2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Aria
“ I am not going anywhere with you,” I spit out, hurrying back to my car. “How dare you even say that to me.”
“An attitude. I like it.” He grabs me around the waist before I can make it to my car. I let out a scream but his hand is over my mouth within a second.
I bite down. No way am I going to let myself get kidnapped again.
I was kidnapped once when I was twelve years old. A man named Sergei Belov – Dante’s wife’s father – kidnapped me as a plot against Dante. I wasn’t physically hurt by it but it left its emotional scars behind. I was in therapy for years dealing with the fear of that time in my life.
And now it’s all going to happen again.
The only difference is I’m eighteen now. An adult. I have the body of a woman, not a little girl. I can fight back.
I bite down harder onto the man’s hand and he hisses and lets me go. For a moment, I think I can make it to my car but then he turns me around to face him and shoves a rag into my mouth.
“No,” I say but my words are muffled.
I try to rip the rag out but his hands are clenched over mine. I buck and fight and kick. I’m just not strong enough against this man. He’s taller than me and more muscular.
But Aria Romano is not some weakling little thing. I didn’t let my first kidnapping get me down. I will not let this kidnapping get me down either.
The man grabs me and tosses me into the back of his car. I manage to kick him in the face and it’s a satisfying sound when he grunts. That’s pain, asshole.
He shoves me further into the car, then shuts the door, locking it before I can try to escape. I rip the rag out of my mouth.
And scream. I scream bloody murder. I scream until my throat feels like it’s going to cave in. I scream until my legs feel like they’re going to burst.
The man gets into the car and starts to drive away from the scene of the crime. “Shut up,” he snaps.
I only scream harder.
“Shut up before I hit you,” he growls.
I keep screaming. Let him hit me. I can take it. I’m a strong woman. I’m a Mafia princess. I will not go down without a fight.
After about five minutes of driving, he pulls to a stop and turns around to look at me. “I will but a bullet in your head if you do not stop.”
I don’t listen to him. I will keep screaming until I can’t anymore.
He takes a gun out and points it right at my head. “I will shoot.”
“Then shoot,” I snap, my voice raspy. “If you wanted me dead, you would have just killed me. But you’re kidnapping me which means you want me for a reason. You don’t want me dead. So lower the gun and keep driving and take me to where you’re going to take me and let’s just get this over with.”
His eyes narrow. If he weren’t trying to kidnap me right now, I could admit that he’s a strikingly handsome man. Black hair, piercing eyes, a naughty smirk. He’s something a lot of women have wet dreams about. I should know – I’ve had my fair share of wet dreams before.
“You’re not what I expected,” he admits, lowering his gun. “You have a lot more fire in you. I thought you’d be a screaming, crying mess, begging me to let you go.”
“I was kidnapped before. When I was a child. I can’t fight you. So, I’m just going to wait until I get a moment to escape. I have to play this smart. And I refuse to back down to you. I refuse to show you fear.”
“But you are afraid, aren’t you?” He runs his finger down my face. I don’t even flinch.
He will never know that my heart is pounding so fast, it’s making it hard for me to even think. It’s painful.
“Just take me to where you’re going to take me,” I snap. “The longer you sit here, the longer someone will find you. My dad will find you.”
“You think I’m scared of Elio Romano? That man looks like he can barely lift a ten pound dumbbell, let alone take me on.”
I startle. “You know who my dad is?” It’s then that I remember: he knows my name. Which means he knows who I am. “Who are you? And don’t say my worst nightmare. That’s just fucking cheesy.”
His grin deepens. “I think I might like you. You’re an annoying little thing. Easier for me to punish.” He doesn’t answer my question as he restarts the car and keeps on driving. It’s a way to keep power over me. The less I know, the more in charge he is.
But I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of being quiet.
“You know my dad and you know who I am which means you know about the Mafia, I’m assuming. You know we’re a part of it. No one would just kidnap me for no reason. So you have a reason. You’re part of the Mafia, I’m guessing.”
When our eyes meet in the rearview window, his narrow.
“So… not the Mafia?” I ask. “If you’re going after me, then that means you’re not friends with Dante Moretti. You can’t be. Because if you were friends with him, then you would never hurt me.”
“Bingo.”
His one word sends a chill down my spine. “You’re an enemy of Dante’s.” It’s not a question. It’s a realization.
