Ruthless Captor: A Mafia Romance (Corrupt Minds Book 3)

by Camille Alexander

  Slowly, the memory of Giani’s face and the jab of a needle came back to me. I looked around at the room for clues as to where I was. The walls were painted white except for the accent wall where the large bed stood. Expensive linen and a down throw made the bed comfy and warm. I was relieved to have my clothes on this time around.

  A Picasso hung on the wall opposite the bed; I knew his work well. He was one of my favorite artists. Whoever owned the house I was in had money. Giani’s apartment wasn’t too shabby, but this was old money. I tried to stand up, but my legs were wobbly. So, I sat upright for a bit. Where was Giani? Was he tired of the sight of me, so over the troublesome Pisano hanging around his neck like a millstone?

  “Giani! Where are you? Giani!” I refused to lie there without answers. This was bullshit. I was so over the fear and anxiety. Enough was e-fucking-nough!

  Someone must have heard my pissy cries because I heard footsteps outside the door. I heard two men talking. I recognized one as being Giani’s; he’d better have an extraordinary reason for drugging me and dragging me off, or I would rip his balls off.

  The key turned in the lock, and he stepped into the room.

  “What the fuck, Giani? Where am I this time? Your country house? What’s with the needle, you asshole?”

  “I’m sorry about that, Celina, but I didn’t have any other options.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your family is looking for me, and I’m not ready to die just yet.”

  “How do they know about you?”

  “It’s a long story. I’ll explain it to you later. Meanwhile, I’ll send up some juice and coffee for you. Are you hungry?”

  “Just get out.”

  GIANI

  She was livid, not that expected any less. I left her in the room and went downstairs to the study.

  “Is she here, Giani?” Dominick looked up from his desk as I walked through the door.

  “Yes, Capo.”

  “Does she know about us?”

  “No, I haven’t told her anything. As far as she knows, I’m just a common killer who kidnapped her. I was careful not to give away anything important.”

  “Okay, that’s a start. Who else but me knows you’re here?”

  “Just you and I.”

  “Good. Keep it that way. I’ll get the word out that you’ve left the country on family business. That should buy us some time.”

  “Thank you, Capo. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Yes, stay put!”

  I left the study feeling like a reprimanded schoolboy. My own fault for acting like a juvenile with a perpetual hard-on. I didn’t have the stomach to kill her, and that was my undoing. Now my whole family was in danger because my dick did all the thinking for me.

  I went to the kitchen, my sanctuary, poured myself a strong coffee, and sat at the large family table. Gina came in shortly after. She came over and sat in the booth across from me.

  “Do you have feelings for the girl, Giani?”

  That was Gina: straight to the point, no mucking about. She had radar where I was concerned. All her children, for that matter. I swore the woman was psychic.

  “Why do you ask, Mama?”

  “Because you wouldn’t put us in danger if you didn’t feel something for her now, would you?”

  “She’s a Pisano, Mama. They are a loathsome bunch. How can anything good come from such a despicable family?”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “Even if I did, what good would it do? We can never be together. When she finds out who I am she’s going to hate me for sure. I’m not so sure she’s terribly fond of me now.”

  Gina looked at me for a moment before she spoke. “Did I ever tell you how I met Dominick?”

  “No, I can’t recall that you did.”

  “No two people had a worse start than we had. I was an FBI agent sent to investigate the Coli family.”

  I stared at her in disbelief. I never saw that coming. Was she jerking my chain?

  “An FBI agent? That’s crazy.”

  “The worst part was that Dominick had no idea. I fell in love with him, but I couldn’t tell him. I thought if I kept my distance, my feelings would simply go away. But that’s not how love works, my boy. The heart wants what the heart wants.”

  She covered my hands with hers; her beautiful eyes rested on mine. “It doesn’t matter that you’re from different worlds, Giani. If you care for her, you must find a way to be with her. If she feels the same way, you’ll know.”

