Page 40 of Taken By the Mafia King
Or not.
“I heard someone came here looking for their daughter.” Olivia’s statement seemed nonchalant.
“Was it my father?”
She eyed me warily for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “I have no idea. I just know someone is here and the guys are all riled up about it.”
I exhaled deeply, then paced to a table by one of the windows with a view of the property grounds. The landscaped gardens fanned out from the back of the house until they reached a dense and ominous-looking tree line. Presumably the forest Francesco implied I’d have to run through in order to escape. Not many people could afford to have full blown forests on their property in Pennsylvania. But Killian? Well, it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that he wanted to be surrounded by shadow.
I sipped my coffee and watched Olivia over the rim. She had to know something. I knew she had full access to this house. I wondered briefly how she’d achieved that kind of trust with the Ricci family, and if she’d ever tell me about it.
She caught me staring. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what else to say.”
“I just want to know why I’m here, why I’m still alive, and what Killian is waiting for. Why hasn’t he killed me yet?”
Why hasn’t he used me as Gabriele intended to? Why was I looking forward to it so much? And where the hell was my dad, and why was he taking so long to rescue me if he knew I was here?
“Maybe he likes you? I don’t know.” Olivia waved her hand in dismissal and chuckled to herself as she gathered up my discarded pajamas. “You’re looking at this whole situation the wrong way, Sera. If you were out on your own right now, you’d be dead already. Buried in a shallow grave if you were lucky, but more likely dumped in a river somewhere.”
“Thanks,” I hissed.
She shrugged. “You’re safe as long as you remain in the house.”
“So I’m supposed to stay here my entire life, or until Killian gets bored?”
Until he realized my father wasn’t coming for me?
“How did you get out of all ofthisin the first place? TheFamily, I mean?” she asked lightly.
The abrupt shift in conversation caught me off guard. I noticed the way Olivia broke from my gaze after asking the question, her cheeks going pink.
“I just left one day. I got into college and didn’t ask permission to go. I just went. My dad sent men looking for me, but no one could convince me to come back. Leo, my brother, was dead. My mother was dead. I barely knew my father, especially after finding out what he really was. I wasn’t hisprized son,so when I made it clear I wasn’t returning home, he dropped it.” At least, that’s what I’d assumed.
Olivia considered this, her eyes focused on the bloodstain no one could get out of the carpet after many attempts.
“What did you do to get thrown back into this mess?” she asked, and for a moment I wondered if she was asking me the question or herself.
“I don’t know,” I breathed, looking out the window. The admission made me feel vulnerable and naïve.
Olivia must have thought so ,too, because she left without another word, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sipped my coffee in silence, then moved back to the bed and curled up in a tight ball as my thoughts drifted back to Killian.
Why did the thought of my father coming to rescue me chill my blood, yet the thought of staying here with Killian made me feel like I had the world at my fingertips?
My dad rescuing me from this mess would come at a cost, one I couldn’t run from, just like this situation. He’d expect me to stay with him, be the doting daughter of a mafia boss. I’d be thrust back into the life I’d left years ago.
But he was my dad, my blood.
I said a quiet prayer for him, or for guidance, I wasn’t sure, and then closed my eyes again.
CHAPTER 32
KILLIAN
Edoardo Lombardi wailed, his teeth stained with blood. “Just kill me, Ricci. For the love of God, shoot me in the head or the balls, I don’t care. Just let her go. Let Delaney go, please! She was never part of this!”
He screamed as I grabbed him by the throat and bent his neck back over the metal edge of the chair. The single lightbulb flickering above his head illuminated the room, which was nothing more than a cement box covered in plastic stained with his blood.
“Tell me who you sold the blueprints of my warehouse to.”