“Dante has pissed me off. So I’m getting my revenge.”
“Who exactly are you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Of course I’d like to know.” I glance out my window and see that we’re leaving the city. He’s going to take me far away so no one will be able to find me. That much is obvious.
“Just enjoy the ride, Aria.”
I roll my eyes. Already, he’s annoying the fuck out of me. “You’re an enemy of Dante’s,” I muse. “But why? What did he do to you? Killed your wife? Fucked your wife?”
“You’re assuming I have a wife. And I never expected a good Mafia girl to curse like you just did.”
I shrug. “I’m not like all the good Mafia girls you’ve met before.”
He snorts and the sound makes me blush. It’s embarrassing how easily he can make me feel unnerved. “You’re not like other girls? Is that it?”
“I’m not a scared, little weakling like some of them are.”
“Maybe not now. But I can make you into one.”
For the first time since being forced into this car, I go quiet. His words are terrifying. What is this man going to do to me?
When I was kidnapped by Sergei, Erik Koslov was there to make sure I wasn’t hurt. He actually returned me home because he didn’t believe in kidnapping children. I know some Bratva and Mafia men can have honor.
I just don’t think this man in front of me has any. I’m no longer a child, which means he might not have any sympathy for me. He will want to hurt me. Rape me? Even I’m not sure I can handle that.
“Cat got your tongue?” he mocks.
That makes a flare of anger shoot through me.
“You think you’re so much better than me, whoever you are.
Kidnapping me. Scaring me. But you’re nothing impressive.
Just a man trying to scare a woman. If you were really scary, then you’d bring down a man much larger than you. Then I’d think you were scary.”
“I can do that if you want.” He turns the car in the opposite direction, then keeps driving until we reach a nondescript building in the middle of a parking lot. There’s barely anyone else around.
He forces me from the car and shoves the rag back into my mouth and grips my hands behind my back so I can’t tear it out. I glare at him. He only smiles back.
We go into the large building and I’m confronted with the look of a boxing ring. It’s large in the middle of the room. Hundreds of seats surround the area. Only a few men mingle in the middle of the room – otherwise, there’s no one else hear.
The men who are here are huge beasts. Tall and muscular. They look like they fight for a living and the fact that they’re in a boxing ring makes me think that’s the case.
My kidnapper lets me go and whistles at the men, sauntering up to them. I stay back. I could make a run for it but something keeps me planted in place.
The men turn to my kidnapper. “What the fuck do you want?” one of them growls.
My kidnapper throws a punch at the man and laughs when he returns the punch. Who are these men? How does my kidnapper know them? Clearly, he’s trying to make a point of showing me how tough he is by taking on a man much larger than him.
The other men in the room come at him but he dodges out of the way. Then he pulls out his gun and everyone goes still.
“I’m trying to show to that girl over there that I am truly scary. Do you think she believes me?”
I rip the rag out of my mouth but I don’t scream. Drawing attention to myself doesn’t seem like the smartest course of action right now.
My kidnapper then does something I was not expecting. He shoots each of the men in the head, killing all of them.
I stumble back. I’ve never seen anyone get killed before. I know Dante has committed murder. It’s common amongst Mafia men. It’s something I’ve always know but I’ve never seen. It was just easier to stay in the dark but now my kidnapper has made sure I can never stay in the dark again.
He puts his gun away and whistles as he walks back to me. “Do you think I’m scary now?”
Before I can scream, he shoves the rag back into my mouth and marches me back to the car.
“Don’t test me, Aria,” he says once we’re driving again.
“I love to play games, you should know. I don’t take human life seriously.
I’m a hitman. It’s what I do for a living and I’m good at it.
Killing is nothing to me. So, you should be afraid of me.
I could do terrible things to you and you would be unable to stop it. ”
I gulp. I haven’t even taken the rag out of my mouth for fear of what he might do to me.
“I kidnapped you because I’m going to piss of Dante. He fucked me over when he teamed up with Erik Koslov. When he convinced my new business partner, Viktor Smirnov, to make peace. But I don’t want peace. I want chaos. I want people to hurt.”
So, he knows Viktor too. Who exactly is this man?
My kidnapper doesn’t stop the car until we finally reach a house. It looks like any other house on the street – craftsman style. Innocent looking house.
But that’s a house of horrors because my kidnapper is going to hurt me inside of it. I just know it.