Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
A sharp, fiery pain shot into my back, right below a shoulder blade.
The fucker had stabbed me, and although the knife was short and he’d retracted it quickly without twisting, it hurt like a motherfucker. I gasped a breath over the pain.
This made my plan of escape more difficult.
“Did you enjoy being stabbed in the back as much as I did?” Gio sneered at me.
He put a hand on my shoulder and shoved, forcing me down on the couch. The searing pain only hurt when I moved or breathed, but thankfully I could still do both. The knife must have hit a rib and avoided puncturing a lung.
Carlo opened a cabinet beneath a bar, pulled out black cord and duct tape, and tossed them beside me on the couch cushion where they bounced to a stop.
Olivia was doubled over with a hand clenched to her knee. Her eyes were heavy with pain, but her gaze remained locked on me and her expression filled with alarm. She looked so worried about what had just happened to me, it verged on fright.
“I’m okay,” I said to her in Spanish.
She pressed her lips together. Shit. I’d forgotten she could tell when I was lying.
Beside me, Gio was working fast. I was going to have to stop this now since I was already in serious trouble. If the ropes got around me, I was done for. I gnashed my teeth as I launched to my feet and swung my arms to strike Gio, hefting my full weight behind it.
Only I came up empty.
I hadn’t counted on her terrible timing, or that perhaps she’d had the same thought as I had. She’d lunged for him at the same moment, but she’d telegraphed her impending move and he’d simply stepped back from both of our attacks.
The cord was looped around me and yanked my arms tight against my body, my suit jacket saving me from rope burns. At least they’d left it on. It might be possible to slide out of it. Another loop went around my torso, and then through the plastic cuffs, and down around my ankles.
There, the cord dug in.
“Go ahead and tell my father I shot an unarmed Renzo, it won’t matter,” he said. “He’s only interested in what you think you know about our business.”
Although she’d been unsuccessful in her attack, he still wasn’t happy about it. He grabbed a fistful of her hair at the back of her head and jerked, making her chin snap toward the ceiling. She cried out, a mixture of pain and surprise.
The muscles in my arms corded and flexed as I struggled uselessly to break free. Stop. I was bleeding badly and losing precious energy, so I needed to not waste any more of it.
“Carlo will open a bottle of wine, and you will pour me a glass.” I understood them before Gio’s words were echoed in English by his translator. “Go ahead and keep disobeying. I want Nathan to see what happens.”
“Leave her out of this,” I said in Italian.
He pretended he didn’t hear me. He released her with a shove, pushing her toward the bar, and she waited beside it as Carlo complied with the order. I watched her eye the corkscrew longingly while it was used to open the bottle, and I wanted her to get her hands on it almost as badly as she did.
But what I wanted more than anything was for her to do exactly as Gio had instructed. He was unpredictable, and if he hurt her again, I didn’t know what I’d do.
Of course she disobeyed.
She turned and strutted toward me, her determined gaze fixed on mine. I ignored the searing pain in my body and the blood that was running down my back, making my shirt stick to my skin when she all but crawled into my lap.
What the actual fuck was she doing?
She leaned in, the handcuffs around her wrists rattling as she grasped my chin. Was . . . she going to kiss me?
It threw me into total chaos when she set her mouth on mine and dropped her hands to the lapels of my jacket, pulling me closer. The kiss was tame by our standards, but it still sent me spinning. Maybe she thought this was it, the end for her, and she wanted a final moment for us.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Gio yelled.
Her hands slipped inside my jacket, and then I understood what this kiss was really about—distraction. While the men watched the kiss, dumbfounded, they didn’t see how she searched for the tiny bottle she knew I kept with me. The guard who’d searched me had written off the vial as inconsequential when I’d allowed myself to be taken.
Goddamn, I fucking loved the fight in this woman, and I kissed her back, trying to communicate it.