Anya, and then we crashed.

My airbag burst open as I heard the guy next to me yell, his voice so full of terror that it rang in my ears, just before he slammed into the windscreen and became completely silent. The guy sitting at the back flew over his head through the windscreen, shattering it. Anya was screaming with horror.

The car was twisted around the tree and my neck felt as though it was broken, but the guy next to me was clearly dead and the other guy was lying a few feet away on the ground. There was no movement at all from him.

“Are you okay?” I asked Anya.

She was awake, sluggish, and terrified, but she was safe. The belt had kept her in place.

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