Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nicolette
“Is the princess having issues?” Han sneered when Sergei commanded, “Stop!” in Russian, something he only did when he was angry.
I couldn’t blame him, as I’d had the attention span of a crow in a room with shiny objects. On top of that, I was suffering from physical exhaustion. Not in a bad way, in the too-much-sex way. Between Marko and Gio, I had more intercourse in a day than I’d previously had in a year.
I glared at Han. “Sorry.” I smirked. “We can’t all have our gay lover at work with us every day. What do you two do on your breaks when you disappear?” It was a low blow, calling them out like that, but I was pissed.
Han stood with his fists firmly planted on his hips, glaring down at me with true malice in his eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, I must have missed the memo where it said only bratty primas fuck at work.”
Damn it! I knew people were talking, especially with the sounds Marko and Gio pulled from me when they stopped by rehearsals. I’d hoped we were being discreet, but apparently not. I’d never had sex in my dressing room, at least not with a person. I was probably the only one and Han calling me out on it really pissed me off.
I was about to tell Han to go fuck himself, when Sergei yelled, “ Dostatochno !”
It meant enough. Immediately, Han and I stopped bickering.
“You,” he said with a scowl, pointing at Han, “will work on your solo, while you ,” he pointed at me, “go take a break. And do I need to stress alone?”
Sergei accentuating what Han had accused me of smarted, but the dressing-down was even worse when he dismissed me with a smirk. I walked off and dropped into a chair backstage. I really wanted to run to my dressing room, but I didn’t want to appear hurt by what had just happened. Guilt moved through me as I watched our two principal dancers warming up. They were here because of me; the threat against me had led to their lives being upheaved.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Hetty, one of our younger dancers, new this year, observed me from over her shoulder as she stood at a mobile bar working through her port de bras .
“Tough morning?” she asked.
“The worst.” I leaned back. “I feel like the world is encroaching on me and there is too much stress.”
She left the bar and walked over, dropping onto a meditation cushion opposite me. “I would have thought with all the… uh… action you seem to be getting these days you’d be in a coma by now.”
I couldn't hold back the laughter and had to cover my mouth with my hand to stifle the giggles from reaching the stage.
“Thank you for that,” I said once I’d calmed down long enough to speak. “The truth is, my uh… action, as you called it, has been grueling. We’re making up for lost time.”
She held a question in her eyes, and for some reason, I filled her in.
“When someone broke into my apartment and left that letter, I reached out to an old friend from school.”
She gave me a hard stare.
“Fine! An old boyfriend,” I confessed. “I hadn’t seen him in years, but I knew he would come if he knew I was in danger.”
“So, which one is the old boyfriend? The sexy, scary one, or the large, swarthy, hot one?”
Again, I fell into a fit of giggles, seeing the guys through someone else’s lenses.
“Both, actually.” I couldn’t hide the blush that rushed through me, staining not only my cheeks pink, but my neck and chest as well. It was so refreshing to talk to a woman who wasn’t part of the la familia.
I glanced at Remo, who was standing about twelve feet away and prayed he couldn’t hear us.
“I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to talk. How long has it been since you joined the company?” I enquired.
“Coming up on eight months now and I’m really happy with the family trade-in, despite Han’s theatrics.” She giggled.
“Thank god I’m not the only one who notices what a diva he is.”
“Oh, believe me, everyone is aware of his star attitude. Are the rumors true? That you are retiring after this show runs its course?”
“Yes, they are. Yes, I am.”
“But you're in top form; why now? Or is that too personal a question? Sorry. I’m from a big family where everyone knows everything.”
“That sounds nice. I’m an only child. No, not too personal, no one has asked me that question and I’ve never formulated my feelings into the words that would best describe why. But I’ll try. I’ve buried myself in my career and have never taken a breath for a relationship of any kind. It’s time for more, for me to broaden my horizons and live off the stage, not just on it. Does that make sense?”
She nodded her head thoughtfully. “I’ve never looked at it like that before. Dance has been everything to me since my parents died.”
I felt a pang for Hetty’s loss. “I’m so sorry! Were you young when they died?”
The softness in her eyes changed, hardening slightly and I blamed the trauma for it. “I was four. The accident happened a long time ago. How about you, parents still alive?”
“I barely remember my mother, and my father passed away a few years ago. He was a bastard. I don’t miss him at all.”
