Page 38 of Trapped

I dropped the phone beside the bottle of Sambuca, the screen going dark. I couldn’t deny the truth anymore. Santino was trying to trap me. I had to protect myself. This was my life. That meant untangling myself from him, no matter how much it’d hurt me.

THIRTEEN

SANTINO

My soldier blocked the only exit.

An unnecessary precaution since the man at my feet couldn’t walk. Ivan writhed on the concrete floor, moaning, his jeans soaked with piss and blood. Crimson smeared the aluminum baseball bat that I’d cracked over his legs. His arms. His screaming echoed in the warehouse. So loud. I should’ve gagged him.

Ivan tried to prop himself up but slipped on his blood. Pleas spilled from his split lip.Stop. Don’t do this. I’m sorry.He’d apologized a hundred times, crawled on his hands, begged.

I’d spent an hour making an example out of him, and my brain still felt like it was on fire. I kept seeing what he’d done to her.

I tossed the bat aside.

One of my soldiers picked it up.

Then I stalked to Ivan and grabbed his hair. I forced him to his knees and pressed the barrel of the gun against his forehead, feeling his skin twitch under the metal.

I motioned toward Vitale, who handed me my phone. I flipped it open to the surveillance footage. “A civilian recorded you attacking my girlfriend. Right outside their business, two days ago.”

Ivans trembled, and his eyes darted away.

Fucking coward. “You hit her, so I thought I’d return the favor.”

“I meant no disrespect.”

“You attacked my girlfriend.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was anything to you.” Ivan’s voice cracked, the stench of fear as pungent as the piss. “Everybody said she was your whore.”

That word flashed through me like lightning.

I pistol whipped his face.

Blood burst over Ivan’s eye socket as he rolled on his back. I kicked him, slamming my leather shoes into his ribcage. I seized his hair and put the gun back to his skull.

“I swear, all we did was talk!” he cried, tears mixing with blood. “Dimitri’s been on our asses to find her. He told us to check Boston.”

I already knew about her ex’s frantic search. Hard to miss it, the way Dimitri clawed through the city’s underbelly to locate the woman who’d slipped through his fingers.

I leaned in closer, whispering. “Well, now you know. And you’re gonna send a message to Dimitri for me. If he even thinks about coming near her, I’ll destroy his family. His sisters. His brothers. Their husbands and wives. Every single one of you Russian pricks.”

Ivan nodded frantically. “I will, I promise. Please, just let me go.”

“Another question, and I’ll set you free.”

“Sure,” he bleated. “Anything.”

I smiled. “Does he know she’s with me?”

Ivan’s breathing hitched. “No.”

Too bad. “You sure?”

“He doesn’t know. I swear to Christ.”

I lifted the gun, aiming at him.

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