Once I’ve climbed out of the car and gotten a better look at the woman, it’s clear to me that she’s something like a maid here. My stomach clenches. This woman must be the newMae.
Mae!Did she get away the night Rory found me? Did she manage to get back to France?Fresh tears wet my eyes.
I hope she arrived in her homeland safely.
Especially since safety isn’t in the cards for me.
From what I can gather, the woman, Theresa, is from northern Italy. She doesn’t speak much English, though she understands it well.
She ushers me upstairs.
Seeing my old refuge should be a comfort, but instead, I burn all over with a terrible fire.
Theresa helps me bathe, brushes my hair, then dries and styles it in pretty ringlets. An expensive dress that I’m sure Leo chose waits for me.
Stiff as a tree, I climb into the thing. It’s a silken ivory number that doesn’t cover enough of my body for my taste. I look like icing on a cake when I really feel like death in a bottle.
After Theresa applies my makeup and fusses over how beautiful I look in Italian despite my dark, depressed expression, she leads me out of my room and down to the grand De Luca dining room.
My nerves shoot up the minute the giant double doors come into view.
My mother and I were never allowed to step foot in the dining room. We took all of our meals separate, away from the rest of the family. Enzo wanted it that way. After what happened between Matteo and my mother, he didn’t want the reminders. He never wanted to see us in the same place as his older brother again. And that was the end of it.
The dining room was off-limits, a place I’d only seen lit up from the outside on the rare night my mother wanted to paint in the moonlight and there just so happened to be a gathering going on inside.
It’s a place I’ve avoided, even after Matteo’s and Enzo’s deaths.
Foreboding slams into me as Theresa pushes the doors open.
They creak back, and I see the place up close and personal for the very first time.
A massive chandelier hangs over a dining table that could probably seat twenty people. Even though there are only six people in attendance, a spread of gourmet food covers the length of it. All the guests look up when I step one shaking foot inside.
Leo’s already huge smile widens when he sees me. Beside him, a massive Russian with hair like an oil slick pings my memory.
When recognition clicks, a chill sweeps over me.
He’s the creepy man from the auction. The one who leered at my cleavage and licked my hand when he kissed it.
Stifling a full-body shudder, I jerk my attention to the other men. One of them works for Leo. I’ve seen him around the estate several times doing Leo’s dirty work. Another is short and mousey, with a face that resembles the giant’s. His brother, maybe.
The third has a dark buzz-cut, and I shiver when I notice his cruel scowl.
To my surprise, there’s a woman here, too, maybe in her fifties or sixties. The haughty posture she carries herself with, standing next to the pair of Russian brothers, gives me the impression she’s their mother.
Why she might be here is beyond my power to imagine.
They all stare at me.
I gulp.
Thisis the family I’m going to be working for from now on?
Stuck in the dungeon of some Russian bratva, I’ll be painting for them for the rest of my life. Or until they decide to sell me to someone else. Or kill me.
Leo puffs up his chest, gesturing to me with pride as he turns to the big Russian. “Maksim Petrov, what you paid for has arrived.” Leo’s sinister side-eye warns me to brace myself. “Your bride.”
My entire world shatters.
