I cleared my throat. “I’m here to buy Miss Pettigrew back from you.”
His eyes slowly rose to mine. “I have to admit, I figured you would’ve already attempted to steal her back by now. She’s been with me almost a week.”
I cocked my head. “Just because you play dirty doesn’t mean I have to.”
He rose to his feet. “That a threat?”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “No. More like a judgement of personality. We’re two very different people and we play with two very different sets of cards. Nothing wrong or bad about that, just a simple fact.”
“She offered her services to me, you know.”
I nodded. “She’s a very successful attorney. It doesn’t shock me one bit that she attempted to cut a deal in order to save her own skin.”
“She also offered up knowledge of the inner workings of your business along with her professional services.”
Fuck. “The name of the game is survival sometimes.”
He cocked his head. “You hate that, don’t you?”
“Hate what?”
He took a step toward me. “The fact that she was willing to sell you out for a room and a shower. She even told me it didn’t have to be nice. Just a bed, a place to clean, and three meals a day. That little bit, and she was ready to sell you up the river.”
I clenched my teeth together. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
“But, you hate it, right? It makes your blood boil, maybe? That’s why you’ve got your hands in your pockets, right? Because you’re ready to strangle me and take her back? Maybe to punish her?”
Don’t let him get in your head. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
He chuckled. “I’m curious, though, how much were you willing to pay for her today?”
“You mean, how much I’m still willing to pay for her?”
He shook his head. “How much were you willing to start negotiations at? Because I can guarantee you it doesn’t even come close to the amount of my highest bidder.”
I blinked. “All of that work to turn her and you’re selling her off for money?”
He shrugged. “I don’t need her services, so why not?”
You really do talk too much. “My opening offer out of the gate was going to be ten million.”
He smirked. “What you originally paid for her.”
“Yep.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s a cute offer, really. But, I’m going to have to decline.”
“Or, you could negotiate with me. Because I can guarantee you--.”
“I won’t give her away for any less than fifty million.”
I snickered in an attempt to hide my shock. “You know that if I win this little war brewing between our families, not even Miss Pettigrew’s mother is going to help you out of the rut you’ll be stuck in.”
Lorenzo grinned. “I would never trust a woman to defend me in the first place. Not even ‘Miss Pettigrew’s’ mother.”
I took a step toward him, feeling his breath against my shoulder. “Twenty million, my final offer.”
He stood on his tiptoes to be eye-level with me. “Fifty one million, and she’s all yours.”
I slowly backed away before I turned my back to him. I’d given my men plenty of time to scour this place, so it was time to make Lorenzo feel as if he’d won this sparring match. I stepped back inside his place and made sure to scour every corner I could see with my eyes, because I knew if I stepped anywhere but closer to the front door I’d have my head blown off. I kept my cool as I reached for the doorknob. I swung the door open and drew in a lungful of fresh air before I stepped back outside.
And when the door slammed behind me, I walked straight off the porch.
Before turning around to survey the rest of the house.
I saw the shadow of my men moving in my peripherals. They were cool and calm, without an ounce of stress or worry in their movements. A grin slithered across my features as my town car pulled up, beckoning for me to get inside. I took note of all the entrances and exits I could see: the windows, the doors, the down-spouts of the gutters denoting slopes in the roof one couldn’t see from the front.
Then, I heard the door open behind me and I slipped into the backseat of my car.
As much as I hated leaving Char behind, I needed to turn my attention to Lorenzo. I had to take that fucker down once and for all, otherwise she’d never have any peace. Part of me wanted to start digging and figure out who the fuck was willing to pay fifty million dollars for the woman I loved. But, before I could formulate a plan on where to start, my phone rang.
And Lyle’s frantic voice on the other end turned my attention from Lorenzo to Ronnie.
Guess the war’s beginning a bit sooner than I expected.
5
Charlotte
“Get in there,” Lorenzo growled.
I stumbled through a rusty door attached to a dilapidated brick building. The air smelled of mold and regret, and it almost made me retch. My hands were handcuffed behind my back as he gripped my arm, leading me down a dark hallway that resembled the dungeon he had me chained up in day in and day out.
Until finally, a light turned on at the end of the hallway.
“Where are we?” I asked.
My head got ripped back and I found myself staring at Lorenzo upside down.
“Quit it with the questions, or you’ll go back home. Understood?”
I swallowed hard and tried my best to nod before he shoved my head back up. I blinked back tears as we rounded a corner, and the second I saw the stage I felt myself back up. Images of that night bombarded my mind’s eye as Lorenzo gripped my waist. He led me forward, placing me in the far left seat all the way at the very front.
Then, he dipped his lips to my ear. “Enjoy the show. I need to go get our auction items lined up for the night.”
The thought made me sick to my stomach.
I vividly recalled standing in front of everyone beneath that spotlight. Dirty, dingy, and vulnerable, while men placed bids on my head as if I were an antique lamp. I sat there, lifeless, as people filed in around me. Men dressed in very expensive suits sat in chairs around me, sniffing me and gawking as I stared blankly ahead of me. The auction began and women filed out, one by one, while men paid anywhere between half a million and five million for the girls that were up there.
