“Sure sir. I’ll get you all the details,” she says and hurries back to check her records.
I immediately call the police officer who’s trying to trace Andrew and ask him to come straight away to the restaurant. My gut instinct is telling me that in some way, Andrew is behind Gemma’s sudden disappearance. But still, I am hoping that this does not turn out to be true. Maybe, she was not feeling well and returned home. Though my brain tells me that she wouldn’t have done that without letting me know. I decide to crosscheck anyway.
I call Mrs. Antoni to ask if Rio is alright. If Gemma has already reached home, Mrs. Antoni would surely ask me what happened at the dinner.
“Oh Rio is sleeping peacefully in his room, don’t you worry. Tell me, have you given the ring to Gemma yet? What did she say?” Mrs. Antoni’s voice is brimming with excitement. This confirms that Gemma is not at home right now.
“Uhhhh… I’ve yet to give her the ring. I’ll call you back in some time, Mrs. Antoni,” I say and hang up the phone. I don’t want to worry her unnecessarily, so I don’t tell her anything about Gemma’s disappearance.
In a few minutes, the hostess accompanied by the restaurant manager comes to my table and gives me the details of this Matthew waiter.
“His full name is Matthew Collis and he joined our restaurant last month. He has been quite irregular here and was even accused of stealing one of our guests’ mobile last week,” the manager informs me.
“And you still let him continue here? How irresponsible of you!” I thunder.
“I am so sorry, sir; I did not realize he is a criminal. He just seemed like a man down on his luck. He pleaded me to forgive him and I took pity on him. Sir, I know he is not a man of very high character but somehow he seems incapable of kidnapping Miss….”
“Miss Gemma. I know that perhaps he has not kidnapped her. But he could have helped someone in doing it. I have called the polizia and they’re on their way. We’ll soon get to know what exactly happened here.” I study the address written on the piece of paper that the manager had given to me. It was somewhere near the place where Gemma had collided with my car that night.
Chapter Four
Now my suspicions were turning into reality. Gemma had told me that Andrew also frequented that place with his friends and she was running away from HIM that night. It was possible that Andrew already knew Matthew and when he came to know that Gemma and I would be here in the restaurant, he asked Matthew to deliberately spill the drink on her. He knew that she would come to the washroom to clean herself and he was already waiting for her there.
My blood begins to boil as I imagine Andrew laying his dirty hands on Gemma. I have to get to her before he does her any harm. If he tries to touch her again, I swear I’ll kill him with my own hands.
I decide I can’t wait for the officer and his team to arrive. I have to get to Matthew before he flees from his home. I ask the manger to inform the polizia where I’m going and head straight towards the address given to me.
As I reach Matthew’s home, I am reminded of my childhood days. The narrow lanes filled with garbage and trash, the small, dilapidated houses, lack of proper lighting……the place where I spent most of my childhood was quite similar. I flinch at the thought that Gemma and Rio had to stay somewhere here too when they’d just arrived in Florence.
I knock hard on the door of what looks to be Matthew’s home. The lighting here is so dim that I can hardly see the numbers scribbled on the walls of these small shacks. At first, there is no response. I am getting restless by the minute. If no one answers in the next minute, I am going to break open the door. But while I am contemplating whether to kick it open or just push it with my muscled arms, the door finally creeks open.
“What do you want?” says a woman rudely from inside. In the low light, I can see that she’s not very pleasant to look at.
“Does Matthew live here? I need to see him right now.”
“Do you know what time it is? He’s sleeping right now. Come in the morning.” She starts closing the door.
I put my foot in the door to stop her from closing it.
“Tell him to come out right now or he’ll be very sorry,” I say in a menacing tone. The woman looks a little taken aback at my words and says, “Has he again done something wrong? Has he stolen something? If he has, I swear he didn’t bring anything home tonight. Please, our little babies are asleep inside. I’ll send Matt out and you can do whatever you want with him. I am totally fed up with this man.”
Mumbling a few obscenities, she goes in and leaves the door open this time. I hear some shouting and yelling from inside the house. So much for their sleeping babies!
Chapter Five
After a while, Matthew finally comes out. He freaks out when he sees me and tries to close the door on my face; but I stop him just in time. I roughly pull him out and see that he is shaking like a leaf.
“Listen carefully, Matthew. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in prison, answer my questions as truthfully as possible.”
“Sir….sir, I didn’t do anything. It was Andrew….I swear to God, it was Andrew.”
I feel my heart drop to my stomach. All this while, I had been hoping that my guess would prove to be false. But on hearing Andrew’s name, I find that my worst fear has finally come true!
“I know Andrew is behind all this. But I want you to tell me where he’s hiding….and how did he manage to take Gemma with him. Tell me only the truth Matthew, or you are going to rot in prison for the rest of your life. The polizia will be here any moment now.”
“Po…polizia. But why? Please forgive me sir. I’ll tell you everything….but…but don’t hand me over to the polizia, sir. I have small children to take care of.”
“You should have thought about your children before committing this blunder. Now tell me the truth and I’ll see what I can do for you.”
