Page 3 of Captive in His Castle (The Martinelli Wedding #1)

Chapter Two

D ante settled himself into the seat opposite his uncooperative captive and thought he was a lucky man that looks alone didn’t have the power to kill.

“Now I know what you mean about your death stare,” he observed as the helicopter lifted into the air. “Your students must be terrified of you.”

She simply glared at him.

He laughed. He hadn’t considered that this whole escapade would be fun. Possibly not for Callie, he acknowledged, but she only had herself to blame for that. He held out a hand. “Your handbag.”

The bag in question was strapped over her shoulder. In response, she hugged it tight to her belly.

“I can always take it from you if you would prefer?”

“What do you want it for?”

“To remove any device that can be used to communicate. Don’t worry, all confiscated devices will be returned on Sunday.”

Death stare blazing, she pulled the strap over her head, rolled it around the bag itself, and, without any warning, threw it at him. Only Dante’s superb reflexes stopped it hitting him square in the face. “Nice shot,” he said, impressed.

She kicked out again, but their seats were far enough apart that she couldn’t reach his leg to maim him.

He tutted and unzipped her bag. “I do hope you’re not intending to spend the next five days communicating through violence…” He darted his stare to her furious face and grinned. “If so, I might have to consider tying you up for my staff’s safety.”

“That would mean you have to hurt me,” she spat.

“I don’t know about that,” he drawled with a wink as he removed her phone from the bag and slipped it into the back pocket of his jeans. “Lots of people get a kick out of being tied up.”

It took her a moment to get his meaning, and then her lips curled in disgust, her lightly golden cheeks staining with colour. “You’re vile.”

He’d been called worse. “Probably.” He plucked her passport out. “I think it best I keep hold of this too. Again, you will get it back on Sunday.” His gaze zoomed to her watch. It was of a similar kind to his own, capable of doing pretty much everything her phone could do.

She followed the gaze, gave a huff of a sigh, unstrapped it and threw it at him with the same expertise that she’d thrown her bag. “You’re getting a kick out of this, aren’t you?”

He was unabashed. “ Si. I assume you are too, seeing as you travelled all this way with nothing but destruction on your mind.”

Outrage flashed from the pale blue eyes.

Or were they grey? He’d thought they were blue, but in this light, it was impossible to tell.

They were larger than he’d thought too, almost outsized compared to the rest of her features and striking enough that he’d recognised them from her profile picture, which was just as well as she’d dyed her hair brown since she’d last updated it.

“The only thing I had on my mind was seeing Niccolo Martinelli.”

He gave another tut and stretched his arm out to return the handbag to her.

“You didn’t come here to see him – you came to sabotage his wedding.

” When she didn’t take the bag, he dropped it on the floor and added, “You came here to share intimate pictures of Niccolo and your sister with all the press gathering in Accardiano.”

“That is a lie ,” she said hotly.

“Niccolo showed me the message he received from your sister. You hacked her phone.” Ignoring her outrage, he patted his backside. “But those pictures are safe and sound with me.”

“Give me my phone, and I’ll prove it’s a lie.”

He gave a sad shake of his head. “Do I look like I’m brainless? If I give you your phone, you will use it to call someone.”

“It works by facial recognition. Put it to my face, and it will unlock. You can look through the stored photos and see that those pictures you mentioned don’t exist, not in my phone.”

“But that would prove nothing. I would have to take it on trust that you don’t have them safely stored elsewhere.”

She threw her hands in the air. “Then I can’t win!”

He gave another wink. “See, I knew you would get there in the end.”

“And when will you get there?” she demanded.

“I’ve not travelled all this way to destroy Niccolo – I only want to talk to him, and it’s imperative I do so before the wedding.

If I could have reached out to him in any other way, then I would have done, but it’s been impossible for me to get his phone number or even a private email address for him. ”

There was such a ring of truth resonating in Callie’s voice that Dante eyed her speculatively. “What is so important that you need to speak to him so badly? ”

Her unusual, pretty face pinched in on itself. “That is none of your business.”

“Your antics have made it my business.”

