Page 7

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Dino

Dino

I have to get out of there. Just seeing her makes me want her, and I’m not doing that yet. I do things the right way. We get married, then I fuck the hell out of her. Not the other way around.

Doesn’t help that she’s only in a bra and panties. There’s no hiding the shape of her body when she’s wearing so little.

I can’t talk to her, not yet. I needed to get her safely locked away and then leave her for a while. I’ve got to let my blood settle. I’ve just attacked Don Belucci’s son. He’s an absolute piece of shit, but he’s made and he’s the Don’s son.

He’s untouchable. Which is why he’s uncontrollable. Only Ricardo could toss bodies off a cliff where they’re bound to wash up and not get whacked for his stupidity. The Don just bribes the forensic guys to lose vital evidence and Ricardo keeps looking for more.

That’s what he’ll do to her if I let him. Not that I will. She’s under my protection now.

It’s the road I picked that saved her. Timmy tracked the chip to her place. Someone secured it well, but his skills are second to none. I headed out to Gordon’s Cove to get her and the chip. I got the chip but no sign of her.

Coming out of her place, there were two ways to head out of town. I took the left in time to see the van heading for her place. I dealt with them, leaving one alive long enough to tell me where she’d been taken.

Shame more of them kept coming after me. They went all out to keep her. They know what happens if I get her first, so they broke all the rules to go back to Gordon’s Cove and get her. Still wasn’t good enough.

I have the chip. I have the girl. Tomorrow, I’ll marry her. Nothing can go wrong. I will become the Capo dei Capi. I will be the Don of Dons. I will wipe the Belucci name from the face of the planet, starting with Ricardo.

I would have killed him if I had time, but I didn’t dare shoot while he was drooling over her. I might have hit her.

Probably best he’s alive for now. He’ll go back to his father and tell him what I’ve done. That’ll give the old man a scare. He’s fresh out of prison and trying to put his family back together.

Out on a technicality, so they say. Money greased the wheels of that one. It always does. All anyone wants is money. It doesn’t matter to me anywhere near as much as respect.

Don Belucci will hear that I took her and wonder what I’m planning next. By the time he works it out, I’ll be married to her. He’ll have to show me some respect if he wants to live once the ceremony is over.

I want respect. I’ve earned it. Ricardo was treating her like he owned her already. He doesn’t. I do. When I become Capo dei Capi, I will have total control and the respect of all the families.

I will kill him for the way he treated Rose. Just not yet.

I’m a patient man. I can wait. Not too long, though. Just until we’re married. Once that’s done, I will go find Ricardo and whack him, slowly. Might bring him back here and torture him first, see if he’s got any secrets we can use.

If anyone deserves death, it’s Ricardo. I know how he treats women. If it wasn’t for the fact they made him, he’d have been whacked a long time ago.

Been a piece of shit since his teens. His father let him do whatever he wanted, bailed him out of trouble every time.

First time he strangled a woman, Don Belucci made it like she never existed. We all knew. She went into his place the night before. She never came out, but a few heavy suitcases did. She had no idea who he was. Poor girl.

It was a hit for no reason. I’m a business owner. I can understand taking someone out as well as the next guy. But doing it the way he did?

Even if he had a reason, there’s whacking and then there’s going too far. He went too far. They couldn’t identify her body. I heard a rumor he’d eaten most of it.

Now I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know he vanished to Rome for a few months after that. By the time Don Belucci brought him back, it was all dealt with.

Course that was long ago. Everything he does now happens behind closed doors. Until the bodies started washing up with bite marks in them. Back to his old tricks.

I still can’t get over how it made me feel to see him cutting her out of her clothes. She belongs to me. He will pay for what he did soon enough.

Marriage first though. Do things the proper way. Stake my claim .

I keep thinking about her back down in the basement. She’s probably trying to escape. She’ll give up soon enough.

I’ve walked around and around that basement, seeing it from a prisoner’s point of view, looking for the weak points. There’s none left. She’s not going anywhere until she agrees to marry me. She’ll say yes, eventually. I’ll make sure of it.

First, I’ve got some planning to do.

When I walk upstairs, I find Corrado looking out the window in my study. He turns when he hears me coming in. “It worked, then?” he asks as the bookcase slides back into place.

“She’s downstairs right now.”

“It could have gone wrong,” he tells me.

“Could but didn’t.” I take a seat at my desk and pull out a notepad, scrawling a couple of things on it. I tear the sheet out and pass it to him. “Get that done,” I say.

He nods and heads out of the room. That’s why he’s my consigliere. He doesn’t mess about. If something needs doing, he organizes it. If he thinks I’m in over my head, he says so. He’s been with the family since before I was born, consigliere to my father before me.

When I told him the plan, he wasn’t sure, but it worked. He’s a cautious man, that’s to be expected. If I had more time, we could have hashed something out together, but time is of the essence. The chip had activated. I needed to move fast.

Corrado is right. It could have gone wrong. Almost did. They found out where it was and where she was. Ricardo himself came along to claim her.

