Chapter 29 Eleanor
Eleanor
The mansion echoes with noise. The perimeter gates are open and SUVs are flying through them.
Men shout into phones, volleying threats, promises, violence.
They're swarming like bees, drunk on adrenaline and stingers out. Leonardo stands at the center. His hair is a shock of dark red, and he cracks his knuckles as he barks commands, never stopping to breathe, just biting down on curses and letting them loose again. My pulse is a bullet train in my ears. No one looks my way. They should. I’m about to do something unforgivable.
Juliet’s face fills my mind, soft and terrified. It fuels me, and I step forward. My legs are wooden. My heart is a jackhammer.
“I need air.” My voice is smoke, thin and smothered in all the shouting. “I can’t think. Just—give me ten minutes.”
Leonardo glances at me, wild hazel meeting wild nerves. His focus slides off just as fast. “Fine. Don’t go far.” The immediate threat to me is gone, so he lets me wander farther from him.
“I won’t.” Lie number one. My hand moves fast, snake-quick into his pocket, and I steal his phone.
The one with the Albanians’ contact details.
The one that could get Juliet killed if I don’t do this right.
I’m shaking, a wreck of doubt and nerves.
“I’ll be back soon,” I say, already moving away. Lie number two.
He doesn’t see me. Not really. No one does.
I slip out of the room, out of the noise, and into the cold hall.
My steps echo off marble and glass. I don’t have much time.
I make it to the garage, breathless and terrified.
A car sits there, keys in the ignition, waiting.
I open the door and hesitate. They’ll know what I’ve done.
They’ll chase me down, and Leonardo will never let me go.
I think of Juliet again, her voice a soft, scared echo.
"I wish you didn’t have to do this for me."
My hands are clenched so tight they ache. I slam the door and start the engine. The sound bounces off the walls, and I expect the world to come crashing down.
It doesn’t. I’m out, speeding through the open gates and into the night. Manhattan blurs around me, lights and shadows and long streets stretching into the distance. I don’t know where I’m going, but I know what needs to be done.
My eyes flick to the rearview mirror. They’re behind me.
Headlights, bright and accusatory, tearing after me.
My pulse is everywhere—in my throat, my chest, my hands gripping the wheel.
Leonardo stolen cell phone buzzes and Domenico’s name flashes up.
I don’t answer. It’s probably Leonardo. I take a sharp turn, and another, and then I ditch the car.
I walk fast, my legs moving too slow for my panic, heading toward the nearest club, which is not owned by the Rosettis. I need to lose the men on my tail.
The line is long, crowded. I blend in, invisible.
My head is down. My heart is up, too high, a raw lump of anxiety in my throat.
Leonardo’s men are close. I can feel it, feel them closing in, hunting me down like a pack of wolves.
But I need to do this. For Juliet. For me.
My breath catches as I search for anyone I can use, someone I can trust, anyone who can keep me hidden.
Then I see him. Enzo.
He’s one of Leonardo’s distant contacts. He sees me, and confusion lights up his face. I move before he can give me away, cutting through the crowd, right to him. He won’t be safe for long, but right now, he’s my only option.
“Pretend we’re together.” I’m desperate, breathless, the words falling out as a plea. “The Albanians are looking for me.” I can't tell him I'm running from Leonardo or he'll hand me over.
His brows shoot up. “Jesus, Eleanor.”
“Please,” I say, clutching his arm.
He doesn’t hesitate. He wraps an arm around me, shielding me, and my relief is as strong as my fear. We walk together, fast, like lovers sneaking away. Leonardo will kill me for this. He’ll kill me for leaving, for risking everything. For touching another man.
Inside the club, sound hits me like a punch. It’s too loud, too chaotic. Not loud enough to drown out my doubts. My panic. Enzo’s grip is strong, but I’m shaking out of it already. Running for the bathrooms, the phone clenched in my hand.
Leonardo will never forgive me. He’ll never forgive this.
I shove the door open and find the last number, the one the Albanians called from. I dial, hands slick with sweat and nerves.
A man picks up. I can hear the smile in his voice. “That was fast, Rosetti.”
“No, it’s me. Eleanor.”
“Ah, the pretty wife,” he says, sounding amused.
“Are you calling to beg for your sister’s life?
There’s really no need.” We both know that’s a lie.
We both know what kind of man he is. He won’t give her up, not when he can use her to manipulate the Rosettis.
“Just tell your husband to hand over the rubies and I will return your sister.”
I’ve played this game before. I know it too well. He won’t let Juliet go, not after he finds out how valuable she is, not with the leverage she gives him. He’ll see what she’s worth and what I’m willing to sacrifice for her. A powerful bargaining chip.
“I propose a deal.” I try to sound sure instead of shaking and desperate.
He chuckles, like my panic is an amusement. “Go on.”
“Juliet for me," I say, my voice cracking under the weight of it. "I come willingly. You let her go. I save my sister, and you get the more valuable hostage. Win-win.”
The line goes silent, stabbing into me with doubt. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. The world is disappearing into black around the edges. I hold my breath until it hurts, waiting for him to answer.
