Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Gianna
The sight of Will’s bare face startles me. Without the ski mask on, I can see that he’s an incredibly handsome man. Light brown hair with a slight blonde tinge to it. Square jaw with stubble. Piercing blue eyes. He looks more like he belongs on the cover of a magazine than working as a hitman.
“You don’t have your mask on,” I whisper. “Are you here to kill me?” Why else would be expose his face to me?
“I was… until I convinced Marco to spare your life.”
I blink. What does he mean by that? “I don’t understand.”
“Marco was ready to be done with you after your brother came for you in such a short amount of time but I convinced him to keep you alive. So, you’re welcome. Coming from a hitman, it’s a miracle that you’re not dead right now.”
Does he think I’m thankful for him? The farthest thing from it. He still kidnapped me. He’s still clearly a hitman from what he just said. This is the kind of person I will never be grateful for.
“Now, come along.”
“What?”
“You’re not staying here. We’re leaving.”
Slowly, I stand up. I have no other choice.
I’m sure Will would grab me and throw me over his shoulder if he wanted to and that’s the last thing I want.
What I do want is some class. Some grace.
So I try to keep my head up as I walk past him but when our eyes meet, I quickly duck my chin, my shyness taking over me.
I can’t see Will’s face but I hear him huff and I have no idea what that means.
Marco stops us in the foyer. I flinch when he places his fingers under my chin, lifting my gaze to his. “You will be mine soon enough, Gianna. But for now, you’re going to stay with Will so your brother can’t get to you. I will return in time to marry you. Remember that.”
I don’t say a word.
With a nod, he lets me go and Will leads me back outside. I could try to run but I know I wouldn’t make it far. Not in my high heels. Not in my wedding dress. Not when Will is much taller and I’m sure faster than me.
He doesn’t talk to me on the drive to wherever we’re going. All I feel is that I’m getting farther and farther away from my family. How is Enzo going to find me again when I don’t even know how he found me so fast in the first place? I have no idea how to leave him clues.
The stark realization that I’m on my own hits me and I can’t stop myself from crying. Will glances at me in the rearview mirror.
“Do you need a tissue?”
His question startles me enough to stop my tears. “Why would you offer me a tissue?”
“Because you’re crying,” he says it like it’s obvious.
“But you’re a hitman who kidnapped me. Why would you offer me a tissue? Why would you care enough to?”
“It’s not that I care. It’s just common courtesy.”
“But you’re a hitman. You can’t be courteous.”
“My mom raised me to have a moral code. If someone is crying, you offer them a tissue. Simple as that.”
“Your mom?”
He smiles slightly and it completely changes his face. Makes him a lot less terrifying. “You sound surprised that I have a mom.”
“I just… I didn’t expect you to share anything about yourself with me.”
“I don’t make it a habit. I was just explaining why I was offering you a tissue. You don’t have to read into it.”
I bite my lip and notice that Will’s eyes flick down my face before turning back to the road. It makes me flush. “You have a moral code? But you’re a hitman. You kill people for a living.”
“I didn’t kill you.”
“No… but you did kidnap me.”
“Fair enough.”
I wait for him to say more but when he doesn’t, I feel my mouth opening up and the words coming out of my throat. It’s an unusual experience for me as someone who rarely speaks up. “What is your moral code?”
He sighs and tightens his hands on the wheel. “I don’t kill kids. I draw a line there. And I prefer taking cases where people have been wronged.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just worked a case where a woman who had been raped by her father and her mother stood back and watched hired me to kill them. Cases like that.”
“But I’m innocent.”
“Which is why I urged Marco not to kill you. You’re alive because of me.”
I huff. “I was kidnapped because of you.”
“You could be dead right now.”
“I’m not going to be grateful to you.” I hate how small my voice still sounds. I’ll never have the strength to truly speak with confidence.
“I’m not asking for your gratitude. I’m just pointing out that you could be dead but I convinced Marco to spare your life. That is all. And you’re right. You are innocent. You don’t deserve this. But within my line of work, most people are not innocent.”
“That doesn’t mean they deserve to die.”
“You think a father who raped his daughter deserves to live?”
I flush. “I mean… no. But isn’t it better he go to trial and face life in prison?”
“Sure but most rapists don’t get life in prison. Most are out within a few years.”
“Are you saying you do this out of a weird sense of justice?”
“I’m in it for the money, Gianna.” The way he says my name like a caress makes me shift around in my seat. I can’t make sense of it. “But we all have to draw the line somewhere.”