“Thank you sir, thank you so much. Andrew called me this evening. He said that he needed my help and offered me five hundred bucks in return. I…I got carried away by greed sir. I am so sorry.”
“Continue…” I roar.
“Sir, he told me that you’d be coming to the restaurant for dinner along with your…er…friend. He said that he wanted to settle a score with your friend. Until you arrived, I didn’t even know that the friend he was talking about is a lady.” I fasten my grip on his collar. He wants to settle score with Gemma! Good Lord! That doesn’t sound good at all!
“Sir, I allowed him into the restaurant through a back door that is adjacent to the ladies’ washroom. He was hiding there when ma’am went in. He’d asked me to spill something on her so that she’d have to go to the washroom…………”
I slap him hard across the face.
“You scoundrel! Gemma took the blame of your mistake upon herself and yet you allowed her to fall into Andrew’s trap so easily!”
“I got scared sir,” he is crying with his hands folded before me. “I thought if I tell you now, you’d probably hand me over to the polizia. Please forgive me sir!”
“What did he do to her?”
“I don’t know sir. I swear I don’t know. When ma’am went inside the washroom, I was serving some other guests. I did see her going inside though. When I’d finished serving them, I went there to see what was happening. I was very afraid that Andrew might harm her. But when I went inside, there was no one there. I got scared sir….I told the manager that I had some urgent work and left immediately after that.” I know that he’s telling the truth by the look on his face. He’s looking scared enough to shit in his pants.
As I am about to ask him where Andrew lives, but just then the polizia team arrives.
“Mr. Graziani, did you get any information on Andrew from him?” Officer Thomson asks me.
“No. He has no clue where Andrew lives. Says he’s just met him a few times at a local bar.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait till morning then. There won’t be many people around the bar at t
his time.”
“No!” I shout. “We can’t wait till morning. Already you and your team have wasted so many days trying to get hold of that one man! I will not wait for a single second now that Gemma is with that bastard. He might harm her….”
“But how will we find him without any clue about his whereabouts? We can’t go knocking every door around here to find him.”
Suddenly, a thought strikes me. “Matthew, do you have Andrew’s phone number?”
“Yes sir. I even called him a couple hours back to ask him not to hurt ma’am.”
“Great!” Officer Thomson and I say together. “Give it to me. I’ll forward it to the Police Control Room and they will track this number. Mr. Graziani, we’ll get hold of Andrew very soon.”
Chapter Six - Arianna Rizzio
I can’t explain in words the sheer horror that I feel when I hear his voice.
“What did you think, you bitch! You could run away from me? I would’ve found you even if you’d been hiding in hell……………………”
Those words are enough to tell me that my end is near. After what I did to him back in Murlo, I have no doubts that he is going to kill me. My feet seem to have frozen. I can’t move, I can’t breathe!
“Arianna, did you seriously believe that I will sit back and watch you get married to that Graziani fellow?” Andrew gives out a malicious laugh. “You belong to me, do you hear me? I could not make you mine that night but I won’t be repeating that mistake again.”
I want to shout for help, but all I can do is helplessly watch him come closer to me. In the bright light, I can clearly see a big scar on his forehead that is making him look even more dangerous. He must have got that scar when I hit him on the head that night.
“I…I am sorry for that night, Andrew. I didn’t mean to hurt you that bad,” I have finally found my voice.
“Oh! No need to say sorry right now, my dear. You’ll have plenty of time to repent for your mistakes.” With these words, he puts a dirty cloth over my nose and mouth. I inhale a strange odor and soon the room starts spinning before me.
************************************
My head is aching badly as I open my eyes. There is darkness all around, I blink my eyes repeatedly to focus on my surroundings. That’s when I see him! He is sitting right beside me, as if waiting for me to wake up.
“So, finally my sleeping beauty wakes up from her deep slumber,” he chuckles. “Hope you had a nice nap, my dear.”
“Where….where are we, Andrew?” I am scared to death. He has kidnapped me! Right now, we are in a small, dingy room that smells of alcohol and smoke. I notice that the room has no windows, just one door and a small opening far up on one of the walls. I assume that it is a basement of sorts.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. Wherever we are, we’re safe here. I have made sure that no one will be able to find us.” He laughed that menacing laugh once again.
“Andrew, you’ve no idea what you’ve done. Alberto will find us and then he’ll…..he’ll kill you. You’ve made a big mistake by kidnapping me.”
“Keep your mouth shut,” he roars. He comes near me and pulls my hair so roughly that I shriek in pain. “I don’t want to hear that man’s name from your mouth, do you hear me?”
He moves his eyes from the top of my head to my toes, stopping for a few painful moments on my breasts. “You are looking nice in this dress. You wore this for him, didn’t you….to attract his attention, to seduce him! Now come on, tell me, have you slept with him?”
When I don’t answer his question, he twists my right arm painfully. “When I ask you something, I need an immediate reply! It seems I’ll have to teach you a lot of things. Now tell me, did you sleep with him?”
“What sort of a question is that? I…we…we love each other and….” A tight stinging slap on my face halts my words.
