been moved from one trunk to the other. Not Anthony, the other one. I don't think I caught his name. But I remembered he'd been wearing a giant belt buckle in the shape of a lion. This morning, the lion was replaced with a vintage ship and hula girls.
"Well, he's an asshole," I declared, moving off into the kitchen, going for the coffee pot.
"He sure is. A lovely young lady like you would never sulk, right?" the guard asked, sarcasm heavy in his voice.
"Lovely young ladies like me don't typically find themselves kidnapped and held for ransom, so whatever reactions we have to said situation, we are justified. Who are you? Where is Christopher?"
"Chris has other jobs some days. So you're stuck with me. Emilio," he clarified when I raised a brow.
"Emilio. So, are you an asshole like your boss too?"
"Depends. I was the one who sent him to pick you up in the first place."
"So that is a yes."
"But I went to Lorenzo because the man who was initially supposed to pick you up is the most vicious bastard I've ever met in my life. And I don't think I need to tell you this, but I have known a lot of vicious bastards in my line of work."
"So, what, I'm supposed to thank you? Gee, thanks so much for sending the slightly better of two evils to rip me out of bed, throw me in a trunk, and hold me captive."
To that, I got a small chuckle, like this guy didn't let much get to him. "You know, Lorenzo didn't say you had such a mouth on you."
"No? Because he calls me hellcat. To my face."
"And you didn't do anything to deserve that name, huh?"
"Oh, I deserved it alright. And he has no idea how much worse I can be."
"But now you're all pissy at him, so he's about to find out, right? I know the deal. I have sisters."
"And they condone you being a part of kidnapping other girls?"
"Let's just say this is an isolated incident. We don't snatch women or girls off the streets in this family."
"Just me then. What did I ever do to be so lucky?"
"Look, we finally heard from your old man today. Hopefully, everyone can come to an understanding. And then you can go back to your life."
This was the first time they'd heard from my dad?
That was, well, unsettling. At best. He hadn't noticed I wasn't around? He hadn't thought to look for me? To go down to Cape May to check the house? Notice that all my stuff was still there, but I wasn't?
It was sobering to realize how unimportant you were in your only surviving parent's life.
"I don't know if I believe I will be allowed to go back."
"If your father complies, you will go back. It's not exactly good for our PR if we start murdering random girls for the sins of their fathers."
"Right. Just roughing up and kidnapping and holding them against their will then."
"The way I heard it, you hit your own head," Emilio said, smirking at the mental image Lorenzo must have put there.
"I think it says a lot about you that you find it funny that I was so terrified that I was going to be raped and murdered, I hurt myself while I tried to escape that fate."
"I guess Lorenzo was wrong," Emilio said, letting the sentence hang, waiting for me to take the bait.
And, damn it, I did. "About what?"
"You getting out of that pissy mood," he said, smiling as he brushed past me to make coffee.
"I know you think you are so—" I started, tailing off when I heard the familiar whoosh of the elevator.
My gaze immediately went there. And, damn it, there was something dangerously close to anticipation fluttering through my stomach.
And not the bad sort of anticipation either. Though, as the doors slid open, and Lorenzo stepped out—shoulders tense, jaw so tight that a muscle ticked there, eyes blazing—I realized maybe it should have been the bad sort of anticipation working its way through my body.
My pulse quickened as his gaze turned to me, that anger lapping higher and higher.
"Fuck off, Emilio," he growled, voice even lower than it usually was.
It shouldn't have sounded sexy, not when he was so pissed off, but there was no mistaking it was. It shivered across my nerve endings, making my stomach feel a little wobbly as those green eyes pinned me.
"You fucking lied to me," he growled, the sound barely able to