Page 2 of Ruthless Prince

“Get the kid some candy,” Igor grumbles.

The woman offers me a kind smile as she hands me a chocolate bar from a cart. “Here you go.”

I stare down at the chocolate. Mama told me I needed to be careful with treats, but this looks so good, and I’m hungry. I end up eating the entire chocolate bar.

“That’s a good boy,” Igor says, chuckling. “Eat up. It’s a long flight to New York.”

AURORA

“He stole our son, Nico,” I sob into my husband’s arms. “Our son!”

“I’ll get him back. You know I will. And if I know anything about Igor, he’s taking him to New York.”

“But you can't go back there. The police will arrest you if you step foot into that city.”

“Not if I’m careful. And besides, it’s been a few years. The police will have moved on to someone else by now. I won’t use my real name. I’ll get our son back, Aurora. Don’t you worry.”

I cry harder. It was hard enough to conceive Vincent in the first place. After I got stabbed in the stomach a few years ago, the surgery I underwent made my chances of having a baby slim.

Through some miracle, Nico and I managed to get pregnant, and we brought our son into the world. We’ve been living in Italy for years now, hiding out from our past. But Nico couldn’t stop his Mafia ways. He continued to make deals for guns and drugs to earn us money, which brought Igor into our world.

A Russian man who wanted too much.

And now, he has our son.

“What if he kills him?” I whisper.

A flash of pain enters Nico’s eyes, but he pushes it away—for me. He’s trying to be strong for me. “I will save our son, Aurora. I will get him back.”

“Just don’t let it kill you.” I can’t stand the thought of losing both my son and husband in one go. I think I’d rather be dead than face that reality.

“I’m Nico Mancini. I’m a tough man. I don’t kill easily.”

I don’t say what’s on my mind. Nico may be not be killed easily, but Vincent is only three. He’s so fragile and easily breakable. He doesn’t have his father’s strength yet.

I give Nico a kiss for good luck so he can go and save our son.

VINCENT

Igor takes me to a large mansion. It’s a lot bigger than the house I grew up in even though where I grew up was large, too.

“This is where you’ll sleep,” Igor says, showing me to a bedroom with a large bed and nothing else.

“Where are the toys?” I ask.

“You don’t need any toys. What I want from you is something different. I want you to learn to fight, Vincent. I’m going to train you to be the best street fighter who ever lived so you can make me a lot of money when you’re older.”

I frown. “But I don’t want to fight.”

“You don’t get a choice.”

His words send a chill down my spine. I just miss Mama and Daddy. This new place is cold and creepy, and Igor scares me.

“Come along,” he says, leading me into a basement. There’s a mat on the floor and large punching bags similar to what I’ve seen my Daddy use. “This is where you’ll learn to fight. This is where you’ll make me proud, Vincent.”

I hold my pendant closer to my chest. “I just want?—”

“I don’t care what you want!” he shouts, making me gasp and jump back. “You’ll do as I say. And you’ll do it without a complaint. Is that understood?”

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