Finally, he says, “Agreed. Come alone.” He gives me an address, and then the line goes dead.
I’m trembling. My heart is a wild, caged thing, and I know what I have to do. I know Leonardo will hate me for this. But I’m saving Juliet, and that’s worth it. That’s everything.
I slip out of the club, into the night. Heading toward the devil’s den.
The warehouse is a hunk of rusted metal, crouched on the docks, smelling of gasoline and salt.
The doors are closed, but I know they’re watching.
I know this is it. No backing out. My palms are slick, my pulse too loud.
The wind picks up, tangling my hair as I stand in the open, exposed.
They could do anything. No one would hear, and no one would care. I’m already caught.
Juliet’s face rushes through my mind, and I push it away. Push everything away but the sound of my shoes on the pavement. Each step feels heavy, like it could be my last, like this is a mistake and I should turn back now, while I still have the chance.
A man steps out of the shadows, and I keep going, keep moving, until I’m standing right in front of him.
“Right on time,” he says, looking me up and down.
He is lean and mean, a wolf in designer jeans. The kind of predator who toys with his prey before going in for the kill. Careful, calculated, vicious. He stares at me, enjoying my fear. His dark eyes shine with amusement as he waits for me to crack.
He calls behind him, a sharp command.
My breath catches. Juliet is stumbling forward, pushed by another man.
My heart lurches. She’s real and alive. She’s shaking, her wrists raw and angry, her eyes wide with terror.
They find mine, locking on, holding on, and I want to scream that it’ll be okay, that I’ve got this under control, that I didn’t just ruin everything by walking through those doors.
“Ellie,” she starts, her voice trembling, her whole body trembling, and it takes everything I have not to crumble.
I can’t let her break me. I can’t let them see it. “It’s okay,” I say. The lie is so big I almost choke on it. I lift my chin, trying to sound sure. “Let her go.”
The man smirks at me, like I’m some shiny new toy he can’t wait to unwrap. “You heard her,” he says to the other man.
This one is older, harder. His eyes are black as bullets. He’s the one who gives the orders. He looks at me, then at Juliet, then he jerks his head. “Go,” he says, bored.
Juliet shakes her head. “No,” she says, “no, I’m not leaving you.” Tears are in her eyes, making them bright and wild and impossibly huge in her pale, terrified face. She looks so young. Too young to be here, too young to have any part in this.
“Do it,” the man growls, a warning in his voice. The kind that says he won’t say it again.
I rush forward, hands on my sister's shoulders. My grip is hard, and she flinches. I’m sorry, I want to tell her.
I love you, I want to say. I did this for you, and I hope you know, I hope you understand.
I say none of it. “You have to go,” I tell her, low and firm.
“Get out of here. Find Leonardo. He’ll fix this. ”
“Ellie—” Her voice cracks, and she looks at me with a desperation I can’t take. My eyes burn, but I don’t let the tears fall. I am cold. I am unbreakable. I am a Rosetti now.
The man behind her gives her a shove. She stumbles toward the exit, turning and reaching back to me for a moment, then she is gone.
The door slams shut behind her with a clang that shakes the walls. My heart is the only sound.
The man looks at me like I’m an insect he could crush. I look back like he’s not terrifying. “What now?” I ask, when I can finally breathe, when the silence gets too big.
He smiles, but there’s no humor in it. Only teeth. “Now?” he says, stepping closer. “Now you belong to us.”
There’s another man behind him, then another.
I’m surrounded, but I keep my back straight, keep my head high.
They’re bigger than me, stronger, but they have no idea what they’ve taken on.
I’ve been traded like this before. At least this time, it was my choice.
At least this time, I know what I’m getting into.
“Brave, coming here,” he muses, grabbing my chin, tilting my face up so I have to meet his eyes. “Or fucking stupid.”
Leonardo's phone buzzes in my pocket, the vibration a shock. He reaches for it, but I move faster. Snake-quick. I press the answer button and yell into the line. “I’m at the docks. A warehouse. Hurry.” I don’t know if they hear.
The man slams it out of my hand, and it falls to the ground, the sound tinny as a recorded message plays from the speaker inviting me to complete a survey.
I’ve done it. I’ve really done it. There’s no Leonardo sweeping in to save me at the last minute. I’ve achieved nothing but making this Albanian angry.
“Tie her up,” he snaps.
Hands grab me, bruising my arms, twisting ropes around my wrists until I can’t feel anything but the blood pounding in my veins. My pulse is too loud. My breath is too fast. I focus on the one thing that matters.
Juliet is safe.
They push me to the floor, hard, and I hit my knees. Pain blossoms, dull and warm, and my world shrinks down to that. Pain and dark and fear. But I don’t cry out. I don’t let them have that. I stay silent, breathing, and breathing, and breathing.
The man crouches in front of me. “What did you think would happen?” he asks. I taste blood on my lip.
“Exactly this,” I say, letting it drip, letting it show.
He pats my cheek, and the sting spreads across my face. “You should have stayed away.”
They are all around me. Shadows and bodies. The scent of gasoline is thick and choking. I squeeze my eyes shut and let them see nothing. The dark gets darker.
They close in.