Chapter Five
Emma
Leo grabs my arm, tugging me down the aisle. My wedding dress flows behind me. I thought I was getting my dream wedding. Finding safety. How na?ve I was.
“Leo,” Rocco scolds. “You did this without even telling Gabriel. It’s why I’m the only one here. Not him.”
“Gabriel will understand,” Leo snaps back. “We have to stop Alessandro and this is the way.”
“Marrying his daughter was the way?”
I drag my feet into the floor, stopping Leo. “His daughter? What are you talking about?”
“You can drop the act,” Leo says to me in a harsh tone.
I flinch back. “We know you’re Alessandro Greco’s daughter.
If you have any information on him that can help us take him down, now would be a good time to share it.
Or I’ll have to resort to more drastic measures of getting information out of you. ”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I whisper.
“Fine. You’re going to make this hard. On both of us. One way or another, Emma, you are going to get your father to back off.”
“My father?” I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
“Clearly the girl is telling the truth,” Rocco says. “Don’t do this, Leo. Don’t use an innocent girl against her father.”
“Just because you have a daughter doesn’t mean any of us have to care,” Leo snaps.
“I know you don’t agree with this but Gabriel will see in time that this was the only way.
And by marrying Emma, I have a claim to her.
We can hurt Alessandro with this. Gabriel killed Giovanni.
He got his revenge. But Giovanni didn’t suffer for it.
And neither has Alessandro. He needs to suffer where his brother couldn’t.
And so Emma will be the cause of his suffering. ”
Rocco stares at Leo in horror. “You were always a little bit crazy but I truly see you for who you really are now.”
“Come on,” Leo says to me, tugging on my arm. I follow behind because I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know if I should run or fight or cry or stay with Leo. I know nothing.
And that stark reality hits me in the stomach, making me double over and vomit right onto the church aisle.
Leo makes a sound in the back of his throat and picks me up, carrying me out of the church. This is not how I expected Leo would carry me. I thought it would be romantic. Instead, this is a horror novel instead of a romance one.
Leo drives us back to his house and it’s only after I see the large mansion before me that I realize I should fight and not remain so passive.
The second he parks the car in the driveway, I dive out of the car and make a run for it but Leo is faster. He grabs me around the waist and drags me inside.
“Please don’t do this,” I sob. “Why are you doing this? You were kind to me. You gave me a job. I don’t understand.”
“You say you don’t understand but how can I believe you when you’re Alessandro Greco’s daughter?
You could be lying to me and I need to get to the bottom of it.
It’s not a coincidence you showed up on my doorstep in need of help.
Alessandro could have sent you. I need to find out what you know and if you refuse to tell me, Emma, I am going to have to break you.
” He throws me over his shoulder and carries me to a door that leads down to a basement.
I never tried to open this door because it was locked. I respected Leo’s privacy.
His footsteps are loud on the stone steps as we move deeper into the basement. It’s more like a dungeon in here. Made out of stone. Cold and dreary.
One large cage rests in the middle of the room.
“I bought this just for you and your mom.” He opens the cage door and sets me on my feet.
“I didn’t manage to kidnap your mother but I did get you.
When I sent my man, Danilo, back to the farm to get your mother, she was already gone.
But I have you and that’s more important.
You’re Alessandro’s daughter. You will help me take him down. Tell me what you know about him.”
The sheer utter coldness in his eyes terrifies me. This is nothing like the man who offered me a job. Who gave me a place to sleep with no strings attached. I thought I was safe. That hurts most of all.
“Why let me stay with you?” I ask. “If you were just going to do this to me? Why show me kindness?”
“Because I thought it would work. That you would slip up and reveal something but you didn’t.
So now I have to take a more drastic approach to get you to talk.
And even if you don’t, Alessandro will soon learn that I have his daughter locked away in a cage.
If he knew you were treated like a princess, he wouldn’t come save you.
But I will have to hurt you if you don’t talk.
I will have to hurt you if Alessandro doesn’t do what I need him to do. ”
“And what do you need him to do?”
“Call off this war. He’s going to attack me and my men. I can’t stand for that. So if you know anything, Emma, tell me now.”
I drop to my knees as all the energy leaves me. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know who Alessandro is. I don’t know where my mom is. I didn’t even know you knew where I lived. I don’t understand anything.”
