“This is going too far!” Leo shouts as his brother pulls me out the door of my own apartment.
I don’t even have a chance to grab anything, or to lock up my door. I see Leo standing indignantly in the doorway as I’m being dragged away toward the stairwell. My feet are skidding against the ground, and my fingers try to dig into Gabriel’s arm to get him to release me, but this man is impervious to all of my attempts to free myself.
I shout out at Leo to lock up my apartment since I’m obviously being taken somewhere against my will, and can’t help but be a little mad that he didn’t fight his brother a bit harder on my behalf. Granted, Leo isn’tcapoor even a match for Gabriel; but still, he barely stood up for me at all. Some best friend. At least I put up a decent fight.
The moment Gabriel shoves me into his car and locks the doors, I unleash my temper on him. “Is kidnapping women a commonplace occurrence in yourborgata?” I hiss. “Because most guys who aren’t assholes simply ask for a second date.”
“This isn’t a date,” he says with annoyance. “Have you not heard anything I’ve said in regard to your safety?”
“Yeah, you keep saying I’m in danger. But so far, the only person kidnapping me is you. I’m starting to think yourborgatajust makes up all its own rules.”
“Oh, you’re going to soon learn all about how myborgataworks, because you’re going to be joining it,” he says as he pulls away from my apartment building in his fancy car.
“What are you talking about? I’m not joining yourborgata, or anyone else’s for that matter. I work alone.”
“You keep saying that, but from where I sit, it looks like you’ve been officially put out of business. You have a target on your back, Camille, and no one’s going to hire you. And this is all aside from the fact that you can’t trust anyone who might actually offer you a job now. How do you know you’re not being set up again?”
He has a point, but I don’t want to admit it. I know I can’t just get back to taking jobs, but I was going to figure out what to do about money. I just hadn’t had time to work through it yet. Besides, I have enough from the last job still tucked away in my apartment. Assuming, of course, that it’ll still be there whenever I get back to it.
“I’m putting you under my protection now,” he says, unilaterally deciding my fate. “And for that to happen, you’ll be joining myborgata.”
“Like hell,” I say. I’ll be damned if I am going to be told what to do and forced into aborgata. Who does this guy think he is? I’m a grown woman, and I’ve been on my own for years. Gabriel Adami doesn’t just get to swoop in and abscond with me to force me into servitude within his crime family. I slide quickly sideways in my seat and pull up my legs to kick against the lock mechanism in the door panel. When the lock pops up, I pull the handle and open the door of the moving car.
“What the fuck?” Gabriel shouts as he grips the wheel with one hand and grabs my shoulder with the other. I try to pull against him and jump out, but he’s too strong. The car swerves all over the road as he yanks me toward him, until my body has practically fallen into his lap. He jerks the car abruptly to the left and the passenger door slams itself closed in response. Then, he uses his arm like a locked seatbelt on my waist, pinning me against his lap and still somehow managing to look around my shoulder to see the road ahead of us.
“You aren’t going anywhere, Camille,” he growls at me. “So you might as well stop trying to get away.”
I’m growing angrier by the minute. “Why are you even doing this?” I ask. The close proximity of my face to his, and the not-so-subtle feeling of sitting on a bulge in his lap, are combining to make my voice sound raspy with a wanton desire I try to mask. “Why go out of your way to protect me? You could simply protect yourself and your own family and leave me out of it. You could have just left me with Leo. He’ll protect me too.”
Gabriel chuckles and shakes his head. “Leo can’t protect you from the threat that’s coming for you. Hell, he couldn’t even protect you from his own brother.”
“Do I need protection from you?” I ask, trying to outsmart him in his own game. “I thought you were trying to save me from whatever’s coming after me.”
“I am,” Gabriel says with increasing irritation. “But if you keep vexing me, I might rethink my position.”
I shift my weight in his lap at his use of the word “position” to remind him that he doesn’t have all the power here. I seem to recall being able to make him breathless before too. And he can’t hide the small, involuntary sound that escapes his open mouth in response to my movement.
I sit silently for a moment, gauging his eyes and the rise and fall of his chest as he pulls the car into his parking garage. He called me feral back in my apartment, but I think his impulsive reactions, and the fact that he can’t seem to resist pulling me against him every chance he gets, is an indication that perhaps the more carnal reactions are on his part.
He pulls into the parking spot and turns off the car. For a moment, as he sits there staring at me with his arm still locked firmly around my waist, I think he might lean ever-so-slightly forward and kiss me. But the emotion on his face is hard to read, wavering between anger, frustration, and an angsty desire.
“You’ll be staying here with me now,” he says in a stern tone that surprises me and upheaves any potential for an intimate moment. It’s just as well, because I’m still exceedingly angry at him. “You’ll become part of myborgataand be under my protection. And if you try to leave this time, I’ll have you brought back. Do you understand?”
I wish he was joking with this machismo bullshit, but it’s clear he isn’t. For a second there, I thought that two could play at this power game, but now I can see he has a deep need to be in control of things. I nod my head, only because I want to get out of this car and make a run for it again.
But it’s as if Gabriel can read my mind, because as soon as he opens the car door, three of his men are there to meet us, including Nick again. He lifts me off his lap and instructs his men not to touch me unless I try to run. As I walk toward the elevator, surrounded by members of the Adamiborgata, I’m starting to think that maybe the one I truly need protection from is Gabriel.
8
GABRIEL
As soon as we get back inside my apartment, Camille runs straight back to the room she had woken up inside of before. I hear her throw the lock and know that she’s sequestered herself inside. I sigh and pour myself a drink, even though it’s still early. If I just let her have her temper tantrum and get it out of her system, she’ll likely calm down and come to her senses after a while. At least she’s safe inside my apartment with me now. There wasn’t a chance in hell that my mousy little brother would’ve been able to keep her safe. Honestly, he should be thanking me for looking after his best friend. No offense to Leo, but he’s never been the stronger of the two of us. He’ll be pissed at me for days, I’m sure. But he’ll get over it. He always does.
For the rest of the afternoon, I do all of my work remotely from my place, along with a small meeting between Nick, my underboss Pito, and myself. I don’t want to stray too far until Camille comes out. I want to be here to see how her mood adjusts to this, and what kind of fight I’m going to have on my hands. At some point she’ll have to come out. There’s a bed and a bathroom in there, but no food. But as the afternoon draws on and turns to a violet-skied evening, Camille still remains silent inside of her room. Her stubbornness is proving to be even more ironclad than I had first thought. Still, it can’t last forever. After a while, hunger will win out.
I stand at the other side of the door before I get ready to go to bed, listening to hear if she’s still in there. There’s no way out without my knowing about it, since the fire escape is disabled for her room and there are guards at either end of the hall watching it. The room is silent, and for a second I find myself wondering if there’s anything inside she could use to off herself. Not that I think she would, but it’s been a whole day and night and she still hasn’t emerged or made so much as a sound. I lay down on the floor and press my eye to the crack beneath the door just to be sure, and I can see her feet walking on the other side. It looks like she’s quietly pacing the perimeter with bare feet, which explains the lack of audible footsteps. At least I know she’s still alive.
That night, I don’t sleep at all. It’s ridiculous for me to be concerned about her in there. She’s the one who’s locked herself inside. It’s not as if I’ve imprisoned her to a single room without food or drink. She’s free to come out any time. She’s just being stubborn. The next day, I try to focus on work but get increasingly agitated at the thought of her inside that room, likely upset, worried, and starving. I go back to stand outside the door and listen again—no sound.
