Fuck! He was going insane. The thought of losing Jay wasn’t just an emotional pain anymore, but a palpable physical pain, where his heart was wrenched, like a knife had been stabbed into his heart, again and again. He couldn’t imagine not seeing Jay again. She was his love, his life, and his soul. If Lorenzo wanted to see his downfall, he’d succeeded. But he wouldn’t be easily defeated. If he was still breathing, he’d fight until the very end, and the fight started now, with their verbal assault.
“Lorenzo, are you trying to fuck with me? Why the fuck did you take my woman?”
“Hello, Giovanni, my friend. Long time no see. How have you been? I haven’t heard from you for a while.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Lorenzo. You have my woman. I want her back.”
“Is that a demand?”
“It’s a fucking order.”
“Tsk, Giovanni. You are always so demanding.”
“I could say the same to you.”
“What can I say, we were born of the same breed. Mafia blood always runs strong. I still can’t believe Justin and Dawson still tolerate you though, with that foul mouth of yours.”
“Leave my friends out of this.”
“They are my friends, too.”
“In your fucking dreams. Now tell me where your residence is so I can get Jay back. Are you still in Chicago?”
“Jay? Who’s Jay?”
“She’s my girl, you fucking idiot, the one who you fucking kidnapped.”
“Oh. I didn’t know she was yours. You had too many in the past; I lost count. How important is she to you?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Lorenzo.”
“I’m the one asking the questions here, Giovanni. How important is this girl to you?”
Giovanni didn’t reply. He knew the question was a trap. If he revealed that Jay was as important to him as the heart that was beating in his chest or the air he needed to survive, he was sure Lorenzo would harm her, just to spite him.
“Giovanni. I can’t hear you.” Lorenzo’s voice knocked him back to his senses, and when he was about to reply, a soft voice floated into his earpiece.
“Gio, is that you?” Jay. His lover. His heart pounded in fear.
“Jay, is that you? Jay, are you okay, baby? Put her on the fucking phone, Lorenzo.” Giovanni shouted down the line.
“I don’t think so.” Lorenzo’s smooth and calm voice just irritated him even more.
“Fuck you, Lorenzo. Fuck you.”
“Hahaha.” Lorenzo chuckled, which just pissed the shit out of him even more. “Don’t worry. She’s safe. I haven’t fucked her…yet.”
“Don’t you fucking dare lay a hand on her, or I’ll fucking break your arm,” he yelled.
“Is that a warning?”
“It’s a bloody demand. And you better—”
“Giovanni, Giovanni. Stop talking like a fighter.” Lorenzo interrupted him, which just sent him into another tailspin. “I think your fighting skill is rusty at best. When was the last time you fought?”
“None of your fucking business.”
“It is my business. Now enough of the chitchat. Listen carefully to what I have to say. Here’s what I want. Bring the land deed for Las Vegas. I want to deal with all the trades in that territory. Tell all your minions that I’m now their new boss.”
“In your fucking dreams. Don’t you have enough shit going on already with your business in Chicago? Don’t try to wear pants that are too big for you. Las Vegas is not your territory.”
“Try saying that again with your girl on the phone while I slide a knife down her perfect porcelain face.”
“I’ll fucking kill you, Lorenzo. If you dare lay even a hand on a strand of her hair, I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill you myself.”
“Bring the land deed, Giovanni. I’ll see you, say, ten a.m. tomorrow morning. I’ll text you with my residential address nearer the time. And don’t fucking turn up early. You will not be welcomed until ten a.m.”
And Lorenzo cut the call.
Giovanni was vibrating with so much anger he flung the phone with so much force, it smashed against the wall.
Fuck, Lorenzo. Who did he think he was? Some kind of fucking mafia God who everyone must obey? Well, too fucking bad. He wasn’t going to listen to his shit.
“Bobby, Heath, Finnie, Jonny,” Giovanni shouted from inside his office. “Get the fucking plane ready. We’re going to Chicago.”
