Page 54 of Mafia Queen

“I don’t belong to you,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.

He grinned. “Oh, you do, my sweet Nessuno. You do. You just need to be reminded.”

“My name is not Nessuno.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Doe, is it?” The sly grin on his face told me all I needed to know. Vadik was a powerful man; he had spies and contacts everywhere. During the last couple of months, I was never really free of him. He was still close. He was just biding his time…until now.

My heart pounded like a jackhammer against my ribs, the fear threatening to break me in half. But I refused to show it. With sheer determination, I raised my chin. “Where is Karina?”

The grin on his face faltered, anger causing the skin of his neck to flush. “It seems that the time spent with the Valenti heir made you forget your manners.”

“No,” I countered. “My time spent with theValenti heirmade me realize I was so much more than what you made me.”

The grooves on his forehead was always a telltale sign of his anger. Whenever they appeared on his face, I knew I was one mistake away from regretting my own existence.

The blond strands of his shoulder-length hair hung down the sides of his face, his skin pale—not like Antonio’s year-around tan. If I didn’t know how wretched he was, I would have thought he was an attractive man. But I knew better. There was no end to the grotesque soul he carried around inside him.

His eyes lingered on me, and it felt like insects crawling over my skin. Seconds ticked by—tick-tock—and I knew his gaze alone was enough to drive me insane.

Unable to look at him any longer, I dropped my gaze, and he let out a laugh. “You’ll always just be Nessuno, the girl who existed solely to be used. To serve and obey.”

I bit my bottom lip before whispering, “Where is Karina?”

He slowly paced around the cage. One leisurely step in front of the other, I listened to the sound of his black, shiny, polished shoes against the wooden floors. “She’s safe.”

“Is she hurt?”

He stopped pacing. “Not yet.”

The threat was there. The possibility that he might do Karina harm. It hurt, thinking about it. Thinking Karina might be the next victim of Vadik’s madness.

“Please don’t hurt her,” I begged. “I did as you asked. I came freely, without anyone following me. Just let her go. It’s me you want.”

I finally braved it to look up at him in time to see him shrug. “True. But before I can let her go, I have one more use for the Valenti girl.”

“What? What are you talking about? Use her for what?”

He started pacing again, holding his hands behind his back as if he was sophistication personified. “To trade.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Trade for what?”

“Who. Trade for who?”

With narrowed eyes and a racing heart, I stared at him, into the depths of his soulless eyes. I couldn’t get myself to ask, because I already knew what the answer might be. “Vadik—”

“Master!” he yelled, grabbing steel bars in his fists, rattling the cage. “I am still your fucking master, and you will address me as such.” Blue eyes blazed with rage, his cheeks red. The more I stared at his angered face, the more memories started to play off inside my head like flashcards straight from the pits of hell.

Pain.

Punishment.

Torture.

Hate.

Tears slipped down my cheeks. “Please. Just don’t hurt them. I’m here. I’m back. There’s no need to hurt anyone else.”

He cocked his head to the side, his hands brushing up and down the steel bars. “My dear, naïve, little Nessuno. What kind of man would I be if I let the Valenti heir live after he stole from me?”

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