Page 15 of The Veiling

“Hayden,” The jester muttered.

“Drop the gun and get out.”

“Okay, okay, just don’t hurt her.” He laid the weapon on the floorboard and stepped out way too calmly.

The guy he called Hayden guffawed. “Cute.”

“You too, princess.” Jesse reached in, heaving me from my seat. Twisting my arm behind my back, he guided me over to a waiting limo. He opened the door and shoved me in, hard.

Stumbling, I yelped as I fell into the back seat. The other back door opened, and a scuffle occurred just outside the other door.

“Oh, shit!” Hayden bellowed as the jester’s mask fell to the ground, cracking on the pavement.

“Well, isn’t this a fucking twist of events?” Jesse jeered, glaring over the top of the car.

Another brief altercation broke out between Hayden and the man before a body plopped down next to me. It took me a second to process the identity as I thought I was seeing a ghost.

“Oh my God!” Gasping, I finally jumped back, the blood draining from my face all the way to my feet. “You?!”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Jesse and Hayden pushed themselves passed us into the limo, sitting with their backs against the privacy glass. Hayden kept a gun aimed at us.

Jesse darted his amused yet menacing glare back and forth between us. A low laugh reverberated in his throat. “I’m guessing you had no idea he was alive, either.”

My words failed me, and all I could do was stare at Marco Greco.How?! What the hell was going on?!

Marco stared straight ahead at Hayden and Jesse. It was unclear if he was too ashamed to look at me or observing their every move. My mind had to be playing tricks on me.What was I drugged with?It was a hallucination…maybe. A nightmare? Anything other than reality. I tore my shocked gape away. I could no longer look at the ghost seated next to me.

Hayden snickered. “And here I thought you were dead, Death Angel.”

Death Angel? How did they know one another enough for Marco to have a nickname?The questions were piling up.No. No. This is not real, I repeated in my head. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. I felt as if I were going crazy.

When I opened them again, I could see Jesse glowering at me in my peripheral vision. It was shocking he was not making perverted comments or trying to touch me. Then again, he did not seem drunk. He had lost a ton of weight and finally let that bit ofcombed overhair go. He was now bald and muscular.

While Hayden taunted Marco, familiar landmarks passed on my side. I perked up a little, feeling more confident knowing where I was. Our estate was only a few miles from where we were. I paid close attention to every turn and curve we took, making sure to not miss a thing.

The car pulled into a winding driveway, though the home was still visible from the street. Well-maintained landscaping surrounded it like it was straight from the pages of a home and garden magazine. We slowed to a stop in front of the white, French-style mansion with black trim. The enormous, white columns on the front porch were wrapped in lights at night, even when it was not Christmas. I knew of the place, though I had never been here. Valentino pointed it out to me once when we passed by on our way to the city for a date night.

After that, I admired it every time. An old business partner of his had lived in the house and sold it two years prior. An overseas buyer offered him twice as much as the mansion was worth and wanted him to be out within three weeks. Valentino briefly joked about the arrangement, but said he never thought twice about it. Real Estate in the area was coveted and it was something that happened often. Now, I was wondering if it was part of the bigger plan.

Sighing, I lowered my gaze. The car door opened, and a towering, angry man snatched me out by the wrist. Jesse followed. Just as I was absorbing my every surrounding again, two men restrained a disturbingly calm Marco, slipping a black, cloth bag over his head. I gasped as tight fabric glided over my face, shielding my eyes.

“The boss wants you to go to the office.”

The boss? Felipe? It had to be. Nausea stewed inside me, and I prepared myself to see the evilest man I had ever known…again. Though I had grown much stronger now, I started to tremble and dig my heels into the tar driveway as the man pulled me.

“Fighting will only make this harder for you,” Jesse taunted, close to my ear. “Then again, I love fighters, if you remember. Mmm, the way you smelled every night at work made me want to take you over the side of my desk like a little slut, but I couldn’t risk your precious virginity.” He chuckled. “Though that’s gone now.” He clicked his tongue in disappointment. “What a damn shame.”

“Step up, little one,” someone warned me too late.

I stumbled, tripping over both the step and the threshold into the home. The only sound was our footsteps as we turned several corners before they pushed me down into a seat. Moments later, the blindfold was ripped off my head, taking several strands of my hair with it.

“Oh my God!” I gasped at the sight before me.

“Buenos dias, my girl.” Felipe approached me in a black, formal suit. His arms were crossed, and his face was almost unrecognizable. He snarled down at me with blackened eyes and a swollen nose. His lips were covered in scabs, and multiple bandages were stuck on his face. “It’s so good to have you here. I’ve been looking forward to this for sooo very long, my precious daughter.”

“You are not my father.” Determined to remain calm and not cry, I swallowed hard, then inhaled a deep, shaky breath.

A menacing laugh erupted from his mouth. “Wow, are you still hung up on that? The man couldn’t even fight to save you. A fucking coward.”

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