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Mattia stared hard at her. “You think I’m going to run like I’m some kind of dog? And you think you know me?”
“I don’t think anyone really knows you.” She pulled a face. “Except maybe your mother. She’s as cold and ruthless as you are.”
His lips twitched. “Then you do know the essence of me. The door stays locked, and this all plays out just as I planned it.” Now he was the one to smile. “Maybe it ends with both our deaths. Maybe we both walk away. Time will tell. But my mother will be released, and The Esposito Group, the empire my father built, will be returned to me, even if I’m not there to rule it.”
Her beautiful face lit up. “You won’t be. If you don’t let me go, I’ll spend the next thirty-two or whatever hours are left waiting for you to drop your guard enough for me to use my second bullet…”
“And risk my soldiers taking their vengeance?”
“Let them try!” She didn’t believe his soldiers were anywhere near the building Mattia was hiding her in. “Quite honestly, killing you will give me all the joy shooting your mother would have done, so taking a bullet myself would make it all worthwhile, and even if I don’t get the chance to kill you while we share this delightful apartment, I will personally hunt you down when it’s all over. No one kidnaps me and chains me up, especially not Esposito scum. Your life belongs to me now.”
Taking a step closer to her, he bestowed her with his most menacing smile. “You think my life means anything to me now? You want to shoot me, then shoot me. I’m right here. Take my life…” His eyes gleamed. “And take the risk of my trigger-happy finger taking your life in return, and the two of us dying in a pool of our combined blood.”
She wriggled her shoulders seductively. “That is such poetic imagery, but I will resist letting the chance of it play out until you fall asleep.” She smiled. “It doesn’t matter if I fall asleep. You won’t kill me. You can’t. But I can kill you. How long can you stay awake, Esposito? Because your life depends on you keeping your eyes open and your brain alert for the next thirty-two hours.”
* * *
Mattia stared across the small room from the armchair he’d spent the last hour sitting in. His hostage had made herself at home, all curled up on the sofa as if she’d settled down for an evening of watching television.
There was no television. The only thing Elvira was watching was him. For sixty minutes, they’d done nothing but sit and stare at each other.
“How long do you think you can stay awake?” he asked, breaking the long, long silence. It was better than worrying about whether Stefano had been compromised. If Elio Ranieri had discovered the location of this place, then so be it. Blowing the doors down would only endanger his sister and increase the risk of them all dying.
Getting the gun from her was his priority. If he could snatch it from her, he could cuff her back to the chair, and this time he’d give her a bucket to use if she needed it. Forget moving her to the other apartment. She was far too tricksy to risk such a bold move. Safer to stay here.
She pulled a face. “It’s only adrenaline keeping me awake, but I’m not worried about falling asleep.”
“You should be.”
“I’m a light sleeper. Always have been. I nap like a cat.”
“I guess time will tell whether your confidence is misplaced or not.”
“I guess so,” she agreed. “Still, I’m not the one who needs to worry about losing consciousness. I’ll still wake up, whereas you…” She shook her head mockingly. “You’re a dead man walking, Esposito, and I can’t wait to be the one to pull the trigger.”
“Have you killed before?”
If he wasn’t watching her so closely, he’d have missed the slight flicker of her eyes.
“You know that killing me will kill your soul?”
She laughed. “Killing you will feed my soul.”
He shook his head. “You’re too passionate. People like you feel things too deeply.”
“You think you know me?” she mocked.
“I know your type. You remind me of Tommaso. My brother’s a man who feels life. He was supposed to kill Gabriella but couldn’t go through with it and married her instead.” A marriage Tommaso had insisted was a means to punish and humiliate Gabriella for working to bring them all down, but had all been because the passionate, volatile fool had fallen in love with her.
Elvira’s silver eyes glittered. “Is that a proposal?”
His laughter at this was cold. “Only a man prepared to be emasculated would marry you.”
“Interesting. Why would marriage to me emasculate anyone?”
“A man should be the boss of his family,” he answered, knowing this would piss her off. In the sixty minutes they’d spent studying each other in silence, he’d determined his best chance of regaining the upper hand and getting that gun from her lay in making Elvira angry.
Angry people got rushes of blood to the head that caused them to make mistakes. It was why Mattia never allowed himself to get angry. The closest he’d come to anger in recent years was when Tommaso had decided to give the treacherous Gabriella her freedom. Any anger Mattia had felt had been completely overshadowed by his brother’s red-hot fury when Mattia had threatened to kill her himself.
