“What are you going to offer me in return for Susanna?”
“Peace,” Dimitri says. He’s the one with the least amount of skin in the game, as he has no connection to Susanna. He only has an alliance with these men because his sister, Katya, is married to Alek.
“You’ll offer me peace? A chance for us all to work together?” I set my eyes onto Luca, who looks like he’s in pain at this suggestion. “Truly? You’ll do this, Luca? Because I need to hear you say it.”
“I hate you,” he hisses. “I’ve always had. You tried to steal from me so many times. You are the last person I want to work with.”
“Well, then that settles it.”
“But,” he forces out, “you stole my wife’s sister and she needs me to get Susanna back. So I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Before you cut up more pieces of Susanna.”
“Is the finger really hers?” Alek asks. “You burned off the tip.”
“To keep you guessing. You won’t know if it’s truly Susanna’s finger or not. That’s the fun of all of this.”
“If you won’t choose to work with us,” Alek continues, “then we’ll be forced to go to war with you. And we will kill you. We outnumber you. So think about what you want, Gabriel. This is your one chance to make peace with us. Just give us Susanna back.”
“But you see, the moment I give her back, you’ll just kill me. She’s my insurance that you won’t kill me. So I’m not sure how we can come to an agreement here.”
“We’ll offer you something else in return,” Luca says. “A marriage contract. I have men who have daughters that need to be married off. You can marry one of them. That will guarantee peace.”
His suggestion makes an idea form in my mind. “Or I could just marry Susanna myself. That would guarantee peace, wouldn’t it?”
All three men go silent. The air in the room drops ten degrees.
“If I married Susanna, then that would guarantee peace between us, wouldn’t it?”
Alek hesitates before he speaks. “The problem is, you kidnapped Susanna. You’ve hurt her. We can’t trust her to you and I will not marry her off to a man like you. I just won’t.”
“Not even for peace?”
“Not at the expense of my daughter.”
“But she’s not really your daughter,” I point out.
“I helped raise her. She’s like my daughter. And I will not give her to you. Take Luca up on his offer. You can marry someone else. Make peace with us. Give us Susanna back. It can all work out.”
“Mmm. No,” I answer flatly. “I don’t want to. You see, I like Susanna. I’m going to keep her. Now, I would suggest you all run along. And think aboutmyoffer. I can marry Susanna and that can be the way we keep peace. But it’s up to you men.”
“Let’s go,” Luca snarls. “He’s not going to give us anything.” Luca storms out of the restaurant, while Dimitri slowly follows behind. That leaves Alek.
“You are going to die, Gabriel,” he says. “Just think about that.”
“Or all of you are going to die.” I sound confident but as Alek leaves the restaurant, I can’t help but feel cold from his words.
Chapter Twelve
Susanna
Gabriel returns to me once more. The unexpected part of it is that he looks shaken up in a way I’ve never seen. It’s not anger like when he killed Chip. It’s more like… fear.
I grip the bars of the cage as he enters the room. “What’s going on?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because you look like something is going on.”
He gives me a pointed look. “You’re my prisoner. You don’t have the right to ask me that.”
