Chapter 10
GIA
Dominic drove the SUV with its black-tinted windows through a narrow opening out of the woods, leaving the cabin behind us.
I looked back at it as we bounced along, shuddering at the feeling it gave me, like a decrepit, abandoned, haunted place.
Maybe it was haunted. Maybe the ghosts of the girls who’d gone before me lingered in that terrible cabin.
I physically shook. Dominic glanced at me, his expression looking as if he were deep in thought, so deep my involuntary movement seemed to surprise him.
“The heating will kick in soon,” he said, returning his attention to the dirt road.
He thought I shook with cold. No. It was terror that still gripped me with its long, icy fingers.
“What’s changed?” I asked. What had happened between yesterday and today? And was he stealing from Victor now by taking me away from the cabin? What did that mean for him? For me? What use could he possibly have for me?
“What do you mean?”
“Why are we leaving? Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not. I’m helping myself.”
“What game is Victor playing with you?”
“I don’t know just yet.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand. You just need to be grateful.”
“Where are we going?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“If you answer one, maybe I’ll stop asking.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Bully.”
“New Jersey. We’re going somewhere Victor won’t think to look for you. Because when he finds out you’re gone, he’s going to come looking for both of us.”
“And he’ll find out when I don’t show up at auction?”
He nodded and turned the SUV onto a lonely paved road. I saw a sign for a highway twenty-six miles away.
“Franco Benedetti promised my father he would protect Mateo and I when my father died.”
“Did he?”
Dominic didn’t sound surprised. “Maybe I should go to him.”
“Because he did a bang-up job protecting your brother?”
“You have a point.” I was silent for a moment. “How many days until I would have gone to auction?”
“Eight.”
“What’s the date?” I didn’t even know that.
“Eleventh of January.”
“They killed Mateo the day after Christmas.” They’d come for me that same morning. That meant I’d been held captive for more than two weeks.
Dominic didn’t respond. We rode in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts, until we merged onto the highway. It was still early morning, and there were only a few other cars on the road besides us. A sign told me there was a McDonald’s at the next rest stop.
“I’m really hungry,” I said. “Can we get some food?”
He glanced at me like food was the last thing on his mind.
“Please?”
He put on his blinker, and we took the exit. He rode slowly up to the drive-through window.
“If you try anything, Gia—”
“I won’t. I already told you at the cabin.
I want Victor Scava. I’m not fool enough to believe I can get to him on my own.
” It was true. I had to be realistic. Dominic’s hatred of Victor meant we had a common enemy.
He was taking me away from Victor. I didn’t fool myself into thinking Dominic was good, not by any means, but as long as our goals lined up, Dominic was the lesser of two evils.
He nodded. “What do you want?” he asked when we got to the menu board.
“Everything.” I felt greedy as I scanned the options. “But I’ll settle for a sausage egg McMuffin and a big cup of coffee.”
Dominic ordered, taking a sandwich and a coffee for himself as well. He gave me one more warning glance as we drove to the drive-through pick-up window.
I just held up my two hands and shook my head. I wouldn’t do anything. Getting away from him may have been smart—getting to the police even smarter—but if I wanted revenge for Mateo’s death, I needed to stick this out. I needed Dominic.
I watched the girl in the window when she saw him.
Saw how her eyes widened and her smile grew, and for reasons I could not understand, I felt a jealousy in my core.
An anger at her boldness. But when Dominic then began to flirt with her that anger boiled.
I roughly grabbed the bags from him, and he made a joke to the girl as she handed him our coffees.
“I don’t mess with her when she’s hungry.”
He winked at her as she gave me a sideways glance.
“She has sharp teeth and a sharper tongue.”
The girl giggled like a fool. I only glared at him. Finally, we drove off.
“Why did you flirt with her?”
He bit into his sandwich. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t. I just don’t like being made fun of.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “This is good. I haven’t had McDonald’s since I was a kid. My mother only allowed it when we went on vacations.”
I glanced at him. It was hard to imagine him as a kid with a mother. The SUV bounced over a dip in the road just as I brought the cup to my mouth. The scalding liquid burned my tongue. Damn.
“How many girls have you sent to auction?”
He only glanced my way but didn’t answer. Instead, he turned his attention back to the road.
“Let me ask you something else. This isn’t Victor’s first time hiring you, is it?”
He shook his head.
“Does his uncle know?”
“I don’t know.”
“He doesn’t like him much.” He didn’t. Angus Scava could hardly stand Victor, but he had to put up with him. There was no one else to take over the family reins. “He’d been readying James to take over the family. But then James was killed.”
