I couldn’t see the man who was on the other side, but his voice sent shivers down my spine. There was something in his tone which made my stomach crawl. I wanted to try and escape, but I was terrified of making any noise and drawing any attention to myself. I didn’t care what my father said, I was sure that this man was not just going to “make a trade.”
“Are you drunk?” he asked. I heard his boots on the creaking floor. “You look like hell.”
“Haven’t slept,” my father said tersely.
The man didn’t say anything. He walked further into the room, moving past my father. “So, you got her,” he said.
The man was large. Well over six feet and over two hundred pounds of muscles. His hair was dark and greasy, and his eyes were devoid of any color. I shivered as they trained on me, and I tried to make myself smaller.
“You told me if I did then you’d forgive my debts,” my father told him.
The man didn’t take his eyes off me as he shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t think that you would kidnap your own daughter.”
His eyes looked me up and down once more. “You must be Ivy.” He leered at me.
I said nothing. My father walked forward, placing himself in between us, which I found surprising. At least until he spoke. “I want you to tell me that you are going to forgive my debts. I want you to tell me that I’m free.”
I shook my head. My father didn’t give a shit about me. He just wanted to make sure that he was going to get something out of turning me over.
“We can talk about that later,” he said.
The greasyman walked forward, but my father didn’t move. “I’m not handing her over until you give me your word.”
“Fine,” the man said.
Before my father could react, the man reached into his waistband which held a knife. My father placed his hands up in surrender, but it was too late. The man lunged forward and sliced and pressed the knife into my father’s gut.
I screamed before I could stop myself.
My father’s eyes went wide, and his hands immediately went to his stomach where blood was spilling out across the floor.
“Be quiet,” the man ordered. I hadn’t stopped screaming until he turned towards me, blood knife in hand. “If you can’t be quiet…” he trailed off. “I don’t need all of you to make a deal with your husband.”
I immediately stopped screaming, but my breath was coming out in short gasps as I watched my father bleed out on the floor.
“Good girl,” the man said.
He walked toward me and grabbed my wrist. He reached down and started rummaging around my father’s pockets. “Got it,” he said.
“You’re insane,” I breathed out. He had just stabbed my father and now, he was acting like it was nothing. It made my stomach turn. My father wasn’t a good man by any means, but I didn’t want him dead.
The man grabbed my wrist, the action jerking me forward. He undid the cuff that was chaining me to the bed.
I immediately ran towards the door. But I didn't get far before he grabbed me around the waist, hauling me back towards the bed. My boots dragged into my father’s blood, and I nearly vomited all over the place.
“Don’t be stupid,” he told me, as he threw me down on the ground. “I’ll gladly send your husband pieces of you.”
I had no doubt of that. I didn’t know who this man was, but I knew that he wasn’t bluffing when he said that he would send pieces of me to Marco. If I just had to worry about myself, I might have changed it, but I was pregnant, and I needed to be smart about this.
“What do you want from me?” I asked. I looked over at my father. His eyes were closed, and for a moment, I worried that he was dead, but then, I noticed a little bit of breath escape him.
“Your husband has something I want,” he said.
I knelt in front of my father, pressing my hands down on the gaping wound in his stomach. I was shaking as I tried my best to staunch the bleeding.
“I don’t think you’ve thought this through,” I said. “My husband is a dangerous man. He’ll kill you and not think twice about it.”
The man laughed, as though I’d issued some sort of challenge. “Marco used to be dangerous, but now that we’ve got his little bitch, he’s going to give us what we want.”