Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
It was an odd lunch. I tried to ask her questions about who she was and how she’d come to be there but she dodged my questions. She didn’t seem afraid or anything like that, but she avoided my questions about why she was there and what the place was. I’d been kept in a comfortable room with a terrace overlooking a lush garden, where I could get fresh air. I’d been fed good food and drinks, and the room had a television in it. And the doctor had been taking care of the hideous wounds on my arm. But I had no idea who Alessandro was or why I’d sat and had lunch with the pretty blonde girl.
Alessandro spoke to me about her afterwards, on our way to meet Zack.
“Did you have a nice lunch with Holly?”
“Yes, thank you. Thank you for the hospitality. I…appreciate it. She was nice.”
“Holly is the common ground,” Alessandro offered as an explanation as he walked me through the halls of his mansion to an office.
“Holly is?”
He nodded. “I found out Holly has a connection to your family and later found out that you had been taken. I intervened in order to use you as a bargaining chip to ensure that your brothers do not attempt to take Holly from me.”
“From you?” I asked.
“She belongs to me. Her sister belongs to your brother. I don’t want him considering an attempt to take Holly from me. He wouldn’t succeed. It’s best for everyone that he knows that.”
I felt sick as I tried to absorb all of this.
“Please tell Dario that you met Holly, that she’s fine, and that I’d prefer not to make enemies with the Ferranos. If anyone tries to take her from me, we will become enemies.”
“Holly is a teenager. She…” I felt sick. I couldn’t continue the sentence.
“She’s mine,” he said. “I haven’t touched her yet. I won’t touch her until she’s old enough. But she is mine. Pass that message on.”
I nodded. “I’ll pass on the message.” I wanted to tell him off. I went into some sort of mother bear mode but I kept my mouth shut. I had to get out of here.
“This door.” He opened a door and waved so I could precede him.
I stepped into the room and saw Zack Jacobs, who I’d met a few times with my brothers, but who I only barely knew. He was giving me a careful smile, assessing my physical state.
“You okay?” He moved to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I will be when I get home to my family,” I answered softly.
“Let’s go,” he said and shook Alessandro’s hand. “I’ll pass on those messages and thanks again. I’ll call you.”
Alessandro nodded.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said softly.
I didn’t know what the deal was with this guy. All I knew was that he’d gotten me away from that auction to get me back to my family. I also knew that by the way that Holly had looked at him when he’d come in to get me from that dining room, that she either had a relationship with him or had feelings for him. I didn’t know anything else.
He was extraordinarily handsome, seemed powerful and mysterious. He also had an air of extreme danger. And he seemed angry and cold. But she was young. And she was obviously Angel’s sister, which made no sense to me.
I couldn’t process any more feelings about Alessandro and about Angel’s sister. I needed to just get home and feel my boys, smell them, cuddle them. And contact a plastic surgeon about the hideousness on my arm so I could forget this horrible experience and never leave the house without bodyguards ever again.
6
I was in the suite with Tia, Dex, Sarah, and my nephews.
Nino had two other guys on site with him here in Vegas and we’d hired some people locally, through a contact I trusted would not be in any way connected to Denarda.
Tino and a few of his guys were back home watching Luc, Lisa, and the other kids. Dare and Angel were on the way to Thailand. They didn’t have any cover, which we didn’t like, but Kruna wasn’t yet our enemy – not that they knew, anyway.
I’d gotten a text from Zack’s burner phone a few hours earlier, telling me all was well and they’d see me soon. That meant he had Tessa and they were on their way to Vegas. I’d texted him back telling him Will, one of our new guys, would meet them at the airport.
Tia was sitting on the floor with Antonio and Lucas, all three of them coloring in a Spiderman coloring book, when there was a knock on the door. Dex’s phone beeped. He looked at it, moved to the door, looked out the peep hole and then he looked to me, nodded, and then answered it.