You idiot. What if they all get scared off? What if none of them wants kids? What if it’s too complicated for us to even think about it? I mean, how the fuck would it even work?
“Do you want kids, angel?”
Did I answer that truthfully? We were getting things out in the open, so I should really be honest. It didn’t seem right to keep it from them. Especially not when they’d all told me they were in this for life. That they wanted me forever. Wanted this thing… this quintet to work.
“Yes,” I squeaked.
I glanced around at their faces and I couldn’t read a single one of them.
I shouldn’t have admitted it. Great. Now they’re all going to think I’m baby mad or something which isn’t true.
Having kids now was not on my radar. I was only twenty-one and we were already in enough danger without all of that.
Quinn’s phone began to buzz in his pocket. He frowned, letting go of my hand and pulling it out.
“I have to take this,” he muttered before answering it. “Hello? Wait, what? Hold on, Geoff, slow down… Seriously? Send it to me… No, I’m not in the fucking city right now, but we’re on our way back… Shit, okay, I get it… I’ll sort it out, just send me the video, okay? Right, I’ll speak to you in a bit.”
“Is everything okay?” Xav asked when he lowered the phone from his ear.
“No, everything is not fucking okay.”
“You going to tell us what’s wrong then?”
He waved a hand at Xav and kept his attention on his phone. I began to get a feeling of dread in my stomach. Why had his business manager called him? What could be so wrong? We’d already been through enough today and didn’t need more bad news on top of everything else.
“How long until we’re back in London?”
“Like half an hour or so,” Eric replied, looking back at him in the rearview mirror.
“Fuck.”
The car went silent as Quinn fiddled with his phone then sounds erupted from his phone. I looked over at his phone and I swear my whole world crashed down around me.
“You think you can fuck with me and get away with it, do you?” came Frank’s voice as his face filled the screen. “Think again. This is a message for you, your friends and my daughter. I’m going to destroy you. None of you will be left alive. You seem to think this is a game. Flaunting your sick, disgusting relationship with my daughter in everyone’s faces. I’m so disappointed in you, Ashleigh. Spreading your legs for four men like a wanton whore. Is that how you wound them around your little finger, huh? Did you offer up your body so they wouldn’t hurt you?”
I swallowed hard. The fact he’d made our relationship which was based on love, trust and understanding sound like it was wrong and disturbing left a sour taste in my mouth.
“I should’ve known you’d turn out to be a little slut like your mother. She had no fucking qualms about opening her legs to other men even whilst married to me. I admit I shouldn’t have turned a blind eye to it, but I wanted her to think she’d got away with it. The bitch thinks she pulled a fast one on me. Too bad she’s mistaken. Isn’t that right, Isabella?”
The camera panned out and there was my mother bound to a chair with a gag in her mouth. She had a black eye and blood ran down from her bottom lip. My hand went to my own mouth, stifling a scream. Frank moved towards her and stroked a hand down her face.
“You tried to leave me, Izzy. Tried to leave this life. Don’t you know that’s not how it works? You. Are. Mine. The only way you’ll leave me is if you’re in a fucking body bag.”
Frank turned back to the camera, his eyes glinting with evil. Pure fucking evil.
“You see what happens to the women disobey me, Ashleigh? You see this? It’s only the beginning. I’m going to punish her for everything you’ve done. But I won’t kill her, no, that’s too fucking good for this bitch. This whore I call my wife. She’s going to suffer knowing she’ll never escape me again. She’ll realise her place unlike you.”
Isabella let out a muffled cry.
“What’s that, Izzy? You want to talk to her? Be my fucking guest.”
He ripped the gag out of her mouth and she choked, spitting out fluff.
“Ash, baby, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry. Please don’t come for me. Stay with them. They’ll take care of you. Don’t let him get to you.”
Frank backhanded her across the face. Next thing I knew she was spitting blood out.
“Your mother was never a very smart one, Ashleigh,” Frank said, his voice dark and loaded with determination. “You can try to hide from me with your men, but you won’t be able to hide forever. I’m going to make you watch whilst I bleed them all dry, just like the old days, eh? You’re going to scream, cry and beg me to stop. You’ll wish you never crossed me. Then I’ll slit your throat and put you out of your fucking misery. You’re a worthless whore. You’re not fit to rule the Russo family.”
Rage drove through me. I’d already gotten angry once today at Carlo, but this was nothing in comparison to that. How dare he take her. How dare he do this. And how dare he say that shit about me. I would not take this lying down. I wasn’t going to allow him to terrorise us any longer.
“This is your final warning, Ashleigh. I’m going to find you and then you’ll be erased from the world along with Quinn, Xavier, Eric and Rory. Do
