Page 185 of Scandalous Contract

And unless you want the police to know everything, you’ll call me, not the cops or your boy toy, Julian Cattaneo. Call me, Stefanie, and I’ll come get you, and I’ll let India go. If you don’t call, or if you get anyone else involved, I’ll disappear and take India as a consolation prize.

Consolation prize? What the fuck did that even mean? I clutched the paper so tightly that it nearly ripped in half. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t cry. All I could do was exactly what he said. I grabbed my phone and called the number he’d listed on the paper.

My thoughts were chaotic as I waited for him to answer. I didn’t give a damn about the past and what he knew. All I wanted was my baby in my arms, safe and sound. Fuck! No answer. I called again, pacing the living room, my heart racing.

Still no answer.Shit. Shit. Shit.I called India. It went straight to voicemail. I was about to lose my damn mind. I called Hudson again. Nothing. I nearly threw my damn phone into the wall. What the hell was I supposed to do?

He’d left this note hours ago. Had he hurt my baby since I hadn’t called in time? Those tears that wouldn’t come a second ago, due to shock, finally broke free. I stood in the middle of the living room, arms wrapped around myself, heart racing so fast I thought it might give out.

I couldn’t go to the police. I couldn’t tell anyone, not without risking India. Or could I? There was one man who would burn the whole city to the ground to protect us, even if I didn’t deserve him, even if I’d broken his heart.

Though Hudson said not to call him, I knew he was the only one who could help me. I knew he’d still come. And I knew he could handle this. I trusted him with my life and my baby’s life.

I didn’t deserve his help, but he was the only one who could save us. My fingers trembled as I dialed his number. The second his voice filled the line, I broke, a sob wracking my body.

“Julian... I need you,” I cried.

“Tell me what you need, baby.”

***

JULIAN

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ISAT IN THE DARK,elbows on my knees, hands clasped together as I stared at the cold cement floor. My mind should’ve been on work and the upcoming jobs my crew needed to handle. But it wasn’t. It was on her. Stefanie.

The woman I was in love with. The woman who wanted me just as much as I wanted her. The woman who enjoyed being fucked into oblivion but who wouldn’t give me her fucking heart. She kept pushing me away when things got too deep.

And just when I thought I’d convinced her that we could work, bullshit had entered our lives. Now, we were right back to square one. I was so tired of this shit. We’d been faced with obstacle after obstacle. But I’d overcome them all.

Yet, she still hit me with excuse after excuse. I was serious as hell about Stefanie. But no matter what I did, she wouldn’t let go of her fear of being judged by others for loving a younger man.

I exhaled slowly, rubbing my thumb against my knuckles as I went through every possible way to make her see reason, every way to break through those walls she kept stacking between us.

The only walls we needed in our lives were her pussy walls, which should be clutching my cock or tongue right now. As I tried to think of ways to repair our latest rift, the muffled cries of the man I had chained up in the basement of my family’s casino sliced through my thoughts.

I closed my eyes and ground my teeth together. I wish this motherfucker would shut up so I could think. The panicked gasps, the pitiful fucking whimpers were getting on my nerves. I sighed and leaned back in my chair.

“I’ll get to you in just a second,” I muttered. The man groaned behind his gag again, louder this time. I tilted my head, my patience snapping. “Shut the fuck up,” I yelled.

Whimpers filled the darkness. And to think, this bitch had thought he was man enough for Stefanie. Look where those thoughts had gotten him, beaten and locked away in my family’s basement.

No one would ever know what happened to him. The clean-up crew had taken care of his car. He’d gone off the grid, so he’d already been missing for a while. Now, he’d never see the light of day again, never see Stefanie again.

She’d never be his. She could only belong to one man, and that man was me. I was just about to get up and finish torturing the fucker when I heard the door to the basement room creak open. A few seconds later, light flooded the room. I blinked against it, barely turning my head before I heard the familiar voice of my cousin.

“Julian?” Don Orazio’s deep voice called out. “Is that you?”

“Yeah. It’s me, Raz.”

“What the hell are you doing down here? And who the fuck is that you’ve got chained to a chair?”

I stood as Raz strode toward me, his gaze sweeping over the dimly lit room before landing on the man chained to the chair.

“What the hell is going on?” Raz asked, his voice calm but edged with curiosity.

I rolled my shoulders. “I needed to borrow the basement for a bit. I won’t be here much longer.”