Chapter 31
Invincible
Warmth burns my skin, rousing me from a deep sleep. I squint, trying to see through my heavy lids, but my eyes are all foggy and my head spins. I attempt to lift my arm, but it feels like it’s weighted down and won’t budge.
My heart lurches into my throat, and my groggy eyes spring open. The room around me spins. It’s all glass and white walls with a view of jets lined up on the tarmac.
Oh, dear God. Jets.
A cold sweat drips from me instantly. I’m at some sort of airport. The only question still buzzing around in my head, am I in America or Italy?
I pull against my bindings, the harsh rope biting into my skin as I try to pull my hands free.
But there’s no use, I’m bound to a chair, both my hands and feet trapped.
My party dress is ripped and covered in stains, the sleeve torn off completely on one side.
My body aches all over, my muscles tender like I’ve run a marathon.
To my side is a small duffle bag, and the sight of it sends sickness to the pit of my stomach, because it’s my duffle bag, the one that was at Jagger’s lake house, and I know that means they got into his house while we were all out.
It also means Leone has my passport. Panic ripples through me as I try to suck in breaths.
A shadow looms over me, looking like he’s just escaped the fiery depths of hell; he’s bandaged up on one side where I shot him, a dark T-shirt covering the rest of him.
Veins bulge out of his arms, snaking through his muscles like vines.
His olive skin is ashen, as though he’s not well at all, and after the blood he lost last night from my bullet wound, I’m not surprised.
“You’re awake mia principessina,” he whispers, glancing over a shoulder, on edge.
I glance back to see what he’s looking at.
There’s a closed door behind us; it’s bolted with a chain lock and looks to be the only way out of this room.
Why would I need to be quiet? I return my glare to Leone.
“Where is my brother?” I snap. The last thing I remember is his face.
He sold me out, traded me without a care in the fucking world what was about to happen to me.
I hate him with everything I have inside of me.
I want him and the rest of my family to pay.
And I will make sure they do if it’s the last thing I do.
His face lowers so it’s only a breath away from mine. “You put him in the hospital,” he says quietly, a bitter edge to his voice.
I blink back at him, almost not able to believe it.
I don’t remember shooting him, just holding the gun and pulling the trigger.
Then nothing. I should feel some sort of remorse, care even if it’s only the smallest of a fraction, but I don’t.
He drugged me last night, with every intention of getting me on a jet and shipping me off back home to marry the piece of shit in front of me.
I would shoot him again. My hands ball into fists at the thought, sickness mixing with adrenaline.
If I’m here trapped with him, then where are the boys?
Are they still alive? All I could hear back in the main function room was guns going off and screaming.
I close my eyes up tight as pain runs through me.
Please let them all be okay. The boys, Sloane, Dani, my new family.
His fingers bite into my chin, and my eyes pop open to find his dark eyes locked onto mine.
Cruel, calculating, dead inside, I’m sure.
“He will be lucky to make it. I would be impressed if the incident didn’t leave us stranded temporarily.
Drama really does seem to follow you around.
If you weren’t so useful, you would already be dead for all the trouble you have caused me. ”
My heart kicks up a beat, knowing it’s true.
And the view out the window makes sense.
That’s my family jet, and there is no way this man and I can leave without my brother.
That’s why he has us holed up here. He wants me for one thing and one thing only.
“If you want my share of Moretti Media so fucking badly, take it. I’ll sign it over to you right here and now, if you let me go.
” I try to keep my voice strong and hide the tremble of my bottom lip.
His lips contort, and he cackles out a laugh.
“Oh, dear sweet little girl. Your papa was right about you, wasn’t he.
” He motions to his head. “Not very smart. Lucky you’re so useful.
” With the way his arm is raised, I spot his gun at his side.
I knew he would be armed. I’m not surprised, even if it has me even more on edge.
I don’t understand his response. He wants me for what I can give him access to. What the hell is he going on about I’m not smart. “You want my share, isn’t that why you wanted to marry me?” I mutter, confusion swirling through me.
