Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sienna
The present
My hand jiggles the door handle for the hundredth time, and for the hundredth time, it remains locked.
My captive accommodations are sparse: a single room with a cot and one of those annoying flickering lightbulbs overhead.
No windows, and without daylight, it’s hard to tell how long I’ve been here.
I flop down on the mattress, my hands falling to my throbbing temples. I’ve been shuffled around the Calvani game board yet again. The question is: where will my game piece land this time?
A shallow grave?
Angelo isn’t one for theatrics; if he were going to off me, he wouldn’t go to these lengths to kidnap me and keep me alive.
Hope. She’s still a bitch, but she’s all I’ve got.
You’ve got Fabien, a little voice tells me.
“Yeah, and look how well that turned out for me,” I chide myself.
“You haven’t been in isolation long enough to justify hearing voices; I’d have that checked out,” Maks announces.
Acting like I knew he entered the room all along, I meet his cold eyes with amusement.
“Are you speaking from experience? Prisoner of war, by chance?” An educated guess.
From what I’ve gathered over the years, no one knows much about this man, other than he’s originally from Eastern Europe and has a military background.
“Let’s go,” he says in a bored tone, but not before something I can’t decipher flashes in his dark eyes.
“Where?” I rise to seated, but refuse to march to my own death. He’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming.
He rifles through a duffel bag, tossing me a black piece of fabric.
The mask has no eye slits nor nose holes, and I frown, tossing it back to him. “Sorry, I’m not into whatever kink this is.”
He flings it at me with more force, and I snatch it from the air. “Put it on, or be drugged for your return trip home. Your choice.”
Hearing that there’s a return trip home has me shoving the blackout mask over my head.
I’m not so gently picked up and thrown over Maks’ shoulder. Without use of my eyesight, it’s a disorienting feeling, but we’re moving, and oww, I’m tossed in what feels like the floorboard of a vehicle.
Not a dumpster, but I’m getting sick and tired of being treated like a piece of trash by this family.
Fabien
The present
“Boss, this peace treaty with you and your brother is tentative at best,” Saint starts.
“And?” I say, jamming a new magazine into my gun.
He clears his throat. “Perhaps you could try not to murder his right-hand man.”
My reply is a noncommittal grunt as I holster my gun.
A blacked-out town car rolls under the bridge, and Saint and I step out of our vehicle.
Maks parks, and I’ve already sprinted over, flinging open the passenger door.
Sienna’s lying on the floorboard with a mask covering her face, and I scoop her into my arms. Shifting her so I have a free hand, I rip off the mask.
She looks at me, blinking rapidly.
“Sienna,” I say softly.
Her eyes focus on mine, and I think she’s moving her arm to wrap it around my neck, but her palm connects with my cheek.
“Good luck,” Maks taunts with the window rolled down.
Saint appears, slamming the passenger door, his gun drawn and now pointed at Maks. “Touch Mrs. Calvani again, and you and I will have a problem.”
“Wouldn’t want that,” Maks drawls in an amused tone before he rolls up the window and drives off.
My attention focuses on my wife. “Sienna, talk to me. Are you hurt?”
“Put me down.” She goes to slap me again, but I grab her wrist, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll take that as a no. Come on. We’re going home.”
“My home; you’re hereby kicked out,” she declares.
“That’s cute,” I tell her, placing her in the car and sliding in beside her.
She goes to kick me, and I grab her ankle, yanking her over the seat to my side. I shift my bodyweight on top of her, banding her arms over her head.
“Get off me.” She struggles beneath me, and my cock turns to stone.
Sienna feels it. Her eyes go wide for a split second before she covers it with a scowl.
I’ve always had a hair-trigger erection problem around this woman, but add in the celibacy, and my cock’s damn near ready to explode. “Till death do us part, piccola volpe.”
Her body stills, the fire doused. “I’m the only one who’s ever at risk of dying around you.”
My forehead falls to hers on a frustrated sigh. “Baby—”
She knees me in the balls, and with an Oof, I roll off her.
“Mrs. Calvani, glad to see you’re in good spirits,” Saint tells her, now behind the wheel.
“Is that what you call it?” I groan, cupping myself.
“Thanks, Saint. Kind words back there,” she tells him, shifting to her seat and straightening her dress.
“The next time my husband fails to keep me safe, we’ll see if you really mean them.
With his track record, it shouldn’t be long.
” Her eyes cut to mine before turning her attention out the window.
A growl vibrates my chest as I get on the phone with my head of security, lining up the death of the guard who fucked up and let Angelo take my wife. “Next time, it’ll be your head,” I promise him, ending the call.
“You know what your problem is, current husband?” Sienna says, examining her nails. “Zero personal responsibility. Always someone else’s fault. Always someone else’s head.”
“Would you like mine, baby? On a silver or gold platter?”
Without a response, she resumes peering out the window.
“You will have Lacey with you at all times,” I warn her. “In the bathroom. In the classroom. In the hallways. Going to and from class. She’s your goddamn conjoined twin from hereon out.”
We drive in silence for a stretch, me realizing my mistake with the twin comment.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I tell her quietly. “About everything.”
Sienna doesn’t comment, even though I know damn well that she heard me.
My hand drags down my face. “I keep trying to make things right with you, but it seems all I do is fuck it up even more.”
“Then let me go,” she murmurs, still focusing out the window.
“Never.” Everything feels unsettled, but that’s the one thing I’m sure of.
“Your funeral,” she mutters.
A smile tugs my lips. There’s fire left in my girl, and that means I still have a chance.
And a snowball’s chance is always better than none.
We arrive home, and I follow Sienna inside to a waiting Lacey. My wife gives the dog a scratch behind the ears before continuing down the hallway.
I go to follow her, but Sienna throws up her hand. “I’m taking a nap. Don’t follow me unless you consider your balls dispensable.”
They’re not, so I don’t follow.