  “But she’s a Pisano, Mama.”

  “And you’re a Coli. So what?”

  She got up from the table and left the kitchen, leaving me in stunned silence. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself until I knew how Celina felt about us. I was clinging to the morsel of pride I had left.

  I made Celina coffee and poured her some juice. I grabbed a few freshly baked goods from the cooling rack and set off to the jungle where I expected a pounding.

  ***

  CELINA

  My parents were looking for me, thank God. I was tired of being locked up like a criminal. I sat up and rubbed my eyes; thankfully my vision had returned to normal. I noticed that the windows weren’t barred, and there was no brick wall hemming me in. I got up slowly and crossed the luxury carpet to the window, opening it for fresh air. The cool breeze filled my lungs as I took in a deep gulp of breath. Heaven!

  My hopes of escaping through the open window were dashed when I realized I was two floors up with concrete paving below, just waiting to shatter my bones into a thousand pieces. I went to the en-suite bathroom to splash water on my face and take a long-overdue leak. Great, just my rotten luck, a wall-mounted toilet without a reservoir lid. Plan B was a bust. I was stuck in Alcatraz without an air vent.

  The door to the room opened, and Giani came in carrying a tray with coffee, juice, and baked biscotti. I glared at him as he put it down on the desk in the corner of the room. He looked at me but said nothing. I guess he didn’t have much to say. What could he say, really? “Here’s some coffee and biscuits. Oh, and sorry about drugging you and locking you up somewhere new.”

  He sat down on the chaise lounge, blood-soaked, and watched as I sat down on the edge of the bed. It was becoming a familiar sight, the two of us squaring off from across a locked bedroom.

  “So, my father is looking for me.”

  “Of course, he is. I can’t let you go, now; it will signal the end of my days here on earth.”

  “Why? Are you assuming I would give you up?”

  “Wouldn’t you? From the toilet lid incident and the mess you made of my lip, and of course, our stimulating conversations, I gathered that I’m not one of your favorite people.”

  “That may be so, but I don’t want to see you dead. I cannot for the life of me think why, but the idea of you swimming with the fishes doesn’t fill me with glee.”

  “I’m sorry, Celina. I’ve made a mess of things. I never meant to hurt you; I only needed to know if you saw me when I hit Victor. Had I known you were none the wiser, I would have left you alone.”

  “You were screwed, either way. I did see your face, briefly, and I would have ratted on you without blinking. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a jerk and a giant pain in my ass, but I don’t want you killed. Despite how I feel about you and the way you ripped me from my world, I’m not a murderer.”

  “Celina, there’s something I have to tell you.”

  “What?”

  The door flew open and a man I hadn’t seen before motioned for Giani to follow him. Giani looked at me, then he said. “We’ll talk later.” And that was it, I was alone once more in my new birdcage.

  ***

  GIANI

  There was a frenzy downstairs. When I descended the stairs, I understood the reason. On the landing below lay a body, beaten and bloody. A knife protruded from the man’s chest with a note attached, the paper
stained with blood. I could smell the rich iron smell of his blood. It wasn’t the kind of smell you could mistake. Death had its own fragrance.

  Dominick was standing over the body. When he looked up at me, I saw the concerned look in his eyes, not a look of anger, but one of sadness.

  “What’s happened? Who is that?” The man’s face was turned away from me. No one answered me, so I took a closer look. I recognized the face, and as I did, I felt faint and nauseous. The note pinned to his chest with a large hunter’s knife read, ‘A little gift for the Coli scum. You’re next; all of you!’

  An overwhelming sense of rage burst from my being. People often said that they were so angry, they saw red—I understood it that day. The lifeless, bruised, blood-soaked body lying on the white marble floor was that of Tony’s. The motherfuckers killed my friend.

  The time for choices and options had gone. I’d have to kill the Pisano woman, and fast.

  Chapter Eleven

  CELINA

  Giani rushed into the room, grabbed me by the hair, and yanked me to my feet.

