Page 63 of The Leader

“The airport.”

“Why—”

“Not now, Gina. I’m really not in the mood for any explanations. Just get me out of this city.”

“Don’t worry, Jocelyn. I will get you out of here,” Oscar assured her.

CHAPTER 30

JAZZY

Somewhere in between stepping into Oscar’s car and her ride to the airport, something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong, judging by the lingering scent of chloroform.

Waking up zip-tied to a chair in some ratty motel room was getting old. Jazzy groaned as the blurry room came to life, with the distinctive sound of a man talking.

For some bizarre reason, she expected to see Marco’s face. A part of her had always feared, and dreaded, that one day he would come for her. Come back and make good on his promise to kill her. It didn’t matter that he had tucked tail and run back to Europe. He was always there, in the back of her mind.

Her jaw dropped when she saw it was Oscar staring at her, instead of Marco.

Oscar was screaming into his phone. “I know it was you! You’ve ruined me, and now I’m going to ruin you. If you want to see your wife again, make a fucking donation to this bank account.”

He named an obscene amount of money. The hate in his eyes, though, told her that it wouldn’t matter whether Gio paid him or not. This man was not going to let her go. It wasn’t about the money. Well, not just the money. This was personal. What she didn’t know yet was the how. How was this personal?

Oscar returned to her with a syringe in his hand. He hit her leg with the tranquilizer, and she could barely hold in a cry of pain.

“So you can be transported nice and easily,” he said by way of explanation, as if she’d asked him for one.

“Where’s…” She cleared her dry throat. “Where’s Gina?” They might not always see eye-to-eye, but it would devastate her to know that the cousin she had grown up with, had been in on her kidnapping.

“You should think about yourself instead of that airhead.” He held the phone to her ear. “Tell him you’re alive.”

“Jocelyn.Bella, are you okay?” Gio’s voice sounded clipped.

“I’m…fine.” She was anything but fine, but she didn’t know what else to say. Hearing his voice again, after she’d vowed to herself she would never see him again, was both surreal and painful. God, it was so painful.

“He’s not going to touch you. His business is with me.”

“What…what business?”

Oscar snatched the phone away. “You have one hour, Detta.” Then he shut his phone off and removed the SIM card.

A knock sounded on the door and Oscar let in that cigarette-smelling reporter. What was his name again?

“Glad you could make it, Harvey.” Oscar shut the door behind him and gestured toward a chair.

Harvey’s jaw dropped when he saw her. “You kidnapped Giovanni Detta’s wife? Are you insane? He’s going to think I had something to do with this. Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.” He looked as if he was ready to burst a blood vessel.

Oscar ignored Harvey’s breakdown; instead, his crazy eyes focused on her. “Your husband ruined my life!” he snarled, and slapped her across her cheek.

Shit. That burned.

“Jesus!” Harvey lit up a smoke and took a deep pull. “What the hell. Don’t hit her...”

“I might be on the Detta list”—Oscar spat in her face—“but I will take his heart with me before I go.”

The maniacal glee in Oscar’s eyes terrified her. Gone was the man trying to charm her cousin. “I don’t understand how—”

“I’ve heard of the way he looks at you. Your dumb cousin wouldn’t stop talking about it. She mistakes it for possession and basic lust, but I know what it is. It’s the same way his father looked at his mother. Brianna should have been mine.Mine!”

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