Carson laughs as he closes the door.
“Now. You’re going to tell me how you know this story. I don’t care if I have to beat it out of you.”
I continue to stare at him because there’s really nothing else I can do.
“Okay. I’m going to spell this out for you. Why do you think Carter James never wants to meet you in person? Or even talk to you on the phone?”
Holy shit. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?
“Y-you’re Carter James?”
“DING DING DING! You’ve finally activated your brain. Took you long enough for fuck’s sake.”
I never once thought that Carter could be Carson. Why would I have thought that?
Carson slaps me across the face. “Tell me how you know the story.”
“You told me what to write. So what the fuck are you talking about?”
“No. You knew details no one’s ever known and you put it in this book. Now tell me how you knew.”
I’m wracking my brain to try and figure out what details he’s talking about. It’s about an assassin that kills the wrong man. Then he falls in love with the man’s wife and they get their happy ever after. Is he saying he’s the assassin that did what I wrote? What in the fucking fuck?
“Knew what? Again. You told me the basics like always and I wrote it for you.”
Carson slaps me again. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”
I can see that he’s starting to get more agitated. And it’s starting to scare me. He’s waving the gun around like it’s a toy. And I need to know that Giovanna’s safe. If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself. She was only taken because she was with me.
“I guess you need more motivation in order to tell me what I want.”
Carson ties me to the bedpost and smiles. He slices open my shirt and my jeans.
“I always wanted to do this to you. See how far I could push you before you broke. That was my only regret when I left.”
Now I’m really starting to panic, no matter what, Carson was never mean to me. Even though he says he never loved me. Nine years is a long time to be with someone you don’t love. Please let them rescue us before he touches me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tristan
Waiting to go into the house is killing me. We’re waiting on a layout of it so we’re not totally blind going in. I thought I understood when Levi said having this family made his life better. But now I truly get it. If I had been here alone, I would’ve needed to wait for Grayson to get here or to send back up for me. And who knows how long that would’ve taken or what would’ve happened in that time.
“You have a gun on you? And is it registered to you?” Enea asks me.
“I do. And yes.”
Lorenzo comes over to us and hands me a gun.
“But—”
“Give me your gun and take this one. Trust me.”
I nod and hand him my gun. I take the one he gives me, look it over and put it in the band of my pants. It takes another thirty minutes for us to go over the house plans. We had to contact the owner to let them know that there could be damage to theproperty. They were understanding, but I could hear the worry in their voice about their house.
“Tristan, I know you want to be the first one in there. But you can’t be. I need you to stay behind Celestino. No one shoots unless we need to. As of now, Salvatore has kept the police away. But if we start shooting, we can’t stop that. Our goal is to take both men back to the clubhouse. We will deal with them there.” Giacomo says to everyone.
I’m pretty sure that the two men that took Lily and Giovanna won’t come out of this alive. The look on Enea’s face is telling me that. And I can’t say I’m against that.
