Chapter 24 - Natalie

Groaning, I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids feel too heavy. It's as if someone has tied weights to them, so I can't see what's going on around me.

I strain and breathe in short bursts as my chest tightens.

You must open your eyes and find out where you are. You must gather as much information as you can to give to Leon.

After taking a moment to calm my breathing, I try to force my eyes open again. This time, my eyelids fly up, and a bright light shines from above.

Wincing, I roll onto my side, shielding my face from the light for a moment as I readjust.

My head is spinning as I try to make sense of the room I'm in and how I got here.

The last thing I remember is waiting in the car for Leon while he went to the bakery. I was waiting for him to come back when a man in a mask knocked on the window.

I press the palms of my hands to my temples and try to stop the throbbing.

The man with the bandana around his mouth seemed strange to me at first, but I didn't think much of it.

I was more worried about what I was going to do with Leon when we got home. I wondered how I could lure him into unleashing his animal side. Not so much that we"d be a danger to the baby, but something more than the porcelain doll treatment he's been giving me since he found out about the baby.

When I rolled down the window, the man first asked for directions. He wanted to know where the beach was. I turned in my seat to point in the right direction, and when I did, he clamped a strange-smelling cloth over my face.

After that, everything went black.

And now I'm in a bright room with no idea who took me or how Leon is going to find me.

"You are awake." A man with a black goatee looks down at me and pokes me derisively in the side with his foot. "I was beginning to think I"d drugged you a little too much. The boss would have been angry if I had done that. He wants to have a bit of fun with you."

I pull my arm from over my head to get a better look at the man. He stares down at me and pokes me again with his foot. I sit up with difficulty and lean against a white wall behind me. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?"

The door opens and another man enters, his gray hair streaking through the otherwise black strands. Dark brown eyes glare at me.

"This is the wife, boss," the man says, kicking my thigh a little harder this time.

I flinch and wish I could get up and punch him in the face just once. Between him, the man who is the boss, and the round man standing behind him, I don't stand a chance if I try to fight them.

‘Promise me you"ll never stop fighting,' Leon's words echo in my head.

"Ursula?" The boss squats down in front of me, his eyes as wide as if he's just seen a ghost. "How is it that you"re still alive?"

I must decide now. I could pretend to be the woman he thinks I am to see if that keeps me alive long enough for Leon to find me.

Or I could tell him the truth.

"Yeah, I'm alive," I say, keeping my tone light and warm, even though my mouth feels like I've stuffed a dozen cotton balls into it. "Where am I?"

He shakes his head, sausage fingers reaching out to trace my cheek.

I try not to flinch or throw up, but my every instinct tells me to get as far away from this man as possible. Right now, it's not about escaping but rather staying alive and not getting hurt.

The old man shakes his head. "That shouldn't be possible. You look just like her, but it's impossible that you're still alive."

"I am alive." I reach out to touch his cheek. "I'm right here."

He recoils from my touch and shakes his head as he stands up. "You're not Ursula, but you look just like her. Almost identical."

"Who are you?" My voice wavers slightly as I realize I can't trick him.

What the hell is going on here?

"Carlo Mancini." He gestures to the other men in the room, and they disappear through the door, leaving me alone with the Italian Don I'd read about weeks ago.

My eyes widen as I take a sharp breath.

Carlo chuckles. "So, you know who I am. It's good to see that Leon has taught you something, but it seems you haven't been listening much. There's danger no matter where you are."

"Who is Ursula?"

"This is wonderful." He chuckles, arms crossed over the slight bulge of his stomach as he paces. "Tell me, are you the daughter of Antonio Reyes?"

"Yes." I swallow hard and try to figure out what Carlo has to do with all this. I know that the Orlovs are their enemies, but I don't know why and how he knows my father.

Carlo laughs and claps his hands once. "Then you would be Ursula's daughter, that"s why you look so much like the little bitch. You know, I thought I"d seen the end of them when Leon killed Antonio, but now you"re standing here in front of me looking just like her."

It's a shock when I find out that I have another member of my biological family.

"The daughter of Antonio and his mistress is married to the man who killed her father. This looks like something straight out of a tragedy."

"Antonio had a mistress?"

Carlo crouches down, resting his forearms on his thighs. "You weren't under the impression that your father was a good man, were you?"

I shake my head because I know that my father was not a good man. But neither is the man I married. He is as dangerous and deadly as can be.

So, this Ursula woman was my mother?

Carlo continues with a sentimental expression. "Ursula was a beautiful woman. She looked just like you. I can't remember a single man who didn't have his eye on her back then, but Antonio was the bastard who won her over, even though he had a wife and two sons waiting at home."

I swallow hard, trying to keep my expression neutral. "Did you want her too?"

If I can stall him long enough for Leon to find me, Carlo won't have time to hurt me or the baby. Trying to trick him didn't work—but getting him to talk might.

He looks like he wants someone to hear his side of a story I barely know.

Carlo smirks and stands up. "I wanted her. You're right about that. What man wouldn't want to walk around with the most beautiful woman in New York on his arm? She was smart too. Really smart. She loved music. She sat on the porch of her little house every night and played the violin."

