Right now what’s more important is finding out if Vivia is alright, and then the next is figuring out a plan to get out of here. I was tasked with bringing her home to The Castle safely and goddamn it, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do if it kills me. I have one job to do. I won’t fuck up.
I shift a little to see if I can rouse her silently. I whisper a hoarse, “Vivia.” My vocal cords don’t want to work.
I call her name again, and she moans a little. Jesus, I wish we weren’t attached to each other. I need to see how badly she’s injured, and if she’s okay. Cracked ribs and some scrapes won’t hold me down.
But before I can turn around and try to unfasten these bonds, the door opens. A masked man comes inside wearing nothing but black. My eyes aren’t accustomed to the bright light, and I blink a few times to adjust to the sudden change. I can’t tell if this is the guy from earlier.
The door clangs shut behind him.
“The guard’s awake and alive, she still seems asleep.”
Guard?
Ah. They think I’m her bodyguard. Makes sense. How would they know the Rossis were involved?
I can feel her tensing against me, too much in control for a person who’s supposedly asleep. I gently move my hands that are behind me until I find the warmth of her skin. I give her hand a little squeeze. She squeezes back. I’m struck with how small her hand is in mine, but how strong her grip is.
I don’t care who she is or what she did. I’m sworn to protect my family, and the Montavio family is part of that.
“Good. Looks like she’s awake, too, aren’t you, princess?”
“Fuck off,” she mutters, her words slurred. I grit my teeth. I’m the one that can piss off the people that took us, not her, because I’m the one they’ll beat up. It’s a fine line. If they touch her, I’ll have to kill them and that’ll make things really complicated.
He only chuckles, though, and marches over to us. “And who do we have here,” he says. “Vivia Montavio’s trained bodyguard put up quite a fight, didn’t he? Impressed, man.” He shakes his head. “Never seen a guard ready to throw down like you. Should hire you for our outfit.”
Outfit. Not a single person, then.
Noted.
This guy’s smaller than I am, but he moves with the grace of an assassin. I don’t move.
I tense, bracing myself for a blow but it doesn’t come. He kneels in front of me and says in my ear, “How many you kill, brother? Nine? Ten? We’ll take that outta you.”
There it is, the threat before they beat the shit out of me. Been here before. I won’t cave, and I won’t die, and neither will she.
If he thinks I’m her bodyguard and doesn’t yet know he’s captured a Rossi, that could play into my favor. I rack my brain trying to think of how I can hide it or if I should even try—one glance at the rose on my forearm and he’ll know exactly who I am.
“And you.” He lets me go and reaches for Vivia. I tense, trying to assess the damage I can do when my hands are bound. If he hurts her—
“You’ve got a lot to answer for, don’t you?”
She spits in his face. Motherfucker, didn’t Sergio teach her anything about hostage situations? God. Seems like Sergio didn’t teach her anything.
He grabs a fistful of her hair. I lean back, swivel my leg hard and knock him off balance. He falls in front of me which makes it easy to jam my foot in his neck to hold him in place. I won’t be able to restrain him for long with my hands bound and he’s got the advantage, but the element of surprise is working in my favor for now.
“Apologize, Vivia.” I can toss him a bone.
“For what?” she snaps.
Of all the fucking times to give me shit—
“Better for you if you don’t provoke them.”
“Oh, like sweeping his legs and pinning him by the throat isn’t provoking at all.”
I grit my teeth and shove my back against hers.
“Fine. I’m sorry. Shouldn’t have done that,” she says. He shoves me off of him and gets to his feet, reaches for his gun, cocks it and aims at her. If I don’t intervene and get the attention focused back on me, he’s gonna hurt her.