Page 13 of Burning Beauty

Maria bit her lip to keep from speaking. She reminded herself she was in the presence of two very powerful men, albeit one was much stupider than the other, but both could end her life in the blink of an eye. It didn't take intelligence to use a gun.

"And if I say no?” Franco asked sharply.

She knew why he wasn't willing to give her up so easily. Franco wanted her for himself. He hadn't made a secret of it but had decided to let his plan play out first. Send her to DeLuca before keeping her to himself. The thought was disgusting, but she shouldn't be surprised. For whatever reason, Franco had decided that fucking her would spoil his plan. That she would fall in love with him once he introduced her to his magic cock, or some shit, and she would refuse to do her job.

"Then you get nothing except a target on your back."

Maria could practically hear the moment Franco finally woke up to the very real danger he was facing in threatening a man of Nic's calibre. "What guarantee do I have that you won't try to kill me anyway, once the paperwork is signed?"

Nic's response was so immediate, there was no choice but to believe him. "I knew of your idiotic plan from the moment you set it up. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead."

Franco spluttered and postured, but Maria's sharp brain picked up on the implication of what Nic was saying. He had known about this ill-conceived plan, which meant he knew about Maria's part in it, which meant their meeting in the bar was no accident. But why didn't he kill Franco, if he knew about the plan all along and had the resources to get to the other man? Why was he willing to give up some of his business assets? Why set himself up to be blackmailed?

Maria also noted one very important thing about Nic's words, he didn't deny that he might one day kill Franco. Of course, Franco didn't notice this subtle difference.

"Will you give her back when you're done with her?" Franco asked, his voice taking on a wheedling quality.

Maria wanted to slap the shit out of him. If he ever did manage to get her near a bed, he was going to have one hell of a fight on his hands. She was pretty sure she could remove his dick before he could do irreparable damage to her.

"There won't be anything left for you to play with when I'm done with her." Maria gasped out loud at Nic's words, but he didn't turn to look at her. He continued to speak, "I want the brother too. Add the pair to your contract and you have a deal."

Franco seemed to chew over this for a while, before finally nodding his assent. "Deal."

Chapter Eight

Maria watched in stunned fascination as she was traded from one man to the other as quickly as it took for Franco's lawyer to remotely amend the paperwork that had already been drawn up for this deal. It was a fucking miracle she hadn't exploded and started throwing things at their heads. She supposed she was either in shock or had enough of a sense of self-preservation to keep her mouth shut during the proceedings.

From the moment the contract was signed, and she was released into Nic's 'guardianship' everything felt like a haze. Nic stood, ignored Franco's extended hand, walked to Maria and took her by the arm. The elevator trip was taken in silence. When they arrived in Nic's room, she stood awkwardly by the bar while he packed a small leather bag.

She finally asked the one question that needed to be asked. “What about my brother?”

Nic looked at her, his dark eyes sweeping down her length before lifting to hold her gaze. “He’s fine,” Nic said shortly, zipping up his bag.

Maria really didn’t want to argue with the so-called mob boss, but ‘fine’ wasn’t good enough. “Umm, when you say fine….?”

“He’s taken care of,” Nic said coolly.

“So… like, when you say, ‘taken care of’, you don’t mean in a swimming with the fishes kind of way, do you?”

Nic lifted an eyebrow at her mafia reference. “I don’t explain myself, Maria.”

She desperately wanted to ask him to explain more about Ruiz’s situation, but he literally just told her he didn’t explain himself. But what did ‘taken care of’ actually mean? She chewed on the inside of her lips to stop herself from harassing him for an answer. She felt positive that badgering him would be less likely to get her answers and more likely to get her hurt.

"Where are your things?" he asked.

"In my hotel room, at a place off the strip," she told him.

He strode toward her, took her arm and pulled her from the room. "Let's go."

"I can walk on my own," she snapped, tugging at her arm. He didn't let her go and he didn't say anything until he seated her in the back of a hired car and instructed her to give the driver directions.

After providing the name of the hotel, she settled, watching Nic warily. He was sitting beside her, his elbow on the windowsill, his finger tapping at his lip. She noticed he had a tattoo on his finger and asked him what it said.

He didn't look at her when he responded, "Into the dark."

"And what does that mean?" she asked, intent on gathering as much information about this man as possible.

"It means..." he finally turned towards her, his dark gaze sweeping over her. "That I will escort my enemies into death, if and when I am ready to do so. It means that I control the outcome."

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