Page 5 of Bones

I take a seat and he towers over me with a glare. “I kept my word. Now it’s your turn.”

“It’s a long story, but my boyfriend wanted me to steal your car.”

He tilts his head curiously. “Boyfriend?”

I nod. “Kind of.”

Bones folds his arms over his chest. “We’ll circle back to ‘kind of’. What car were you to steal? I have many.”

“A red Lamborghini.”

He stares at me with a shocked expression. “My favorite.” Bones shakes his head with disgust. “You never would have gottenanywhere near my baby. Did he tell you who you were stealing from, little thief?”

I sit on the chair with my hands knotted, twisting my fingers. It’s a nervous habit I’ve had since I was a child. While I’ve had men hurt me all my life, there’s something about him that tells me he’s more dangerous than the others. And it’s not the cage. It’s the way he carries himself that makes me believe that hurting me wouldn’t be hard, and he’d enjoy it.

“No. He gave me the address. He makes me steal things for him and then he sells them.”

Bones rubs his thumb over his bottom lip. “You don’t strike me as a stupid girl, but this suggests otherwise. There is only one way stealing from the mafia ends, Butterfly. You will be no different.”

Mafia? Did he say mafia?

I swallow hard. “I’m sorry.” But I know that won’t make any difference to him. My only chance to live through this will be to run if I get the opportunity. I know enough about mafia men to know there will be no forgiveness. It doesn’t matter how many times I apologize. It won’t matter to him that I didn’t really have a choice. The only thing I can hope for is a quick death, and somehow I don’t think that’s part of his plan.

“Name,” he growls.

“What?”

He grabs the arms of the chair on either side and leans down, placing his face an inch from mine. “The boyfriend’s name. Do not fucking lie to me, either. There is nothing you can do to save him,” he says through angry clenched teeth.

“Manny.”

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “Manuel Ortiz.”

He nods as his phone rings and he answers it, keeping his eyes on me the entire time he’s talking to someone.

After he hangs up, I notice how different he looks. Concerned. Like a human with emotions. It’s not there long before he hides it all away.

“Gotta go, Butterfly. Back in your cage.”

I go to argue that he promised me time out of the metal hell, but decide against it because I think I’ve agitated him enough. Maybe I can buy time and escape before he kills me. Doubtful, but it’s the only hope I have.

CHAPTER FIVE

BONES

I stare at my father in utter disbelief. The same man who has always been the most powerful man I’ve known. The strongest.

“What?” I ask, because his words make no sense to me.

“God damn it, Luca. You heard me.”

He’s right. I heard the words, but they must be wrong.

“We’ll get a second opinion,Padre. You don’t have cancer. There must be a mistake.”

My father is old school, and in our world men are not to show feelings. We are allowed to be sad, but it is never visible. Even though his words are gutting me, I give him what he expects. The mask that says I am as emotionless as he wants you to believe he is.

He flashes me a forlorn look, before reverting to his usual impassive one. “There has already been a second opinion,figlio, and a third. Even a fourth.”

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