“A job… as your son?”
He nodded. “Let’s see what you can do with my empire, Giovanni.”
Thanks to Merrick,I was no longer on the streets, no longer starving, and no longer on my own. He trained me to take on a role in his empire, and it was tough, but it was worth it. He gave me more and more responsibilities and trusted me to expand into loan-sharking even though he didn’t like the risk the industry brought. I was going to thank him for the second chance he gave me by turning his empire into a legacy that stretched across the world.
Milli walked over to the door and opened it, and one of my staff was standing on the other side. “Hello, sir.”
“Hey,” Milli said. “What do you need?”
The man looked past Milli to me. “Sir. Your package has arrived.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Have all of the arrangements been made?”
He nodded vigorously. “Yes sir. It was short notice, but given your requests for the accommodations, it was easy enough to pull off.”
“And the second location?” I said.
“Also prepared, though we will just need to be informed when you’re ready to add more.”
I nodded. “Of course. I’ll let you know. Thank you again for all your hard work, you can go.”
The man gave me a nice smile and then walked off down the hallway. Milli shut the door and leaned against it to look across the room at me. “Your management style forever confuses me. It’s nothing like your father’s.”
“If by that you mean I’m not cruel and abrasive, I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“That’s precisely what I mean, but it’s not a compliment. These men are going to walk all over you if you continue on like this. They don’t fear you in the slightest.”
“Of course not,” I responded. “I don’t want to be feared, I want to be respected and liked. What’s freely given is always better than what’s taken.”
Milli let out a surprised huff. “Such a bold mentality that your father would absolutely disapprove of.”
“Whatever. I plan to build something so much larger than that old man. I want to be Merrick’s most lucrative investment.”
“Hmm,” Milli said. “I’m interested to see how that plays out as well.”
I laughed as I stood up from my desk and walked over to Milli, motioning him aside, so I could reach out and open the door. “That’s to come; for now, let’s go and meet our new friend.”
8
AVION
I’d been screaming so loud for so long that my voice was hoarse, and my throat hurt. Why I was even bothering in the first place, I wasn’t sure, because my mouth was still bound with my scarf shoved in it, so any noise I made was too muffled to matter. Matthew, the man who I’d believed to be a kind driver, completely changed in demeanor once he had me captured and dragged back to his car. He tied my wrists and ankles so I couldn’t move much and shoved me into his car on the floor of the back seat so that I couldn’t sit up or alert anyone of my capture by banging on the windows. He made two calls only, one to say we were on our way somewhere and one to say we’d arrived. His actions were too practiced to just be happenstance.
He’d done this before.
I couldn’t see anything from where I was shoved, but in calming myself down some, I was able to realize that I could roll, if only a little bit. It was enough to get to my side, with my back to the front seat, and allowing me to look through the back windshield. At first, all I saw was the night sky, but then I saw us drive past some large and imposing gate. It shut with a resounding clang as we passed by it, and then I could see the tops of several trees, all in a row as if they’d been placed there by design. The further we got, I could start to see that we were passing buildings on all sides like we’d entered a small town or something.
Where the hell was I?
Maneuvering myself, I was able to fold my feet into the area under the passenger’s seat and push, eventually rolling myself up onto the backseat. I grunted and groaned as I moved, but the driver seemed totally unphased. I thought maybe he was just stupid, but when I finally managed to sit up and get a proper look out the window, I saw why he was so unconcerned.
We were already a quarter of a mile past the gate we’d driven through and it had been promptly shut behind us. We were deep into a massive fortress of fortitude with actual guard towers topped with snipers. Even if I had any hope of breaking my binds and escaping from the car, I’d never make it out of the compound.
I was really and truly trapped.
Along with tons of smaller buildings, there was one massive building akin to a castle in the center of the acres of land. It was this building that the car was slowly approaching. It had searchlights flashing around the front and security cameras no more than ten feet from one another. It was dizzying just to look at.
If I allowed myself to be taken into that place, I could kiss all hope of escaping goodbye.