It gave me a glimpse into the person Teo really was.
He saved me from all of this. He purchased me off that stage not to use me, or harm me, but to save me. He saw my face, recognized me from the party, and decided I didn’t need to be handed over to any one of these disgusting pigs that kept raising their paddles around me.
And I betrayed him.
“All right, everyone! We’re going to take a quick recess before we get back at it. We’ve got seven more girls ready to be snatched up, and if you want my personal opinion? I’d devour every single one of them.”
A trickle of laughter blanketed the people around me and I wanted to claw all of their eyes out.
“So, get yourselves a drink or some food, and come back in half an hour!”
The spotlight turned off and soft lighting illuminated the walls. I panned my head around, watching as men of all shapes and sizes got up to make their way around the room. There were two open bars with bartenders dressed in very skimpy clothing. They plastered on smiles and jiggled their tits a bit too much, and I wondered if they had once been up on that stage.
Then, my eyes panned over to the corner where all of the food was.
Only, it wasn’t the food my eyes focused on.
“Teo?” I whispered.
There he was, clear as day, plucking something off a passing silver tray. His eyes almost glowed in the dark as he gazed around the room, and I had half a mind to flag him down. With my hands still cuffed behind my back, I stood to my feet. He was right there, less than fifteen feet in front of me, and all I had to do was--.
“You’re coming
with me,” Lorenzo growled.
“No--!”
His hand clapped over my mouth and he began dragging me away. I thrashed around, trying to cry out for Teo against the man’s callused palm as tears dripped from my eyes. I managed to reach my foot out and kick over a chair, causing a temporary startle that turned everyone’s eyes toward me.
And even though Teo looked in my direction, the darkness had already swallowed us whole.
“You’ll pay for that little stunt,” Lorenzo hissed in my ear.
He slammed me against the wall and I braced myself. I looked over his shoulder and readied myself for whatever pain or sexual torture this man had for me next. But, the second I saw the back of her head, I froze.
Until Lorenzo’s knuckles cracked against my jawline.
“Don’t you ever embarrass me like that again. You understand?”
I fell to the ground and tried to keep my eyes on the back of that woman’s head, but it hurt to breathe. It hurt to exist. It hurt to still be alive.
And I felt blood pooling in my mouth.
It can’t be.
I had to be seeing things. She had to be a figment of my imagination. Because there was no way in hell—and no reason on this earth—for my mother to be at one of these things. I tried to recall the last time I’d eaten as Lorenzo pulled me up from the ground. I tried to think about the last time I had anything to drink as he dragged me down the pitch black hallway, murmuring to himself.
And when Lorenzo dragged me outside, all thoughts of my mother being at an event like this fell from my mind.
Especially when his car pulled up.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
I watched some of my blood-tainted spit fall against his suit and anger flashed in his eyes.
“You disgusting creature. Why the fuck Mateo ever wanted you around, I’ll never know.”
He shoved me into the back of the car we arrived in and I didn’t try to fight it any longer. I was going to die at the hands of this man, and I had accepted my fate. I curled my legs up just as Lorenzo slammed the car door shut, and I waited for the hard thump on top of the car that would signal our departure.
Until a familiar voice sounded just outside the window.
“We need to talk, Lorenzo,” Mateo said.
And even though the windows were fully tinted, I shot up like a bat out of hell and gazed through the dark glass.
Laying eyes on the man I never should’ve run from in the first place.
Yell for him. Cry out for him. Do something to get his attention!
I knew better than that, though. I’d spent enough time at the hands of Lorenzo’s bullshit to know that if Mateo didn’t leave with me tonight, he’d kill me. Or worse. I snickered at the thought. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever once considered death being a kinder alternative to something else.
And as the two men started talking, I quickly lost hope that the confrontation was about me.
Because with the way Teo was acting, it seemed like he didn’t even know I was there.
6
Mateo
“We need to talk, Lorenzo,” I said as he slammed the car door closed.
He whipped around on me and pierced me with a gaze I knew not to fuck with. “What the hell do you want now?”
I grinned. “That any way to treat a guest of the evening? I’m sure your brother wouldn’t like that kind of treatment.”
He gritted his teeth. “What do you want now, sir?”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “The chef for the evening isn’t making anything that’s gluten-free. There are people already bitching about it.”
He groaned. “God damn it, I hate incompetent fools. Thanks for coming out to tell me.”
I tried not to peek at the car and give myself away. “Nice selection of women you have up there tonight.”
He chuckled. “Already trying to replace what you’ve lost?”
“You know as well as I do that it isn’t possible to replace Miss Pettigrew.”
He shrugged. “I’ve had better.”
You just sealed your death. “I’m sure.”
He chuckled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to attend to.”
As he turned back toward the car, I envisioned all the ways I could kill him. Planting a bomb beneath his car, for starters. Then again, that also put Char at risk. I could capture him and drag a knife across his neck. That way, I could feel his warm blood dripping down my hungry fingers as he shook and choked against me.
