Page 52 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Sienna

I squeezed my fingers in my lap and shut my eyes. Wishing, praying what was happening wasn’t happening.

When I opened them, I was still in the backseat of the tinted-windowed car, trapped between two huge, silent men.

They were dressed in all black, down to their sunglasses they had kept on in the car.

The one in the passenger seat had grabbed my upper arm as I’d hurried toward the deli to meet Kelly.

Before I’d let out a scream, he’d snatched my purse from my hand and yanked me close. “Don’t struggle. Don’t scream, or your friend Kelly dies.”

My heart had nearly stopped. “What—?”

His hold had tightened. “Just get in the car.”

While he’d dragged me there, I’d frantically searched for Ruiz, but he had been nowhere to be seen. Once I’d been in the car, another man had gotten in beside me.

I had to calm down. Reason with them.

“Can I speak now?” I asked over my raging heartbeat.

The man on my right, Man-one, grunted, but his voice was smooth. “You can, but nothing you say will stop what’s going to happen.”

I hated Nigel. Hated him with every bone and organ of my body. “Did Nigel tell you you’d have to break my neck or shoot me in the head to keep the organs he needs viable? Did he also tell you I’d signed a living will and—”

The one on the left, Man-Two, removed his sunglasses to scowl at me, and I pushed my head onto my shoulders.

“We don’t work for your father.”

The snarl, tainted with disgust, gave me some hope. “So, you’re working for Edo—”

“Don’t say his name,” Man-One snapped. And his tone was loaded with so much menace that I shuddered.

I cleared my throat. “I can explain. Let me talk to him, please. If I could just talk to him. Or to Jake, I can—”

Man-Two’s huge chest inflated and deflated slowly. “We were asked to not make you suffer, but no one said anything about gagging you.”

It hit me then.

I was going to die. Oh my God. I was going to die.

My whole body started shaking, and I had to squeeze my legs together to control my bladder. Of all the ways I’d imagined dying, it never occurred to me that I’d be killed by a well-dressed man with a smooth voice. Not fair. That wasn’t fair.

I took a strangled breath to stop the tears drowning the back of my throat and touched my chest. Mom, help me. I want to be with my new family. I want to be with Jake. Please, help me, Mom.

After a deep breath, I turned to Man-Two.

“I just need to know... why... could you please tell me why I’m here? I didn’t do anything wrong. I swear, I didn’t.”

They didn’t even twitch. I swiped my tears off my cheek and turned toward Man-One. “Please, I... I deserve to know.”

A few seconds passed before he turned his shades toward me. “You—”

The ring of his cell cut through the suffocating car. He put the device to his ear, said a few ‘sis’, then ended the call with a ‘inteso.’

I held my breath while he mumbled something in Italian to the others.

The car slowed down. There it was. The end of me.

Desperate, I gripped Man-One’s arm. “Please—”

He put surprisingly gentle fingers on my mouth. “Fai silencio, Sienna.”

My name. He used my name. That had to be a good sign. Right?

We drove for what felt like forever. As the car finally came to a stop, Man-Two opened the door and reached for me. I kicked. He caught my ankles and dragged me across the back seat while mumbling something I couldn’t understand.

“No! No. Please, I—”

Pain shot in my fingertips. Two of my nails broke against the leather. Then I found myself standing on the hard bitumen of a parking lot.

“Move, Sienna.”

I scanned our surroundings. A normal parking lot. A normal looking building. No one in sight. My legs moved woodenly, and I swiped more tears off my frozen cheeks.

Man-One spoke. “He’s waiting for you.”

Relief crashed through me, and my knees buckled. An arm shot out to keep me upright while I bent at the waist, trying to catch my ever so precious breath.

“You’re okay. Just breathe,” I was encouraged.

Yes, I would be. As soon as I talked to Edo. Straightening up, I cleared my throat. “Okay.”

Man-One curled his fingers around my upper arm. Not hard, just firm enough for me to have no choice but trot beside him. Man-Two fell in step on my other side, and we headed toward the building.

