Chapter 4
There was a knock at the hotel room door. I opened it to find a man in a suit.
He said he was there to take me to the audit, and I went willingly.
But twenty minutes in, something felt wrong.
The compound was on the edge of the city, but this road kept taking us further out.
The car finally stopped in front of an abandoned factory, and I hadn't even gotten both feet on the ground before the driver yanked me out and shoved me inside.
Seven or eight built guys I'd never seen before were waiting in there.
They stood around with the cruel look of men ready for ugly work.
Raymond wasn't with them.
A bad feeling started rising in my chest.
The driver wrenched my arms behind my back and bound my wrists with rope.
While he was tying, he murmured into my ear, his voice low and ugly.
“You had the nerve to move family money. You damned rat.”
“My orders are to crack you open before the Don gets here. Start talking.”
He yanked the knot vicious-tight. “Where did you put the money?”
The rope crushed against my belly. I struggled against it. “Let me go. I never moved a cent of the family's money.”
“I'm carrying the Don's child. If something happens to my baby, not one of you has a life worth enough to pay for it.”
His palm cracked across my face, and he grabbed me by the collar.
“The family's never heard of anyone like you. You really think you can run that con on me?”
He patted my belly with a sneer. “Where did you get that bastard, huh? Trying to pin it on the Don? Why not say it's mine?”
The men around us roared with laughter.
My belly tightened slowly, and my heart kept dropping with no bottom in sight.
Then the door opened and Raymond walked in, with Raffina at his side.
She had her arm hooked through his and was leaning up to whisper in his ear, whispering low but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
“Raymond, look. I was right after all.”
“Thirty million is missing from the family accounts. Who else would have done it?”
A muscle twitched in Raymond's cheek, like a volcano stirring.
He walked straight up to me, caught my chin in his hand, and looked into my eyes.
“If you wanted money, you ask me. Why pull these little stunts?”
I shot back, furious. “I didn't touch it. Look closer. Trace where the money went.”
“Enough.”
He cut me off rough, his voice rising into a roar.
“Thirty million. I don't care about thirty million.”
“See this? You said you wanted to leave, to prove your worth. Funny, isn't it? One day away from me and look where you are.”
“I told you, I don't allow you to leave me. That's an order, not a request.”
“I've put up with your stubbornness, but my patience has limits.”
“Listen to me. Stay. This isn't just for me; it's for you. Have you figured that out yet?”
I lowered my head and bit down on his finger as hard as I could.
He jerked his hand back and stared at the blood welling up, something dark and dangerous moving in his eyes.
“Del, don't push my limits. Can't you just listen calmly—”
“Not interested. Untie me, now.”
I cut him off with a scream. “I don't want to look at you and that bitch. I don't want to dirty my eyes.”
Raymond put his bleeding finger in his mouth and sucked at it, the line of his jaw hard as carved stone.
His eyes had gone half-lidded, showing more white than iris, and his laugh came out cold.
“All right, Del. Looks like I need to reason with you again.”
He took a deep breath and was about to start in on me when his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen, and his face shifted as he picked up.
A sharp, low pain rolled through my belly. I called after him, frantic.
“Raymond, make them untie me. If this keeps up, the baby will be in real trouble.”
He was already turned away on the phone, walking out with a careless wave at the men.
I tried to call out again, but the driver clamped his hand over my mouth.
“Shut up. I saw the caller. That's Don Falcone. Don't interrupt the Don's business.”
The driver's eyes held a strange mix of respect and fear.
It made sense; Vincenzo Falcone was the Don of one of the Five Families.
He was also the current CEO of International Financial.
In the world of the Five Families, he was the man who set the rules.
I jerked my head away from the driver's hand, and my eyes lit up again.
Raymond had just been on a call, and Vincenzo had to have heard me crying out.
He would come for me.
He owed me this.
Chapter 5
The ropes still bit into my arms.
The dull ache in my belly was sharpening into something stabbing.
Every time I opened my mouth, the driver's palm flew at my face. He didn't want to hear anything except where the money was.
The hired men sat on the floor, drinking and talking among themselves.
“You think this deal between the Don and Don Falcone is gonna land?”
“Hope so. Falcone's one of the Five Families. He backs us, we're set.”
“I hear he's got no heir. His old man tried to make him marry and he refused outright?”
“You don't know? Story is he went crazy in love with some woman and couldn't have her. Now he won't even look at anyone else.”
“What kind of woman turns down a man like that? Has to be an idiot.”
I shouted at them, “Vincenzo Falcone, that's who you mean, right? I want to see him.”
“I'm the woman you just mentioned. The one he couldn't have.”
“If anything happens to me or my baby, the Carraso family is going to pay in blood for it.”
The men exchanged looks, then burst out laughing.
The driver stood up, mocking. “What, you know every Don in the world?”
“Changing your story? The bastard in your belly is Don Falcone's now?”
“You want to suffer less, you tell me where the money is.”
I went pale trying to explain, but no one believed a word.
I'd talked myself hoarse when Raffina's voice came from behind me.
“The one paying in blood, I'd guess, is going to be you.”
I whipped my head around and met her eyes.
She tilted her head, looking me over slowly, drinking in my pain and humiliation with no attempt to hide it.
“Raymond gave me clear orders on the way over. I'm here to persuade you to stay. Just one thing.”
She paused and spaced the next words out, one by one.
“Before you stay, you tell us where the money went.”
I spat in her face. “This is a setup. Let me go. You're going to regret this.”
She wiped the spit off hard, and something vicious flashed in her eyes.
“You've been shamelessly trying to seduce the Don for years. You sleep around, get pregnant by god knows who, and now you want to pin it on him.”
“The Don still remembers what little you've done for him over the years. He let you save face in public and pretended he didn't know you, and you turn around and steal from the family.”
“Looks like you need a little encouragement to be honest.”
She picked up a rag off the floor and stuffed it in my mouth, then she gave the driver a look.
He picked up a leather whip and started swinging at me, no rhythm, no pattern, just hitting.
The whip came down like rain, tearing at my skin.
Every scream got buried in the rag.
My eyes felt like they'd split open from the pressure. Tears mixed with blood ran down my face, but I kept my eyes locked on Raffina.
She stood there with her arms folded, smiling at me.
Her index finger tapped lightly against her arm, as if she were counting for me, counting how many lashes I'd taken.
I thrashed, and then a tearing pain ripped through my belly.
Something warm slid down between my thighs.
The driver hesitated and looked over at Raffina.
She frowned, displeased. “Did I say stop? Keep going.”
He raised the whip again.
Blood had run into my eyes, and the world in front of me was nothing but red.
Then someone kicked the door open with force.
A voice I hadn't heard in years exploded against my ear.
“Raymond. You're going to pay for this in blood!”
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