Page 19 of The Forbidden Secret

“Good. Because these gentlemen aren’t going to fare so well. Take a step back, Princess.”

I followed his order as I wrapped my arms around myself and watched Zeke do his work. I never would have thought it possible for him to take down two men larger than him so efficiently and swiftly. But in a matter ofminutes,he had both men bloodied, incapacitated, and tied to a beam that ran down the center of the room.

I watched as he began questioning them with irrelevant things—throw away questions to build the tension and deliver a few blows. He knew exactly what he was doing and how to break these men, and I should have been appalled by it, but seeing the way he defended me without an ounce of hesitation brought to life something in my belly that couldn’t be ignored.

“Do I need to start cutting off larger pieces?” Zeke asked with a manic laugh. “Do you know who the fuck I am?”

“Of course we do,” one of them spat. The ballsy one. The one that Zeke seemed most inclined to kill first. “I’m surprised you’re not killing her. You took afterhimin every other way.”

Zeke exploded, slamming his fist into the man’s face before cleaving his knife through his ear and holding it up. He showed it to the other man. “You have anything to say?”

He wisely kept his mouth shut.

What was the “him” the man referred to? Why would he expect Zeke to kill me when his job was the opposite?

“How did you find her?”

“We tracked a call, and we got your information. We have a trace on you, and that’show we learned who was keeping her away from the boss. When we tapped your phone, it would onlygive us a general location. We had the whole city block cornered, and we were preparing to search all the buildings when we found her,” the second man finally said. “Now that we know who you are andwhereyou are, it’s only a matter of time.”

Zeke slammed his fist into the second man’s jaw. “I’ll let you keep your ear for answering my question.”

“You’re going to kill us anyway. We’re not going to talk to you.”

Zeke showed his teeth in something I couldn’t quite consider a smile. “How did you get a trace on my phone.”

I stepped forward, not wanting them to reveal that answer. I was already about to be in deep shit from running. I didn’t need the backlash of being the cause of this, too. I had not only been the reason our safe house was no longer safe, but my call had clued them in on my location. If I hadn’t called Maggie, maybe I would have made it to her house…

Only to be found and taken there.

Because if she was followed and her phone was tapped, theyknewthat I would be there eventually. They knew about Beatrice.

It begged a different question, though. Did they know Beatrice was my child, or did they just connect Maggie to me through our friendship and my art? If they had an inkling about Beatrice, she would have been brought into this already.

I had to proceed so carefully.

“You found me because of the trace?” I asked. “Why is Clide so interested in me? If he has multiple businesses, the lost money would mean nothing to him. If he’s involved with the mafia—“

“Heisthe fucking mafia. He runs the streets with Giovanni Rissi and has recently climbed into business with your father, too. He’s going to become the new Godfather of New York City, and nobody will stop him. He’s not going to let you go—not when you’re such valuable leverage with ties to both New York mob families.”

“I hadn’t even heard of Clide until this week. He can’t be that big.”

“He’s growing fast, girl.”

Zeke slashed his blade across the earless man’s face. “Shut the fuck up. You’re not going to call hergirl.By existing, she outranks you and your miserable boss.”

He spit in Zeke’s face.

He had the audacity tospitin the face of the man who had cut off his ear.

I expected an outward show of aggression or anger, but Zeke only took one step forward as he wiped the saliva from his face. He grinned wickedly as he knelt in front of the man. The man began thrashing, trying to break free of his bonds. Zeke’s unhinged expression unnerved me also, and it wasn’t even directed at me.

“You seem to know a lot about me, tough guy.” Zeke dragged the knife down his face lightly, almost like a lover’s caress. “You should know that fucking with me is a mistake. You know who I am and where I came from. But I don’t even know your fucking name. You’re useless. Meaningless. Fucking garbage. And you’re going to die like it.”

I didn’t flinch as he slid his knife across the man’s throat, speaking searing words as the knife slowly moved. “This is for drawing blood on my fucking girl.”

Myfucking girl.

Mine.

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