“You don’t love him, you fool! You love me! I can see it in your eyes. You’ve loved me ever since we saw each other for the first time. Don’t you remember that beautiful morning when your papa brought you to the guesthouse….the time when we first met! I still remember the way you smiled at me. It was love at first sight for both of us.”
Chapter Seven
I have no idea what he is talking about. He seems absolutely crazy at the moment, imagining things like that. I’ve never given him any reason to believe that I’m in love with him. In fact, I tried my best to avoid him and whenever he tried to get too close for comfort, I would politely excuse myself and leave. I don’t know from where he got this notion in his head that I love him. He seems to be living in an illusion!
“Andrew, what are you talking about?” My words are a mere whisper. I am scared that he will hit me again if I say something he doesn’t want to hear. I am just praying that God sends Alberto here to save me from this maniac.
“What am I saying, huh? Am I talking in French that you don’t understand me, you bitch!” he shouts. I immediately hide my face with my hands fearing that he’d slap me again. But when nothing happens for a few seconds, I open my eyes slowly.
He is taking a few calming breaths as if trying to control his anger. He looks towards me and once again, he seems normal.
“Listen to me Arianna. I don’t want to hurt you and I have no time for your nonsense. In about one hour, a car will arrive to pick us up and we’ll leave this awful city that has made you forget our precious love.”
“Where….where will we go? Back to Murlo?” Oh God! He’s taking me away from here!
“Of course not, sweetheart. That Graziani fellow will find us easily there. I’ll take you to a faraway land where no one will be able to find us. We’ll finally have our ‘happily ever after’.”
I have to find a way to escape from here before that car arrives to pick us up. I decide to play along Andrew’s illusion to make him believe that I am with him in all this.
“Oh Andrew! Does that mean you are going to marry me?”
He looks a little skeptical at my sudden change in tone, but after a while, he smiles at me.
“Now you are talking sense, my dear. Yes, we’ll get married tomorrow morning. But don’t worry my dear, if you want we can celebrate our wedding night in advance.” He gives me a dirty look and moves closer. I am petrified to think what he’d do next. He pulls me towards himself and starts kissing me forcefully. I feel like puking. He is reeking of alcohol and something else very disgusting. I try to push him away, but he firmly holds my hands behind my back. Just when I feel I can take it no more, he releases one of my hands and moves his own hand up to pinch one of my breasts. I am reminded of that horrible scene in the kitchen back at Murlo. I had escaped him once, but this time, I am sure I’ll not be as lucky. He is continuously kneading and pinching my breasts. Finally with my free hand, I manage to push him away.
“Listen Andrew, I know that you love me and I’ve also realized that I love you too. But I am a little old fashioned, you know. I think….I think we should wait till our wedding night to do all this….you know what I mean?” I try to give him a shy smile. He looks a little confused at first but then thankfully, he backs down a little.
“Oh….I always knew you were a shy girl, Arianna. You remember all those times when I tried to get close to you in Murlo, you’d always run away from me shyly. It is going to be very difficult for me to keep my hands off you now that I know that you love me….but I’ll try. I promise you, I’ll try.”
He is looking so sincere at this moment that I actually feel pity for him. If only he’d understand that I don’t love him, I love Alberto! I wonder where Alberto is at this moment. He must have found out about my being kidnapped by now.
But on second thoughts, how would he know that I’d been kidnapped by Andrew? Perhaps he is thinking that I just stood him up for some reason. Please God, give him some clue that I am here with this crazy man! Please send him here to rescue me!
Chapter Eight - Andrew Dioli
Finally, my Arianna has confessed her love for me! I am s
o happy today. My dream of getting married to the love of my life is finally getting fulfilled.
It is going to be very difficult for me to control my hands when she is sitting so close to me, looking at me with love shining bright in her eyes. But if she wants to wait for another twenty four hours before surrendering herself completely to me, then so be it. Now that we are both on the same page finally, I don’t want to rush things or do anything that might annoy her.
I still can’t believe my good luck. I know that perhaps she has slept with that Graziani fellow, but then what other option did she have? She was all alone in this big city and that man let her stay in his house. He must have forced himself on her and she must have bowed down to his wishes. I want to ask her how she ended up at his house, but I decide to wait until we get married.
If only she’d let me have my way with her tonight, she’d not have to go through such a painful experience. But she’s continuing to be so shy! And then when I finally found her working in that hotel, she again ran away from me! Perhaps she thought I would punish her for leaving me like that in Murlo.
Anyways, whatever happened in the past, I will not allow it to tarnish our future. I’ll take her to a new country, where we’ll start our life again together. I am lost in my thoughts when I hear my phone ring.
“Hello? Andrew?” It’s that idiot Matthew again!
“How many times do I have to tell you to not call me? I’ll send your money….”
“It’s not about money, Andrew. I….I have a very important thing to tell you that I can’t say over the phone. Can you meet me right now?”
“Are you crazy? You know that I have Ari…that woman with me at the moment. What is it? Tell me right now or I’ll disconnect the phone and switch it off. Then you’ll not get your money too.” Arianna is looking at me questioningly.
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set 1-12 (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) (Alpha Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) Page 90