by Rowena
“I’m not fat,” I object.
“Sure, whatever,” Paulie says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “New clothes. The boys will take you out in the morning. Don’t buy anything that makes you look like a slut. You’re to look respectable, so something classy. Like you got some style. Try to find something that hides that fat belly.”
“It’s not fat, I’m pregnant!” I scream.
Paulie glares and then he grins.
“It wouldn’t be a problem if your father had listened to me in the first place.”
Cold chills ripple through me and I shudder.
The tone of his voice, the deadness in his eyes—there’s no mistaking what he counseled my father to do.
“You’re a monster,” I exhale.
“Maybe,” he shrugs. “But I’m damn good at my job. Which, right now, is getting you ready and presentable for your new husband.”
“I won’t go,” I say, climbing to my feet, using the wall for support.
“You’ll do what you’re told to,” he says with a flat voice.
“You can’t make me!” I yell, my confidence growing.
Father won’t let him do this—not that. He needs me presentable for Callum, so there have to be restraints in place.
Paulie’s eyes narrow and his right hand balls into a fist.
“You know what I do to little girls like you?”
“Probably nothing; you’re probably impotent,” I spit, wanting to hurt him but he just smiles.
“I buy girls like you, hundred bucks. About your age. Nice, clean, and scared. I like it when they’re scared. That’s when it’s the best.”
“You’re sick,” I say.
“I bring them to a special place. I feed them, give them some booze, then I get them high. They fight less if they’re high. Then they do what I tell them to. They entertain me. Oh, it hurts, but if they do a good job, they’ll see the sunrise. If they mouth me, like you’re mouthing me, they won’t.”
“Animal,” I growl, sick to my stomach knowing this is one of the men who raised me and he uses women like that.
I have no doubt he’s telling the truth.
He should be in jail. Or dead. Anything but here in my room with me.
If Donnie was here listening to him, he’d kill him. Donnie wouldn’t let anyone threaten me like that.
“Moral of the story is, shut your mouth, do what you’re told. End of story. Or I assure you your father won’t bat an eye when I tell him I taught you a lesson.”
“You can’t! I have to look good for Callum.”
“Only in the face. He won’t mind a few bruises anywhere else. Hell, from what I hear, it’d probably get him more excited. I could just rape you a few times. Let the boys come in and have their fun…”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Wouldn’t I? You really want to test me on this, Isabella? Be ready at eight a.m. or we’ll see what I would or wouldn’t dare to do.”
“Fine,” I say, giving in while still leaning on the wall.
I’m not sure I can stand without it.
Paulie glares for a minute more then leaves my room.
I hear the door lock behind him.
Shit! I’m gasping for air and my knees feel like jelly.
What the hell was I thinking? I shouldn’t provoke him.
But I couldn’t stop myself. He scared me so fucking bad, I had to lash out.
I push myself off the wall, holding onto it with one hand until the dizziness and fear pass and I feel like I can walk without falling down.
I open the drawer of my nightstand to pull out the candle and matches.
The candle is getting low—maybe I can get them to let me buy another one while we’re out in the morning.
I hope so. If not, I know where some are located around the house I should be able to snatch.
I walk to the window sill and set the candle down on a glass saucer.
My iPod is on my dresser, so I go to it and cue up the song then return to the window.
My hands are still shaking, so it takes me three matches before one strikes true and sizzles into a flame.
The flame burns blue as I touch the wick and it catches.
I shake out the match and the hints of sulfur make me relax.
Using the burnt tip of the match, I make a small mark on the molding under the window.
Counting the marks, I add up how many days it’s been since Donnie escaped.
I listen to the song and say my mantra.
Every night since he escaped, I say it over and over like a prayer: “Be safe, Donnie. Come for us soon. I love you and I’m running out of time.”
19
Donnie
Cars pass by on the highway while I wait.
The parking lot of the Sav-Mor gas and convenience store is mostly dark.
There are two halogen lights, only one of which is working. I’m parked under the one watching the entrance.
The minutes tick by on the clock, slowly—so damn slow.
He’s late.
Could be a million reasons, all of them benign, but then there are a dozen reasons that are a problem. Those are the ones that keep running through my mind.
If something has gone wrong with Callum, then my plan is shot to shit.
But it can’t be. I have to save her. She’s three months pregnant with our child. I have to get her the hell out of there.
I pull a scarf she wore out of my pocket and hold it to my nose, inhaling the scent of her.
I had thought my life was good—head of a family, loyal friends, good soldiers, and thanks to Max and his brilliance, we were heading into a much less violent future. No longer would I have to put my soldiers on the streets to try and control a section of the city. The family would make its money from high tech. Easy, clean, less bloodshed.
My plans were all coming together, and we were getting out of the old businesses. Divesting them off to the other families while buying peace.
It worked with all of them except the Baldini family.
