The best thing I could do was keep quiet and do as I was told. Or at least create the impression I was obedient.
They left me in the room and locked the door behind them. I heard their voices outside so I knew they hadn’t gone far.
It was probably Aldo’s orders to never leave me alone. Not for a second. Until he didn’t have any use for me anymore.
I didn’t know how long I’d been left alone in that room before Aldo finally showed up.
The stuff I worked on was complicated. They wanted me to create a financial plan for laundering money, without leaving any paper trail. Nothing that’d pin back to Aldo and his family.
Without the proper nutrition I needed, or the rest my body craved—I felt exhausted and completely spent. I wasn’t even able to think straight or come up with creative ideas, or even to keep my eyes open. It proved to be a much harder task than I’d initially thought.
So when Aldo showed up at the door with a sandwich on a plate and a juice box, I was actually relieved to see him. I stared at him hungrily. I couldn’t keep the desperation off my face.
He smiled, and for a moment I almost believed he was happy to see me.
But then he put the food down on the desk in front of me and picked up the sandwich and took a big bite out of it.
I had to dig my nails into my palms to keep myself from screaming. I wanted to lash out at him, rip his eyeballs out with my nails. I hated him so much. I’d never wished death on anybody before, but I wished it on him. For everything he’d done.
“How much longer do you need?” he asked as a conversation starter.
“I don’t know. This stuff is complicated. There are a lot of loose ends to tie up,” I replied truthfully.
Aldo took another bite and then drank some of the juice. We both knew how hungry I was, and watching him eat and drink torturous. And that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted me to see just how much power he exerted on me.
“This your plan?” he continued. “To extend this task for as long as possible because you think that’s going to keep you alive? You don’t think I can be done with you at any point and replace you with any accountant I pick up off the streets.”
“I don’t care if I live or die anymore,” I hissed.
Aldo nodded, washing down another bite of the sandwich with the juice.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, darling. I don’t feel so bad about what I’m going to do to you.”
I finally made peace with the idea of my death. Aldo was going to murder me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. My end was inevitable, just like my father’s and mother’s had been.
But I wasn’t going to help him. I wouldn’t do what he wanted me to do. He could kill me, torture me…whatever he wanted to do, but he’d have to find someone else to do his dirty work for him.
Twenty-Four
Tristian
Killian, Colin, Nolan and I landed up at Brendan’s place in the middle of the night. I knew it wouldn’t go down well with him now that he had a family. I had firsthand experience of how protective he was of his son and I didn’t blame him.
However, I needed his cooperation on this one.
Brendan opened the door, surprised to see us, but he welcomed us in.
“You boys hungry?” Rosalie called out from the kitchen.
It looked like they’d just cleaned up their meal for the night, and it left me with a painful pang in the middle of my chest. It reminded me of how Elsie and I had shared a meal not too long ago.
How adorably greedily she’d wolfed down that pizza. I wanted to lick the tomato sauce off her lips. It was the only thing I’d thought about as I watched her eat.
“Not here to eat,” I said.
Brendan looked suspiciously at me; maybe he had already figured out what this was about. Nobody in the world knew me as well as he did. We had grown up together. He was the one I was closest to in the family.
So I turned to him.
“I need to speak to Davey.”
Rosalie came up behind him while Brendan’s eyes grew dark and narrow.
“Davey is asleep. It’s past fuckin’ midnight. Why do you need to speak to him?” he growled.
“I want to try and figure out if he can give us any clues on where he was held.”
Brendan banged a fist on the kitchen table. It was a sudden outburst and startled Rosalie, but I wasn’t surprised by it.
“You need to keep my son out of whatever shitshow you have going on with that chick, Tristian. You were just supposed to watch her, make sure she wasn’t spying on us for the Barons. Do you have any absolute proof she isn’t an informant?” Brendan’s face grew hot and red as he spoke. He grew angrier and angrier by the second.
“This is a shitshow because she’s missing and I know she’s been captured by them again. She is not an informant. She needs our help before it’s too late. I don’t need to explain to you what Aldo is capable of doing to her to pay for rescuing Davey.”
Brendan’s shoulders heaved with anger.
“I’m not letting Davey relive his experience with Aldo Baron. I’m not putting my son through it. Not even for the sake of your new fuckbuddy.”
I stepped up to him, my fists clenched and ready for a fight. Brendan didn’t back off, but Rosalie stepped in.
She grabbed Brendan’s arm, forcing him to turn to look at her.
“Davey can handle it. We need to do our part to return the favor. She saved our son’s life.
