All Chapters of THE BRIDE OF DECEPTION: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Annie's POVTwelve years ago when I was trying to enter college and everything in my life seemed normal and simple. I got a text from an unknown number during that time and I didn't know this particular person but I knew it was a man from the way he wrote his messages.The person told me where I would retrieve what he wanted me to have and I followed the instructions without understanding why. Then I got what he left for me and never heard from him again until now after all these years of silence.***When I got to the burned building with Jack and the others Tobin explained to me that the front door wasn't locked when they first arrived to investigate.I asked if they had unlocked it themselves and he replied that there wasn't any lock on the front door at all. He added that anyone could enter the building as they wished without needing a key or breaking anything to get inside."Why is it registered in my name then?" I asked while looking at Tobin for answers."That's what we need

Annie's POVWhen I finally saw the person's face clearly as he stepped away from the bright headlights I didn't recognize him at all. He appeared to be in his fifties, with gray hair and a worn face that suggested he had lived through difficult times. However, there was nothing familiar about him that triggered any memory from twelve years ago."Do I know you?" I asked as I studied his features more carefully."No. But we have met before. And it is the same as then. I'm just the delivery person.""Delivery person for what exactly?""Twelve years ago I was tasked to make sure I delivered the pen drive you received when you were in college. Someone paid me well to leave it in a specific location where you would find it and to make sure nobody else got to it first."I remembered finding that purse, which contained the pen drive, and how strange it seemed at the time that someone would leave something for me without any explanation about why or what it contained."Who paid you to deliver i

Annie's POVI didn't know how Tobin found out about this place or how long he had been following me without me noticing his presence. The man who gave me the documents had specifically told me not to tell anyone about the secret passageway especially Tobin and now here he was standing right behind me demanding answers I wasn't sure I should give.Tobin started asking me a series of questions about how I knew this place existed and who told me where to find it and what the code was supposed to unlock. I couldn't respond to any of his questions because I didn't know what to say that wouldn't put me in more danger than I was already in.I didn't know what the man was trying to protect when he warned me not to tell anyone about this. But I was married to Tobin even if it was just a contract marriage that meant nothing emotionally and he deserved to know what was happening in his own organization. He had protected me multiple times and saved my life when that trailer crashed into my car an

Tobin's POVI knew what was happening already and I could guess exactly who this enemy was and which organization they represented without needing any more information than what I was seeing in front of me.The Sicilian mafia kingdom had sent their best man to do their dirty work and that meant the situation was far worse than I had initially calculated when I first brought Annie into my world.The man standing in my penthouse was Marco Santini and he was the blade that the Sicilian families used when they wanted someone to disappear or when they needed to send a message that would be remembered for years afterward.He didn't make mistakes and he didn't leave witnesses behind unless leaving them alive served a specific purpose in whatever game his employers were playing.I knew they wouldn't be a direct threat to Annie if I wasn't in the picture because she was just a normal person trying to survive and had no real connection to the underworld before she got tangled up in my problems.

Annie's POVMy eyes might have failed me because what I was seeing didn't make any sense at all.I blinked hard and looked again at the woman standing in the living room talking to Tobin like nothing unusual was happening around them. For a moment I had been absolutely certain it was Claire standing there holding those documents and having a friendly conversation with the man who was supposed to be hunting her down.But as I stepped closer and the woman turned to look at me I realized it wasn't Claire at all. It was Tobin's secretary Miranda who I had seen a few times at his office building when I went there for meetings. She had similar hair color and build to my sister which explained why my exhausted brain had jumped to the wrong conclusion."Annie," Miranda said while nodding at me politely like we were meeting for coffee instead of standing in a room that still had blood stains on the floor from the guards who had been killed earlier."Miranda," I replied while trying to calm my