“I would rather die.”
“Be careful what you wish for.” He put pressure on my throat. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve always liked you, but your taste in men is lacking.”
“I’m not going to get in the middle of this because I can’t.” I kept my voice calm and steady despite the fear that crested to the surface. “You’ll have to deliver the message yourself.”
“I’m going to send a message,” Romeo said as he pinned me against the wall with his tight hold on my neck. “I wanted to do this the easy way, but I can see you aren’t interested in that.” He shook his head. “Your boyfriend is going to wish he injured my right hand.”
“What?”
“I don’t need my left hand to do my job.”
“Wait!” I held my hands up over my face when I realized what he insinuated. Would he hurt me?
“I thought you might change your tune.” He let go of me. “Just do what I’m asking and then I’ll leave you alone. I’ll even make sure your brother stays out of trouble.”
“I don’t have any influence over Milo because we're not together anymore.” I wanted to be out of this life. I wasn’t going to let Bello and Medina use me to get what they wanted Milo to do. I would not be the reason Milo had to bend to Medina’s will. “I can’t help you.”
“That’s unfortunate.” He sighed. “If that’s true, you’ve got bigger problems than you think.”
“I'm not involved in any of this. Neither is Chance. Please leave us alone.”
“You naive girl.” He stepped back. “Accetti is an idiot to have let you go, because Medina is going to seize this opportunity.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you’re no longer under Milo’s protection, you better watch yourself, because Medina has his eyes on you. Do you know how many enemies the Accettis have? You’ll go for top dollar in an auction.”
“You’re vile,” I said. Milo would never let that happen to me. Unless he didn’t know. What if Bello took me away now? How would Milo ever find me?
“I didn’t get you into this situation. You insisted on helping your useless brother and you got into bed with the wrong gangster.”
“I can’t help you!” I shoved at his chest, knocking him out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough. He yanked me by my hair and slung me back against the wall, knocking the breath from my lungs when I slammed into the bricks.
“Here is that message I was telling you about.” He drew back his arm and hit my face with the back of his hand, knocking me to the cold, hard ground.
Shit!That was harder than I had expected. I hadn’t felt that kind of pain since…Don’t go there.
“Tell Milo to get his father to show up to that meeting.”
“Tell him yourself.” I wiped the blood from my split lip and glared at him, trying to salvage any dignity I had left. “I’m not your messenger.”
“Got to love your spunk. I should have taken you home with me on New Year’s Eve.” He tugged on my arm, pulling me to my feet. “Make sure your boyfriend knows how much someone else is going to enjoy your fire, because it’s only a matter of time before you're auctioned off.”
I snapped out of his hold and backed further into the alley.
“All you had to do was agree to deliver the message,” he said. “Make sure you do it, or the next time, I’m going to make you really understand.”
He turned away from me and strolled back onto the snow-covered sidewalk, leaving me trembling and bleeding.
I ran my hand through my hair as I willed my unsteady legs to get me out of the dark, urine-smelling alley. How long had Bello been watching me? Were there others? How could I keep myself and Chance safe?
I scurried into my building, not wasting my time with the elevator that wasn’t going to work anyway. I took the stairs up to my apartment and hustled inside, locking the door behind me. My heart pounded against my chest and my frozen fingers threatened to crack from my hands.
“Sable,” Chance said from behind me.
“What!” I spun to face him, trying to catch my breath. “You scared me.”
“What the hell happened to you?” He turned the old lamp that came with the apartment up a notch, making it brighter in the room. “Are you bleeding?”