It was approximately eight a.m. when Giovanni and his gang arrived at Lorenzo’s residence. Lorenzo was already dressed, waiting in the dining room, having his breakfast of egg and toast, with jasmine tea as his drink.
“It’s fucking eight a.m., Giovanni. You are interrupting my breakfast. I did say ten a.m., did I not?”
Giovanni pulled out the chair opposite Lorenzo and sat down, folded his leg elegantly, and smirked at his frenemy. “Have I ever listened to you?”
Lorenzo paused, his knife and fork in midair. He assessed his old-time friend, who somehow along the way had turned into his frenemy. “You have a point,” he said. They got down to business. “Have you got the land deed?”
“I have a better idea. Why don’t you tell me how much you want? I’m willing to pay,” Giovanni said instead.
“Are you willing to pay for your woman or for the price of the land deed?”
“My girl, of course.”
“So you’re not going to give me the land deed?”
“Of course not.”
“You are willing to pay for the life of your girl, but you aren’t willing to give me the land deed. Do I have this information correct?”
“Why do you fucking want the land deed?” Giovanni slammed his fist on the table in his effort to try to get his message across. “Signor Dente gave it to me. Your late father, Signor Lorenzo, had also said the Las Vegas territory belonged to the Dente clan.”
“I’m not my father. I want all businesses associated with that area.” Lorenzo didn’t even flinch. He just went back to eating his food, and Giovanni hated it when people ignored him.
“Well, too fucking bad. You can get it over my dead body.” And quicker than lightning, Giovanni stood up, pulled out the pistol from his inner pocket, and aimed it at Lorenzo’s head. “Now, do I need to spell it out for you that I will not give you the land deed, or do you want me to blow your brains out right here and now?”
“Giovanni. Giovanni. Calm down.” Lorenzo pushed his plate away, having had enough of the food. He drank his jasmine tea, and when he thought he was ready to speak, he stood up too. “I was only joking. I don’t fucking care for your land deed. I was just messing with you. Do you really want your girlfriend to see you in action, blowing a friend’s brain out like this? It’s not a pretty picture. I’m sure she hasn’t seen you kill before, right? You only let her see your good side. What would happen if, say, she were to walk in right now and see you like this? Pointing a gun at my head. How would she feel?”
Giovanni was stuck. On the one hand, he so wanted to pull the trigger and be done with this stupid bastard, but he knew the implication was too hard and too messy to deal with. Although both Lorenzo and he liked to play a game of cat and mouse, taunting each other every so often, they’d never reached this stage before where they had to pull the trigger for real.
He retracted his pistol and slipped it back in his inner coat when he saw two women, both so similar in looks, race down the stairs. They moved closer and in a blurry of fluffy fabric, one barreled into his arms.
“Gio.” It was his lover, Jay. He hugged her small body and buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her sweet scent that he’d missed for the past night. This was Jay; she was real; she was alive. And oh, fucking God, he was happy to have her back in his arms again.
Until he saw the face of the other woman, so similar to Jay, so beautiful like a porcelain doll, and his heartstrings stirred because she was the face that had appeared in his dreams.
Chapter 3
Escape Plan
I ha
rdly slept last night. I was so worried that even with the soft mattress and heavenly pillow, I still couldn’t sleep a wick. Half of my worry was centered on Giovanni and how he would be worried sick about my disappearance, and the other half was for my sister. After Lorenzo had kissed her, his phone rang. It was Giovanni. I panicked and shouted out his name when Lorenzo started describing all the cruel things he would do to me. I felt visibly sick until he ended the call and Amelia just slapped him in the face. She literally slapped him. Lorenzo got so mad, he literally dragged her out of the room and had me locked in this bedroom ever since.
They had brought in food and all the basic necessities for me to live a cushy life, if you could call being locked in a massive bedroom fit for the queen of England cushy, then, yep, it was a cushy life. But that still didn’t stop that gnawing feeling in my belly.
What was Lorenzo doing to my sister? And where was she staying, if she didn’t stay in this bedroom with me? Because clearly, with the way he’d treated her, she was one of his prisoners, too.
