Chapter 4

There was a knock at the hotel room door. I opened it to find a man in a suit.

He said he was there to take me to the audit, and I went willingly.

But twenty minutes in, something felt wrong.

The compound was on the edge of the city, but this road kept taking us further out.

The car finally stopped in front of an abandoned factory, and I hadn't even gotten both feet on the ground before the driver yanked me out and shoved me inside.

Seven or eight built guys I'd never seen before were waiting in there.

They stood around with the cruel look of men ready for ugly work.

Raymond wasn't with them.

A bad feeling started rising in my chest.

The driver wrenched my arms behind my back and bound my wrists with rope.

While he was tying, he murmured into my ear, his voice low and ugly.

“You had the nerve to move family money. You damned rat.”

“My orders are to crack you open before the Don gets here. Start talking.”

He yanked the knot vicious-tight. “Where did you put the money?”

The rope crushed against my belly. I struggled against it. “Let me go. I never moved a cent of the family's money.”

“I'm carrying the Don's child. If something happens to my baby, not one of you has a life worth enough to pay for it.”

His palm cracked across my face, and he grabbed me by the collar.

“The family's never heard of anyone like you. You really think you can run that con on me?”

He patted my belly with a sneer. “Where did you get that bastard, huh? Trying to pin it on the Don? Why not say it's mine?”

The men around us roared with laughter.

My belly tightened slowly, and my heart kept dropping with no bottom in sight.

Then the door opened and Raymond walked in, with Raffina at his side.

She had her arm hooked through his and was leaning up to whisper in his ear, whispering low but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

“Raymond, look. I was right after all.”

“Thirty million is missing from the family accounts. Who else would have done it?”

A muscle twitched in Raymond's cheek, like a volcano stirring.

He walked straight up to me, caught my chin in his hand, and looked into my eyes.

“If you wanted money, you ask me. Why pull these little stunts?”

I shot back, furious. “I didn't touch it. Look closer. Trace where the money went.”

“Enough.”

He cut me off rough, his voice rising into a roar.

“Thirty million. I don't care about thirty million.”

“See this? You said you wanted to leave, to prove your worth. Funny, isn't it? One day away from me and look where you are.”

“I told you, I don't allow you to leave me. That's an order, not a request.”

“I've put up with your stubbornness, but my patience has limits.”

“Listen to me. Stay. This isn't just for me; it's for you. Have you figured that out yet?”

I lowered my head and bit down on his finger as hard as I could.

He jerked his hand back and stared at the blood welling up, something dark and dangerous moving in his eyes.

“Del, don't push my limits. Can't you just listen calmly—”

“Not interested. Untie me, now.”

I cut him off with a scream. “I don't want to look at you and that bitch. I don't want to dirty my eyes.”

Raymond put his bleeding finger in his mouth and sucked at it, the line of his jaw hard as carved stone.

His eyes had gone half-lidded, showing more white than iris, and his laugh came out cold.

“All right, Del. Looks like I need to reason with you again.”

He took a deep breath and was about to start in on me when his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen, and his face shifted as he picked up.

A sharp, low pain rolled through my belly. I called after him, frantic.

“Raymond, make them untie me. If this keeps up, the baby will be in real trouble.”

He was already turned away on the phone, walking out with a careless wave at the men.

I tried to call out again, but the driver clamped his hand over my mouth.

“Shut up. I saw the caller. That's Don Falcone. Don't interrupt the Don's business.”

The driver's eyes held a strange mix of respect and fear.

It made sense; Vincenzo Falcone was the Don of one of the Five Families.

He was also the current CEO of International Financial.

In the world of the Five Families, he was the man who set the rules.

I jerked my head away from the driver's hand, and my eyes lit up again.

Raymond had just been on a call, and Vincenzo had to have heard me crying out.

He would come for me.

He owed me this.