There were no small quips, no banter, no teasing, nothing. It was as though, at the back of her mind, she was still wondering if she could trust me. Day by day, meal by meal, I wanted to somehow mend the fracture I had caused by keeping the truth from her.
The last words she said to me on that horrible night when her brothers stormed into the party and let the truth slip still haunted me. We could have had something real, she had told me.
The days she hadn’t spoken to me had been the worst. But now that we were talking again, I wanted to go back to that magical place of possibility.
“Should I drop you off in the front or head straight down to the basement, sir?” my driver asked as we took a right onto the street to my office.
“Head down to the basement. I’ll take the private elevator up.”
Just then, my phone rang. Without looking, distracted by the horrendous traffic up ahead, I picked up.
“Hello?”
“Arko, you son of a bitch.”
My blood ran cold as Caspian Lebedev’s voice sliced through the line.
“Caspian. What a pleasure,” I slid out in a smooth, nonchalant voice.
“We’re not calling for pleasantries,” Giovanni said, sliding into the conversation.
“Oh, great,” I smiled cruelly. “I’m dealing with two of you now. Like one wasn’t bad enough. Is the whole happy family on the line?”
“Cut the bullshit. It’s just us two,” Caspian said coldly. “We’re giving you forty-eight hours to return our sister.”
I motioned my driver to pull up to a stop right off the parking lot entrance before I lost the signal heading down to the basement.
“I believe you don’t know how marriage works.” I kept my tone bored, even though my heart was now racing withexhilaration at seeing them this pissed. “She’s my wife and lives with me now.”
“A forced marriage isn’t legal, and you know it!” Giovanni roared. “We’ve already got our lawyers preparing to have it annulled.”
“Go ahead. The paperwork is ironclad. She signed it of her own free will.” I smiled again, hoping they could hear it in my voice.
“We need to hear it from her,” Caspian said. “Send her to us, and we’ll ask her ourselves.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Lebedev. What’s the guarantee you’ll send her back?”
“She’s our sister, you bastard!” Giovanni lost his temper. “You’re not doing us a favor sending her to us. In fact, we’re doing you a solid by not sending our men armed and brazen to your doorstep as we speak.”
“Are you threatening me?” My voice turned sharp, like the edge of steel.
“We wanted to keep this civil, Arko,” Caspian added. “But if you won’t do the same, then we’ll be forced to bend your arm.”
“Listen carefully,” Giovanni continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “If you don’t return Beatrice, we’re coming for you. We’re going to take her back, then destroy all you hold dear. You hear me?”
“Oh, I hear you just fine,” I drawled, leaning back in my chair. “But let me tell you what’ll happen if you do. I’ll declare you kidnapped my wife, I’ll rally the families, and you know how the families feel about taking innocent women against their will. Beatrice is mine, and I’ll come back for vengeance with an army your men can’t handle.”
I felt the terrorizing silence between us, the only sounds during which were both men breathing hard.
At last, Caspian spoke first, his voice threaded with the promise of unleashed violence. “Do what you will, and we’ll do what we will. This isn’t over, Arko.”
He ended the call before I could even say another word. Immediately, my pulse went into overdrive as I thought of what he meant at the end. If they claim they’ll do what they wish, chances are, they weren’t going to back off. They were going for Beatrice, ignoring any threats I gave them.
“Plans cancelled,” I told my driver and motioned for him to move back onto the street. “We’re going somewhere else.”
“Where to, boss?”
“Call Alena’s bodyguard and find out where the girls are shopping,” I declared, before making the call to my secretary to tell her to cancel all my meetings. “Make sure he doesn’t tell them I called.”