  “Ouch! What the fuck? Have you gone mad? Giani! Let me go!”

  “You bitch! Your family is nothing more than thugs and murderers.”

  He pulled a gun from his belt and pressed it up against my temple. I screamed and squirmed under his grip, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break free. I stared into his beautiful blue eyes; they were as dark as thunderclouds. He stared at me with such disdain that I thought he’d kill me for sure.

  “Giani, please,” I whispered the words and kept my eyes fixed on his. His hands were shaking, and his brow glistened as he glowered at me. I was too afraid to move. I had never experienced such fear before as he held me in an iron grip, scaring me with his merciless hate.

  “Fuck!” he screamed at the top of his voice, pushed me onto the bed, and stormed out of the room. I had to pinch myself in case it was a nightmare. The red welt on my skin told me it was not. I sat against the plush velvet headboard with my knees drawn to my chest. Whatever it was, I had the feeling that it involved my father.

  ***

  GIANI

  When I stared into Celina’s eyes and saw the fear in them, I let go of her. My rage over Tony’s torture and death had a vice grip on me. Who was I really angry at? A woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? A woman who had compassion for someone she knew and left the safety of her car in the middle of an ice-cold winter’s night to help him? A woman I made love to just a few nights ago?

  The questions made me sink to the floor outside her bedroom door. I slumped with my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands, utterly despondent and raw with pain over causing Tony’s death. It was my fault; all of it. I fucked up the hit, I kidnapped Celina, and my head was so far up my ass I never stopped to think of protecting my friends. I was a coward for taking it out on Celina—a sniveling coward.

  I was desperate to go back into the room, put my arms around her, and hold her tightly against my chest—to beg for her forgiveness. But it was too late. If she hated me before, she loathed me now. I scared the shit out of her, and there was no coming back from that.

  A sudden thought ripped me from my self-pity. Vinny! Oh, fuck! I had to warn him before it was too late. I jumped to my feet, grabbed my phone from my pocket, and dialed his number. It rang, and rang, and rang. God, please! Let him be okay.

  “Hello.” Vinny’s voice broke the incessant ringing tone.

  “Thank, God. Vin, where are you?”

  “What’s going on, G? You sound like you’re in a world of trouble.”

  “Vinny, listen to me. Drop what you’re doing and come straight to the Coli mansion. Do you hear me? Right now!”

  “Are you okay, Giani?”

  “I’ll tell you when you get here. Keep an eye on your rearview mirror. Make sure you’re not followed.”

  I ended the call before he could ask any more questions. I couldn’t face Celina—not after what I did, so I went downstairs to find Dominick. He called me into his study and poured me a large whiskey.

  “Here, drink this. Then calm down, and we’ll talk.”

  I did as I was told. After downing the contents of the snifter, I put it down on his desk.

  “How did Tony get here?”

  “Eddy called from the gatehouse and said that a car sped past and a man wearing a mask threw a body out the door. Eddy thought it was Tony, but he wasn’t sure. The men went down to the gate to check and brought him back to the house.”

  “Was he alive? Did he say anything called?”

  “No, he was dead when Eddy called. I’m sorry, Giani. I know the two of you were close.”

  I had a lump the size of Texas lodged in my throat. I battled to swallow. “Capo, I don’t know what to say to you. I fucked up. I’ll make this right, I swear it.”

  “Giani, life is never smooth. Yes, you’ve made a real mess of this, but we Coli’s stick together. Pisano is our common enemy, and it’s time we put them in their place. They’ve killed countless good men: men who served my family faithfully.” He paused before he dropped the bombshell on me. “People like your father, Giani.”

  The world around me ground to a halt. I saw everything in slow motion; Dominick’s lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything he said. I stared at him like a deaf-mute, without hearing and without speech.

  I spoke after a long, uncomfortable silence. “What? You knew my father?”

