Chapter 16
“I should have known you were from a family by the way you kept it together on the balcony back then. You were trembling and scared, but ninety–nine percent of the female population would be screaming like banshees and begging for their lives.”
“I once watched my father shoot a mail carrier in the head for talking too long to my mother when delivering a parcel. He’s a very jealous man where she is concerned.”
“I don’t recall ever meeting your mother.”
“She is the perfect wife. There is nothing she wouldn’t do for him, but she knows to keep her mouth shut and to not attract unwanted attention. I’ve only ever seen her stand up to him once and it was when he threatened to put a bullet in my head for refusing to get an abortion and she stood in front of the gun and protected me. Dad threw me out.”
“He sounds like a shitty father.”
“He wasn’t, aways, you know.” She admitted quietly. “I embarrassed him, and, in this world, pride is everything. I knew he wouldn’t kill me. He’d beat me. He’d torture me. He’d threaten me. Yet, I knew without any doubt he wouldn’t kill me. If he really wanted me dead, even my mother standing in front of me wouldn’t stop him. He would simply put her out of the way and completed his task. He wouldn’t order the execution by someone else since I’m his blood. He would do it himself. It was only when I started to act as if my mind is my own, wanting to go to college and live my own life did he become a complete dick. Before my high school years, I was his princess, and I was spoiled. My son though, I knew he’d kill him before he was born. An illegitimate child has no right to be born under the Mariani family and my father made this clear. He wanted him dead. I’m sure he still does.”
“You should have told me about the boy. Today.”
“I was scared.”
“Where are you now?”
Wh
“I’m still scared. You’re not exactly evoking feelings of security and warmth. I know you’re pissed off and I know you your pound of flesh. I know you kill people, Don Lozano. With my luck, you’ll kill me and my son for the same reason my father wants him dead, he was born out of
wedlock.”
“Where are you?” he repeated his question.
She declined to give him the details and asked instead, “how did you figure it out? You didn’t see my face in the room. My hair is shorter than it was back then and I’m easily twenty pounds heavier.”
“Your ass is definitely bigger.”
She could make out the smile pulling his cheeks at the comment and felt flushed with it “Hey!”
“I might not have seen your face, but your ass was in my line of vision the entire time you were in the office. I was looking at it, hard. There is more than before.”
She flushed at his comment. “If you didn’t see my face then how did you figure it out?”
“Tito.”
“He was the other reason Iran.”
“Tito? Why?”
“He was staring at me funny. He put me in a car. I was worried he would remember my face from back then and you’d be at my door with guns drawn.”
“He did recognize you. We pulled your file to get your address, and I noted the family health plan.”
Damn.”
“Which brings me back to the fact I am in the apartment you list on your company information, yet you aren’t here.”
“I know.”
1/2
Chapter 16
She fought her smirk as he stood upright immediately looking around.
“You know?”
“I do own the apartment you’re standing in. In fact, the entire building you’re in is mine. The minute you stepped foot into it I knew.” She snickered as he looked up and down the street. “I should warn you, the hole you punched in the wall, you’ll pay for and if you crack the window with the fist, you keep smacking against it, I’ll charge you for it too.”
“You can see me.” He said suddenly. “Where are you?”
“Nowhere near you. I keep multiple buildings in the city as investments. I also use them as safe houses and places to hide in case my father decides he will in fact kill me and sends a team to finish what he started years ago. I work for an IT technical security company, Don Lozano. Do you think my privately own buildings which I rent out to supplement my income would not be protected?”
“You get twenty–four hours to bring him to me or Alcee, I will divert my entire organization to finding you with brute force. It won’t only be my men coming but I’ll draw on every ally, contract player and my entire network in both my personal and family businesses to bring you in front of me. I am not a patient man. Do not mistake the calm conversation we’ve had for anything short of gratitude for the fact you did not do as your father instructed and abort our child. If you make me wait too long, you will not like my tactics when you are finally in my home.”
“I need time.”
“I’m giving it to you: Twenty–four hours. Run and I’ll not only put a hit on you, but I’ll also put a hit on Susana and Amal. Try me, mia tesoro.”
“They did nothing wrong.”
“Their uncle holds an alliance with my family. Siding with the woman who is stealing my own flesh and blood from me is an act betraying our
treaty.”
“Please.”
“I like how you beg, mia tesoro. It reminds me of our night. I must ask another question.”
“What is it?”
“Have you slept with anyone else since that night?”
She swallowed nervously and disconnected the call watching through her window at the way he smirked as if he knew he was under her skin. Damn him. She looked down at her waist.
“Damn you too.”
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andreea mil
“mio tesoro”
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