Chapter Sixty-Seven

Theo

“W hat do you mean you lost her?” The woman’s voice is a piercing shriek and I wince, biting back a groan at the throbbing pain in my head.

“Don’t worry about it. There’s nowhere for her to run out here. She could go for miles and still not run into another person. She’d die of exposure in this weather long before it became a problem. But I’ve got my men out combing the woods. They’ll find her and bring her right back.” I could kill Tony for speaking about my girl like this, damn these stupid bindings!

“You idiot! We’ve been planning this for years! How could you let her get away like that?”

“He may be an idiot, but she’s not. All this time you’ve been scheming and making your plans for revenge; she has actively been training with Jonathan for just as long. Don’t underestimate her. She learned from the best; I trained him myself.”

What? I know that voice. I raise my head slowly, testing my arms but they seem to be tied behind me. My legs too. Biting back a cry against the pain that has gone from a dull throb to a sharp stabbing, I open my eyes to find a large, open space. It smells musty and there is dirt and crap on the floor. Some old warehouse maybe? I sniff, or maybe an old barn?

Either way, it appears that I’m in a chair, hands bound behind me and feet tied to its legs. I shift my hands, testing the restraints, but they offer no give. I’m immobile, and for the moment, it would seem, at their mercy. Squinting past the pain, through the darkness I can just make out the silhouettes of three individuals across the room. They don’t seem to have noticed yet that I’m awake.

That’s obviously Tony, and some woman with him. But who is the other man?

I swear I recognized his voice.

And then it all comes rushing back.

True to his word, Finn had a private car waiting to take me to the airport when I made it out of the hotel, and a private jet ready to go on the tarmac. I called coach and let him know there had been a family emergency that I had to leave immediately to deal with. I may be fined for the abrupt departure, but to hell with it. They could kick me off the team for all I care. If something happened to Danica and I didn’t even try to help, I couldn’t live with myself.

When I landed back in Washington a short time later, two of Finn’s men were waiting to take me to meet up with Finn and Jonathan. We didn’t speak much after I got in the car, but it didn’t take long to realize we were headed in entirely the wrong direction from where we were supposed to be traveling. Smart enough to realize that something was off, I discreetly pulled out my phone to shoot off a quick text to Finn and my men, but when I looked up, Roberts was glaring at me through the rearview.

“Deal with him!”

That was the last thing I remember before I blacked out, and now here I am. And, it would appear that Roberts has been working with my cousin from the inside to sabotage me.

Heels echo in the empty space as the group moves closer to me. “Ah good, you’re finally awake. I was worried for a minute there that Roberts here gave you too much and you would miss out on all the fun.”

She steps closer, into the dim light cast by the one fluorescent bulb that hangs above my head.

Holy shit!

“You see dear, we haven’t met, but I believe you knew my son. And my stupid husband, for that matter.” Her laugh is dry, as humorless as her expression as she stands before me. “It would seem that our meeting is long overdue.”

“Diane. Can’t exactly say it’s a pleasure. ”

Her grin is feline, almost feral, though her eyes are cold and calculating as she glances down my restrained body.

Tony steps up to her side, while Roberts flanks her on the other.

“Cousin. Can’t say I was expecting you to be here. Care to fill me in on what’s going on?”

“Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you, cousin? ” His voice is condescending as he sneers at me. “Look at you, always having to be in charge, to boss me around. Even when you’re literally tied up and under my control, you still think you can boss me around? Me?!”

At this, I frown. “I never wanted to be in charge.”

“Liar! You stole it from me. Stole my life. It’s mine!” He screams, spit flying from his mouth and I cringe in disgust.

“Now, now, dear. You’ll have your moment.” Diane places a soothing hand on Tony’s arm, before turning her attention back to me. “You see, Mr. Giovanni. You and I? We seem to have a bit of an issue that needs to be addressed.” She steps forward, grazing her talon-like nails down my cheek and along my throat, before digging them painfully into my neck. I don’t wince, don’t make a sound. I refuse to give them the satisfaction. “You murdered my son; brutalized him and took him away from me. The one good thing I had in my life. So, it seems, it is time for me to return the favor.”

My heart drops to my stomach. Danica. They were behind all of it, the years of misery and now they have my precious diavoletta. I fight futilely against my restraints.

Diane just tsks. “Come dear, none of that. Wouldn’t want to tire yourself out before all the fun begins, now, would you?” Her voice is cloyingly sweet, belying the hardness in her eyes. She squeezes my throat to the point where my eyes begin to water, before shoving me back as she releases me, turning to Tony.

“We need the girl.”

“I told you; I’m working on it.” Tony’s voice is begrudging and he looks like a petulant child talking back to his mother as he responds.

“Working on it isn’t good enough. We need her here, now.” She turns to Roberts, “Go help the others, find her, and bring her to me. Alive.”

He nods, turning on his heel to leave, but he freezes as I call out to him. “She trusted you. Danica trusted you. You were her friend. Why would you do something like this?” His shoulders tense, and he pauses, but Diane walks over to him and whispers in his ear before placing a lingering kiss on his lips. Roberts looks over his shoulder at me, and for a brief second, I could swear that I see something in his eyes. Guilt, maybe? Or regret? But it is gone in a flash, and then with a brief glance over at Diane, he nods before walking out of the room, not bothering to respond.

