No, this guy was dark. Swarthy. Deep-set eyes. Mean eyes.
“Hello, Brooklyn. Not who you were expecting.” He smirked and slid his jacket aside to show her his holstered gun.
Thoughts raced through her brain, but she didn’t know this man. “Who are you?”
“Luka Albertelli.”
Albertelli? Wow, oh wow.The head of a huge organized crime family. The one who’d killed before. Dangerous. Deadly. And he was sitting right next to her, a gun at his side.
He couldn’t poison the water, right? She should flee. She reached for her door.
He clamped hold of her wrist and jerked her arm. “You just arrived. Don’t be in such a hurry to go.”
She shook off his hand and rubbed her wrist. She had to get him talking so she could try to get away again. But what did she say to him? “You’re Matteo’s brother.”
“Ah, so you know about my deceased brother?” He eyed her. “Were you in on his death?”
“In on it?” She gaped at him. “How could you think that? No. Of course not.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re Tarver’s girlfriend. Not a stretch to believe you’d help him.”
“Hah!” she said. “I’m not his girlfriend. Far from it. He’s been stalking me for three years. Trying to kill me.”
Luka snorted. “Not what he’s told my men.”
“He’s lying then.” She took a moment to process this information, but it made no sense to her. None at all. “Why did you want me to come here?”
“Tarver took something very valuable from me, and I want it back.” He rested his hand on his weapon. “He’s refused to return it. We’ll use you as leverage to make him talk.”
She laughed, but it held her panic at the thought of what was coming for her. She wasn’t here to reason with Kane, but to be tortured to make him talk. “Then you’re wrong. Hurt me all you like. He’ll love it. Likely even cheer you on.”
“If what you say is true, he may still not want us to hurt you.” He locked gazes, and the perverse darkness in his eyes gave her no doubt he would hurt her if he thought it would get back his missing item.
“Then you don’t know him at all.”
“But I know his type.” He let his gaze dig deeper. “He may want to do the hurting all on his own.”
He could very well be right, but she had to try to change this to be in her favor. “But you won’t let him, will you? You’ll never free him. Not after he killed your brother. Or at least I assume he did.”
“He did indeed, and your assessment is most accurate.” A cunning smile crossed his mouth.
“So why keep me? I can go now, and no one has to know I was here.”
“Iwill know, and I will always know you could report this conversation.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, covered in a thick five-o’clock shadow. “Besides, I think you can still be useful to me.”
She would give in for now, but would continue to look for a way to escape. “What happens now?”
“Now, as long as you listen to everything I say, your family and their town will be spared death.”
She eyed him. “You expect me to believe you have the skills to create a program to poison a water system?”
“No, but I expect you to believe I have access to Tarver’s program to poison them.” He grinned. “Yeah, your boyfriend already had it all set up. I just had to take over. One tap of the app he created on my phone, and it’s done.”
Defeated for now, she slumped in the seat. “What do you want me to do?”
He tipped his head at the door. “Start by closing the door and buckling up. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt before it’s time to hurt you.”
He laughed, low and sinister, but she had to ignore him or fear would eat her alive. Deep down, part of her had thought Kane wouldn’t hurt her, but the head of a huge organized crimefamily who had likely dissolved a witness in a barrel would without blinking an eye.
