Page 59 of Borrowed Bride

It takes Fawn twenty minutes to calm me down, in between assuring me that she isn’t here to kill me. She reveals that she has been looking for Marco to finish the deed and after countless dead ends, stumbled upon the old deed for this building. According to city records, this place was demolished thirty years ago but it still stands, so Fawn started digging.

A fingerprint-controlled lift is no match for her.

We move to the kitchen and I begin to make tea until Fawn demands something stronger.

Vodka it is.

“So,” I say after getting my breath back. “Everyone thinks I’m dead?”

Fawn rises up from where she was cleaning up the broken glass from my wine, and nods. “Everyone. Why do you think the war between Barrone and Simone has been raging for so long? They both think each other killed you. Of course, Marco is in hiding because he’s fucking smart. He can cause a lot more carnage from the shadows.”

“But why?” I say, passing Fawn her drink as she sits beside me. “Dante knows I’m alive. He’s the one that brought me here with my daughter. He told me there were guards downstairs and he visits every few months.”

Fawn frowns over the lips of her glass as she drinks, a look of disgust in her eyes. “Gianna. There are no guards downstairs. This building is empty. It’s just you and your kid.”

“But…” I lift my hands and massage my temples. “He still visits. I mean, I haven’t seen him in maybe six months, but the food still arrives and the power is still on. Why would he do all of that if not for Marco?”

Fawn drains her glass then she sets it down, rocking it back and forth. “I’d say to protect you from his sex trafficking son, obviously, but he’s just as fucking twisted as Marco.”

It hits me then that Fawn doesn’t know the truth, and I clutch at her arm without thinking about how dangerous she is.

“No, Fawn. You’re wrong! I confronted Marco about everything you told me and he denied it.”

“Of course he did,” Fawn mutters, snatching her arm free.

“No, listen. He showed me proof and he told me everything. All of those women and children, the ones you were so convincedhe sold into the black market? He wasn’t selling them, he wassavingthem. From abusive husbands, and arranged marriages, and cruel families. Each time he caught wind of someone suffering, he took action and saved them. Often killed the abusive pricks they were scared of so that no one would come looking. He’d set them up with new lives, new identities, and allowed them to live in peace.”

“Cute story,” Fawn growls. “I ain’t buying it.”

“You must! He has all this documentation that was destroyed in the explosion, but this past year or two, I’ve been digging too. Everything I could remember about what he showed me. I tracked them down, I spoke to some of the women, and they are all safe and happy. All the ones I could reach at least. Marco told me he was happy to let the rumor build that he was in the skin trade because it was a good cover.”

“He lied to you,” Fawn says tightly.

“No!” I clutch at her hand. “I’m telling you, I spoke to them. He’s not the sex-trafficking monster you think he is. And when I told him you were alive, he was genuinely stunned. Please, Fawn. You have to trust me on this. He’s telling the truth.”

“No.” Fawn jerks her hand away. “I know it’s bullshit.”

“How?” I press forward, my heart racing. Is it stubbornness or pain that prevents her from accepting the truth? “He saved those people, Fawn.”

“No he didn’t,” she spits. “That’s impossible because not long after I was kidnapped and sold, I was bought and used byDante. So tell me, Gianna. Tell me how he saved those people!”

My blood runs cold. The pain bleeding into Fawn’s voice is the most emotion I’ve ever heard from her, and it brings me no reason to doubt her.

My stomach churns and I feel sick.

She was bought by Dante? I can’t fathom such a thing.

How can this be? How can the man who is protecting me and my daughter be the same man who subjected Fawn to such cruelty?

Something is still missing.

My heart breaks for Fawn as she drums her fingers on the counters.

“Fawn I…I am so sorry, I can’t imagine?—”

“No, you can’t,” she snaps. “You need to stop, Gianna. Stop trying to justify the twisted acts of that fucking family!”

Suddenly, she pulls her phone from her pocket as it jingles to life, and all emotion vanishes from her face. The cool, collected assassin is back.

---