Page 56 of Shane: His to Possess

“Boss?” Bruno nudged his arm. “You gonna call the doc?”

“No, there’s no time for that now.” Shane stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “Send Cormac a text telling him to meet us at the Kasilli warehouse and get me there as fast as you can.” It sounded like everything depended upon what went down at the warehouse.

22

Mia’s vision was blurry and her body ached from head to toe. Snippets of memories returned in brief flashes that made her head spin harder when she tried to concentrate on them. After several minutes of drifting in and out of consciousness, she had pieced together enough to remember she was Aldo’s captive, and he had beaten her after anally raping her.

She blinked her eyes several times, struggling to focus as she evaluated her position. She seemed to be tied to a chair, her arms confined behind her back painfully with thin plastic straps. Zip ties? She knew they were a favorite method of confining people from seeing her father’s goons stuff them in pockets by the handful over the years.

As though thinking about him had summoned the man himself, his face filled her vision when she finally managed the simultaneously difficult task of opening her eyes, keeping her lids up, and focusing on an object for more than a second. Mia blinked and lost focus again for several seconds. When her vision sharpened, and Vadim was still there, she scowled. “Why the fuck you here?”

His expression showed confusion for a second, but nothing else. Was she that incoherent?

Cautiously, Mia turned her head slightly, gasping when pain flared, and her tentative vision faded again for several seconds. Finally, a new face came into focus, and she didn’t recognize him. He was somewhere between thirty-five and forty-five, with russet hair, a thin beard along his jawline, and hazel eyes that looked kinder than any she had seen for the past… How many ever hours or days it had been since Selena took her. “Who? Why…”

The man gave her a small smile. “You’re okay for now.”

That wasn’t terribly reassuring, but at least he wasn’t actively trying to hurt her. “Where’s Aldo?” Mia couldn’t hide her fear.

“My grandson is regaining control of his temper, Mia.”

The voice was vaguely familiar, and she already knew it was Sal by the time she managed to look in his direction and focus her hazy vision. He’d been an infrequent visitor to the Kasilli estate when Stefania was alive, and she had never developed any warm feelings for him. She certainly didn’t consider him her grandfather in any sense.

The memory of several men in dark suits storming the room suddenly came back to her. “How did I get here?”

“Aldo had gone to ground. O’Mara has already wrecked half my territory trying to find him, so I knew he must be at the little apartment Stefania owned in the art district. She kept it for sentiment’s sake, even after I convinced her to do her familial duty to cement the truce by marrying Vadim.”

Mia could barely process his words due to her aching head, but they reminded her of an apartment Stefania had mentioned fondly a few times. She had lived there after her first husband died—despite her father’s disapproval of the size and neighborhood. A tiny bubble of laughter welled in her as she remembered Stefania once hinting that it had been the love nest she shared with Arvin Lovelle, though her stepmother had never outright confessed to continuing the relationship during her marriage to Vadim.

“Why did you rescue me? You don’t give a fuck about me.” She glared at her father as she spoke, though her words were meant for all of them—even the stranger with the hazel eyes.

“We couldn’t let O’Mara continue his rampage.”

“Now, Sal, Aldo wasn’t the soul of discretion either,” the other man said, and Mia finally recognized his voice from the two brief conversations they’d had via Shane’s cell phone.

“Aldo was on the defensive, Patrick.”

“He’s a crazy bastard,” Mia rasped, her throat raw.

Sal glowered at her. “You are the cause of all this mess, and you should shut up before you make it worse for yourself.”

Mia blinked as her vision blurred before coming back into focus. “There’s nothing worse than being at Aldo’s mercy.” She turned her head to Patrick Murphy, nausea rising in her stomach with the movement. “Where is Shane? Is he okay?”

He nodded. “He’s on his way.”

Relief swept through her, but she couldn’t let herself get too excited. Just because she was out of Aldo’s clutches, and Shane was safe, didn’t mean the situation would stay static. “Do me a favor, Mr. Murphy?”

He lifted a shoulder. “If I can.”

“If the decision comes down to handing me over to Aldo, please kill me instead.”

The other man flinched but didn’t reply.

Silence settled for a moment before a clattering broke it. Mia swore she could feel Shane’s presence the moment he entered the room, though it was more likely the sound of his cursing reached her first. Her head lolled back when she tried to turn to see him approach, but she managed a small smile for her lover when he was suddenly standing over her. “Hi.”

His eyes were soft when he looked down at her, but she saw his expression harden when he turned to face the three men sitting on a sofa a few feet away. “Why is she tied up, Mr. Murphy?”

Patrick held up a hand. “Not my idea. Sal thought it might be a necessary precaution.”