Emilio had to destroy me, had to prove he was stronger, I just knew it.
I also know he ordered my father’s death, but I’d be willing to let that go except it’s never going to be enough for him.
Emilio isn’t satisfied with just killing a man; he wants to take everything from his victims then kill them.
He’s taken her.
I don’t care if she’s his daughter—he doesn’t deserve her.
She’s mine now.
Ever since she came into my life, I’ve felt whole. I didn’t even know there was a hole in me before I met her, and now, it aches where she should be.
I won’t rest until she’s free and Callum is key to that plan. Where the hell is he?
A car pulls off the highway.
Instinctively, I reach inside my jacket, letting my hand rest on the butt of my pistol.
I’ve been burned once; I won’t be again.
The car bounces across one of the multiple potholes then stops twenty yards away, facing my car.
The brights flash once then twice.
I flash my lights once and the car drives closer.
I keep my hand on my gun as the car pulls around in front of me then stops so that the driver’s window is next to mine.
I can see the shape of a man in there, but I can’t make it out through the dark and foggy windows.
The window starts sliding down, and with my free hand, I press the button to lower my own window too.
As the windows fall, I see curly red hair then the pale, freckled skin of Callum.
Once our windows are fully down, I finally take my hand off my gun, seeing that he’s alone.
“You picked the shittiest place in the world to meet,” Callum says. “Do they have coffee in there?”
“You’re late,” I say.
“Yeah, well, you try getting a three-year-old to stay in bed when he knows you’re leaving the house once he goes down.”
“That
all?” I ask.
“That all?” he asks incredulously. “Like that’s nothing? I’d rather herd cats than try to corral my kids. My wife is a blessed saint, I tell you. Woman puts up with that shit all day long like it’s nothing. Never complains, not once.”
“How the hell are you, Callum?” I ask, smiling.
He smiles back broadly. “I could complain, but who would give a shit?” he says.
“Not me,” I respond like we always have.
“Yeah, there you go. My best friend and he tells me to deal with my own fucking problems.”
“What the hell are friends for?”
“I hear ya,” he says. “Well, you ready?”
“The question is, are you?”
“This is going to be a good time,” he says. “I have always hated that stingy fuck. He screwed me on a trade deal five years ago. Haven’t gotten over it.”
“Sounds like good old Emilio,” I say.
“Yeah. Fucking prick. What can you do?”
“How many men are you bringing?”
“Dozen, minimum. I don’t trust that asshole.”
“Yeah, good plan,” I say.
“So this chick… ” he begins.
“What about her?”
“She worth it?” he asks, grinning, searching my face.
I give it some thought.
He’s right—I could walk away from all of this. I’ve got lots of money. I could go anywhere and start over.
I could but I don’t want to; I don’t want a life without her in it.
“Yeah,” I say, grinning back. “Worth every bullet.”
“Good. You need a good woman in your life. How about your guy on the inside? Is he going to be ready?”
“That may be a problem,” I say, frowning.
“Shit, what’s going on?”
“I haven’t been in contact with him and surveillance hasn’t spotted him. He might have been made.”
“Damn, that is a problem. We’re going to be in his home compound. That’s beyond home field advantage. We need an ace in the hole.”
“Yeah, been thinking about that. I’m going in with you.”
“The hell you are!” he exclaims. “That’s the stupidest plan you’ve had since that one you came up with to sneak into the girl’s locker room at St. Mary’s Sacred Heart.”
“No, that was a good plan,” I say.
“Oh, sure it was. We not only got caught but we got stuck in the ceiling to boot. They’re probably still telling stories about your skinny legs hanging through the roof,” he says with a laugh.
“Yeah, probably so,” I say, laughing a little, but I’m not feeling it. I can’t laugh until Bella’s free. “This is better. I promise.”
“There’s a bounty on your damn head and now you want to just waltz into his home and grab your sweetie? You’re nuts.”
“Remember Star Wars?”
“What about it?”
“When they’re rescuing Princess Leia?” I ask, prodding him.
“Oh shit, you’re going in as… ”
“One of your bodyguards,” I insert for him.
“Damn, okay. Yeah, we can pull that off. How do you get the girl?”
“Thanks to you and your, um, reputation, I don’t have to. They’re delivering her to you, so it should be easy as pie. We just walk out the door with her.”
“Damn. But what about finishing off Emilio? That’s what I’m in this for. I want that fuck to pay for what he’s done. He’s killed dozens of my friends.”
“How messy do we want this to be? I won’t put her at risk and I’m not in contact with my man inside. If I can’t coordinate with him, then we’re on our own.”
“Shit,” he says.
“Yeah, exactly,” I say.
Callum stares off into the darkness, thoughtful.
His fingers drum on the steering wheel, then he nods and a slow grin spreads across his face.
“I could bring more men,” he says. “Have them staged outside, ready to go.”
I think about it.