When did Amelia become Lorenzo’s prisoner? She never had the opportunity to tell me when Lorenzo came barging through the door last night.
It was already morning. The sun was peeking through the curtains, and the birds were chirping outside my window, a nice musical sound I’d hardly heard in New York. I opened the window and saw we were on a ranch of some sort. No tall buildings, just plain blue sky above and endless acres of green grass.
I looked down from my window and saw I was only one level above ground. An idea popped into my head. I had no idea where Amelia was, but the first thing I’d do when she arrived was to tell her of my escape plan. There was no way I was staying here. I belonged to Giovanni. I would not let them use me.
I leaned out the window, half of my body already tipping forward when I heard a door open from behind, followed by rushing of feet, before my whole body got pulled back up to a standing position.
“Jen, what are you doing?” It was my sister.
“Mel. I was looking out the window. Did you see? We’re on level one. If we use the bedsheets as ropes, we can escape from here.”
Amelia sighed as if I’d gone crazy. “Do you think I haven’t tried? I’ve been here for four months now, and in that time, I’ve done everything. It doesn’t work. Nikolas has too many guards. They will only capture us again.”
“Then do you expect me to wait here?”
“Is there a better way out?”
“I know Giovanni will come rescue me.”
“Giovanni? Who is Giovanni?”
“He’s my lover.”
“Jen, you have lover?”
“Yes. He’s the mafia boss Pa sold me to. We’re lovers, and he’ll come rescue me.”
“Jen. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no one is coming to rescue you. Nikolas is also a mafia boss. He controls everything in this territory. He will not let another mafia boss just come take over his residence and rescue you.”
“Then why did he kidnap me? And why did he kidnap you? What did we have to do with him?”
“I don’t know how to explain this.”
“You don’t have to explain anything. Once I get myself out of here and find a way to contact Giovanni, I’ll come back and rescue you. If what this Lorenzo dude wants is money, I’ll make sure Giovanni comes back to pay for your ransom.”
And as soon as I said this, I started pulling at the sheets and tying all the ends together, but Amelia kept on untying them again. “Jen, you can’t be serious.”
“I am very serious, Mel.” I kept tying the sheets together.
I refused to listen to her. She may think it was good idea to stay here and let Lorenzo control her, but I wasn’t like her. I could never be like her. I was not some sweet girl who anyone could control. Heck, even when I first became Giovanni’s maid, I used all my skills to survive and demand the right to my freedom. Not live in this beautiful golden cage like this.
At her last attempt to stop me, Amelia took away the bedsheets in my hands and shouted at me, “Stop, Jen. Stop it. I can’t let you go. Do you hear me? I won’t let you go. You have absolutely no idea what Lorenzo is capable of. He can hurt me, but he can’t hurt you. Do you hear me? I won’t let him hurt you. If you stay, he won’t hurt you.”
Her words hit me deep. I stopped and slowly lifted up my gaze to meet hers. “He won’t hurt me, but…but….” And suddenly the event from last night all made sense. Lorenzo dragging Amelia away. Her, disappearing for the whole night, and only reappearing now. I took one step closer to her, and then two, until I fell into her arms and hugged her so tight. “Mel, did he do something to you last night?”
Amelia avoided my eyes, her lips trembling. I was scared to hear the words coming from her mouth, but I had to know, so I asked again, my voice raspy, “Did he do something to you, Mel? Tell me. Please. Did you make him promise not to hurt me if he could...”
My words were left unspoken. But she knew what I’d meant.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“He did something to you last night, didn’t he?”
“Jen. Please don’t make me say it. I…”
She didn’t elaborate further.
“Mel. I’m so sorry. I was just selfish. All I wanted was to save myself. I wanted to go back home. I wanted to go back to Giovanni, and I forgot that you have been here all this time.”
“I’m in debt to Lorenzo,” Amelia finally said. “I can’t go.”
“What did you do? Why are you in debt to him?”
