20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Gianna

I felt terrible.

They had given me a single bottle of tepid water and left me in what might have been the basement of some kind of warehouse.

They had blindfolded me before we arrived, but before they covered my eyes, I could tell that we were heading into the industrial part of the city.

By the time they tore the blindfold off my head, I was car sick, and my eyes hurt from the pressure of the cloth pressing against them.

"You should have stayed in the UK," my brother had said to me, irritation in his voice as he threw the bottle of water at me where I was sprawled on the floor.

I had looked up at him as I struggled into a seated position. I felt a significant amount of satisfaction when I saw that he was sporting an impressive black eye from when I headbutted him in the SUV. I hoped it hurt.

"Nothing to say for yourself?" he goaded me. I remembered this game all too well. He had always been able to make me angry enough to bicker with him.

This time, I wouldn't give in to him. I honestly had no idea who he was, this person who I had grown up with and loved. It was impossible to reconcile the memories of my brother with my knowledge of The Cobra.

How could he kidnap his own sister?

Will had started to pace back and forth in front of me, clearly enjoying holding court. "You have made this all so much easier than I thought it would be," he told me. "You see, I knew that Reaper had come looking for The Cobra. However, I didn't have any idea that you would be with him. I thought he would be smarter than that. He imagines himself to be a top-tier assassin. No professional would make such a stupid mistake." He shook his head ruefully and then looked at me with disdain.

"And you," he said, "sullying yourself with a low-life like that bastard brat. His mother was a crackhead, you know that? She danced at some dirty club until Vince took pity on him and took him in. He probably has no idea who his father is. He's nobody from nowhere, but you, you're a blue-blooded, full-Italian woman. You could have been married to any of the sons of the other powerful families in our line of work but you always acted like you were too good for the family business. If I had known that your flavor was mob boss, I would have found you someone who held real power."

"I didn't know our money came from this kind of thing," I shot back. "What is it that we're selling? Drugs? Prostitutes? Guns?"

He laughed in the face of my anger. "If you're asking about Dad, he just transports things for other people. He actually was happy to transport and move all kinds of things for The Cobra. Money is more important than good sense for Dad. He did draw the line when The Cobra asked about shipping people from overseas, but I found other people to handle that."

I had gulped. People . I thought of the brother who had helped me learn to ride a bike and shoot hoops.

I thought about the time that he came to visit me at school and we had gotten ridiculously drunk at a pub and then wandered around the city people-watching until the sun came up. I thought about riding the London Eye with him and then going on an impromptu trip to Italy one weekend to get some sunshine.

That same brother had probably been trading human souls for cash even then. The thought was horrifying, but inescapable.

I realized for the first time, that Will had truly been my only friend for most of my life. Knowing what I knew now showed me just how wrong I had been to trust him.

I felt betrayed. Everything about those memories was sullied and ruined for me now. There was a bitter taste in my mouth, and I realized that I was biting the inside of my cheek so hard I had drawn blood.

I knew one simple truth in that moment: I could never let him know about the baby.

The Cobra would never tolerate the thought of the Reaper's baby being born into his family. It was clear how little he thought of Dom despite all the years that he had pretended to be his friend.

I also knew with sudden clarity, that he would see my child as a great threat to his empire. The baby in my womb would be the heir not only to Dom's personal fortune, but to the Romano family name and legacy.

He would never be able to let my child live.

I swallowed hard and tilted my chin up, trying to remain defiant in the face of my sudden intense fear of my brother. The monster pacing before me with a black eye and a bloody nose was not my brother.

My brother had just been a sweet fantasy that I had held in my head. William Bianchi had never existed. There had only ever been The Cobra.

"All of that mob money provided you with a very nice life, you know," Will went on. "You got to go to school overseas, and you never had to work. You were pampered and spoiled and so was mom. You two have it so good, but only she understands that."

"None of you gave me a chance to understand anything," I hissed at him. "You kept secrets from me and sent me away. I don't know any of you at all, apparently."

"You ungrateful little bitch," William snapped. He took two quick steps and slapped me forcefully across the cheek.

I cried out in spite of my desire not to. I stared at the blood dripping onto the floor from my split lip, feeling shocked and numb.

My brother was fully capable of killing me, I now realized. And he would be happy to do so if it served his purposes.

I wondered if Dom had noticed that I was gone. He had to have by now. It had probably been an hour since I was kidnapped. I wasn't sure that he would have any idea where I was, however. Maybe that was better.

If I could keep William from reaching out to Dom, maybe I could spare his life. I wasn't sure that I could save myself or the baby, but maybe I could keep Dom from being hurt.

