He takes a step closer, and I have to fight every instinct that tells me to run.
There’s nowhere to go.
Even if I could make it to the door, he’d catch me before I reached my car.
Men like Luca Marchetti don’t leave loose ends. Instead, I position myself in between Luca and my father.
Luca’s brow raises.
“I’m going to give you a choice.” His voice is almost gentle now, which somehow makes it infinitely more terrifying. “A very simple choice.”
“What kind of choice?” I ask desperately, although I dread to know what he’s going to say. Whatever it is, it won’t be good.
“You’re going to marry me.”
I actually stagger backward a step as the words wrap around me.
Luca smirks, clearly delighting in my shock. “Six weeks from tonight, you’ll walk down the aisle and become my wife. You’ll smile for the photographers and sign the papers and play the part of the loving spouse. And in exchange, your father gets to live.”
The warehouse is spinning now, the edges of my vision going dark. “That’s—that’sinsane,” I get out, feeling my breathing pick up. “You can’t just—people don’tdothat anymore. You can’t force someone to marry you.”
“I’m not forcing you.” Luca’s tone is reasonable, logical, like he’s explaining something obvious to a particularly slow child. “I’m offering you a trade. Your father’s life for your companionship. Refuse, and Antonio dies tonight while you watch.”
As if to emphasize his point, one of his men steps out of the shadows behind my father. The man is built like a professional wrestler, and the knife in his hand horrifies me.
“You have forty-eight hours to decide,” Luca continues, as if we are merely discussing the weather. “Use that time wisely. Think about whether your freedom is worth more to you than your father’s suffering.”
“And if I agree?” My voice sounds like it’s coming from someone else, someone braver and more composed than I feel. “What then?”
He smiles. “Then we’ll have a lovely wedding, and you’ll discover that being married to me isn’t the worst fate that could befall someone in your position.” His smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “I can be very generous to those who don’t disappoint me.”
I swallow heavily, dread pooling in my stomach. “And if I refuse?” I nearly whisper.
The temperature in the warehouse seems to drop twenty degrees. “Then you’ll spend the rest of your very short life wishing you’d made a different choice.”
I’m dreaming—or in a nightmare. I can’t decide.
There’s no way I can do this.
Could I make a run for it?
Hop over into Michigan, slip into Canada, never to be seen again?
He turns to go, then pauses. “Oh, and Giuliana? Don’t even think about running. I have people watching every airport, every bus station, every border crossing within five hundred miles. Try to disappear, and I’ll take my disappointment out on everyone you’ve ever cared about. Your friend Katie, for instance. Such a lovely girl. It would be a shame if something happened to her.”
The casual way he mentions Katie’s name makes my knees buckle.
Holy shit.
He knows everything about me.
Everyone I love is a potential target.
“Forty-eight hours,” he repeats, then he’s gone, melting back into the shadows like he was never there at all. The big man follows, leaving me alone with my father in the circle of harsh white light.
I run to Dad, dropping to my knees beside him.
My hands shake so badly I can barely grasp the zip ties binding his wrists.
