Page 106 of The Temptation
“She busted my fucking balls,” says another.
A loud, cocky laugh cuts through the murmur of voices. Distant, like it’s coming from a speaker. They must be on the phone.
“Her father said she was feisty,” the voice drawls, smooth and amused. “I like that. A woman with fight makes breaking her so much more satisfying.”
The words hit me like a slap. They’re so sharp and final.
Breaking her.
They’re talking about me like I’m a possession. A challenge. Something to be bent, used, and discarded. My heart slams against my ribs, but there is nowhere to run. I’m wedged in, shoulder to shoulder with these animals.
“Should we take her back to the house?” one of them asks.
“No,” the voice snaps, his tone colder now. “Straight to the airstrip. The plane will be ready for takeoff when you get there. I’m not keeping her in the country any longer than necessary. I can’t risk losing her again.”
“Okay,” one of them replies.
“Will we have time to go back to the house and pack our things?” someone else asks.
“I don’t give a fuck what you do once you’ve delivered my wife,” he growls.I’m not his fucking wife.I’ll never be his wife! “Did you take care of thepezzo di merda(Piece of shit) and his mother?”
“Vito and Carlo were with her when he showed up. He walked right into an ambush, thebuffone(Fool),” the guy to the left of me chuckles, and it takes every ounce of strength I have not to elbow him in the ribs. “He didn’t see it coming. We spotted the girl in the car when we heard the gunshots, so we grabbed her and got the fuck out of there.”
“Good, good. I’m sure Vito and Carlo will show up eventually, or not. I don’t give a fuck either way. If they were stupid enough to get themselves killed, that’s on them.”
I feel the guy to my right’s body stiffen when he says that, and I can tell he didn’t like what he just heard. I don’t blame him. My father would’ve done the same, but Dante would never leave one of his men behind.
“We should be there in about an hour and a half.”
“Just get her here in one piece. Don’t do anything stupid, and take the back roads as a precaution. You can’t risk getting pulled over. Not with that bitch in the car.”
Bitch?
Fuckingstronzo.
Silence follows, and when the vehicle slows considerably, showing the driver’s immediate obedience, I get clarification of who’s on the other end of the line, even though I already knew.The devil himself.Giuseppe Salvatori. Thebastardobehind it all.
I’m not going to pretend I’m not terrified, because I am. Whatever awaits me when I reach my destination is not going to be pleasant, but if he thinks I’m going down without a fight, he’s delusional.
The first thing I’m going to do when I’m faced with that psychopath is spit in his filthy face.
Chapter 23
Romeo
I’m parked down a dirt road behind the airstrip, waiting. I never caught up to the car that contained Lucia, like I initially thought I would. The road was quiet—barely any traffic at this hour—but every vehicle I passed didn’t match. None of them felt right.
The problem was, I didn’t get the make, model, or even the colour of their vehicle when they pulled away. Just a flash of taillights disappearing into the dark. That’s all I had to go on.
So now I’m second-guessing everything. Every turn I took. Every car I let go. I can’t be entirely sure she wasn’t in one of those vehicles.
My biggest worry is that they haven’t arrived yet.
The private jet has been refuelled and is sitting on the runway waiting, but is that just a decoy? They should have gotten here before me, unless they took her back to the house first, or somewhere else altogether.
“Fuck,” I yell, slamming my clenched fist down on the steering wheel hard enough to make the whole car shake. I’m going out of my damn mind with worry, shrouded in a fog of guilt I can’t shake.
Dante ordered me to stay put. He’s got men posted at every possible access point. Roadways, buildings, fences, even the fucking tree lines.
