Page 83 of A Captive Situation

My heart sank. There it was. “What exactly was said in the threat to my aunts? You don’t know them. If they think I’m in danger,no oneis going to stop them. They’ll call in everyone in our family. I mean it. I’ve got a cousin in Alaska from my dad’s side. They’ll call him in. He’s stationed there with the coast guard. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mom’s not already on a plane heading here because I was supposed to call her today, and that didn’t happen.” I shuddered at the thought of more of my family getting involved.

“She’s not.”

“You don’t know that.” I grabbed his pants in frustration, balling the waistline up. “You don’t know my family. You can’t threaten them to be quiet. They aren’t made that way. My uncle says it’s because we have some Irish in us, but we did a DNA thing and we don’t have any Irish in us. Whatever our ethnicity, one of them down the line was a rebel. Threats don’t quiet us. They just make us go a different route. They’ll go to the police and if the police won’t work, they’ll go to the press. If that doesn’t work, they’ll go to a rival Mafia family. Are you getting my drift here? I had a story concocted.”

“Three men broke into your cousin’s brownstone and tried to kill you. I left three bodies behind. They weren’t going to buy any story other than the truth.”

“They bought it—”

His hands rested over mine. “Your aunt didn’t try to call the cops one time. She tried fourteen times, and eight of those were when you were in the room with her. You weren’t paying attention.”

“What?” I’d been in the room?

“And as for the rest, it’s been handled.”

“You don’t understand—”

“I do. They’re handled. Everything’s handled. This is not the first time for Walden and West.”

“Who?”

He cursed under his breath. “The two guys with me. They took care of it. And before you can ask, your aunt was instructed to have a specific phone call with your mother. She was told you were fine, that everything was fine, but you needed some time to get a phone. Your aunts are going to play tourist and when you could get away to have a private call, you would.”

I shook my head. “That won’t work.”

“It already did.” He tugged on my hands to jerk me against him. “Your aunts are safe. They’re in a secure place, but they are being watched over by some of Ashton’s men.”

More ice lined my insides. Did he realize how crazy this sounded? “They’re being heldcaptiveby the Mafia? Is kidnapping the answer for everything in this world? Have you lost your mind?”

His mouth flattened. “They’re going to be entertained the entire time. They’re safe. They’ll be fine. It’ll be like they’re staying with a family friend, except with guards around them for their protection. Your aunts are fine. By the time this is all done and you show up, they’ll have barely noticed you were missing.”

What family did he come from? “You are severelyso wrong, and everything is going to blow up in our faces.”

“It doesn’t change anything because while they’re being guarded, we got tonight to do something.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We have to go to a meet. This person will open a communication channel to the person behind our hit.”

“Why didn’t you lead with that this whole time?” I scrambled off him, my heart racing as I looked around for my clothes.

That’s when I noticed where we were.

There were feminine touches all over. Candles. Warm and pastel-colored blankets tossed over a couch, a chair, all to look trendy. Pink. There was a lot of pink. Doilies on the wall.

“Jake.”

“Hmm?”

“Where are we—” I asked right as I saw a picture frame on the dresser in the corner. Moving toward it, hot burning jealousy rolled through me. Jake was in the picture with his arm around a woman, whose head was resting on his shoulder. Both were smiling wide for the camera. It’d been taken in a bar, and Jake’s other hand was holding up a beer.

She was gorgeous. Sleek black hair. Dark brown eyes. Light brown skin. Her mouth was perfect, stretched into a serene smile.

And I remembered her from the police station.

I rounded on him. “Are you serious? You brought us to yourgirlfriend’splace?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

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