I feel queasy in my stomach, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

He leers at me while pointing his finger at me. "I always told her that I would do anything to make her happy, but she was convinced that she wouldn't be happy in this life. She said it was too hard. That she couldn't bear it if I got hurt."

I take a deep breath and try to focus on him so that the world stops spinning. I need to clear my head.

Carlo was obsessed with my mother. I'm not sure he ever spoke to her, either. Part of me thinks that the conversation she had with him was nothing more than a delusion.

"However, she turned against me. She told me she could never be with me, but then she dated your father behind my back. She didn't care about the wife or the children, and neither did he."

Carlo paces back and forth in the empty room like a caged animal. His hands are in his pockets, and his face looks as if he has been trapped in a distant memory for most of his life.

Then he smiles at me like the devil. "But don't worry about it. I"ve made sure she knows what she"s missing. She didn't like it at first, but then she warmed up to me. You should have heard her moan when she realized I was better than Antonio would ever be. I was able to satisfy her in a way that no man had ever done before."

My breath comes in gasps, and terror grips my chest as I piece together the missing parts of what he did to her.

The man standing before me is a monster. He hurt a woman because he was jealous. He was angry that another man had her, while he wanted to keep her as a trophy. If I had anything in my stomach right now, I"d puke. The acrid taste of bile fills my mouth, but I swallow it down.

Carlo takes a step closer to me. "That was, of course, after she gave birth to you. While she was pregnant, Antonio kept her locked away in his damned villa. It was hard to get near her, but I found a way, and a few weeks after you were born, she finally gave in to me."

"She didn't give in to you!" My voice cracks through the room like a whip.

He laughs and shakes his head. "You don't know what your mother wanted. You never knew her."

"What happened to her? What did you do to her, you bastard?"

"I gave her the best night of her life." He crouches down once again, his hand landing on my calf.

As my skin begins to crawl, I am reminded that nothing separates us except a bikini and a thin linen cover-up.

I shouldn"t have rolled down the window. I should have started honking until Leon came running.

Now, both me and my baby are in danger.

"She killed herself that night. She snuck down the stairs and got my shotgun out of the closet. I don't think she could bear the thought of being without me since Antonio would never let her out of the house again if he found out what had happened between us."

"She killed herself because you're a fucking monster!" I pull back against the wall and try to pull my legs to my body as his hand brushes over my knee. "Don't touch me."

"You sound just like her, too." He chuckles, pausing with his hand on my leg.

As he leans forward, his suit jacket falls open just enough to reveal the gun at his hip. I have no chance in hell of getting out of here alive if I try to run for the door.

Right now, I have to play along with him. I can't let the vile creature get under my skin. There's time to mourn for my mother's life when I'm back safe with Leon again.

Carlo's thumb brushes closer to my inner thigh. "Your father came after me, you know. At least that"s what he intended to do until one of my men told him that Pavel Orlov was the one who hurt Ursula."

"Why?" I ask in a brittle voice as my eyes fill with tears. This story is getting worse and worse.

Pavel didn't have to die. Leon didn't have to lose his brother, and I didn't have to live a life without knowing my family. Carlo orchestrated this whole thing.

He played an internal game of chess with everyone around him.

"You should have seen how furious your husband was when he learned that Antonio had killed his brother." Carlo laughs, shakes his head, and pats my leg. "We're going to have so much fun together."

"Leon will kill you if he finds me. I'll tell him the truth about what you"ve done, and then he'll kill you."

Carlo smirks and stands up. He looks at me with a gaze that makes my stomach churn. "I"d like to see him try that, but before he comes, I think you and I are going to have some fun."

I take a shuddering breath, scrabbling back against the wall. "No."

"Oh yes." The door to the room opens, and a man brings in a tray of food with a glass bottle of water on it. "Now you will eat your lunch like a good girl. I need you full of energy when the fun begins. I like a little bit of a fight with my women."

My stomach sinks to my feet; the floor slips away as the man places the tray of food at my feet. I'm not na?ve enough to believe that the food isn't drugged. I'm fairly sure it is. He"s said he likes it when his women fight him, but that begs the question of what he"ll do before he attacks me.

Carlo could drug me and torture me until he decides to ruin me the way he ruined my mother. He is the reason she is dead. His gaze is predatory as the other man leaves the room. Carlo waits until the door opens again, and a single chair is placed inside.

He takes the chair and sits down on the other side of the room; his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watches me.

I look at the food, wondering how long I can stall before he forces me to eat.

Carlo sighs. "This would all be much easier for you if you would just do what you're supposed to do, Natalie. I don't want to hurt you. If you're lucky, you might take the place Ursula should have had in my life. You could be the woman I come home to every night."

The thought of coming home to a man like him every day makes me sick. I want to throw the tray of food at him and scream that he'll never have me.

The bastard is the reason for the war between my family and Leon's. He thought he was smart enough to cover his tracks, and for fifteen years, he was. He hurt my husband, and he hurt my family.

Carlo Mancini will die one way or another.

I just hope he dies before he gets to me first.

‘Promise me you"ll never stop fighting.'