“He was shot, correct?”
I nodded. “On his way home from a meeting he’d gone to in place of his father.”
Dominic’s eyebrows seemed locked in a permanent furrow, but he seemed to be a man used to shielding his thoughts. The momentary flash of vulnerability I saw in his eyes was gone like it had never been there in the first place.
“The Scava’s are a powerful family. James’ grandfather was killed much the same way as he was. He had a sister who died in a car crash. I know Mrs. Scava had miscarried twice. James was the only direct survivor. Bad luck.”
“Not bad luck. They’re a leading crime family. They have enemies. The more powerful you are the more hated you are.”
“You seem to know a lot about this.”
He glanced my way. “I’ve been around. What about your family?”
“The men have been foot soldiers for as long as I can remember. I don’t think many make it past fifty. So fucking stupid. Such a waste.”
“How did you meet James Scava?”
“At a party being used as cover for a meeting. My father had gone as Mr. Benedetti’s bodyguard. I’d been invited to come along. Mateo hadn’t been there. He’d been at school. He was getting out of the life, making a new start.”
“Go on.” he said.
I realized I’d stopped talking. I didn’t know when I’d stopped missing James. He’d been so good, so caring, so protective of me.
“I’d just turned twenty. His birthday was one day after mine. He was thirty, older than I usually dated, but we hit it off.”
“And you knew who he was, what he did, and still fell for him?”
“He shielded me from that side of things. So had my father. I never saw it. And it’s easy to pretend it’s not happening when it’s someone you love whose hands are bloodied.”
Dominic took a bite of his sandwich. “They never found his killer.”
“How do you know so much?”
“It was in the news.”
“Mr. Scava believed it was a rival family, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor had his dirty hands in it.”
“That’s quite the accusation.”
“It’s not an accusation if it’s truth.”
“Be careful, Gia.”
“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
“Tell me how Mateo got involved with Victor.”
“When my dad was killed, Mateo came back for mom and me. He wanted to be sure we were cared for, protected. He didn’t listen to me when I told him to go back to school, that we’d be fine.
And then he started to work for Victor. I wasn’t sure at first. If I’d known what Victor was up to, I would have gone to Mr. Scava, but I didn’t know until it was too late. ”
“Are you sure Angus Scava isn’t already involved?”
“I’m telling you, he wouldn’t have done this to me. He would never have let Victor…” I broke off, remembering those nights when Victor tormented me, scared the fuck out of me.
“Your mom, where is she now?”
“She was spending time with her sister near Palermo. I don’t know how much she knows. I need to talk to her.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“But—”
“Not now, Gia. Let me think this through. I’m sure she doesn’t want two dead kids to bury.”
That made me stop. He was right. “Victor was always jealous of James. I’d go so far as to say he hated him.” I drank the last of the now lukewarm coffee and turned to him. “How long is the drive?” I didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
“A few more hours.”
“Then what?”
“Then I’m going to find out what the hell is going on.”
“What about me?”
“You do as you’re told, Gia, and I won’t have to hurt you.”
“Did you know Mateo?” I asked out of the blue, remembering that sense of familiarity, that moment I’d thought I’d met him before.
“No.”
He wouldn’t look at me. Why didn’t I believe him? And why would he lie?
“You won’t hurt me,” I said, not sure why I said it.
“Sharing a common enemy does not make us friends.”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know I’m not taking you to the auction? Don’t you think it’d be easier for me to transport a cooperative slave?”
He gave me a moment to process that before continuing.
“Quiet now. I need to think.”
Fine. I needed to think too. I needed to figure out how I would proceed.
As much as I wanted to kill Victor outright, wasn’t it smarter for me to use the evidence Mateo had collected and turn it over to the feds?
I still knew where the copy of the recorded conversations were: safe and sound in plain sight.
What then, though? Go into witness protection and live in hiding for the rest of my life?
Could I trust Mateo’s contact? Should I go to Angus Scava, or was Dominic right?
That he could be involved too? That he could have ordered Mateo’s murder, my kidnapping?
Was I naive to think he’d stand by me rather than his own family, even if he did hate Victor?
What was I to him? Nothing. Not now that James was gone.
I needed to think. To figure out what to do. How to proceed. How to make Victor pay and stay alive in the process.
I needed to figure out how to manage my captor, how to align his goals to mine, and ultimately, I’d need to figure out how to escape him. I had no doubt his hands were as bloody as Victor’s, and I couldn’t forget that, no matter how attracted I was to him.