Page 110 of Stolen Kisses
“Yes.”
“You need to get to the docks now. Franco has Maria and the boy. He’s on the roof of warehouse 12.”
I didn’t waste time asking for any more details. I ran.
I ran hard, hoping like hell I could save them.
My girl and my child.
Chapter 31
Maria
* * *
It was a week after I got to Florida that I’d met Franco.
I managed to get a job in the restaurant on the beach. Although I practically felt like a fish out of water, I was fascinated with the sea. It was so beautiful. So gorgeous with the depths of the blue on blue. I’d never seen water like that before.
On postcards sure. The lakes around Chicago and Michigan were pretty. I’d never really gone any further.
I was so embarrassed to admit to anyone that I’d never been anywhere. Never went on vacation or anywhere worth noting. I was just there in Chicago. Florida felt like paradise to me.
He’d walked up to me while I was on my break that day. It was my third day on the job and I’d taken to spending my breaks on the beach. Just sitting there marveling at what it all looked like. I’d thought it would have been amazing to go there with Christina. She’d loved water. I was thinking that very thing when Franco walked up to me and asked me where I was from.
He could tell that I was new to the area and I was embarrassed by my transparency. It was then that the first inkling of protection filled me and I told him I was from Ohio.
The little spark of something that made me lie then for whatever reason unknown to me, was blossoming inside me now. The terrible regret of getting involved with this man assailed me.
His men positioned me about ten feet away from him and Flynn then left us.
Left the three of us on the roof of the warehouse. It was the biggest warehouse that lined the docks.
I hated it here, so much death and all sorts of shady shit things had happened here.
Now it looked like I was about to join the horror stories.
I was ten feet away from Franco and Flynn. Him with his gun in his right hand, while his left held Flynn.
Death was in the air. I shuddered inwardly at the thought and I just didn’t know how he was going to work it.
How would he exact his punishment on me?
How would I decide if Flynn got to go with him?
I would do whatever it was he wanted me to do; to save my baby.
The smile on his face pulled at my insides. It pulled and twisted at me, making me sick.
“I found out you weren’t from Ohio shortly after we met.” He spoke piercing the silence of the space between us. “I always have the women I’m interested in thoroughly checked out before getting with them. When I discovered you were a nobody from Chicago I thought you were a safe bet. But, I kept Chicago on my mind just in case. After all I never knew why you wouldn’t just say you were from here. I figured it had to be down to embarrassment or something. I checked out Ohio when I first got out of prison. Chicago next. Thankfully I never had to dig too deep in Ohio and with your amateur escape here it was kind of easy to find you.”
I just stood there listening.
What could I say? There was nothing left. At this point it was just a wait and see game.
I was at the part of the game where he had me in checkmate and I had to wait to see what he would do next.
“Maria, do you love Flynn?”
