Page 14 of Capo

Five

Chloe

I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful this beast of a man is. Flashbacks from when I occasionally glimpsed him outside the center run through my brain. I was pulled to him then and, despite a mounting worry clutching my throat, I’m pulled to him now. It’s just looks. He’s a ruthless gangster. I wet my lips as I try to connect my brain to my tongue.

“Becker.”

He tilts his head, glances at the man behind me, and then back at me. “You seem to have been in an accident, Miss Becker. Traffic?”

I grit my teeth as I glare at him. Accident? Traffic? “You know damn fucking well what happened to me.”

His penetrating gaze darkens a shade and his lips curl. “I have never seen you before in my life. Why would I know what happened to you?”

“Because you ordered it,” I spit. “You fucking—” I scream when he grabs my arm and pulls me toward him, nose to nose, his breath fanning my lips, hot, faintly smelling of cigar.

“Whoever you are, I won’t tolerate you coming into my house giving me attitude, you got it?”

I try to twist free, but he doesn’t budge. “You’re a fucking monster! You sent someone to kill my best friend, you sent someone to kill me. Do you know how fucking scared she was, do you know how I feel? It’s a nightmare, and it’s all you. You’re a fucking cancer in this town!”

In the blink of an eye I have a gun in my face and he yanks me down on my knees, hard. “You’ve got one second, Miss Becker, to explain why I shouldn’t blow your brains out for insulting me.”

I stare up at him, my head spinning from the sudden change of position. Guns. I don’t react rationally to them. If there is such a thing. “No!” I wail and throw myself away from him, scrambling on one hand, an elbow in its cast, and knees to get past the armchair, to get to the door and get out of here. A foot in my back, slamming me flat to the floor, stops my movement. My chin hits the carpet, and my teeth slam together so hard it reverberates through my already pounding head. I scream from the pain, squirming and flailing to get free as I gasp to get air.

“Don’t!” I wheeze.

Salvatore pushes his foot against my side, making me roll over on my back faster than the speed of light to save my cracked ribs from his prodding.

“I called the cops!” I snarl as I look up at him, dark hate filling my chest. I haven’t, but as I cower before Luciano Salvatore, I realize I should have. “They know I’m here. You can’t kill me! They know everything!”

I jerk when he barks out a short laugh. “Check that for me, Ivan.” The door opens and closes, and I’m alone with the beast. He grabs my collar and pulls me to my feet, half dragging me toward a set of armchairs to the left, pushing me down in one of them, his hand still gripping my shirt. I gasp as arrows of pain shoot through my chest with every move.

“You’re here for one thing only,” he growls. My eyes dart between the weapon he now rests against his powerful thigh, and his steel gaze. “I was told you know the whereabouts of Kerry Jackson.”

I widen my eyes as the blood drains from my face. I lied. He’ll kill me. He narrows his eyes and it feels as if he sees right through me.

“Yes,” I whimper.

“Then I suggest you tell me.” He raises his gun and points it between my eyes. I follow his arm up to his too-handsome face that right now is twisted in an expression of disgust. He thinks I’m disgusting? Yes, I look horrible, but he did this! The loathing in me grows until I can barely contain it. I want to scream, hit him, claw his eyes out, but I force myself to remain still before the two deadly forces in front of me: the firearm, and the man.

“Why would I? You’ll kill me if I do,” I spit out.

His eyes darken as he narrows them. “I’ll kill you in either case if you called the cops on me.”

The hair on my nape rises. “I didn’t,” I blurt out in sudden panic over what I’ve said. Tell on the mob and die. Maybe I should stick to the lie, maybe that would save me, but I suddenly feel a desperate need to convince him that I’m harmless, a nobody.

Neither of us speaks and silence mounts between us. I flinch when he reaches out and grabs my chin, tilting my head from side to side. “Christian did quite a number on you.”

My lower lip trembles as I relive that night. Rough hands in the dark. Fists. Kicks. Pain, more pain, and then more again. It seemed like it lasted for hours. I’ve barely slept since; the nightmares too vivid.

“You see, Miss Becker. You need to disappear. You threaten me with the cops. You can identify my man. You know way too much about the events a couple of years back.”

“It’s… it’s nothing. I never saw him. It was dark. I don’t know anything. I didn’t call the police, it was just something I said.”

He opens his mouth to speak but stops when the door opens.

“Nothing,” says the man who pushed me in here before. I have my back to him, but I recognize his voice.

Salvatore glances down at me as a smirk spreads across his face. “Thank you, Ivan. Leave us.” There’s silence, heavy and ominous, then the door clicks closed. I look up at the mob boss, widening my eyes. “You’re a really stupid girl, aren’t you? Now how do you want to do this? I can have my nephew finish the job. I can cut you open and feed you to the dogs, or maybe I’ll grant you a clean shot to the head.”

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