Page 79 of Hot for Hostage

“Let the girl go, Sebastian,” Antonio repeated. His deceptive calm—like a predator who knew he’d cornered his prey—made my heart skip a beat when it wasn’t even targeted at me. “You know what I can do with a blade.”

Sebastian chuckled before carelessly pushing me away and holding up his hands. “Someone’s touchy today. Who pissed in your pesto?”

I staggered a few steps back, then darted around the corner of the island and tugged on my top to straighten it.

As Davian’s father stepped back, I sucked in a breath. Antonio held a four-inch knife to Mr. Reed’s side with an ease that told me his knife skills extended beyond the kitchen.

This clearly wasn’t the first time he’d held a blade on someone.

Antonio’s gaze flicked to me, narrowing. “You good,dolcezza?”

My arm throbbed in time with my heartbeat, but I rubbed it and forced a shaky nod. “Yes. Thank you.”

He refocused on Mr. Reed. “The boss is waiting for you in his office.”

It wasn’t a suggestion, and Mr. Reed didn’t miss that either. Amusement danced in his dark eye.

“Careful, Tony,” he warned softly. “You’re getting too big for your britches if you think you can pull a knife on me with no consequences.”

“Davian wouldn’t like what you were doing. I work for him.”

I blanched at the show of defiance, but Mr. Reed actuallysmiled, tight and calculating. “And who does Davian work for?”

The answering silence was deafening.

“Who does he work for, Tony?” he repeated in that same dangerous tone, but Antonio stayed stone-faced.

That was when I saw the knife Mr. Reed held a hair’s width from Antonio’s side, and I jerked back—when had he drawn that?

“Please don’t hurt him,” I squeaked, searching the countertops for anything that’d do more damage than the piping bag. Where did Antonio keep his knives?

Mr. Reed snorted, but he kept his focus on Antonio. “Look at her defending the help. The surprises keep on coming.”

I ran to the other counter and grabbed one of the empty baking sheets—it might give us time to run if I walloped him over the head with it—when Antonio caught my eye. He shook his head in a swift, subtle jerk I almost missed, but that stopped me in my tracks. It didn’t escape Mr. Reed’s notice either, and his smile widened.

“Interesting. You know, loyal men are a dying breed in this city.” He flipped his knife up in the air—making me gasp—before deftly catching it. “I won’t complain when I see one, but it’s not too late to rethink where that loyalty lies.”

Antonio stared him down with the same deadpan look. “I’m good.”

Mr. Reed’s smile dropped, and the longest ten seconds of my life passed in a tense silence before he threw his head back with a booming laugh. His shoulders shook with the force, and I flinched.

Things only got stranger when the laughter faded to hollow chuckles, and he tapped the flat of his blade against Antonio’s bulbous nose.

Antonio stood still as a statue.

“You get funnier with age, Tony. I wish I could stay and chat, but I’m late for a meeting with my son.” Just as quickly as he’d come, Davian’s father strode to the door with heavy footfalls.I hesitantly set the baking sheet down and dared to let out a relieved breath, before he paused in the doorway and his single eye landed on me. “As for you, we’ll revisit this soon. I’m looking forward to it.”

The moment the door swung shut behind him, Antonio whirled on me so quickly I stumbled backward.

“If that man ever corners you like this again, you run in the opposite direction,” he warned, face grim. “You hear me?”

The raw intensity in his voice made me gulp, but all I could focus on was the impressive knife he’d been holding wasn’t in his hand anymore. I hadn’t seen him put it away.

I blinked twice. “Where did your knife go?”

“Sadie,” he pressed. “You run, yes?”

“Yes, I’ll run. Thank you,” I said, beyond grateful he’d come back when he had. But I frowned, because he’d left earlier to give me and Davian privacy. “What made you come back here?”

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