"You are mistaking my feelings for Dom," I told him, the lie painful and jagged in my throat. "I don't care about him at all. He's a good lay. We're just having fun together. Surely even you can admit how hot he is."

Will curled his lip in distaste. "If swarthy Italian is your kind of thing, I guess," he said dismissively. "Honestly, I thought you'd be happy with Guy. I figured you two would be the perfect couple, and you were…for a while anyway."

I looked away from the blood spots on the floor, my eyes wide. I stared at my brother in awe, which was tinged with horror. "Guy was spying on me, wasn't he?" I had said to him in wonder.

Will winked at me. "Smart girl. He made sure you didn't get too smart or too busy with anything but partying and going to school. It was a good way to make sure that you were doing what I wanted you to be doing and that you were safe. But then you broke up with him and came home and everything went to shit."

My mind raced back to all the times that Guy told me I was too young or inexperienced to apply for a job, all the times that he had wheedled until I chose to skip going home for vacation, all the times that he had belittled me and told me that I was just a rich girl who didn't understand anything.

I thought about him coming after me and demanding that I come back to the UK with him. He hadn't done any of that on his own.

My brother had orchestrated all of it.

"You killed him," I said next, the thought arriving in my brain with perfect clarity.

Will nodded. "Yep," he said back, as if was talking about having Sunday dinner with our parents. "He was a snively shit. I never liked him."

"Oh my God," I said. I started to tremble. Everything in my life had been a lie. Everything. But then I thought of Dom and his deep blue eyes, and gentle hands.

Dom wasn't a lie.

Dom was kind to me and cared about me. I clung to the thought of his affection as a means to keep me adrift in a sea of pain.

"Well, that's enough explaining the past to you," Will said abruptly. He brought his phone out of his pocket and started texting someone. Feeling ill again, I closed my eyes.

"Want to know who I'm talking to?" Will said to me.

I shook my head. I wanted to sleep for years. I wanted to wake up and find out that all of this was a terrible dream.

"Oh, you do want to know, I assure you," Will had gone on. "I just told your loverboy where to find us. I'm going to make him a deal that he can't refuse."

"No," I whispered, my eyes flying open. "Will, don't hurt him. Please, don't do that. Your hatred for my decisions isn't his fault. You can marry me to anyone that you want, just don't hurt him."

Will laughed, but the sound had been mirthless. "Oh, it's far too late for pleas," he said to me. He tucked his phone back into his pocket, then turned to leave. He paused at the door and looked back over his shoulder at me. "The problem with you pleading for his life, is that it doesn't matter anyhow," he said.

"Why is that?" I had asked him dully.

He had grinned at me then, the smile terrifying to behold. "Because he loves you, you moron," he said back. "I couldn't keep him away from you even if I tried." And then he left, slamming the heavy door behind him.

Because he loves you , Will had said.

The words were like knives to my heart over and over again. I had turned them over in my mind hundreds of times since Will had left me.

Was Will right? Could Dom really love me enough to sacrifice himself for me? I thought about William killing him in cold blood and my heart broke into a thousand pieces.

I slumped back against the rough wall behind me, tears slipping down my cheeks.

There was nothing that I could do to stop any of this. My brother was insane, my parents didn't love me, and Dom would die because of me.

I leaned my head against the wall and cried for myself, for my lost innocence, and for the tiny life inside of me that I couldn't protect.

I wasn't sure that my brother would allow me to live, despite that fact that he hadn't specifically threatened my life yet. He would probably at least try to sell me to the highest bidder first.

I would have to keep the baby a secret for as long as possible. I figured that I would have to goad him into picking me a husband right away. The pain that I felt each time I said that I didn't care about Dom was almost physical in nature rather than emotional, but I would say the words as many times as I had to, if it would save the life of my child.

Maybe if I was married to someone else soon enough, I could pretend that they were the father of my child. I didn't have long, however, before that tactic wouldn't work at all.

Sniffling, I slid to the side and curled up on the dirty floor. I sent my thoughts to the tiny life inside of me. I'll keep us safe, baby , I said to it. I know it's hard to tell, but I'm doing my best.

I thought of the packets of vitamins that Diva had given to me and started sobbing again. I wished to God that the only concern in my life right now, was remembering to take my vitamins.

The sense of safety I had felt when I lived with the girls who worked at Dom's club felt like a faraway dream.

I didn't want to think of my life as being over, but I thought it was possible.

Still crying, I gave in to my exhaustion, and let sleep carry me away for a while.