Page 40 of Gamble with Me
"Yes, boss." Jamal smirked, and they left. I plastered an emotionless mask on my face and turned the knob of the third room, slowly walking inside.
Three barely twenty-year-old adults and one teenager were tied to the chairs, their expressions showing their fear. They all bowed their heads before us as if we were some royalty, and I deeply inhaled the potent smell of hysteria lingering in the air. They were terrified like little mice caught in a trap by a big, fat, hungry cat.
I drifted my gaze from one to another, relishing in their raw anxiety and noticing Diana's younger sister, Matilda. She was mute after living through the trauma of witnessing her mother's death. For her family, it was a blow that only Diana withstood. Their father tried to flush his pain in vodka, and their brother joined the military, cutting all ties with them.
"Thank you for coming here today," I started mockingly, knowing none of them joined us willingly. "I believe we'll have some fun together."
Diana glared at me like the fierce young lady she was, but the others looked like they had accepted their unfortunate fate.
"Except for you, darling." I turned to the mute girl sitting near the wall, who shook violently but didn't raise her head to look at me. Without a second thought, I pulled the knife out of the holster tucked behind the waistband of my pants. Effortlessly, I cut the rope that held her, and she finally connected her wet, petrified eyes with mine.
"I'm sorry, Matilda," I said, wiping the tear falling down her pale cheek. "You shouldn't have been brought here. My men made a mistake. I promise no one will hurt you."
She gulped and whipped her head to the side where her sister sat, gaping at me like I grew another head.
"If she cooperates, she'll be okay, too," I added, rising to my feet when Matilda cast me another pleading glance. The poor girl went through so much I was tempted to kick the ass of the idiot who took her here.
"The devil has a heart. How charming," Diana sneered, probably feeling her chance, but I would never be as gentle toward her as I was to her sister.
"What information do you have, honey?" I asked sweetly, towering over her. There was a time she almost broke her legs while running behind my ass to try and get me into a relationship. Too bad she was so young. I would surely find some use for that sassy mouth. But it was too late now to ponder that. My body, heart, and mind belonged to another.
"Our families were forced to conspire against you," she declared, her grass-green eyes swirling with sincerity. Suddenly, she looked like an innocent twenty-year-old girl, but I wouldn't let her fool me. She had to give me more.
"How convenient," Dorian grumbled, thinking the same as me.
"It's the truth!" she yelled, tugging on her restraints. "My mother died because of them!"
The words washed over me like an ice-cold wave, touching the deepest corners of my dark soul. Her mother suffered a torture no woman should ever experience. It was outrageous to attack the wife and teenage daughter, but Michelle Santangelo refused to hunt down the men who eviscerated his family’s happiness. No one had the right to do it, just him, and he hid behind the walls of his mansion, ignoring the world.
"Explain, Diana," Malin growled, approaching her slowly. Many years ago, he had an affair with. Mrs. Santangelo, and her violent death hit him hard because they stayed friends. He would never admit it out loud, but she was the only woman who ever got close to him.
"When the work on the Starlight building started, two men came to our house," Diana began, briefly looking at her sister, who sobbed silently. "I overheard their conversation about having the perfect plan to take money from you, but Dad refused. They came back a few weeks later with another proposition."
She inhaled deeply, her chin quivering. "They claimed that bodies were buried in the concrete floor in the underground parking lot, and it was my dad's responsibility becausehe signed the paperwork." Her hands trembled, and her feet bounced nervously while I watched her face, catching every change in her demeanor. My gut told me she was telling the truth, but this couldn't be the whole story.
"Your father could've called us," Dorian stated the obvious, and I nodded in agreement. But she shook her head resolutely.
"You rejected the alliance to marry me or my sister," she said, glancing at trembling Matilda. "Dad didn't want to screw you but decided to handle it by himself and failed miserably."
"We didn't reject the alliance, Diana," I corrected, crouching before her. "I refused to marry you because I'm twice your age. And Matilda is barely an adult."
"I wouldn't have taken away your freedom, Zyon," she spat, anger crossing her features. "But my mother would've been alive, and my sister would've been a happy, seventeen-year-old girl finishing high school. Not this empty vessel who barely sleeps and eats."
"Diana," I whispered, attempting to touch her cheek, but she flinched away.
"Don't Diana me! You condemned my family to this. You and my father's ego and frivolous decisions!"
Rising to my feet, I turned to my brothers, who watched the scene silently. Neither showed any emotions, but I knew we thought the same thing. It had gone too far. We had to finish this before it would completely get out of hand.
"You said that your families were forced to conspire," Dorian said out of the blue. "What families are we talking about?"
"Mine," she whispered, staring to the floor. “Santino, Baricelli, Gravaldis, and Torinnella.”
"Italian shareholders?" Malin rumbled, nodding at two boys who acted invisible during our conversation with Diana. They were Enzo Baricelli and Nico Gravaldis.
"How were your parents forced to cooperate?" I asked, but Malin answered before they could take a shaky breath.
"Matteo Baricelli, the oldest son, had a motorcycle accident around the time the work started on Starlight," he uttered, and Enzo slightly nodded, sweating profusely. "He died after falling off a cliff in Hawaii."
