Page 1 of Velvet Chains

PROLOGUE

VINCENZO

Isat still, watching and waiting. I could feel my patience diminishing with each passing second. And the reason for this was the sniveling excuse of a human being who knelt before me.

At my nod, one of the two people flanking him stepped forward and gave him a sharp punch to the gut. He bowled over in pain, and I was sure that if his hands hadn’t been tied behind his back, they would have been clutching his belly.

His groans of pain filled the air, breaking the silence in the dark windowless room. The single bulb that hung overhead flickered for a moment as if responding to my worsening mood. Every minute that he wasted whimpering was one he could have spent spilling his guts.

I was happy he knew better than to deny his betrayal. He was caught sending texts to one of Antonio’s people, and our line of work isn’t one that promotes friendly relations between rival gangs. The only problem was that other than the last text he sent, his chat history had been scrubbed. So we had no way of knowing what other information he had passed on to the enemy. We needed to know, so we wouldn’t be caught unaware by an attack, but the rat kneeling before me was proving to be surprisingly close-lipped.

“You… know what I want. Torture won’t help.” He stuttered, and my mood sank even lower as I heard his words. Tommaso, a known coward, must have used up all the courage his body could muster to say those words. It was a pity he said the wrong words to the wrong person.

“Tommy, you have taken up a lot of my time, and I am not a patient man.” I said, and as I spoke, I noticed he began to shake like a leaf. I could not stop myself from sneering, I did not have respect for people like Tommy, people who never take responsibility for their own actions. When I realized he wouldn’t say anything, I pulled out my phone and walked out, leaving him in that dark cold room with two armed guards.

He should have thought about the consequences before betraying me, but he hadn’t. Instead, he was happy to take money from my rival and I could see from the glint of hope in his eyes that he still thought he could get out of this alive. Stupid man.

The delusion behind that line of thought made me chuckle. He could not leave in one piece after what he had done. That would be bad for my reputation, which would, in turn, be bad for business. He had worked for me long enough to know that. And the only difference between him talking and staying silent was that, if he had given me the information when I asked nicely, he could have gotten a quick, somewhat painless death.

Instead, he knelt there for over two hours, refusing to say anything even after being beaten to a pulp. He dared demand to be sent out of the country in a private jet. That was laughable and impossible, so I had to contact one of the spies I had on the other side. I hated doing that because every contact meant his identity could be discovered. What he gave me wasn’t a lot, but it was enough that I was able to protect my vital operations from Antonio’s grasp for power. My operation still took a hit, but at least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Thanks to my contact, I was able to move most of my cash, drugs, and weapons to a secure location. However, since Antonio already knew the previous ones, that meant we had to find new places to stash our belongings and new safe houses. We also lost a few people in a gunfight, but Antonio’s side also took a hit.

What mattered now was making sure none of my rivals, including Antonio, thought that I was weak after what had happened. This meant that things had to operate like business as usual. It wasn’t something beyond my ability, but I was still annoyed about the leak, which meant that the source of the leak, Tommy, had to pay.

Once that was over, I returned to the room where a delusional Tommy was still waiting and expecting a private jet that would never come. I smiled, finally in a good mood.

“You don’t want to talk, and that’s fine. I don’t need you to, not anymore at least. Just know that whatever it is Antonio paid you to betray me, it wasn’t worth it. You thought you were selling him information, when really, what you sold him was your life.”

I turned out and walked away after nodding to the armed guards, as the sounds of fists hitting flesh and pained screams rang through the air. I had a small smile on my face as I listened. Although I would have preferred to watch him get beaten to death, due to some moves Antonio was making, I had to travel for business.

It had been a while since I had had to handle certain parts of my business personally, but this time was unavoidable. Antonio knew that hitting my operation was the closest thing to doing real damage to me. I had no one he could hold over my head, I would never let myself be that vulnerable.

“Make sure our man at the airport takes care of everything. I don’t have time for airport security problems.” I said, as I handed my bag to the nearest person and got into my car.

“Hurry up, I have a plane to catch.” I said to the driver, still in a bad mood about the leak.

CHAPTER ONE

ISABELLE

Iwas in a terrible mood. I knew it, my friends knew it, hell, even the noisy kid who sat behind me on the flight knew it.

The moment the plane landed, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to my family to let them know that my plane had landed safely in Italy.

“My valium didn’t kick in, can you believe that? I’m so stressed out that even Valium couldn’t calm me.” I texted my mom, who had been trying to get me to back out of this trip for the past two weeks.

Half a second later, my phone rang. “Hi mom.” I said.

“You know, it’s not too late to turn around and get on a plane back home.” She suggested, and that made me laugh.

“I can’t do that, and you know why.”

“I know, I know, you’re the maid of honor. Honestly, I don’t know why you accepted. If she’s going to have a destination wedding, the most she can do is provide for your transportation.” I sighed. It was a topic that mom had a lot to say about.

“Mom, I’m already here. I just want to make the best of it.” I responded in a tired tone, feeling resigned. Already, my mind was running through the checklist of things I had to do. As the maid of honor, I had some tasks and although I told them I would be late, I was still responsible for helping the bride.

Once the call ended, I considered switching my phone off. My attention was drawn to the carousel, where I spotted my bag. In one swift motion, I stepped forward and pulled it off. From the corner of my eyes, I could see a hand reach for my bag too, but I swiftly moved it out of the way. I didn't bother looking at the person because I believed it was probably a mistake and I was in a hurry to take a shower and take a nap.

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