and trees blocking anyone from seeing onto the land.
I swallowed as the guy got out of the car, leaving me with just the one sitting next to me. I turned, staring at the side of his face. He didn’t look much older than me, but his privilege was clear to see. His clothes may have looked like street wear but they were designer. His hair was styled perfectly in short waves, the dark-brown gleaming.
I wasn’t sure how long it took for him to turn his head, but when his gray eyes met mine, I raised a brow. I wasn’t sure gray did them justice, they were almost see through. I didn’t know why, but I was sure he wouldn’t hurt me. He had a softness to him.
He opened his mouth but snapped it shut as the guy from the front darted back out of the huge doors. He stormed around to my door, opened it, then grabbed me by the arm.
“Ow.” I tried to pull back from him, but he didn’t let up, hauling me out of the car and dragging me toward the doors. “Where are you taking me?” I asked, trying to sound confident, but even I could hear the tremor in my voice.
“Shut up,” he barked.
“Romeo,” the other guy said, and I realized that he was following us. I turned my head, trying to meet his stare again, but he wasn’t focused on me. “You’re hurting her.”
So his name was Romeo.
Romeo laughed. “You think this is hurting her?” He stopped outside a door inside the mansion. I darted my gaze around, hoping that someone would see what he was doing to me and intervene, but it was empty. “You’ve got no idea what Lorenzo is gonna do to her.” He pushed the door open but didn’t move to go inside. “You first, Rafael. We’re going to the basement.”
Gray eyes—Rafael—stepped forward, his shoulders drooping as he walked through the room. We followed him, but I wasn’t quick enough to take everything in, only the big black desk sitting loud and proud in the middle of the room.
Rafael opened another door. My heart sped up as Romeo pulled me through it and down some stairs. Maybe they really were taking me to my death. My breaths sawed in and out of me as the situation became clearer.
I’d stolen from these men. I’d taken something that wasn’t mine. And they’d caught me.
I tripped down the last step, but Romeo’s hold on me kept me upright. My vision blurred, and it took me several seconds to realize they were tears. My body was shutting down, sensing the danger surrounding me.
Rafael moved to the side, revealing a foreboding man in the middle of the room. He stared at me, his eyes taking everything in, but he didn’t say a word. He was analyzing me, and if I would have been clever, I would have done the same, but I was too occupied with the thought that he could be the last person I saw before I took my final breath.
You weren’t taken down to a basement only for a little chat. This was serious.
“Do you know who I am?” the man asked, his deep voice ricocheting off the bare brick walls.
“I…no.” It was a whisper, but I knew he heard me.
He took one step forward, still leaving a few feet of distance between us. He towered over me, his height making me feel even smaller than I was. I stared directly in my eye line, noting the three top buttons of his shirt that were undone.
“My name is Lorenzo.” He paused, and I looked up into his eyes. “Lorenzo Beretta.”
Beretta. The B’s on the gate.
I felt the color drain from my face as everything clicked into place. It didn’t matter where you lived in the country, you were aware of the Mafia families. They were celebrities to some, but those who knew the streets knew they were anything but that. The stories of their brutalities were both legends and warnings.
And now here I was, standing in front of the boss of the family.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I really wasn’t going to make it out of this basement.
“I didn’t mean to take it,” I rushed out, holding my hands up in front of me. Romeo was quick to react, grabbing my biceps, and snapping my arms behind my back. My shoulders screamed in pain, but I didn’t vocalize it.
“You didn’t mean to steal from me?” Lorenzo asked, reaching down to his ankle and swiping