By the time we reached the elevator, my legs had almost stopped shaking.

After the metal doors had opened on the seventeenth floor of the commercial building, we turned right. My view of the place was obscured by the large back of Man-One, but there were plants and paintings hanging on the walls of the hallway.

When he stopped abruptly, I threw my hands out in front of me to keep from body-slamming into him.

He pushed the door open and waited. Right, my would-be killers were chivalrous. I brushed past him and into a space where low, dark grey armchairs were placed around a glass and chrome low table.

A door slammed open on the right side of the room.

My chest hollowed in a sob. “Jake...” I hurled myself across the short distance, and straight into his arms.

****

Jake

I crushed her against me. Cupping her face, I perused over my woman. She’d been crying, and remnants of fear dilated her pupils.

“Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head. “Kelly. I don’t know where Kelly and Ruiz are.”

“They’re okay, baby.”

“I have to talk to Edo. Nigel sent his lawyers at work, and I have to—”

I kissed her. To quell the panic in her voice and the fear still burning through me.

When she burrowed deep, I breathed her in. Then I tucked her to my side and led her into my office where Edo and Zook were standing side-by-side in front of my desk. She spotted Sergio, and her nails dug into my side before she whipped her gaze to Edo.

“Edo, I didn’t—”

He lifted his hand, and she stopped talking. “I saw.”

Her head jerked. “Y-you saw what?”

“I saw how you signed the papers.”

She tilted her eyes to mine. “What?”

My beautiful tigress had signed every page with a cursive ‘Fuck You.’ On every fucking page. Her initials had matched with, ‘F. U.’

I swept my thumb over the last of her tears. “I like your new name, baby.”

The beginning of a smile etched on her pretty mouth. Zook cleared his throat.

When Sienna and I turned to him, Edo studied her. “Few people are offered that kind of money in their lifetimes. Why didn’t you sign?”

“Nigel might not have been able to save my mother, but his money and influence could have helped with drug trials or specialists.” Suffused anger entered her tone.

“That sociopath accosted me the day I buried her, and he had the nerve to lie about her.” She let out a sharp breath.

“His money was more important than her life. He made his choice. I made mine.”

Fuck, but she made me proud. I kissed her head, and she gave me more of her weight.

“Your legacy and your future,” Edo said. Then he stalked toward the door.

Sergio followed suit while Zook shook my hand. “We’ll talk, son. Bye Sienna.”

After they’d left, Sienna looped both arms around me and pressed close, I held her tighter. She’d been scared out of her mind again, and she needed to feel safe.

“Let’s go home, beautiful.”

“Yes. Yes, please.”

In the car, while she recounted what had happened, I tagged her hand. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay.” She shook her head before tilting her clear gaze to me. “Nigel is...”

“He’s what?”

She blew out a long breath. “How can one person be so...create so much... pain and destruction?”

I’d stopped asking myself that question a long time ago. “Money.”

Shaking her head, she whispered, “That can’t be it. You have money, and you’re a good man.”

That kicked me straight in the chest, and I kissed her hand.

After a long moment of silence, she sat up. “Do you know what I need?”

Anything, and I’d give it to her. “What baby?”

“A big vacation. In a hut. On an undiscovered island.”

She was okay. Tightness left my shoulders. “Point anywhere on the map, and we’ll go.” At that, her lips parted, and she blinked slowly. “If you want to go alone, I’ll make sure you’re safe and book it for you.”

“You would do that?”

“I want to go with you, but if what you need is to be alone, yeah.” I stopped at the traffic light and hooked my eyes onto hers. “Where to, beautiful?”

She hit me with that look that made me weak and hard. “You’re being wonderful again.”

“Only for you.”

While I kissed her, her lips stretched against mine. “We’re blocking traffic.”

****

Keeping her tight to my side, we entered the penthouse.

She curled her hands around my neck and rolled on her toes. “Jake.”

I caged her against the wall and ate at her mouth until she pulled back and gasped. Falling on my knees, I yanked her pants and panties down her legs.

