She shook her head disappointedly. “You mean you haven’t thought about it yet? Well, my preference would be for it to be quick as I am very much allergic to pain, so can I request the quick method?”
In all his thirty-eight years, Gino had never been lost for words.
“I shall take your silence as agreement, so the quick method it is. I also have one more request regarding my death at your hands.” Leaning forward, her young, beautiful, innocent face only inches from his, she held his stare and, smiled. “If it comes to it and you feel you have to kill me, then you do not get one of your men to do your dirty work. You do it yourself, and you look me in the eye while you’re doing it.”
Chapter Two
Francesca feltgreat satisfaction at the shock in her kidnapper’s eyes. They were very nice eyes, she noted, the colour of dark chocolate, but that was by the by. She had the impression this was not a man easily shocked, which made the satisfaction even better than when she was able to shut Artu up.
“Is Artu involved in the talks?” she asked.
The dark eyes locked on hers flickered with confusion.
“My brother. Artu. Is he involved in the marriage talks with that man my family’s trying to offload me on?” She would let herself think about her parents’ involvement later.
“If he is, it’s not information I’ve been given.”
“I bet he is.” She sat back and folded her arms over her chest. “Can’t you take me back and kidnap him instead?”
His burst of shocked laughter made his handsome face seem suddenly younger. His face was as nice as his eyes. Very macho and square-jawed with a wide, firm mouth she just knew had kissed alotof women.
“I’ll give you my wages for him,” she offered. “I got paid today and have only spent a little of it.”
The laughter and amusement vanished, and he looked closely at her. “Are you for real?”
“I would say you could pinch me to test it, but that would mean hurting me, which you’ve given your word not to do.”
His stare held hers for a long, long time, as if he were trying to peer through her eyes and scrutinise her brain. “Miss Marino, has it computed with you that this situation is real? That this isn’t a game? I’m not driving you to your home. Your family aren’t preparing to shout ‘surprise’ when you get out of the car.”
She smiled sweetly. “I’m sorry. Am I not reacting like a good little kidnap victim should? Are yousureyou don’t want to make the swap? Artu will definitely behave more like the traditional victim for you if that’s what you want.”
He gave the subtlest shake of his head. “I ask you again – has it computed that this situation is real?”
“Oh, it computed the second you threw me into the back of this car,” she assured him. “It’s a shame it didn’t compute before then, as I could have at least tried to kick you in the balls or hit you with my bag, but that’s done, and while I don’t know anything of poker, I do know other card games and know you shouldn’t show your hand too soon or you give your opponent an advantage.”
The look on his face at this was so funny that she giggled. “You can’t hurt me, can you? You can’t pinch me to check if I’m real; you can’t even lay your little finger on me, which means I can be as annoying as I like, and when I put my mind to it, I can bereallyannoying, and there will be nothing you can do about it. Honestly, if I were you, I’d make that swap with my brother because I’m going to spend the next week making your life hell.”
It was with the greatest joy that Francesca watched the reality of the situationcomputewith her kidnapper. All her life, her parents had drilled into their children that having Esposito blood put a target on them as much as it protected them. The target aspect was the whole reason they’d chosen to live a quiet life hundreds of kilometres from Naples.
Francesca had been brought up on the stories of her uncle’s rise to power and the many and varied enemies he’d made along the way. The Ranieri name was a familiar one. The stories had always sounded so fantastical that she’d lapped them up in the same way she’d lapped up stories of legends and Gods. In many ways, it felt like she’d waited her whole life for this moment.
Her kidnapper, his dark chocolate eyes still watching her closely, slowly loosened back into his former relaxed posture. A smile played on his lips. “While I admire your optimism, I’m afraid I will take my chances on being annoyed to death and keep you as my hostage. Swapping you for the brother you so clearly love will dilute the impact and lessen the incentive for your cousin to comply.”
She shook her head sadly and sighed. “When you’re wishing you could throttle me down the line, don’t say I didn’t warn you and offer you that choice.”
His smile widened, crinkling the lines around his eyes. “I’ve gone all-in, Miss Marino. What unfolds now is out of my hands.”
She matched the smile. “In that case, Mr Vicario, you should be pleased to know thereissomething that remains in your hands. I need a bathroom break, so you should tell your driver that we need to find somewhere to stop. I bet you can’t wait to accompany me for that, can you? Unless you’d prefer I make a nice puddle on your swanky leather seats?”
How she loved watching the smile fall from his handsome face.
Gino watched Francesca disappear into the single cubicle toilet of the small roadside restaurant his driver had found. His hand tight on the gun in his pocket, he propped himself against thewall and expelled a long breath. When he got home, he would be making a sharp call to his head of security to find out why her personality defects hadn’t been detected.
The week he’d anticipated of babysitting a naïve, vulnerable young woman had been blown out of the water. She’d practically skipped out of the car, had even offered to hold his hand so he “wouldn’t need to run after her” if she decided to “make a break for it”. At his, “That isn’t necessary,” she’d lightly shrugged, tossed back her glossy chestnut hair and, the strap of her large bag, which he’d given back to hersansphone, secure over her shoulder, walked with a bounce through the restaurant door.
One of the waiting staff approached him, met his eye and wisely swerved away.
The first thing he noticed when she came back out was the smear of clear gloss she’d painted on her lips. He noticed because her lips were pulled into a wide smile. “Can we stop for a glass of wine?”
