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He smiles. “No problem. I gotta get back to the clubhouse though.”
“Sure,” I say, holding the envelope at my side as I look up at him and return his smile. “See you around.”
I watch him walk back to his car and drive off before I head back to my chair and sit down, turning the envelope over in my hand. Diego and I went a little crazy, ordering stuff for the baby online over the past three weeks but I don’t remember getting anything this small. Maybe Diego did though. There is a brief moment of guilt as I start to open the package but I’m too damn curious to wait for him to get back with dinner to open it. Once it’s open, I turn it upside down and dump the contents out, frowning at the basic cell phone that falls into my hand.
“What the hell?”
The screen on the phone comes to life and it starts ringing, scaring the hell out of me. My heart climbs into my throat as I stare at the phone, debating with myself on whether or not I should answer it. Thoughts freeze inside my mind and my body refuses to move as I try to process it all. Who sent me a phone? And why? Sucking in a breath, I blink and finally, my thumb moves over to the button to accept the call.
“Hello?”
“Isabelle,” a voice responds, full of a warmth that surprises me. “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to answer.”
I glance around the yard as I sit forward in my chair. “Who is this?”
“Dominic King. I believe you wanted to speak to me.”
I can’t breathe.
My lungs refuse to work and my heart is thrashing in my ears, drowning out everything else as my mind struggles to catch up.
I’m not prepared to handle this and I have no clue what to say to him. For fuck’s sake, he’s a criminal mastermind and I desperately need to convince him not to kill me.
“I…uh…” I whisper, spots dancing in my vision and I squeeze my eyes shut, pressing my fingertips to my forehead as I finally draw air into my lungs. “Yes, we did.”
He hums in response. “About?”
Okay, that just pisses me off. If he wants to kill me, fine, but him pulling this power move and having a phone delivered to me so he can call and taunt me is crossing a fucking line. I didn’t do anything to this man. I was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time so I don’t deserve to be tortured. As much as I might want to though, I can’t go off on him like I normally would and that only pisses me off more. My hands shake as I flatten one to my belly and take a deep breath.
“We want you to forget about this whole thing and let me go.”
“Ah, yes,” he answers, chuckling to himself. “I believe the messages from my children mentioned making some kind of deal and I’m feeling generous today so I called to offer you just that.”
I wrap my free arm around myself. “What kind of deal?”
“Once your baby is born,” he says and I gasp. How in the hell does he know about the baby? I was still tiny the last time I spoke to Luca and when he shot up the radio station, things were moving too fast for him to notice my bump. At least I think they were. “You will turn yourself over to me and in return, I won’t kill you.”
My mind goes blank and a tremor wracks my body as I huddle in my chair.
“What are you going to do to me then?” I ask, my voice so damn weak and full of fear. I hate that he’s hearing just how vulnerable I am right now and I wish, more than anything, that Diego was here to hold me. Dominic laughs again in response to my question and I grit my teeth.
“Don’t worry about that. All you need to know at the moment is you will survive.”
No.
No way in hell am I agreeing to this sham of a deal.
I’ve learned enough about him to know that whatever he intends to do with me would be hellacious and I refuse to turn myself over to him and live in pain for however long he permits me to continue breathing. From the things I read, I knew Dominic King was a monster but the way he’s playing with me now and the pleasure in his voice makes me fucking sick.
“No deal,” I answer and he sighs.
“Here I was hoping we could be reasonable,” he grumbles, still too much levity in his voice for the situation. Rage and fear twist through my body, linking together and each feeding the other as I gasp for air. My own phone pings with a text message from the table and I turn to look at it. I’d honestly forgotten it was there and maybe if I can keep Dominic on the phone long enough, Diego can get back here. Unlocking my phone, I find a message from the man himself and click on it.
Diego:
Heading out to get food.
Be back soon.
