“You’d have stopped me,” she says, sounding defeated, looking down at the floor.
“Look at me,” I tell her.
She lifts her face slowly, like it weighs too much for her neck. She stares defiantly up at me, like she hates me. Defiance in those eyes but strength too. Misplaced but it’s there.
“What did I do to deserve an assassination attempt?” I ask her, handing the gun back to her.
“You killed my dogs,” she hisses, the words coming out like pure venom. “You killed my horses. You killed my family. You blew up my house. There’s nothing but the basement left. My dogs, Nico. They never hurt anyone. Why’d you have to kill them?”
“You really think that of me?”
“You’re evil. I hate you.”
I find myself chuckling as I look back at her. “You’ll think I’m a lot worse in a couple of days. We’re getting married, darling. Get used to being in here. It’ll be your home until the wedding.”
I turn and unlock the door, leaving her sitting there staring at my back. I walk out, locking her in. “I’m in your bedroom, you fucking idiot,” she shouts through. “Where are you going to sleep?”
I want to reply that I’ll be sleeping with her but I’ll let her calm down first. “I planned this whole thing,” I call back, turning the key over in my hand. “That’s your room and it’s full of things just for you.”
I head downstairs, leaving her yelling and thumping on the door. I know what she’ll try and do. Get out the window. Good luck with that. It’s triple glazed airplane standard security glass. She could hurl the bed at it and nothing would happen other than a broken bed.
She’ll give up yelling soon enough. No one in captivity can yell for long. Their throat seizes up after a while.
I find Matteo in the kitchen downstairs, nursing one of his wheatgrass drinks, the ones his wife makes him drink for his heart condition. “Did she shoot?” he asks.
“Pulled the trigger twice,” I reply as I start fixing myself a sandwich.
“I owe you twenty.”
“Told you she’d have the balls.”
“I guess you were right. You tell her about the wedding?”
I nod, slicing the bread in half with a long knife.
“How’d she take it?”
“As well as you’d expect. You know, she thinks I killed her dogs.”
“Is that why she got the gun from Reggie?”
“She really thinks I’m an animal killer.” I shake my head. “Do I look like an animal killer?”
“You look like a killer.”
I take a bite of my sandwich. “I guess I do.”
“What’s the plan for tonight?”
“Start trying to get her pregnant.”
“It sounds so romantic when you put it like that.” He drains his glass, wincing as he pulls it from his mouth. “Christ, that is foul.”
“When can we move on the wedding?”
“Couple of days.”
“Why so long?”