Chapter 4
Bianca
How young is too young to be in love? Juliet was only thirteen when she fell in love with Romeo. Thirteen.
I think I fell in love with Costi when I was nine years old. Obviously, I didn’t understand the concept of love, but I understood Costi was my person. The one person in my life who knew it all. We had no secrets between us. We shared everything, and he made me smile more than anyone else.
Sure, boys were gross at that age, but I knew deep in my marrow he was my other half in this world.
That was ages ago, though.
I don’t know him now, and I can’t stop staring at him, trying to figure it all out.
“What do you mean you’re here to collect me?” My heart pounds in my chest.
His dark eyes cast a spell over me, the same way they did when we were younger. “I’m here for you.”
I swallow. I have so many questions like what? Why? How? But the only thing that falls from my lips is his name, “Costi…”
He tightens his hold on me. “Have you missed me?”
Do I lie? A chilly breeze floats across my hot skin, causing goosebumps to cascade over me. “I, uh…” I pause for a beat before I finally whisper the truth. “Yes.”
“Good.”
Dressed in black, he looks like a dark angel.
Beautiful isn’t a word I’ve used to describe a man, but that’s exactly the word that comes to mind with Costi. The rugged angles of his face, accentuated by sumptuous lips, are breathtaking. He’s changed so much since I last saw him. I still remember the day he said goodbye. His black locks were longer on the top then and fell into his eyes as he stared at me too long. I liked when he stared. It made me feel special.
However, now when he stares, it scares me a little. Makes me feel alive. Something I haven’t felt in a long time… because part of me died that day.
The day he said goodbye. A soft breeze drifted in from the ocean, toppling his hair into a tousled mess.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugged him, and told him to write to me.
He said, “I promise you, I will.”
Well, he lied.
Once he left, he never wanted to come back.
Not even for me.
I wrote him letters daily. He sent none back.
He never cared.
I poured my heart out, and after a while, I stopped.
“You’re going to marry that guy?” Costi breaks the silence engulfing us, bringing me back to the present.
A gentle breeze from the ocean wafts around us, just like the one ten years ago.
“Yes.” I have no intentions of marrying Gino Valucci, but I won’t let Costi know that detail.
His lip turns up, almost like a snarl, at my answer. He still has his arm wrapped around my waist, the other holding onto the railing I’m leaning against. He’s close. Too close, yet I can’t move from this spot.
He doesn’t speak right away, most likely choosing his next words carefully. His brows draw together, and he finally says, “Over my dead body.”
This enrages me, and I push away. Who does he think he is? “I can marry whoever I want.”
He steps closer, erasing the distance between us. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“And who are you? You’re nobody important in my life.” I raise my chin. “Just a boy I used to know.”
He chuckles softly, rubbing his fingers across his stubbled chin. “That’s not true, and you know it.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. More like scoff. “You show up here after ten years thinking you know me?” I park a hand on my hip. “Well, you don’t know me at all.”
He takes my arm, his nostrils flaring. “That’s where you’re wrong. I do know you. And I know you will not marry that asshole.”
He ushers me down the steps of the patio and across the brick path in the middle of the garden.
“Where are we going?”
He doesn’t say a word.
My heartbeat picks up as we move through the darkness. “Costi, let go of me.”
His grip tightens at my words. He leads me toward the rear of the hotel, toward an abandoned lot.
My eyes widen when I see a black van open its doors.
“What are you doing?” I can barely breathe. “Release me.”
He still doesn’t say anything.
Two men exit the van and watch as Costi and I draw closer.
“Cap, everything’s set up,” one man says.
Who’s Cap?
“Let go of me,” I scream, but it’s no use. There’s no one listening.
Costi lifts me into the rear of the van as one of the other men binds my hands behind my back.
The other man hops into the driver’s seat and starts the engine. “Let’s go,” he calls out to the other two.
Costi hops in the front seat and slams the door. “Move,” he says in the deepest, most sinister voice I’ve ever heard.
This isn’t the Costi I know.
This isn’t the Costi I once loved.
As the van pulls away, a man wraps his arm around me, brandishing a white handkerchief. He covers my mouth with it, and I fight the fog sweeping over me. I try to keep my eyes open, but it’s futile.
I’m out.
When I wake, I’m on a boat.
My temples throb and my teeth chatter uncontrollably as I scan the cabin and see Costi isn’t here.
“Where am I?” I moan out, my head hurting something fierce.
A bald man I don’t recognize eyeballs me like he doesn’t understand English.
“Constantine?” I ask, hoping he’ll recognize the name.
He doesn’t answer, a completely blank expression on his face.
My hands are no longer tied behind my back, and I try to sit up from the bed. My head spins like a merry-go-round as I move.
I feel nauseous.
I remember what the guy at the van called Costi. “Cap?”
Recognition dawns on the man’s stoic face. “Cap? You want Cap?”
I nod. “Yes, where’s Cap?”
