“Can we not just rest for one night?” Sofia asks. Her whining sounds less irritating and more endearing. It’s not a whine. It’s just a request from an exhausted woman—an exhausted, beautiful woman.
I give myself a mental slap. NO! Not going there.
I look at her. “I don’t know, Sofia. I have a feeling. I always trust my gut.”
She puts a hand on my arm again, and there’s that electricity, that spark of something. “We can leave at like five in the morning if you want. Let me just sleep in a bed, please.”
I sigh. “Fine, but we’re leaving at four, not five. I’ll wake you up.”
She nods. “It’s a deal.”
“What’s a deal?” Carmila asks as she walks over. I’m surprised when Sofia answers, “That we’ll be leaving in a day or two.”
Good girl, she’s learning not to trust everyone.
Carmila smiles. “Okay, I’m going to get something quick, then we can take the party inside.”
I wait until she turns around, then stand up. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Inside, down the hallway, second door to your left. But you can use the one in the room we showed you earlier as well,” Carmila says with a friendly smile.
I nod, and I follow her into the house.
By sheer dumb luck, I look out the window and see two cars pulling up quickly.
They’re here.
I glare at Carmila. “You!”
“Sorry,” she says with a smile, “Jose sends his regards.”
I whip out my gun and point it at her head. “I send mine.”
I pull the trigger, and everyone screams at the noise. A few people who look in start crying hysterically and immediately run off.
Sofia comes rushing in and looks between my gun-holding hand and Carmila’s lifeless body on the floor. She glares at me. “What have you done? How could you!”
I grab her. “We need to go. They’re…”
A gun is placed against the back of my head, and I freeze.
“We’re here,” a voice says, and I hold my hands up, gun still in my hand.
“Drop it, or I blow your brains out. I don’t mind doing it even if you do drop the gun,” he says from behind me.
I consider whether or not I could disarm him. The problem is that there were many people in the cars I saw.
I drop the gun, and they grab me by my arms, taking my other weapon. They grab Sofia, too, and we’re taken to one of the cars. They slip cable ties over our hands and shove us into the back of one of the vehicles.
I don’t know how long we’re in the car, but we’re dragged out to a room where two chairs face each other. They’re about three yards apart. I’m placed in one, and Sofia is placed in another, silent tears streaming down her face. I hadn’t even noticed she’d started crying. A dull ache echoes through my chest at the sign of her distress.
A few goons come in, and I know what I’m in for when I see one with knuckle dusters on his hands. I look up at them. “Hello, gents, any chance of a whiskey? Maybe some wine?”
One of the large men punches me through the face, and I’m momentarily dazed.
“Where are your brother and his wife?”
I look up again and can feel a bruise forming on my face. “Alessandro and Tatya are in New York, don’t you know that?”