His grin twists. “I want it fucking all, girl. First, I use you to get your share of Moretti Media, then we buy out dear Papa and his beloved Conti Media for a steal. See, your papa isn’t all that smart either, must run in the family.
He traded you to me believing I would save his dying company.
” A bitter laugh rumbles through him. He’s crazy, I’m sure of it, and not in an endearing way like Cruz, in a one wrong move and he will shoot me dead kind of way.
“I have no intentions of saving the sinking ship when I can use their desperation to better my position in Moretti Media and knock that pretty little friend of yours off her high horse. Women have no place in running a corporation as large as Moretti Media, or fucking anything for that matter. Your late husband promised that position to me, before he went and got himself killed. We had a plan, one that didn’t include his fucking brothers showing up and ruining it.
And now I’m here to claim what is mine.” His hand dusts down the side of my face.
“You’re just collateral, unfortunately for you.
She will be as well.” His rough finger strokes over my lips like he has some right to touch me when he doesn’t.
My glare turns to ice, my body clammy under his rough touch. I want to bite him till he bleeds. Inflict all sorts of terrible pain on him till he’s the one begging for a way out.
“I might decide to keep you. I do like the way you struggle.” His fingers clamp around my throat and he squeezes, delight lighting up his deadened eyes.
I try to scream but nothing comes out. The room spins, and my head fills with cotton, all my concentration focusing on breathing.
Just when I think I’m about to pass out again, he releases me, a cruel twisted smile stretching across his face. “Yeah, you’re going to be fun to toy with. So delicate and pretty under all the scars.” His hand runs over the scar in my hairline.
My stomach rolls, panic coursing through me.
He thinks he can take all of it. My papa’s company, Moretti Media from Sloane.
Either he’s delusional or he knows things I don’t and my friend is in big trouble.
Abruptly he pulls back from me, leaving me sucking in deep breaths, trying not to pass out.
I nod as if understanding, trying to get my body to stay with the program and not freak the hell out.
Because I’m pretty sure there is only one way out of this hell.
Lying through my teeth. “Okay. I’ll help you. ”
The back of his hand flies across my cheek, stinging like a bitch. “You have no choice from your position.” His voice vibrates off the walls as he loses control.
Pain lunges through me, hot as it vibrates through my head.
I fight the tears, not willing to cry in front of this asshole.
Blood trickles over my lip, and I lick it off, the coppery taste filling me with the fuel I need to keep fighting.
I will not leave this place with him. “You need me alive and compliant, don’t you?
If I know my papa, he’s not going to give you what you want until you take me home and prove you have kept your end of the bargain.
If that wasn’t true, I would already be dead, since you have that fake marriage certificate. ”
He looks confused, and I can see who the fucking idiot is here.
He’s spent his life throwing around his weight, and that’s where he’s got all his power.
My brother or Valentine would have been the smarts behind their fucked-up plans to dominate the media world.
This man doesn’t have it in him. And with my brother in the hospital and Valentine dead, he’s at a standstill.
No jet to get us home, that’s why he’s pacing this room like a caged rat. “What’s your point?” he growls.
“I know exactly how you get what you want. I’m the key to it. Well, me and Alex Moretti,” I mutter like it’s a throwaway comment, because I’m just a dumb girl, after all.
Hearing that name has his brow rising, and I want to high-five myself because I fucking knew it. His eyes narrow in on me. “What do you know about Alex Moretti?”
I shrug like it’s probably not a big deal. “I overheard stuff when I was with the Strykers.”
His fingers press into my shoulders as he stares me down, his nostrils flaring. “Don’t play with me, girl, what kind of stuff?”
“He has a lot of pull now that he’s in charge of Moretti Media in the States. You won’t get what you want unless he’s on board. And lucky for you, I got to know him in my time here.”
He shoves off me. “I fucking know Alex Moretti. I don’t need you to talk business with him,” he snips, unimpressed as he starts to pace in front of me again.