I grinned at the idea before I pushed it all away.
If I don’t succeed the first time in killing him, he’ll punish Char.
I tried not to get swept away envisioning how I’d punish her, but I couldn’t help it. I missed her, and her smile, and her smell, and her softness. I thought about tying her up and torturing her with endless orgasms until she cried and told me she was sorry. I thought about denying her all of the orgasms I wanted to give her until she admitted that I was the only one for her. Pleasant thoughts filled my mind as Lorenzo opened the car door, and when the sound hit my ears it pulled me from my thoughts.
And I found Char’s frightened, bloodied face peering over his shoulder.
You fucking bastard.
As quickly as he had opened the door, he closed it, and I steeled my gut as much as I could. I couldn’t let him know that I knew she was in there. She was so close, yet so far away, and I was on their turf. Which meant that if I attempted to snatch her up, hellfire would rain down on all of our heads and no one would make it out alive.
Char, included.
“Well, if there’s nothing else, I have a lot to attend to tonight,” Lorenzo said.
I nodded. “I’m sure you do. One last thing, though.”
He sighed. “Spit it out, Mateo.”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “When I retrieve Miss Pettigrew back from you, and I certainly will, I will slaughter one person in your family with my own two hands for every wound you leave on her body. Understood?”
He blinked. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I shrugged. “Try me, if you don’t believe me. But, I can guarantee you this: for every wound, it’s a sibling. For every bruise, a cousin. And for every scar left behind to remind her for the rest of her life of what you did? Well, let’s just say I’ve got men at my employ that don’t have the kind of morals I do.”
He gnashed his teeth. “At the end of the day, you’re just like all of us. Know that, Teo.”
I wiped his spit off my face and brushed it onto his suit. “Trust me, I know. But, it’s what you don’t know about me that should frighten you the most.”
He smacked my hand away and poised himself for a fight. But, I simply withdrew my cell phone out of my pocket. I knew Char was hurting. I knew she was wounded. And I knew she was in a lot of emotional pain. I couldn’t stand this any longer. I needed to get her back. I had played the game the best way I possibly could, but it was now time to stop fucking around.
Because any day now, I knew Char would succumb to the same fate all of Lorenzo’s other ‘playthings’ did.
And I couldn’t lose her for good.
I turned my back to Lorenzo and it took everything I had in me to walk away, because what I wanted to do was strangle that man with my bare hands and take Char into my arms. I had to play this smart, though. There was a war brewing that had nothing to do with her, and if I didn’t play my cards right she’d be the first casualty in it. I had to work under the assumption that everyone knew she was my weakness.
Especially since Lorenzo had such a big fucking mouth.
The head of my security picked up the phone. “Passcode?”
I slipped back into the building, keeping to the shadows. “Purple.”
“Repeat.”
I blinked. “Actually, no. Black.”
“Repeat one more time.”
I nodded. “Black.”
I heard shuffling on the other end of the line. “Name and date?”
I peered over my shoulder. “Lorenzo Lucchese, and as soon as possible.”
“Mode?”
I chuckled. “Get creative. He deserves it.”
“Activator?”
“Whoever’s up for the job. I don’t care if you send every single man you’ve got after him. Just do as I’m asking.”
I hung up the phone and drew in a deep breath before my back fell against a wall. I closed my eyes and gave myself a second to hang my head as I heard tires squealing away from the building. My men and I had a slew of code words that usually pertained to colors, and while my first instinct was to go with ‘purple’—or a hit—I knew that would only escalate things before I could get my hands on Char. So, I backtracked to ‘black’—which meant infiltration.
Now that my men had scoured Lorenzo’s property, I needed them to infiltrate and check on Char. Maybe not take her, but definitely check on her.
“Don’t fuck this up,” I whispered.
I pushed myself off the wall and held my head high as I slid my hands out of my pockets. I cracked my knuckles as I ventured down the hallway, making my way back toward the auction. I heard that woman speaking into the microphone and I rolled my eyes. I found my way back to my place at the back of the room and plucked another luscious snack from a passing silver tray. And as I plopped it into my mouth, a very beautiful bartender was at my side with the drink I had ordered before I followed Lorenzo down that hallway in the first place.
“Thank you, miss,” I said.
She didn’t look straight into my eyes. “Of course, sir, and if there’s anything else you need, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”
I sipped my drink. “How much do you cost for the evening?”
She swallowed hard. “I’ve been told to tell suitors $600,000.”
I threw the rest of my drink back. “Get me another, and let your boss know you’re coming with me tonight.”
Tears lined her eyes. “Yes, sir.”
She plucked my drink out of my hand and I turned my gaze back to the stage. One by one, women were filed up front and I logged the names of the men that purchased them. After this auction, it would be time for me to hold another party. One where I could purchase these women for a discounted ‘sloppy seconds’ price and set them free.
Traitor: An Enemies to Lovers Mafia Romance (Sold to The Don Book 3) Page 3