Page 82 of A Captive Situation

My chin rose, and I told him, “You fucked up.”

His eyes narrowed. “I—”

“You shouldn’t have taken me how you did. You drugged me.”

He let out a ragged breath, some of the fight leaving him. “That was Ashton.”

I leaned closer to him, seething. “I don’t care who it was. I’m yours. That means it happened on your watch.”

His eyes started glittering at me, a new intensity sweeping in there and taking hold.

“I’m going to get you back.”

He tensed all over again.

I smirked down at him, resting my hands on his chest. His very strong and cement-like chest that was suddenly so still under my touch. “Payback is going to come. It won’t be when you expect it, but it will come. Promise you. But until then”—I smiled, but my own breath hitched at seeing that intense look from him—“I told them a story about a family feud that was going on. My family. They bought it.”

“They didn’t buy it.”

“Yes, they did.”

“Your Aunt Clara tried calling 911.”

I started to argue until his words registered. “Wait. What?”

“I had a cell jammer turned on so no calls could go through, but it was logged.”

“Aren’t you full of surprises, with your spy toys.”

He snorted, his hands returning to my thighs, starting to mold over them. His eyes lidded, but never moved away from mine. “I worked in organized crime. We were current on a lot of fancy tech. Most departments aren’t. Also, so you know, your cousin’s husband—his family’s connected.”

I frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”

“They’re loaded in a way that my family is also loaded.”

“Oliver’s family is Mafia?”

“They’re connected. They have Mafia ties. He recognized the others with me.”

I sat even farther back, regarding him. “What?” Replaying the conversation that happened in the study when we’d been eavesdropping on who Jake’s friends were, I didn’t remember any hint at that. “Are you sure?”

“He tried calling his father right away. That call was also logged.”

Some dread trickled in. “What did your friends do after we left?”

“They stayed back to finish cleaning up, and after, they laid out a blunt version of what could happen to your family. Including Oliver.”

I swallowed, hard. “What do you mean by that?” I’d gone to the lengths of concocting a whole story. “I wished they would’ve told me to save my breath.”

“They were told the truth.”

Ice speared me. “What? Ho-how did they ...? Everything?”

“Everything.” His mouth went flat. “They’re too far in not to know what is going on. There were three shooters. I killed three men in front of them. They needed to be told the ramifications of what would happen if they tried to contact any more family or the police.”

I didn’t want to hear how they took it.

Jake ran a hand down the side of my face, his whole face softening at whatever he saw from me. He told me, “Your family did not react very well.”

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