  “Yes, he worked for me on and off. He made one too many mistakes, and before my men could warn him, Pisano had him killed.”

  I didn’t know how much more I could take in. I sat quietly and stared as Dominick sat back in his chair and gave me a moment to recover.

  “What mistakes?”

  “Your father had a habit of letting slip things that others wanted to keep to themselves because he needed money to gamble. I tried to help him where I could; he was a good and loyal man. But the time came when I had to cut him off for his own sake. It went well for a long time, but then, the temptation of the game sucked him back in. He was never the same after that.”

  “Is that why you took me in?”

  “I took you in because I know how cruel this world can be to a young boy without a father. When I heard of your mother’s death, I set out to find you. It took a year to track you down. When I found you on the streets, I did for you what I wasn’t able to do for your father. I love you like my own, Giani. My heart would break if anything happened to you.”

  The rage pushed up inside of me, threatening to spill over and engulf me and everyone around me.

  “I’m going to kill him, Capo. That son of a bitch is a dead man.” I got up and left the room.

  ***

  CELINA

  Life was simple when you were a child. Making lemonade and baking cookies and selling it for pocket money was a fun way to spend your time. The safety of your mother’s arms wrapped around you, the smell of warm bread wafting through the house as you’re wrapped up in a blanket, watching movies with your friends. Why we had to grow up and lose those wonderful things was beyond me.

  I missed my mother. I longed to see her kind face, her paint-covered hands as she embraced me. The world was a good place when you were in the arms of your mother. I knew my father would find out about Giani, eventually. I wasn’t so sure if it was because he was worried about me and wanted me back, or if his ego demanded that whoever dared take his child would pay with their life. I wanted it to be the former, but if I was honest with myself, it was most likely the latter. The only time I ever got praise from him was when I excelled. When I failed, which wasn’t often, I was my mother’s problem.

  I didn’t know why Giani was so angry, but I was sure my father had something to do with it. He was the only man I knew who could draw such rage and frustration from men and women. I remember asking my mother once why she married my father and why she stayed with him. She told me he was different back then, and that she was glad that she married him. Or
she wouldn’t have me. I suspected she was trying to make the best of a bad situation. She was a loyal woman, and deep in her heart, she hung on to the young man she fell in love with.

  I wanted to talk to Giani, but I was afraid that he would lash out at me again. The look in his eyes as he held the gun to my head terrified me, but I knew he wouldn’t kill me. How? That I couldn’t say. It was an instinctive sense I had about him. I knew he couldn’t stand the sight of me after whatever my father did to him, and I didn’t blame him, but I knew he couldn’t kill me. Just before he pushed me onto the bed, I saw it in his eyes. I saw the horror of what he did register in those steely blue eyes. He couldn’t kill me, surely he wouldn't. But if I was wrong, I was dead Pisano meat.

  ***

  GIANI

  Vinny arrived half an hour after our phone call. While I waited for him, my mind did cartwheels at the revelation of my father. I saw again how the bullet ripped through his chest; I tasted the fear on my tongue; I felt my heart racing, causing a rushing sound in my ears. When he let out his last breath, he was in my arms. I held onto him with all my might. I never cried harder than I did that day. Not when my mother’s boyfriends beat the snot out of me, not when I was cold and hungry on the streets, not even when my mother died. The sight of his lifeless, bleeding body haunted my dreams.

  I would kill the Pisano bastard if it was the last thing I ever did. Then, suddenly, Celina’s face flashed before me. I loved her. No matter which way you spun it, I loved everything about her—her feisty nature, her sexy body, her witty mind, the cute way she wrinkled her nose as she cooked, even the way she tried to clock me with the toilet tank lid. How could I kill the father of the woman I loved? I was in an impossible situation. There was no way. I couldn’t tell Celina that I loved her and then kill her father. The only way out was to make her think I hated her, allow her to hate me back, and move on. She would find love and happiness. But not with me. Never with me.