She turned towards me, her eyes wild. “No!” Hell no! My father wants you dead. They were going to kill you. Why can’t you understand that?”
I took a deep breath, my hand pressing down on the injury in my arm to suppress the blood. It was only a flesh wound, but they always hurt the worst. “Sienna, your father can’t intimidate me.”
“Yeah, I know you can kill a man with an envelope and everything,” she said, her voice trembling with fear, “but we’re dealing with the Mafia here. They bury the bullets into your head while you’re sleeping.”
I sighed and kept my voice calm as I spoke, “I know how to deal with your father. My family is as deeply rooted in the mafia as yours is. So please, trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
That made her still … for a second. “What? Your family is Mafia?”
I nodded. “Yes, so I know how it all works. You need to listen to me and trust me. I understand your father better than you do. He has been disrespected. His whole reputation is at stake. Not being made a fool of is more important to him than anything else. If there is any way at all for him to salvage this situation, he’ll jump at the chance and take it. Right now, he’ll still be willing to listen to me before his men cut off my dick and bury me alive, but if we run away like this, with me hiding behind your skirt, he will lose what little respect he has left for me. I will be hunted down like—”
“Is that what’s important right now?” she yelled. “To hell with his respect. If your family is Mafia you should know the punishment for your crime is exactly that … having your dick cut off and stuffed into your mouth before you’re buried alive.”
If the situation wasn’t so serious, I would have laughed. She was a cute little thing. “In all the years I’ve known your father, he has never taken a man’s life without hearing him out first. I’ve built up a lot of goodwill with him. He doesn’t know for sure we’re together yet, so he’ll be hoping I come back to deny it. That it’s all a big mistake. But if we run away like this from him, he’ll never care to listen to what I have to say. I’m not stupid. I know how to protect you and me, so for God’s sake, have a little faith.”
She stilled. “So are we going to lie?”
I shook my head, but softened my tone, “Sienna, trust me.”
“We should treat your shoulder first,” she muttered, eyeing the blood seeping out between my fingers.
“It’s just a flesh wound. Tear a strip off my shirt, bandage it, and we’re good to go."
We returned back to the estate with my left hand in a completely unnecessary make-shift sling. I wasn’t nervous, and just as I’d expected, we were allowed into the house without any trouble.
Sienna seemed confused and panicky. “Why is there no one blocking our way? It has to be a trap.”
“Your father has already heard what happened. He doesn’t want any accidents with you, so he’ll keep his men out of the way until we’re separated,” I explained.
I could tell my response didn’t console her. She hung on to my unhurt arm tightly.
The look Gemma gave her was heartbreaking.
“I’m fine, Gemma,” she said quickly.
Gemma turned her gaze on me and glared at me in fury. “If you dare hurt her,” she threatened, “I’ll kill you myself.”
I didn’t blame her. I appreciated her concern for Sienna, so I just nodded politely and carried on walking towards her father’s study, but when we walked in it was filled with half a dozen men. To my surprise and annoyance, Fabio was also there, standing in a corner. Ah, I should have known—he was the one who told her father.
“You fucking bastard!” he roared in a highly dramatic, faked anger, the moment we walked in. Then he headed straight for me.
While I was debating whether to knock him out cold quickly before anyone else could react, or simply to evade him and allow his own momentum to send him crashing into the wall behind me, Sienna handled him.
She swung her legs with a brutal precision and kicked him right in the solar plexus. “Get the hell away from us!’ she spat.
His eyes bulged, his mouth opened in a shocked, soundless cry, and his hands rushed forward to hug his stomach while he staggered backwards with the force of Sienna’s attack.
I was impressed. Not a bad kick, as far as kicks go.
He reeled about for a few more seconds before he stumbled into a shelf. The items on it came crashing down on top of him as he collapsed to the ground. He looked too dazed to pick himself up.