“Call him. Set up a meeting for me with him, anywhere he likes.”

“And have him abandon his pre-wedding celebrations? Impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible.”

“Human flight without assistance is impossible.”

She gave him another shot of her death stare.

Dante laughed. This was far, far more enjoyable than he’d envisaged.

He’d prepared himself for tears and histrionics and emotional manipulation, not fire and brimstone.

Those large eyes were practically shooting flames at him.

“I’m afraid arranging a meeting between the two of you is impossible.

Meeting at the hotel or anywhere close to it is too dangerous, and the logistics for anything further afield will cause questions to be asked.

Niccolo can’t just disappear from his own pre-wedding celebrations.

Anything you have to say to him will have to wait until after the wedding…

If you can get close enough to talk to him. ”

“After the wedding will be too late!” She took a visible deep breath and, in a slightly calmer tone, added, “A video call. Surely you can facilitate that?”

He shook his head.

“A telephone call then?” She was starting to sound desperate.

“How about this – you tell me what is so important, and if I agree with your assessment that he needs to know, then I will personally pass it on to Niccolo myself.”

The large eyes held his for a long moment before she blinked and her shoulders sagged. “I can’t do that. This is something I have to tell Niccolo and only Niccolo.”

Dante shrugged. Whatever Callie’s reasons, whatever she believed to be so important, Niccolo knowing about it wouldn’t make the blindest bit of difference.

The wedding had to go ahead; it was as simple as that.

Niccolo’s entire future depended on it. “Seeing as you refuse to confide your reasons with me, I suggest you accept your situation. Acceptance will make the short time you are my guest pass much more smoothly.”

Her chin lifted straight back up. “Your captive, don’t you mean?”

“It is your prerogative to call yourself whatever you wish, just as it is mine to call you my honoured guest.”

More fire and fury were thrown at him before her lips tightened into a white line and she turned her head away to scowl out of the window.

Now that the adrenaline that had seen Callie fight back against the bastard who’d kidnapped her had abated, all she felt was drained. And heartsick.

Georgia’s betrayal had been absolute. She would never have dreamed her capable of such lies.

If only Georgia’s twin-sense, as they’d always called it, hadn’t told her something was up and made her return home instead of carrying on to her workplace, Callie would have found Niccolo Martinelli before her sister had known she’d left the country.

More irony, she thought bitterly. Since Georgia’s affair with Niccolo, her twin had pulled away from her.

It didn’t matter how hard Callie tried to reach her, Georgia kept shutting her out, refusing to confide in her, systematically breaking the bond that had been between them since they’d shared their mother’s womb.

That the bond was still strong enough for Georgia’s twin-sense to be alive and kicking when Callie least wanted it…

How could a man her sister had spent such little time with have such a strong hold over her? She just couldn’t understand it. Did her sister love him? Fear him? A combination of both? Niccolo was one of the richest men in Europe and hugely powerful with it.

And Callie’s captor was equally rich and equally as powerful.

Should she tell Dante about the baby? There had been a moment when she’d come close to doing so, but to act on it would feel too much like she was betraying Georgia.

Just because Georgia had sunk so low as to betray her didn’t mean Callie could do the same.

Callie was the only person other than the midwife team who knew about the pregnancy, and she only knew because she’d guessed.

Georgia hadn’t confided the pregnancy to her, had been furious that Callie had put two and two together, had made her swear not to tell another soul.

It was making that promise that had stopped Callie from seeking Niccolo out sooner, that and the aching hope her twin would come to her senses and do the right thing and tell him herself.

Time was running out. Niccolo needed to know, and if she could make her escape quickly, she’d find the means to get back to Accardiano and find him before it was too late.

Dante hadn’t taken her bank cards, so she had the tools needed to get back there, would worry about replacing her passport at a later point, and if she ran out of money, she would swallow her pride and beg her parents for help…

Or maybe not, she thought with an internal heavy sigh.

She didn’t know her parents’ phone numbers off the top of her head.

Resolve stiffened her spine. Whatever it took, whatever it cost her, she would escape Dante’s clutches and get to Niccolo.