Page 49 of Kinknapped

"You can't get him out!" he scoffed, dismissing me.

"Actually, he's being freed right now, thanks to me, and my silent partner. You see, we found your little guard. Freddy, right?"

Valentino turned toward me to see me chewing my gum with extra finesse for sound. I leaned on the table with my hands clasped.

"Fredrick Smith. Quite an odd yet generic name. I'm surprised no one flagged it like my guy did. Or maybe someone within your own ranks helped him slip by your background checks? It's always hard to trust in our world, isn't it?"

"Who are you?"

"Let's focus on who he is, shall we?" I pulled my phone out to show him the arrest of Jamie Riviera for the murder of his brother and cousin. It also highlighted him setting up Dante Carnelli. "Man, letting in the enemy? That's going to leave a nasty sting for a while."

I ate his surprise right up, loving everything about this. "But how did you get him to confess? He'd never willingly say he killed his brother."

"When I left earlier, I gave you an envelope. Instead of opening it, you chose to go attempt murder before our agreed time. Maybe you should've watched because I gave you all the information you needed to save your son, but you chose violence, Val. Violence against the one person I care about the most, Victoria D'amour."

"I-I didn't know who she was! I swear!" His accent was stronger because he began fearing me. He started understanding my silent power.

"Oh, now that I do believe, but I'm still debating if your threat to her life deserves penance. If I allow her to free you, will you go after her again?" I cocked my head to the side.

"She's going to free me? She's not going to press charges?" His hope blossomed because he knew he was fucked if she didn't drop the charge.

"Not for free." I raised my brow.

"What do you want?"

"The charges will be dropped if you pay the ransom back to Stanley D'amour and take the fall for kidnapping Victoria."

"But why?" his confusion made me grin.

"She fell in love with The Cleaner." I shrugged, hinting at who really took her without saying it. He sat back, mulling over my words, shocked about the relationship.

"And how much was this ransom?"

"Two million." I crossed my arms when he prepared to be outraged and pissed him off more. “But I’m adding another mil to it. The third you’ll be adding to Talon’s sum.”

"Absolutely not!"

"Funny how you were about to drop one mil on your killer, but not three to spare you prison. And like I said, you're lucky this is the penance she chose. I wanted your sons' lives." Yeah, he didn't like that I knew about it and threatened his offspring, but he also knew when his hand had been played and lost. "You tried having her killed to teach The Cleaner a lesson without ground to stand on. I gave you Jamie's actual confession for what he did, but the cops have the one that freed your son. I'd say that three mil is chump change compared to your son being locked away, and your other two being accessories to attempted murder. Plus, the money is going to a good cause you can write off as a charity donation."

His silence made me feel powerful. He didn't say anything for a long minute, so I looked at my watch and stood, seeing I had less than three minutes before Detective Sharp came in.

"You'll get the offer soon. Ponder your choice until then." I rose, knowing he'd take the damn deal.

When I reached for the door, he called after me. "You never told me who you really are."

It was my choice to throw him a bone or not, but I decided to in order to keep him in check. "Lucinda Martin. That’s the name given to me on my birth certificate. It's my mother's last name because she was only the mistress of my father when she conceived me. He sent money to provide, some brief chats on birthdays, but he never wanted the world to know I existed. At first, I thought it came from him viewing me as a bastard, but I spent years learning everything about the crime families. It was then I realized he feared having a daughter in a world of savage men. He feared what you might do to me and trained me to be ready."

"Who is your father?"

"With those he works closely with, he calls me Lucia, the proper spelling of my name. I'm sure you've heard it a time or two, being head of your family."

The way Valentino felt the sudden jolt of terror made my heart skip a beat. "It can't be..."

"Because people think I'm a myth?" I taunted. "People have heard my name from his lips, but they could never find me, making people wonder if he made all those stories up. Lucia Cervantes, trained assassin and daughter to Mauricio Cervantes."

"And why are you letting me know?" he fretted what I might do to him. Good.

I pulled a knife faster than he could blink, holding it to his throat. "Because you nearly killed the only person who means anything to me. You didn't hold up your end of the deal by calling in your killer before the deadline we agreed on. My name means light, and my father often tried saying I was his... but I'm dark, Val. A twisted tangle of nightmares. Those horrors are my history, my footprint. And Victoria? She's the only light I have left in this world. If you or anyone else tries to go after her again, I'll hang your sons' corpses from the flagpole right outside this precinct. You can tell people you met the illusive serial killer to ensure no one harms her, but if you speak my true name, my mask? I'll cut the tongues out of your sons instead and dry them to hang around my neck to remind you the rest of your days who you pissed off today."

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