“She trusted you!” My voice is hoarse as I yell after him. Relief fills me though. She got away. I don’t know how she managed, but at least she isn’t here. Whatever happens to me, well. . . I probably deserve it anyway. But if my girl is free, that’s all that matters.

Stars blind my vision and my head whips to the side as a blow catches me off-guard. Fucking Tony! Blinking away the pain, I shift my head to face him once more.

“The fact that you all trusted him was entirely the point, young man. Roberts has been a close family friend for years. It was such an easy ask for him to step into the role of spy for me. Especially when he learned what you did to my sweet Bradley. Roberts loved him, was more family to my sweet Bradley than his disgusting father ever was. The fact that he met that obnoxious friend of yours and trained him while they were both in the military made it all the easier for him to earn their trust. From there, it really was no trouble for him to remove all evidence of our tied history and insert himself into their little group . It pays to have discreet friends , you see.”

Her smile is sadistic, eyes hard as she turns to Tony. “You can play with him all you want, but he stays alive until he watches that bitch die.” With that, Diane turns and follows Roberts out of the room, leaving me alone with my cousin.

“Do you know how long I have waited for this? How many nights I have dreamed about all the ways I would hurt you, the way that you hurt me.”

Well hell, I really am confused. “What the hell did I ever do to you?”

He just laughs, more than a little unhinged as he turns to a table just behind him, grabbing a sharp blade which glints in the dim lighting, and steps closer. If it weren’t such a grim situation, I would almost laugh at the irony, how similar this feels to my last conversation with Bradley before he passed, and with all the men I have questioned in the years since in an attempt to find the blackmailer who stole my life from me.

“So, you’re the one I’ve been looking for this whole time, I take it? My blackmailer haunting me from the shadows?”

He shakes his head, laughing to himself some more. “Not at first. You can have Diane to thank for that. Oh man, when she found out the truth of what happened to her son. Let’s just say, I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to deliver that news to her. But she was more than a little upset about some piece of trash mobster kid taking away her golden boy. And then come to find out the little details of exactly how you ‘talked’ with him prior to doing him the kindness of snuffing out that worthless life? Well, let’s just say she has been fantasizing about this for a long time. Though, not nearly as long as I have.”

Without warning, he swipes at my arm, and a thin line of blood beads along the surface. Fuck. I grit my teeth, refusing to show him any signs of weakness.

“So, she was the blackmailer? Hired someone to track me, and take photos, send those threatening letters? Then what? How exactly do you play into all of this?”

If I can keep him talking, maybe that will buy me some time for help to come. I had been able to get a text off to Finn, for whatever good that is worth. I doubt my phone is still on me, but at least he knows to be looking into Roberts now. That should give him something to go off of.

He swipes again, slicing at my other arm, another thin line of blood trailing down to match the first.

“Diane’s finding me was just a happy accident, you see. I had been watching you for some time. Trying to figure out the best move, and the PI she had hired to follow you obviously found me, even though you were too distracted to notice. Naturally, she was curious about why I was so interested in you. Couldn’t have me catching on to the fact that she was harassing you, leaving threatening messages for you to find. No loose ends. She hired a man to take care of the problem, but I took care of him first. Diane, she is a brilliant woman, more so than that stupid husband of hers ever gave her credit for.” He slices slowly down one of my cheeks as he says this, and I bite back a curse, gritting my teeth as I fight against the stinging pain.

“After her little plan failed, I felt it was necessary to set up a meeting. You see, she may have been too caught up in her grief and need for revenge to properly vet me before sending her goon to try and get rid of me, but I was under no such handicap. I knew all about her, who she was, what her son had done. Having Dante be the leader of the merry band of misfits that had once been the greatest mafia family on the entire east coast had its advantages, opened doors that I was more than happy to walk through.”

Fisting my hair, he yanks my head back, tilting it up to look into his face. Though his methods in tormenting me were methodical, there was a crazed look in his eyes that couldn’t be ignored.

“So what?” I spit the words out. “You knew your father helped me deal with the Bradley problem, that I was working for him to repay the favor. I still don’t get why it was such a big deal. It’s not like I ever had any intention of replacing you as his heir.”

He punches me, and I feel the cartilage give before blood rushes down my face. Releasing my hair, he steps back several feet, smoothing down his shirt and swiping back his too-long hair out of his face. “That’s just it, don’t you see? You already did. From day one, you stole my life. Mine !”

I spit blood at his feet. “You’re crazy. I never took anything from you.”

“You stole my life! I was supposed to be heir, not you!” He rushes forward again, slicing at my other cheek and both arms before dropping the knife on the floor to punch me in the gut. I can’t help the grunt of pain as my breath is knocked out of me.

I shake my head, trying to clear away the pain, but he takes it as a sign of confusion, and continues without any prompting from me, “You see, Eduardo was my father first. Your legacy was mine to claim and yet, it was you that was raised to bear the title. . . brother.”