He was lying about the Narzand brothers paying him off, but if it wasn’t them, then who was it?
24
AVION
My hands were starting to become raw from pounding on the door. “Hey! Let me out!” My brothers didn’t keep a full staff as Gio did, but there still had to besomeonearound. “Anton! Vincent! Let me out of here!” I was so desperate to get out of there that the only thing I could think to do was scream myself hoarse until someone came to find me.
The fact that I hadn’t done that once at Gio’s didn’t escape me.
Even though I’d screamed my way through my initial capture, from the time that I saw that I was at Gio’s estate, even when I was in my first room, that small closet space with hardly any light or electricity, I quickly resigned myself to making the best of that situation. There was really no explanation for it, I was just able to relax there even when the circumstances seemed dire. By comparison to the life that I’d come from, even that squalor felt like an escape.
This felt like the complete opposite.
Being yanked from Gio’s grasp and taken away from his home, only to come back to my brothers’ “care,” felt more like being returned to prison than being at Gio’s ever did. I was more afraid here than I ever was there. My brothers never really cared about me, but Gio actually extended an effort to make me feel more like a guest in his home. In all the years since my mother died, my brothers had never made me feel welcome, but Gio did it in the span of a month.
There was no guessing which party was better for me.
My head started to hurt from how loud I was screaming, but I didn’t stop. Eventually, someone would come, if for no other reason than to shut me up. I refused to be a prisoner anymore. They would let me out, or I would break down the door, there was no in-between.
“Unlock this door, NOW!” I screamed.
Finally, I heard footsteps coming up the hallway and then a voice called from the other side of the door, “Calm down, Avion.”
“Anton,” I snapped. “Why is the door locked? Let me out.” I heard it unlock and then it opened a second later, Anton standing on the other side with Vincent right behind him. Anton actually looked somewhat sympathetic, but Vincent seemed irritated like he would have rather just duct-taped my mouth shut to keep me quiet. “Why did you lock me in?”
Anton held out his hands like I was a wild animal that he had to corral. “Just calm down, okay? This was just a precaution. We had to play it safe, for us and for you. We know Giovanni Raines is a smooth talker. He’s known for using his charisma to get what he wants instead of using violence. We had to make sure you didn’t have Stockholm Syndrome or something. We were told you actually screamed out for him when you were being rescued.”
“Yeah, because someone crashed into the window and yanked me out of it like a ragdoll!” I snapped back.
“You don’t feel any sort of way towards him?” Vincent asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Of course not,” I yelled back, though it was a complete lie. “He kidnapped me from my home and held me prisoner for something that had nothing to do with me!” I had to say whatever was necessary to keep my brothers from becoming suspicious. Obviously, I’d developed feelings for Gio that extended beyond the sexual relationship we’d established, but it wasn’t because I had lost my mind. It was because in over ten years he was the first man to come along and treat me with kindness, my brothers and father included.
Anton looked over at Vincent with an ‘I told you so,’ type expression and then looked back at me and said, “Listen, we’re sorry, okay? We didn’t mean to pile on additional stress. We were just being safe. We’re glad you’re okay and don’t want anything else to happen to you.”
The fact that he actually seemed reasonably genuine was surprising to me. “I’m okay.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“I’m surprised you two came for me at all if I’m being honest,” I said.
Anton reached out and put his hand on my head. “We may not get along all the time, but at the end of the day, you’re a Narzand. We look out for our own.” I glanced up at Vincent, and he was looking down at me with a mostly indifferent expression, but there was the slightest hint of confirmation there. I’d never metthisversion of my brothers before. Did they actually care about me in their own, screwed up way, or were they hiding something more sinister beneath their lies? “Anyway,” Anton continued. “We know why Gio snatched you in the first place, and we’re dealing with it. So you don’t have to worry.”
“So you’re paying back dad’s debt?” I asked.
Vincent sat up a little straighter and furrowed his brow. “Debt?”
Anton’s face screwed into one of confusion. “What are you talking about?”
My heart slammed to a stop. Did theynotknow about our dad’s debt? “Um… I’m probably confused. I don’t understand.”
My attempts to backpedal were unsuccessful. Both their gazes became a thousand-yard-stare, and I could tell that they were quickly calculating what I’d said in their minds. I’d messed up, I shouldn’t have said anything. They had their reasons for doing what they did that didn’t involve my father at all.
Finally, Vincent came back to reality, blinking at me before slapping a hand down on Anton’s shoulder. “We got this wrong. Let’s go.”
He didn’t wait for Anton’s response, but rather turned and left the room immediately.
“What makes you think that our father has a debt with Giovanni?” Anton asked.
