#1 Chapter 78
He raises an eyebrow at me. “What should I say back?”
My heart clenches. I doubt the text is coming from her. “Ask her where she is.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
I watch his fingers fly over the phone. “New York.”
“He’s leaving us a trail of breadcrumbs, or he’s trying to throw us off.”
“I’m going to bet that it’s an ambush. Have Vince trace the call.”
Fucking finally. We’re one step closer.
ELENA
Duct tape is a lot stronger than it looks. It’s amazing, really. A couple strips over my mouth, and I can’t make a sound. My hands, feet, arms, everything. I’m like an insect struggling in flypaper.
Thinking about that is much more pleasant than thinking about the man I loathe, who sits on the bed with a gun trained at the door. I’ve already tried wrestling the gun from him, and he knocked me out. Couldn’t believe that I’d actually want to kill “the father of his child.”
Maniac.
He keeps glancing at his phone, waiting for some bit of horrible news about the ambush he has set up for Tony. First he made me get my father’s money from Tommy. Then he hired those fucking animals to kill my husband.
With my money.
He grabbed me the moment I left the restaurant. It was right out in the open and if any of Johnny’s people saw, they didn’t give a fuck. He forced me to go to Tommy to collect my money.
“Those fucks better take care of him. I swear to God. I’ve never paid so much for a fucking hit.”
My murmured, unintelligible response doesn’t go unnoticed by him. He cups his hand around his ear, looking at me.
“What was that? Couldn’t quite make that out.” He grins at the fury on my face.
I’m glad you’re able to keep a sense of humor during this.
“Fuck it.”
He bounces from the bed and grabs the corner of the tape, ripping it off my face. Spittle drools down my cheek, and he wipes it off with his thumb.
“Rafael, let me go. This is insane.”
“Let you go so you can crack me over the head with that lamp?” He nods toward the heavy-looking lamp on the nightstand that I’ve been eyeing. “I don’t think so.”
Rage boils in my chest as I struggle fruitlessly against my bonds.
“When he’s dead, we’ll go upstate. Hide out in some fucking farm. That money will last us a while.”
He talks about it on the bed as though he’s got everything figured out.
“Or maybe I can give it to Vince-get him to call off this shit.”
“Yeah, do that so that I can watch him blow off your head.”
It bursts out of me before I can swallow back the words, and Rafael whirls around.
Oh fuck.
He gets up from the bed, gun dangling from his grip as he walks in front of me, his pelvis facing me. “You’re a sick cunt,” he says as he threads his hand through my hair, yanking viciously. “The moment this kid is born, I’m beating some fucking manners back into you.”
The deepest loathing riles inside me as he gently cups my face, running his thumb over his bottom lip. Disgust swirls in my stomach as I see the bulge in his pants, growing larger by the second.
“Fuck, maybe I should just shove my cock down your throat to shut you up.”
“I’ll bite it off,” I growl.
“You’ll lose more than a couple teeth if you do that to me.”
“No!” I squirm in my seat, terrified when he actually undoes his belt with a groan. He pulls his pants down and I scream.
He swears and smothers my mouth with his hand, and the door suddenly rattles as though a battering ram smashed into it.
“OPEN THE FUCK UP!”
“Tony!”
I manage to scream his name as his hand goes slack around my mouth.
“Fuck,” Rafael swears before he aims the gun at the door.
“NO, DON’T!”
Too late.
The sounds of gunshots explode in my ears as he aims at the door and shoots. Black holes rip through the door and shatter through the window, which is covered with drapes. He clenches his face as he fires indiscriminately.
They’re going to fire back. Fuck.
Using my weight, I swing so that my chair topples to the floor. Returning fire blasts the plaster above me, and a voice screams for them to stop.
BAM!
I see an image of Rafael frantically reloading his gun before he’s blasted off his feet, back smashed against the floor. Blood streaks the wall as he slumps down.
Yes. Finally.
It all happened in an instant, and suddenly men pool in the room. They kick away Rafael’s gun. I can only make out slacks and leather shoes before a familiar face drops down to my level and hauls me upright.
Tony gives me a sad smile as his hands briefly grasp mine.
“Hey there, troublemaker.”