Hetty leaned forward so only I could hear her. “Wanna play hooky?” The mischievous gleam in her eye called to a part of myself that I hadn’t let loose in years. When was the last time I’d been naughty? Like not what the boys called naughty, but for reals— probably not since just before meeting Marko and Gio. And there was no possibility of getting away with anything they’d consider an unnecessary risk. I rolled my eyes inwardly. I’d been too scared for too long, and more recently, so overprotected I wanted to fling myself off the penthouse balcony.
“What did you have in mind?” I whispered back.
“Let’s go out the back way, grab a coffee and a cigarette and be normal, rebellious women. What do you say?”
What I wanted to say was no. That it was too risky, blah, blah, blah. Or that I hadn’t smoked in years. I never made any of my own choices back in the day, Gio and Marko had made them all for me. Our first show was fast approaching, and the security would increase exponentially. This may be my only time to be a real bad girl.
The sudden longing to just be a person, not a ballerina and especially not someone who belonged to two men, was overwhelming. What could a coffee and a cigarette with a female friend do? Nothing worth mentioning.
“What about…?” I indicated with my eyes who I was talking about. “And another issue, there is the security guarding the back entrance.”
She grinned like this was no problem. “Don’t worry. I’ve got an idea for the big guy, and did you know there’s a secret tunnel from the dressing rooms to an additional exit? I don’t think anyone knows about it.”
“Stop! Seriously, how did you figure that out?”
“Let’s just say that I needed a private spot to make out and stumbled upon it. Have Remo escort you to your dressing room. Pull the makeup table away from the wall. I’ll meet you there.” She winked and then rose from the pillow, returning to the ballet bar.
I was too excited about doing something out of the norm to think about anything beyond the fun I anticipated having and did exactly what Hetty had told me to do. It was only as I was pulling the table away from the wall that I realized I was not being naughty or original, just stupid. But before I had time to truly second guess or talk myself out of it, Hetty appeared in the tunnel wearing a grin and giving me two thumbs up.
She looked so excited I couldn’t back out on her now. I entered the tunnel and followed her up a gentle slope. The further we went, the more wrong it felt. We stepped into a corridor that led to a metal door.
“Finally! I need that coffee more than ever,” Hetty said, and pushed open the door that allegedly led to the alley behind the building, and I had to talk myself off the paranoia ledge. Every person at the ballet had been checked by the Vitale’s IT people and were clean.
In my brain I knew there was nothing to worry about, but my gut said something was wrong.
I should have listened to my gut.
When we stepped out, four men closed in and grabbed us, tossing hoods over our heads and that was the last I saw of Hetty. A prick in my neck that hurt like a son of a bitch had me soon tumbling into darkness.
My mouth felt like it was filled with sandpaper. That same sandpaper was in my eyes, which were unwilling to open due to the grit. A familiar scent haunted me, and I refused to open my eyes to see, because if I didn’t see it, then it couldn’t be real.
I took a deeper inhale, trying to separate the whiff of the familiar from the dank dampness of wherever I was, having no doubt that whoever was responsible for the notes had finally gotten their hands on me. Not just me, but a fellow dancer. I was such an idiot! How unfair to Hetty to be put through this horror when she was an innocent bystander.
Another whiff and I knew what the familiarity was… sandalwood. The scent belonged to whomever had broken into my apartment in New York. Something felt familiar about the room. More scents assaulted me… garbage, a bit of sewer, mold and… I froze. Stale mint cigarette smoke. There was only one place I remembered where all of those existed and that was my old apartment. My eyes flew open to see Liam Kelly standing a few feet away. The windows behind him let in limited light due to the thick paper covering them.
“Welcome back, lass.”
I decided to play dumb and see if I couldn’t extricate myself out of his clutches. Exactly how committed was he to making me pay for running from him in the past?
“Liam! What the hell is going on and what did you do with my friend?”
The burn from the tip of his cigarette matched the fire in his eyes. “I think you know what’s going on.”
I pretended to be outraged. “You do realize you stole me from rehearsal, Hetty as well and we need to get back or all of New York will be searching for us.”
Liam smirked and not in the sexy way that Gio did, or the annoying way that Han did. Nope this smirk was more like the blood and broken limbs variety. My heartbeat was wild in my chest and despite the dank conditions and my lack of proper clothing, I was sweating profusely.