I don’t think what would have happened if I’d taken any longer. Besides, it doesn’t matter. Nothing happened. She’s safe in the basement. There’re clothes down there for her to choose from. Variety of sizes. She’ll find something.

Tomorrow she’ll have a wedding dress and after that, we’ll go shopping, get her whatever she wants.

She should be in the right frame of mind for the marriage. Change her mind from no to yes. I rescued her from the arms of Ricardo. She’s safe if she marries me. I might be an asshole at times, but I’m better than that piece of shit.

While Corrado’s getting the church and the priest organized, I return a few calls and then decide it’s been long enough.

I’m calmer. I’m not going to walk in there and fuck her. Once she’s my wife, she’ll give me what I want when I want it. That’s a husband’s right. I’ll keep her safe in return. Until I’m Capo dei Capi. Then I can get rid of her. She’ll only be a complication once I’m in charge of everything.

I look down at my notepad. There’s a question I’ve written while I’m thinking. The next Capo dei Capi must marry the current one’s daughter. You identify the daughter by the chip she holds.

That makes it easy to know it’s Rose I need to marry. But how will the Capo dei Capi know I’ve married her? It’s not like I can invite a ghost to the wedding.

No one has ever seen him. He’s always in the shadows, only ever sending messages out, never taking them. I’ve not met him in person. I doubt anyone has.

I tap the question. How will he know we’re married?

I tear up the paper and toss it into the wastebasket. He’s got eyes everywhere. It’s unlikely he would be unaware that his daughter got married.

Better me than Ricardo, that’s for sure. I think for a moment of him as Capo dei Capi. Don of Dons. He’d be a nightmare. Right now, he thinks he can do whatever he wants and that’s with his father trying to control him. Imagine him as the boss of bosses. No one to tell him no.

If the rumors are true that he’s a taste for flesh, I don’t like to think of how much feasting he’d do.

I have another reason for wanting him dead. He’s the reason my dog got killed.

I get up and head out of the office. It’s time to tell Rose what’s going to happen tomorrow.

I walk through the house and pull on the bookcase, opening the door down to the basement. As soon as the door swings open, she’s there, trying to sprint past me.

I grab hold of her easy enough. She’s scratching and yelling, hissing like a cat, but she’s a lot smaller than me. I pick her up under my arm and march down the stairs.

Her head scrapes the wall as she continues to scream at me to let her go. She’s still in her bra and panties. Hasn’t even put any of the clothes on. Dumb broad.

“What was the plan when you escaped the house?” I ask. “It’s pissing down with rain and you’re half naked.”

“Fucking let go of me!” she yells, digging her nails into my arms. Is she expecting me to wince? To drop her?

I get to the bottom of the stairs and shove her into the chair. “Stay there,” I say.

She goes to get up, so I push her back down. “I swear to God if you get up again, I’ll cause you some serious pain.” She looks at me, and the fire is still there in her eyes. It doesn’t get any further.

“That’s better,” I say, grabbing another chair and dragging it over, sitting in front of her. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to sit there and not move. I’m going to get you something to wear. If you so much as stand up without my permission, I’ll take you over my knee and spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week. Got it?”

She glares at me. “You kidnapped me.”

“I saved you,” I reply. “From a far worse fate than being here.”

She manages a mocking laugh. “You expect me to thank you?”

“I expect you to sit still.”

I get up and walk over to the bedroom, pulling open the wardrobe. I run through the racks, finding something that looks roughly her size.

It’s a dress, light blue. Expensive fabric. Cost me a couple of thousand, if I remember right. When I found out the chip activated, I got clothes bought and brought down here ready. All sizes. Shoes too.

“Here,” I say, taking the dress back through. “Put this on.”

She just sits there. “Stand up,” I say. “Now.”

She winces when I raise my voice, getting slowly to her feet. “Arms up,” I tell her.

She does as I say and I get the dress over her head. It slides down her body. I yank on the hem before stepping back. “That’s better. Now sit down again.”

She does so. “Why am I here?” she asks. “What do you want with me?”

“Life would have been a lot simpler if you’d said yes,” I tell her. “You know that, right?”

“Yes, to what? To marrying you? Is that what all this is about?”

I nod. “Tomorrow, we walk into church together and we both say I do and then we walk out husband and wife.”

“You’re insane. I will never marry you, not in a million years. ”

“You’ll marry me or you’ll never leave this basement again. No food, no water except what’s in the toilet. You’ll starve to death.”

“Fuck you.”

I have to leave. Just looking at her makes me want to kiss her. Makes me want to do a lot more than that. I get to my feet. I only need to wait a day. Then I will take her. No amount of complaining will stop me. I will own her. I’ll show her pleasure she’s never dreamed of before. Then when I’m done with her, I’ll get rid of her.

“Get some rest,” I tell her. “Long day tomorrow.” I walk over to the stairs and stop at the bottom of them, turning around to see her still sitting on the chair, glaring at me like she’d like to plunge a knife into my back. “Get used to the idea,” I tell her. “It’s happening.”

Then I walk up the stairs and leave her alone. As the bookcase swings shut, I hear her yelling at me, calling me every name under the sun. Wedding night nerves, I think to myself. Perfectly natural.