Page 17 of Fortress of the Heart

“Santino and Jonas?” They’re brothers and our cousins from our mother’s side.

“Are you kidding?”

“Sadly, I’m clutching at the gravest of straws,” I admit.

“You’ll be bogged down with work. You won’t even notice she’s there. Lock her in the East wing and have meals sent up. She has no phone. She’ll be fed, watered, and have cable. What more could she need?”

“I guess not fresh air or free will,” I grumble.

“It’ll be forty-eight hours, tops. It’ll be a weight off my mind, Marco.”

I sigh heavily. I know he has a lot on his plate, and it is just one fucking night.

Still, I’m going to sleep with my gun under my pillow tonight, just in case.

“Well, it’s not as if you’ve given me much choice in the matter.”

I start for the door, taking my annoyance with me.

“Marco?” Angelo calls as I turn over my shoulder. “Maybe take the pepper spray.”

“Fucking asshole,” I mutter.

4

KATIYA

I knowI can’t stay here, but I can’t tell them that I don’t want to go home either.

I’ve often fantasized about disappearing altogether and going someplace where nobody knows me, and I have nothing to do with the family business.

It’s a fantasy though, at best. I could never truly be free.

I sleep as best I can during the night, the place is comfortable enough, but I have so much running through my mind that it’s hard to let go.

It’s been a big week. I’m still in shock.I’m trying my best to recoup from having little to no food or water, and trying to sleep tied to a chair. The memory makes me shudder.

And now look at me, stuck here at the Medici headquarters.

My uncle would have a fit.

As for the Medicis themselves, they’ve been more than accommodating. Nothing like I expected, and certainly nothing close to what I had heard about them all these years.

I wonder if it’s just a ploy, and I’ll be sent on the next shipment back to god-knows-where. Indeed if they were going to do that, would they have brought me here?

Marco is wound so tight I don’t think he could relax if he even tried.

Life was a little less complicated a week ago, but not by much.

When I wake, I lie in darkness because it’s still so early. The house feels too quiet.

I reach for my glass of water on the nightstand but realize I must have drunk it all before I went to sleep. I decide to get up and try to find the kitchen and raid the fridge for a snack. I’m sure I can find it easily enough.

I open the door and peek into the hallway. There’s a hallway light on, but it’s dim. I tiptoe out with my glass and head for the stairs. Once I descend, I find the kitchen easily because downstairs is lit up with sconce lighting strategically placed along the entire length of the long hallway. I fill up my glass and take a long sip.

It’s weird being in a total stranger's house, especially in the middle of the night. It isn’t like I feel unsafe, but if these people got to me once, then there’s nothing to say they couldn’t get to me again.

As I head back, I hear voices coming from the room next to me. Curious, I move closer, but I can’t see who it is.

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