When her clothes and shoes were out of my way, I hooked her legs over my shoulder, and the bite of her grip on my hair drove me fucking mad.

I devoured my woman.

The walls of her pussy spasmed around my tongue. Her long moan shredded the last of my control.

Needing her more than my next breath, I pushed on my knees. Her hands went to my belt, and I hissed at the pleasure of her fingers on my cock. I gripped the back of her legs, and rammed into her wet, tight pussy.

“Fuck.” Pure heaven. “Look at me, kitten.”

She locked her arms around my neck. Her eyes were dark, unfocused. And I took her hard. Fucked her deep until I lost myself in her.

****

Sitting astride my lap and wearing my tee, Sienna’s brows furrowed. “One of the lawyers? Do you know which one?”

“No.”

After that gorgeous fuck in the hallway, I’d carried her to the shower where I’d fucked her slow. Then, I’d fed my girl.

When she sighed, I stroked her cheek. “How are you feeling, baby?”

She threw her arms around my neck. “I’m out of a job again, but I’m surprisingly okay.”

After today’s clusterfuck, and her boss’s collusion with Morrison, she was going to resign.

Shifting back, she said, “Why do you call Lenny ‘Zook’?”

I pecked her upturned nose. “His nickname is Zucchero. Sugar in Italian. Too long to say. He became Zook.”

My hands slid under my tee to caress her soft skin. Her goosebumps licked my palm, and I got harder. “What else do you want to know, baby?”

“Edo said something about your legacy and your future. What did that mean?”

I watched my beautiful Sienna. She was finally relaxed, but she deserved the truth.

“Before he saw what you signed, Edo was going to have you executed. I offered him my land for your life.”

Her head jerked back, and she looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind. “What... what if he had called your bluff?”

“I wasn’t bluffing.”

****

Sienna

Oh my God.

My heart hiccupped, and I stared at him.

The storm of emotions raging through me was so violent, my body didn’t know how to react. When his fierce gaze became blurry, I realized I was crying.

Jake’s hands curled around my face. “Baby, he won’t hurt you. I—”

I mashed my mouth onto his in a tear-tasting, messy kiss. Then I locked my eyes onto his while my nails dug into the sides of his neck.

“I knew it,” I whispered.

“Knew what, baby?”

“The moment I saw you, my heart recognized you. I knew my heart wasn’t wrong. I knew it.” I touched my trembling lips to his mouth. “I love you. I love you so much, Jake.”

His hold became bruising. “Say it, again, Sienna.”

I couldn’t stop smiling at my beautiful man. More emotion swelled my chest, and more tears drifted down my cheek. “I love you.”

The low drum of his voice poured over every inch of my body. “I love you, my Sienna.”

Exhaling a shaky breath, I smiled. “Your butterfly.”

“My fucking everything,” he growled.

And right then, I tumbled deeper in love with him.

His gaze brightened. “Here’s my kitten.”

****

Two days later, Jake and I stood beside his truck.

He leaned his back against the car and wrapped his arm around me to pull me to his side.

We were across a hillside street a few feet away from the restaurant located halfway up a mountain.

Although the afternoon sun was shining, the breeze was cool, and I huddled closer to Jake’s warmth.

“This is it,” he said against my forehead.

I looped my arms around him. “Is it the first time you come back?”

His hold tightened, and he nodded.

This morning, Jake had asked me if I wanted to come with him to his father’s land which was located nearly five hours away from the city. Choked up by emotion, I’d only managed to nod.

The place looked vaguely familiar. “Do you own Edie’s?”

He cupped my cheek. “I bought it when Ron and Edie fell behind on their payments. I put it back in shape and sold it back to them. Why do you ask?”

Oh Jake. So tough. And so wonderful. “So, you basically gave them the money to keep their home, which looks like your first home.”

The lascivious kiss he planted on my mouth made me tremble, the soft pecks on my tingly lips that ended it lit shivers all over my skin.

“Don’t you want to go in?” I panted.

“I’m standing on my land with my woman. I’m good.”

So, that’s what we did. We stood in each other’s arms on his land.