“Captain.” He stands, grabbing a walkie from the band of his jeans. “Captain, she’s awake.”
No sound returns back from the walkie but the man looks proud of his action. I sit in the bed, unable to gain my bearings as the boat tilts back and forth.
The door opens and Costi steps into the room, wearing a white button down shirt and black pants like some modern-day pirate. “You’re awake. ‘Bout time.”
I rub at my head. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Twenty-four hours. You need food.” He turns his attention to the man by the door. “Charlie, get her some food.”
“Where are we going?” A light fog covers my brain, making it difficult to remember how I ended up on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
“We’re headed to my compound in Greece.”
I stand from the bed on shaky legs. My head whirls and I nearly lose my balance, but Costi wraps his arms around me, keeping me steady. “I can’t go to Greece.” I have shit to do. My life is in Miami.
Running one of the biggest crime organizations is a considerable amount of work. And I need to get home to do it.
“Well, we’re going to Greece on my ship, and there’s nothing you can do about it now.” He lets go of me, watching me to make sure I’m steady on my feet.
I feel like crying, pushing Costi away and rushing back to my house. I’m tired and he’s right, I’m famished.
The door opens again, and Charlie is back with a platter of food. Eggs. Bacon. Toast. Everything I could want at this moment.
My mouth salivates at the sight.
“Sit and eat, and then we can talk.”
Charlie sets the platter on the desk in the room’s corner and Costi helps me to the leather chair.
I pick up the fork and dig into the scrambled eggs, taking a sip of orange juice in between bites. I’ve never been this ravenous in my life. I need to eat, get my strength back, then worry about escaping. Because I will escape.
“That’s a good girl. Eat.”
I glare at Costi, wishing I could shoot laser beams from my eyes at him. “Leave me alone.”
He perches on the edge of the desk, chuckling. “Come on now, Bianca. You don’t want that, do you?”
“I have a job I need to get back to.” I take a bite of toast, my headache subsiding with each morsel of food.
“I don’t want you to worry about any of that right now. Just focus on eating and getting your strength back. We are going to be on the ocean for a while.”
I stand, tossing my fork onto the plate. “I have a life, Costi.”
“And that life you once knew is on hold until I’m done with you.”
“Done with me?”
“Yes, you’re mine ,” he snarls.
Words I’d always wanted to hear from Costi fall on deaf ears. All I can think about right now is my father. How I’m needed to stand at his side as head of one of the Four Families. I’m important, dammit. And I won’t let Costi treat me as if I’m not.
“I’m not yours. I’m not anybody’s. I’m my own person, thank you very much.”
“You’re your own person, huh?” He says the words like he’s mocking me.
I don’t care.
“I am.” I hold my chin higher, defying him. And with this little power move, I am.
I’ve become a master at overpowering the opposition and not letting myself get manipulated by anyone.
But Costi isn’t just anyone. No, he’s my Costi. The boy I grew up with. But the man standing before me isn’t him.
I tried to look him up from time to time, to see how he was doing, but never found much on the man.
Just small tidbits of information.
“You’ll find clothes to wear in the closet.” He crosses to a white door and opens it. “I had a few things purchased for you until we make it to land.”
“How very kind of you to pre-plan my captivity wardrobe,” I snip. “Is it stripes? A Cartier ball and chain to accessorize?”
The corner of his mouth lifts and he holds up a scrap of material in red. “No stripes.”
“Is that dental floss?”
His eyes sweep down my body, leaving warmth in their wake. “A bathing suit.”
It’s the exact opposite of what I would wear around Gino, and he’d certainly never buy me something that flaunted my lack of a six-pack stomach. Maybe I’m still woozy because it looks like Costi would love nothing more than to see me in it.
“Hopefully, you can get your money back since I’ll be returning home.”
“Like it or not, you’re my prisoner now.”
“Prisoner?” He’s joking, right? Costi isn’t the type of man to take prisoners. But as I gaze around the opulent cabin, I realize I don’t know him at all. I almost forget for a second we’re at sea. The space is large, definitely a yacht and not just a cabin cruiser. There’s a queen-sized bed in the center of the spacious cabin, and a few colorful paintings of stars decorate the white walls. The modern decor is soothing with its beige and gray color palette, but I feel agitated as Costi moves across the plush carpeting.
“Yes, Bishop Blackstone put a capture order out on you,” he says. “And I picked up the contract.”
At the mention of Bishop’s name, I know the severity of my situation. He’s one of the most infamous men in the world, working his way to the top through treachery. He’d do anything to oust the Four Families and rule over all the organized crime in America. I learned recently he had some master plan to kidnap the daughters of the Four Families, but we weren’t sure if anything ever came of it. I guess now it’s true. I clutch onto the mahogany desk next to the bed where my tray of food sits.
Now, I’m terrified. Not because Bishop will soon have me in his clutches. I’m terrified because Costi is not the boy I once knew if he’d kidnap me for Bishop Blackstone.
Now… he’s evil.