“Pa owes him money. Even in this lifetime, I could never repay him.”
So it was the same problem. Money. Our own father, selling both his daughters for the sake of a debt payment. What kind of father was he, to do that to his own kids? And my dislike for him increased by another tenfold. I didn’t dislike him when he’d sold me to Giovanni. I had only wanted to search for answers, find out his reasons as to why he’d sold me. But this, knowing this knowledge that he’d also sold Amelia, that was the last straw on the camel’s back. I decided to banish him from my family tree. I would only have one kin now, and that was Amelia. I didn’t care where he disappeared to, anymore, because at the end of the day, it was his two daughters who had to suffer.
But this money problem was also good. It was simple to solve. Use money to fix the money problem. It was easy as making cheese omelets.
If I’d only known this sooner, I would have eased Amelia’s pain long ago. If only I had known she was here, as prisoner of Lorenzo, I would have asked Giovanni to save her a long time ago.
But it was not too late. It was never too late. Because I was here now. When Giovanni came, he’d take both of us home, and Amelia and I could go back to live our normal lives again.
“Giovanni will come,” I assured my sister, grasping her hand tight. “He’ll come to rescue me. He’ll rescue you, too. He’s rich. He has money. He loves me. He’ll do anything to make me happy. And you are part of my happiness, Mel. Come home with me, please.”
“I want to get out of here, but I’m not willing to risk losing your life.”
“Mel. Stop it. I’m not going to die. No one can kill me. You have no idea what Giovanni is capable of. He’ll protect me. He’ll run into fire and cross the ocean, just to be with me. I’m sure he’s on his way now.”
And just when I had finished saying those words to convince my sister to come with me, rescue had arrived in the form of Giovanni’s loud voice downstairs. I took my sister’s hand and opened the door, thanking Ma up in heaven that the door wasn’t locked, and ran downstairs to see Giovanni in a verbal combat with Lorenzo.
“Gio,” I called out his name and ran straight into his arms.
Chapter 4
Begging
“Jay, baby, are you okay? Did the bastard do anything to you?” Giovanni asked me, his hands searching for any damage done.
I shook my head. “He didn’t do anything to me.”
“You don’t have to be scared of him
, Jay. I’m here now. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Giovanni kept saying.
I’d never seen him this worried before, and it only cemented the fact that he loved me, just as much as I loved him.
“Gio, I missed you,” I said to ease his worry when Lorenzo suddenly interrupted us.
“Alright, you two. Shows over. Stop mooning over each other. It’s a fucking eyesore.”
“Then shut your fucking eyes,” Giovanni barked back. “I’m having a reunion with my girl, here. Leave us the fuck alone.”
“I wish I could, but this is my house, Giovanni,” Lorenzo said all too calmly. “Or do I need to plaster it on your forehead to remind you that this is my house and you are standing in my territory.”
Giovanni let go of me, ushered me to stand behind his back, and turned to face Lorenzo. A second later, I felt Bobby, Heath, Finnie, and Jonny standing around me in a protective circle. My four friends, the boys who I’d come to know as family.
“Don’t worry, Jenny,” Bobby said. “We’ll protect you. Let Boss deal with Mr. Lorenzo.”
I watched as Giovanni insulted Lorenzo. “Why do you fucking irritate me so much, Lorenzo? It’s your voice. It’s so scratchy, like a fucking fingernail scratching on a chalkboard. So fucking annoying.”
“You’re showing your age, Giovanni,” Lorenzo retorted. “I don’t think I’m old enough to remember what a chalkboard is at school.”
“Fuck you, Lorenzo,” Giovanni swore again.
“Are you done with the swearing?” Lorenzo calmly said. “Do you have anything else to say? Because I’m done here. Let’s get down to business.”
“What do you want? The land deed again? All the trades in Las Vegas, is that it?”
“Like I said before it was a joke. I just wanted to see how you would react. And it was a fun reaction. You sure haven’t changed from all those years ago. Still a spitfire, always so hot-tempered.”
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