“Don’t worry; I’ll rectify that soon enough.” I glare at him. The tick in his jaw tells me he sees what I plan to do to him as soon as I’m free. He better kill me tonight, along with everyone else on my team, or this will cost him his life. I’ll find a way to kill him even if I’m dead.
“I doubt that when you can’t even fulfill your most basic duties.” Andrea turns to Rialta. “You’ve failed as a husband. Rialta ran off last night. She didn’t want to be with you.”
I look from him to Rialta. Her eyes widen.
Andrea is lying.
She wouldn’t run away. She has before, but she wouldn’t again. Not unless there was a very good reason, but even then—she’d have woken me up or told one of the others. And after our fuck last night, I know she wouldn’t just leave my bed willingly.
“You failed to keep her satisfied. You failed to protect her. And you proved how pathetic of a mob boss you would be when you could be so easily captured,” he continues.
I glare at him but don’t say anything because he’s right. I failed. Even though I was counting on them to help us, I should have been prepared for this.
I look at Rialta—I should have prepared her for this too. She must be terrified.
I look her in the eyes, trying to comfort her, even though I don’t have a way out of this that keeps us both alive. But I find no fear. She looks at me with a dark gleam that says she’s ready to fight.
That’s my girl.I knew she had it in her; it just needed to be coaxed out of her.
“You shouldn’t be the heir. Divorce her and leave, and we’ll let you live,” Andrea continues.
The rest of the men are silent, just watching the exchange. Andrea thinks he’s won them—that they’re all on his side. But the silence tells me they are here just to watch the show. They won’t fully pledge me their loyalty until I complete my deal with Vincent and take over his job.
I still have time to win them to my side. Andrea won’t kill me tonight; I won’t let him.
“You know I won’t do that.”
Andrea snickers, like I just walked into his trap. “We can’t kill you per the arrangement you made with Vincent. But you can prove to us that you are worthy of the job. Punish your wife for leaving so she never puts us in danger again. Convince us you have control of her. Maybe we’ll let you walk out of here with the arrangement still intact. Otherwise, we might just kill you and face Vincent’s wrath.”
He nods at Logan, the man standing to my right. He walks behind me and unlocks the handcuffs—releasing me.
This is about embarrassing me.
This is about degrading her and making her hate me.
This is about reducing my authority.
I consider my options.
Refuse and fight—and end up dead. Even if I was completely healthy and had a weapon, I couldn’t take on over a dozen men with guns and make it out alive.
Convince Andrea to stop this—very unlikely.
Or surrender—and fight to live another day. But it would mean hurting Rialta, and that’s not something I’m willing to do at the moment.
I remain calm as I think through the choices. I’ve been in worse situations before and survived them. But I can’t find a way to get out of this.
Until I look at Rialta.
She rakes her teeth over her bottom lip.
My eyes widen.
She can’t be offering…
And then she winks at me with a twinkle in her eye. And I know exactly what I’m going to do.
“Oh, I’ll punish her.”