Dean’s put in a bunch of phone calls and the wait is excruciating.
“Should I call Georgio?” Dean asks.
The news has spread about what Georgio has done, and the thought of Dean talking to the man who tried to frame me for his crimes makes me uneasy. But I’d do anything for Mia, and if Georgio knows anything, then we need to figure it out.
“Call him,” I say, not caring if the man has been exiled from the Four Families.
Dean nods, putting the phone up to his ear. He waits. “Georgio, it’s about Mia.”
I can hear Georgio yelling on the other end of the phone.
Dean holds the phone away from his ear, trying to get a word in but Georgio just keeps yelling. And then the line goes dead.
“What did he say?” Sophia asks.
“He said no one would ever see her again.”
My eyes meet Dean’s, wondering why a father would say that about his own daughter.
“He must know where she is,” Dean says, catching on a mere second before me.
“You’re right.”
And then I remember something Mia said at the market.
Fuck.
Chapter 24
Mia
* * *
I open my eyes, my head throbbing in pain. I can’t see anything clearly, but I can hear waves crashing outside of my window.
I glance around, trying to figure out where I am.
A dark room. Barely any light. Just a smidgen of it coming in from the sun outside.
There’s a tiny window near the ceiling of the room with bars on the outside. I shake my head, sitting up on the small cot I’m in.
My whole body aches, and I stretch my muscles as I try to get my bearings. Where am I?
The walls are bare. The floor is hard.
A chill lingers in the room, and I hug onto myself trying to stay warm.
The lock sounds and I lie down, pretending to be asleep. Hopefully, whoever walks in will leave me alone.
No such luck. The door opens and loud footsteps walk across the floor and kick the side of my cot.
“Get up.” I recognize the voice and open my eyes.
“Enzo? What are you doing here?”
He laughs, but there’s no humor there. “I said, get up.”
I sit up a little too fast and feel my head sway. I hold on to my head, trying to stop the spin. “Where am I?” I ask, once the spinning stops.
“I knew that fucker wasn’t your father.” He pulls me by the arm and drags me from the room.
I keep my mouth shut because I have nothing to say to the man that he’d want to hear.
He leads me down a long musky hallway to a wide opening at the end. Inside, there are three chairs, and he plops me down in one of them.
The large room is dark and dank, and I realize I must be in an abandoned warehouse. “Please let me go,” I tell him, wondering how far I am from Sebastian’s home. Am I even still in London?
I rub my temples, trying my best to ease the headache away.
Enzo laughs, and another man walks into the room. A man I know well.
It’s my father.
Tears well in my eyes when I see him come closer.
“Daddy, please.” I don’t really know what’s going on, but I know this is not the father I know and love. This is a monster in his place.
My father would never hurt me.
But this man he is now, would. “Daddy,” I plead, trying to get him to look at me.
“Just play along, Mia. It’ll all be over soon,” he says.
“Play along with what?” My voice sounds wobbly, like I’m talking under water. “Did you drug me?” It explains the way I’m feeling.
“Mia, listen to your father. Your real father,” Enzo says. “We just need to use you as bait to get what we want.”
I stand from my chair on wobbly legs, and try to move across the room to my father. “Dad, please look at me. You can’t do this to me.”
“Have we treated you poorly?” he finally says. “You’re fine. You just need to stay here until they come for you.”
I shake my head. “Until who comes? Sebastian?”
Enzo laughs like a crazed hyena, and the sound grates on my nerves. “When I explained you and Donovan Sabatini to Georgio, he laughed. He said Sabatini didn’t exist and we realized the game you both were playing.”
My father sits in one of the chairs, pointing to the other for me to sit down. “Sit, please.”
Enzo continues speaking, “Does your father know you’re fucking his best friend?”
My dad’s eyes snap to mine. “Please tell me Enzo is wrong.”
I’m upset my father would use me as bait in his stupid games, so I lean forward, holding onto the back of the chair. “He’s right. And also know, I’m in love with him, Daddy Dearest.”
My father stands and pushes his chair across the room. “No, this isn’t true.”