“And yours is kids.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because kids are always innocent.”
“And adults aren’t? Plenty of adults are innocent. I’ve never lived my life. I’ve never hurt anyone. I am innocent.”
“Yes, you may be, but a lot of adults are not innocent. And they pay the price for it.”
“What about the ones who are innocent and still pay the price?”
His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror for just a moment but that one moment will be seared into my brain for the rest of my life. The way Will looked at me – with both pity and regret – makes my heart rate spike.
“Then they’ll either sink or swim,” he finally answers.
“You mean, I’m going to either die or survive this. But I’m going to be forced to marry Marco and he hates my brother. He’ll do terrible things to me. I just… know it. If you truly had a moral code, you’d let me go. Tell Marco that Enzo found us, overtook you, and my brother took me back.”
“I could do that but I’m not going to.”
I almost cry out in frustration but I tempt it down. “Why not?”
“Because Marco pays me well and I’m going to remain on his good side.”
“But if my brother finds you, he’ll kill you.”
“I’ve survived a lot and I’ll survive this. Besides, your brother won’t find us this time.”
“But you don’t know that because you don’t even know how he found us the last time.”
Will doesn’t have an answer to that because he knows I’m right.
“Please just let me go,” I whisper.
For just a moment, I see his face harden before he shakes his head. “I can’t. Now, that’s enough talking.”
“Do you normally talk this much with your victims?”
“No. Because they don’t survive long enough for me to chat with them.”
I flush at the implication. Why did Will convince Marco to spare my life? Yes I’m innocent but he doesn’t fully believe that. Not in his line of work.
Asking Will what makes me special is something I cannot get out. My throat seizes up and I return to being my normal, quiet self.
But I can’t deny that for the first time in my life, I’ve actually used my voice. It’s just a shame that it took me being kidnapped for that to happen.
Will brings me to a small, nondescript house. It blends in with every other house on the street. Ranch style. Cookie-cutter. It would be a nice house to live in with your family. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I’m kidnapped and have nowhere else to go.
He grabs my hand after he opens the back door. “Don’t try to run. I’ll just catch you. And pretend to look like we’re a happy couple in case any of the neighbors see us.”
“And if I don’t?” I’m not even sure why I ask.
Something hard glints in Will’s eyes. “And if you don’t, then I’ll have no choice but to silence you. I may not like hurting innocent people but I value my own life more. I’m not going to let you ruin that for me.”
I duck my chin and follow him into the house, not saying a word, my hand in his the entire time.
The house itself is nice. Like something out of a furniture catalogue. Pretty to look at but nothing to write home about.
Will leads me into one of the bedrooms. “You’ll remain in here. Is that understood?”
“You’re going to lock the door anyway.”
“I am. Don’t even think about going through the window. I’ll catch you.”
I swallow hard and nod. After a beat, Will shuts the door and locks it from the outside. Immediately, I turn towards the window and manage to get it open.
Without hesitating, I maneuver my body through out the window. Thank god this house is only one story. I run around the side of the house. The driveway is in my line of sight…
When Will steps right into my path.
I stop in my tracks. “How did you –,”
“I figured you would run. I was waiting for you out here. Now, get back inside.” He grabs my arm and makes me crawl back through the window.
Humiliation courses through me. The wedding dress makes it challenging to move at all.
Will shuts the window behind me and right before my very eyes, I watch as he instills a lock on the window from the outside.
He doesn’t even look at me the entire time.
Once he’s done, he walks away, leaving me fully trapped inside the room.
Enzo
“I can’t believe that asshole got away,” Nico grumbles as I drive us back to my house. I was so close to getting my sister back but she slipped through my fingers. Marco managed to run and escape before I could give chase. I’m no use to Gianna if I’m dead.
It wasn’t hard to figure out who was responsible for Gianna’s kidnapping.
Francesca called me the second it happened.
She gave me the license plate of the car she saw Gianna being taken away in and I called one of my hacker guys to trace it.
It led me straight to a church where it was obvious Marco was trying to marry my sister.
That is the last thing I’m going to let happen.
“I will get Gianna back,” I state.
“You better. You promised me her hand. I don’t want some other fucker getting his hands on her before me.”
I tense at Nico’s words. “She is not your property, Nico.”
“That’s not what I meant. I just want her back.”
“And so do I. She’s my sister.” The one I always vowed to protect and I wasn’t able to keep my promise.
That cuts me to the core deeper than anything else has in my entire life.