Leo bends over me, glaring into my eyes like I personally wronged him.
“No one is this innocent. No one. This world is full of darkness and you are the daughter of a dark man. You have his stain on you. I let myself get lost in your innocence for a moment. Let myself believe that I didn’t need to make this happen.
But when Isabella came by, it made me realize that anyone could come by.
And I needed to take drastic action. So I am taking the hard approach with you now, Emma. Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything!” My voice echoes through the large basement.
“I don’t believe you. Don’t make me hurt you.”
I gasp. “You’re going to hurt me?”
For just a moment, Leo’s eyes waver before he steels himself. “If that’s what it takes, I will. So tell me what you know.”
“Tell me what you know,” I demand. “Because I don’t know anything.”
“Your father is a bad man, Emma. A mafia man. I am a mafia man. I know you know this. Your mother is married to a mafia man. You are the daughter of a mafia man. So tell me what you know.”
My tears stream down my eyes and the ache in my chest feels like it’s going to kill me. “The mafia? No. My mom and I don’t belong to the mafia.”
“I know you’re hiding something from me. I’ve known it for the past week. Tell me what you weren’t saying.”
“I didn’t tell you about my mother. I’m sorry. That’s what I was hiding. The truth about my mother.”
“What about your mother?”
I suck in a ragged breath. “She kept me locked away on our farm my entire life. I ran away from her. She was so mean to me. I never wanted to go back to her again. But I know nothing about the mafia. I don’t know my father. My mother never mentioned him. It was just her and me.”
“A convenient story.”
“It’s the truth.”
“We’ll see.” He steps away from me, giving me the chance to breathe. “I don’t want to treat you harshly, Emma. You seem sweet. But no one is this sweet. This innocent. They can’t be. So tell me what you know of your father. Tell me any weaknesses he may have.”
“I don’t know since I don’t know him.”
Leo huffs as a cold, dark sneer crosses his face.
A sneer meant for me. “You are his weakness. You have to be. As his daughter, he will want to protect you. So you will stay here until your father crawls back into the hole he came out of. Or me and my boss kill him. Either way, you are staying here, Emma. As my wife. My prisoner. No one can take you away from me. I have the ultimate control. I am sorry it’s coming at your expense.
But I just don’t know if I can believe anything you say.
” He steps out of the cage and shuts the door, locking it. Locking me inside.
I sob harder because there’s nothing else I can do.
Leo looks pained for just a second before his expression turns stoic. “I’ll be back later. Maybe then you’ll want to talk.”
I watch in dismay as Leo leaves the basement, leaving me all alone in this cage. Leaving me to my misery.
Leo
The memory of Emma sobbing her heart out is seared into my brain. Am I doing the right thing? I know for a fact that she’s Alessandro’s daughter. That makes her guilty by association. But is she truly guilty? Is she telling me the truth? I have to find out.
Either she’s a part of her father’s scheme and then I’ll have to kill her like her dad or she’s telling the truth and completely innocent. Which if that is the case, I kidnapped a completely innocent girl and married her and then I’ll have no idea what to do with her.
A loud knock on the front door makes me tense. I know who it is before opening it.
Gabriel rushes inside the second I open the door a crack. “Leo. What the fuck?”
“Rocco told you?”
“Of course he told me. You married Emma Greco? What the fuck? She’s the daughter of our enemy. You have made me look like a fucking fool.”
“No. Marrying Emma was a smart decision. If Alessandro tries to take her back, we have leverage to stop him. We can use this against him. Make him weak. And then we strike, killing him, and be done with the threats against us.”
“There will always be threats against us. We’re the fucking mafia.”
I sigh. “I know. But our current threat is Alessandro and we have the best bargaining chip we could use. Emma is right here, bound to me. Let’s use her.
We can hurt Alessandro. You know this is a good idea.
His own brother murdered your entire family and Alessandro himself stood back and laughed.
He didn’t stop his brother. Don’t you want revenge? ”
“Of course I do!” Gabriel shouts, showing real emotion instead of his typical stoic bullshit.
“Good. Because I do too. I thought Giovanni got the easy way out. You killed him with a gunshot to the head. But with Alessandro, we can torture him by using Emma. Just knowing we have his daughter will drive him crazy. It has to.”
“What about her mother? You have Emma but not her mom.”