“Hetty is at the studio, telling everyone that you were unhappy and decided to leave. It makes sense, doesn’t it? You escaped through a secret tunnel that only you knew about. And why else would you leave, if not to escape from them?” He sneered when he said them and I knew he meant Marko and Gio.
“They won’t believe her.”
Liam looked amused. “Of course they will. Hetty placed a well-written farewell letter on your makeup table. They’ll see that and the escape route and know you left of your own volition. Really, do you think it would be that hard for them to accept? This won’t the first time you fucked them over by running off, will it?”
I tried gulping the dry dust from my throat, but it only made me choke and cough. Why did I act so stupidly? If I’d only listened to my gut and not Hetty. “I take it Hetty is working for you?”
The look on his face was one of pure evil. “She is.”
“And you’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you?”
His not-so-nice smile grew as big as the Grinch’s. “I have. You should be flattered, Niki. After all, you’re a street rat, just like me. Mind you, I’ve used our time apart to grow up and take what I want, so street rat isn’t really fitting anymore. I’m the goddamn king rat and you’ll learn that in time.”
A shudder moved down my spine. He’d just answered my earlier questions and proven he had no intention of letting me go.
“I’m sorry, what makes you think I’ll be here long enough to learn anything other than the fact you’re crazy?”
He took a long drag off his cigarette before stomping it out on the floor. “Oh, I’m not crazy, Niki; just the opposite in fact. I’m methodical and I don’t take shit from anyone, least of all a ninety-pound ballerina.”
Liam was a man on a mission, but for how long and to what end?
“What’s your plan, Mr. Man? Just going to keep me tied to a chair for the rest of my life?”
“Tied, yes. To a chair, no. You’ll be in my bed spitting out babies like a Pez dispenser. You’ll be far too exhausted from fucking and birthing to think about anything else but the life you have with me.”
He lit another cigarette and regarded me from where he stood. Was he expecting a reaction from me? If so, he would be disappointed. I’d kept a secret from the two people I loved the most for over a decade. If Liam Kelly thought a few words would make me break, he was sorely mistaken.
I’d been part of the Vitale household long enough to know that they always won and there was no way they’d believe some bogus note. They’d come for me, of that I had no doubt. I just hoped they wouldn’t be too late to save me from Liam’s threat. The last thing I wanted was to carry his offspring in my womb.
“Well, if you don’t mind, your mightiness, I’d like a drink of water, a hot shower, and a nap in that order.”
Liam’s eyes remained open, but his hungry expression morphed into a calculating stare. He was a predator. Always had been and still was and would not give me what I’d asked for.
“To get anything from me, Nicolette, you’ll have to prove you’re a good girl.”
Oh-oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. I gulped, not trusting myself to speak.
“I can see I have your attention. You will not speak unless spoken to. When you are addressed, you will call me Captain or Sir. Understand?”
I chose not to answer. There was a masochistic need to find out just how far he’d go to get me to obey him.
“You are being addressed directly, Nicolette. I suggest you respond.”
If this situation had been different, and I was in the hands of Marko or Gio, a spanking and edging would be my punishment. With Liam, anything was possible, but instinctually, I knew it wouldn’t be sexual in nature. He’d waited for too long to sample the goods to use sex as a punishment now.
He pulled a gun out from his waistband. “I’ll let you choose which one I kill first. Marko or Gio?”
Oh crap.
“Neither, Captain! Sir!” I used both for good measure.
Liam chuckled darkly. “You’ve lost that privilege, at least this time. You want to test me, Nicolette, then fine, but every time you do, someone will die.”
He opened the door and dragged in one of the Vitale guards.
Bang! He shot him in the head, spraying blood over me. I screamed, choking with tears and outrage.
“Now you get it. Bring her!” he ordered some nameless, faceless person on the other side of the door.
The way the body of the dead man had fallen, I could now see his face. Shock and then horror rivaled in me as I took in the lifeless eyes of Amergio, my driver and Gio’s younger cousin.
Something inside me snapped. I would never forgive myself for what had just happened, never. Niki Swan disappeared, and Nicolette Angelucci, love of Gio Vitale and Marko Marino, disappeared. The young Niki, the tough, angry one no one could touch, the one prior to the boys, disappeared and all that was left was a shell of what had once been a vibrant woman.