“I like to think of myself as being thorough.”
She pulled a face. “I call it nosy.”
“Whatever.” He took a deep breath to curb the spark of irritation.
“So why does my virginity make me important?”
“Because Mattia is in advanced talks with Elio Ranieri about marrying you off to him.”
Her head and shoulders reared back, and she blinked. “Please repeat that?”
“Your cousin is in talks to marry you off to Elio Ranieri.”
It happened again. Her face lit up, and she laughed, this time even harder. “Oh, you are funny! Marrying me off? I know I’m young, Mr Vicario, but I’m not completely credulous. The truth, please.”
“That is the truth. The Ranieris and your family have history. To stop an old war starting up again, Mattia is brokering amarriage to unite the two families. Your beauty and virginity make you quite the prize, Miss Marino.”
Now she blatantly rolled her eyes. “This isn’t the seventeenth century. No one can make me marry anyone.”
“What if you were told by your family that marrying this man could prevent a war? Could prevent bloodshed? What would you do? Say no? Would you really say no if the head of your family asked you to step up and play your part?”
The light in her pretty light brown eyes dimmed. “Are you really being serious? There are really talks underway about marrying me to a complete stranger, and the plan is essentially to bully and emotionally blackmail me into falling in line with it?”
“Exactly that.”
“And my parents? Are they involved in these talks?”
“Yes.”
For the first time, he detected a hint of steel in her pretty eyes before she primly clasped her hands together and smiled tightly. “Well, we shall see about that.”
Gino shrugged. Francesca’s future and how she chose to deal with it beyond the following week was none of his concern. “So now you know your importance, you understand why I chose you to be my pawn? Mattia is not going to risk swooping in to save you if there is any chance you will get caught in the crossfire. There’s too much at stake for him. He has no choice but to comply with my demands.”
“And his comment about you not touching me inanyway…? I assume that was a warning for you not to rape me?”
The matter-of-fact way she said this took him aback. Again. “I’m not in the habit of forcing myself on women, Miss Marino.”
“I should hope not, Mr Vicario. I always think it’s best for men in your position to stick to good old-fashioned gangstering.”
Again, he found himself wondering if the woman he’d taken as his pawn was, in fact, a bona fide nut case. Who found themselves kidnapped and, after the initial panic, responded with laughter, smiles and quips? Gino had seen grown men in Francesca’s position soil themselves through fear, and it was remembering this that had him considering whether her carefree attitude was a coping mechanism to deal with her fear. Yes, he decided. That made sense.
Now convinced she was masking her fright with smiles, he reassuringly said, “While you are in my care, you will not be touched or harmed in any way.”
“Howkind,” she beamed, “although I think it’s a little bit of a stretch to call my position as beingin your care. Let us not deal with euphemisms, Mr Vicario. I am your hostage, and you are my kidnapper.”
Okay, so there wasn’t even the faintest tremor of fear in her blasé voice. “The situation is the situation.”
“Exactly, and the situation is that if my cousin doesn’t comply with your demands, then you will hurt me?”
Eyes narrowing, he nodded.
She raised an eyebrow. “Possibly kill me?”
“Not unless I have to.”
“Haveto kill me? Why, you’re positively a gentleman! And if you have to kill me, will it be done slowly, or will you be quick about it?”
Having reverted back to thinking she must have a screw loose, he just stared at her, trying to work out how his men and all the reports he’d had done on her had missed this important factor.
