Chapter 8

NICOLE

“I know that face. He said something mean to you, didn`t he?”

“He can be an ass but Callan`s a good man”

“Being in the marines made him like that. Once he returned, he didn`t trust anybody and he didn`t let anyone except me get to see the real him”

“Whatever he did or said to you, I apologize for it”

“You seem like a good girl, Nicole not what those journalists published about you. You don`t look like a junkie to me? Heck, you`ve only said good things about me and my house since you got here”

“I saw how you two were looking at each other. I don`t even want to ask why you have his clothes on you but if something`s going on, give him time. Don`t give up on him”

Nancy had said all that to me before a stray bullet hit her from the back and she collapsed right in front of me. I had never been so scared and petrified in my whole entire life like at that very moment. Then all hell broke loose when two men appeared behind me gagging me before I could scream and warn Cannon, we had company.

Dread ate my bones and reality set in. Cannon said there were bad men after me. Bad men who somehow had a squabble with my father. I tried moving, tried kicking my legs to freedom but before I knew it, I was being huddled inside a car and it took off without as much as a glance back.

“Stop it!” one of the men with a clean buzz cut, bloodshot eyes and a scowl on his face shot.

But I wasn`t going to stop, panic and fear had clawed it`s waY inside of me that the only thing my brain urged me to do was to take out the two men seated next to me no matter how futile it was.

Elbowing the buzz-cut seated next to me, he groaned screaming something about his bloody nose. The other man on the right side tried to strangle me but my free hands did what any woman in my situation would.

I tried to gorge his eyes out with my nails. My little stunt was short-lived the minute the dark-haired man caught my hands in his huge hand using the other as a closed fist and connecting it with my jaw.

Pain coursed through my face and my eyes betrayed me. Everything fucking turned black.

Opening my eyes with a groan, my jaw tinged with soreness and my fear kicked in tenfold. I couldn`t see shit and that elevated my fear to another notch.

Confused and muzzy, I tried making out where I was only to see nothing but black. I tried moving my hands but the sound of chains and the feel of metallic cuffs sinking to my skin confirmed what I thought. That not only had they gagged me but they chained me like a dog.

Bitter bile rose up my gut and I felt nauseated by everything. I could still remember Nance falling to the ground like a shriveled weed. I could still remember how weak and helpless I felt seeing blood ooze out of her as if they had just ripped an artery from her heart.

I could still remember the men I was with in the car and I could still remember one of the said men`s fist colliding with my cheek.

Inhaling a strained breath, my ears paid attention to the birds cawing as if they`d seen a dead carcass or as if they were waiting for a dead body to be thrown to them.

The smell of the salty sea lingered in my nostrils as well as the sound of waves hitting the shore. My legs touched the soft exterior underneath me as I realized I was on top of a bed by the sea somewhere and I didn`t know what was frightening.

Being on a bed or being by the sea.

Who`s to say I wasn’t on a boat about to be sunk into the sea. Who`s to say I wasn`t on someone`s bed while he imagined doing horrid terrible things to me.

I thought of Cannon as my solace even though he made it clear he wasn`t interested in me, he was my bodyguard and I was pretty sure he knew where I was being held at.

But would he come to find me?

His sister got shot because of me. Because I couldn`t stay still back at his house and wait for him to check on his nephew.

And Nance, God with all that blood she had lost I-I didn`t think she could survive that and I cried for her.

I cried for Cannon because all this shit was happening because of me. I brought my shit to him. I brought my shit to his sister`s house.

Suddenly, light filtered through my blindfolds and I grew aware that someone was in the room. Someone closely calculating what he would do to me and al the air I held up in my lungs collapsed.

“Get up!”

Someone barked.

The blindfold got yanked away from my eyes and the light bit my eyes without mercy. The man who`d hit me earlier stood in front of me, a rifle in hand. He still had red marks across his face from where I had scratched him and make no mistake, his eyes told me that he would avenge that little incident come what may.

“Did I stutter? Get the fuck up!” his deep voice roared and I swallowed saliva moving closer to the edge of the bed.

Removing the gag from my mouth, his callous hand sunk in my right forearm and I bit my lip taking in the pain.

“I didn`t—I didn`t do anything… you don`t have to do this. Please let me go. Please-I won`t tell anyone. I promise I won’t tell anyone”

But my pleas fell into deaf ears as he pulled me down the hallway adorned with expensive paintings and ceramic vases.

“Is this about money? I-my father has money. He’ll pay you whatever amount you want”

That was my last attempt at trying to negotiate but the heavily tattooed man couldn’t give a shit as he pulled me towards the light at the end of the hallway.

This was it.

This was me being taken to the slaughter house for my father’s sins.

This was me meeting my maker in a few seconds.

My captor led me to a large living room and in the central part of it was a black leather couch with a man clad in a custom-tailored suit seating on it.

Barely containing my relief, I opened my mouth,

“Uncle Giovanni?”