“Carlo and Tucker will drive you back, kitten,” Kane says. I hate the fact Kane isn’t coming with me, but I nod anyway. “There’ll be a second car following.”
“We’ll keep you safe, Mrs. Di Rossi. Don’t worry,” Carlo says from the driver’s seat. His gaze slides down my chest for a hot second, but I don’t react. I don’t particularly like the guy, but Kane seems to trust him. At least Tucker’s with us. He’s always polite.
“Damn right you’ll keep her safe,” Kane growls. “Or your ass is on the line.”
“Don’t be a prick,” I mutter under my breath. Kane squeezes my hand out of sight of his men, and I wince at the bite of pain.
“We’ll be back later,” he tells me before whispering under his breath, “Make sure you’re ready for a spanking.”
He helps me into the back seat and clips me in, all the while touching me far more than he needs to, which gets me all kinds of hot and bothered and helps distract me from the anxiety swirling in the pit of my stomach.
The car pulls out of the underground garage, past the security checkpoint, and into the late afternoon traffic. Carlo and Tucker chat quietly while a talk radio host rants about some political scandal I care little about.
After a while, I zone out. By the time we reach the city’s boundaries, I’m almost asleep. The guys are quiet now, vigilantfor trouble since this is where we came under attack last time. But I feel better knowing there’s another car somewhere behind and it’s broad daylight.
My eyes drift shut, and I doze off.
I’m rudely woken a short time later by the sound of a gunshot reverberating through the car. When I look up, Tucker slumps against the window with a bloody crater in the side of his head and brain matter all over the seat.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Di Rossi,” Carlo says, calm as a cucumber. “Money talks.”
Nothing he says makes sense. My ears ring from the gunshot at such close range, and my heart is pounding from a massive infusion of adrenaline. “What?”
Carlo doesn’t answer. Instead, he takes a sharp left onto a dirt track. I unclip my seatbelt and wrench the door handle, but it’s locked. The privacy screen goes up, and no matter how much I yell and scream, Carlo takes no notice.
Have the other guards realized what’s happening? I swivel around to look out of the rear window, but I can’t see any other vehicles. I don’t know where we are. This isn’t the usual route. We’re surrounded by derelict buildings, weed-choked concrete, and burned-out cars covered in gang tags.
What the fuck is going on?
If Angelo had let me have a phone, I could have called someone, but, of course, he still doesn’t trust me. I have no way of getting in touch with Kane or anyone.
The car grinds to a halt outside an old warehouse with a faded sign advertising a long-gone manufacturing business. The sun has dipped below the building roofline. Everything is gray and bleached of color.
The coppery scent of spilled blood makes my stomach heave, and it’s almost a relief when Carlo jumps out and opens my door.He bitches when I struggle like mad. Every move Kane taught me has flown straight out of my head.
I lash out with my nails and scrape scarlet lines down Carlo’s cheek.
“You’re a feisty thing,” he laughs. “They’re going to love you.”
They?
“She better not be damaged,” a haughty English voice says as I’m dragged through a metal door into a gloomy, cavernous space.
“She’s fine,” Carlos replies, shoving me forward so hard I stumble to my knees. Tears prick my eyes, but I focus on the voice. I don’t recognize it, and when I look up, I know I’ve not seen this man before.
He’s dressed in a tweed suit with a mustard-colored silk scarf around his neck. It’s both ridiculous and creepy. A pair of cold blue eyes gaze down at me, utterly devoid of emotion. This man doesn’t see me as a person; that much is clear.
“Get up, my dear.”
I glance around, searching for an exit while brushing the dust from my hands.
“Do you have a death wish?” I ask the man. A faint smirk of amusement appears.
“Why would you think that, my dear?” God, he sounds like he walked off the set ofDownton Abbey. What’s a stuck-up guy like him doing here? It makes no sense.
“Because my husband will be furious that you kidnapped me, and he’s not known for his easygoing nature.”
Carlos says nothing, but I wonder if he’s worried about the repercussions of betraying his boss. If I were in his shoes, I’d be terrified.