I want to see Emilio on his knees begging. I want him to pay for what he’s done to my men, for my father.
It’s appealing—an all-out assault on him that will put a final end to him.
Then I see her in my mind’s eye. I can’t risk Bella in a move like that. It’s too dangerous.
“No,” I say. “I have to get them out first. He has Bella and Max both. Too much risk.”
“All right. Well, you know the signal,” he says. “I need to get home. I’ll see you in two days, okay?”
“Sounds good. I’ll keep trying to get in touch with my inside man. We’ll see how it goes.”
“Cool. Keep me in the loop.”
“I will,” I say as we both roll our windows up.
It starts to rain, a slow drizzle that slowly covers my windshield as I watch him drive away.
When his taillights disappear from sight, I start my car then drive the opposite direction back to New York.
My mind races in circles as I drive in silence, listening to the sound of the road.
I’m coming, Bella.
The road sounds lull me into a kind of peace that has been impossible to find since my escape.
Knowing she’s trapped and it’s taking so long for me to rescue her has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Every day I want to storm into Emilio’s compound with guns blazing and set her free. Every day I remind myself why that is a fool’s plan.
As I drive, I imagine the life we’re going to create together.
This plan will succeed.
I’ve considered every possibility, prepared for every eventuality. Nothing can go wrong this time.
No one person knows the whole plan except me, so there’s nothing anyone can do to betray me.
I’ve already gotten a penthouse lined up in downtown New York not far from Central Park.
We’ll be able to go there every day with our child and walk the park, watch him or her play. Hell, I might get a dog.
Does Bella even like dogs? Or is she a cat person?
I don’t care either way—whichever makes her happy.
The miles tick by as I lose myself in a vision of the future until at last I arrive at the hole in the wall that serves as home.
I pull the car into the garage and park in a service bay.
It’s an old mechanics shop that I purchased a few years ago to use as a cover for one of my business interests. Originally, I bought it through several layers of dummy corporations, so no one knows I own it.
The light is on in the office so I head there.
Francesca is sitting behind the desk, cleaning her gun. She looks up when I enter.
“It’s done,” I say.
“Good,” she says, inspecting the barrel, then she begins assembling the weapon. “That thing started making weird beeping noises. It was annoying as hell so I turned it down.”
She looks over at the walkie-talkie sitting on a side table, glaring at it as if it had outright insulted her.
I leap to the table and grab it, turning up the volume.
A series of beeps fills the room.
My heart pounds in my chest as I realize what it means.
“Paper, pencil!” I order.
Francesca hands me both from a drawer in the desk with a confused look on her face.
I take them, set the walkie down, then start marking the sounds on the paper as a series of dots and dashes.
It starts to repeat so I stop and work out the translation.
“All set. It’s a go,” I read off the paper.
“You’re shitting me,” Francesca says. “You’re using Morse code?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” I ask, grinning.
“God, you’re no better than he is. Fucking geeks.”
“What matters is he’s alive and we’re not walking in blind.”
I grin at her and she flashes one of her rare smiles.
“Good, then let
’s finish this. To the end of the road.”
“To the end of the road,” I agree.
20
Isabella
“Get dressed,” Paulie orders before he slams the door behind him.
I grab the nearest thing to me and throw it at the closed door.
The small lamp smashes to pieces and glass tinkles to the carpet.
I scream in frustration.
Donnie hasn’t come yet, and now I’m being delivered from one monster to another.
Paulie and the guards have made a point of telling each other the stories they’ve heard about what Callum McLean does to women where I will be certain to overhear them. They snicker as they do it, enjoying my fear.
I hate them. I hate them all.
Now they want me to dress up and make myself pretty, all on my father’s orders.
Sickness grips me, and I rush to the bathroom.
After it passes, I go to the sink to rinse my face with cool water.
I stare into the mirror, contemplating the few options I have open.
Donnie said he’d return, and I believe him. I have to believe him. He’s my only hope.
I can’t escape on my own. They watch me twenty-four hours a day. I barely go to the bathroom alone.
I have no one outside this house except him, and no one here is going to help me.
Two days ago, I felt a glimmer of hope when I caught a glimpse of Maxwell. He was locked in a room with several computers around him.
That hope died when he looked at the door I was passing and I saw the bruises on his face and the despair in his eyes.
Two guards were hovering over him as he worked on something.
A tear ran down his face when he saw me, and one of the guards cuffed him on the back of the head hard enough to knock him into the desk.
No hope there. I’m on my own unless Donnie comes.
So what choices do I have? Survive. That’s my one choice. I have to survive, and in doing so, count on Donnie to return for me, no matter where I am. I have to protect our baby.
My father and Paulie have been rubbing in my face the fact that Donnie left me behind and hasn’t returned. They’ve tried to convince me that he’s forgotten me, moved on to some new woman, but I don’t believe them.