Page 50 of The Sting of Love
“You kidnapped me. Please let me go, Donny. I can go back to LA,” I beg.
“That won’t do anything. If I thought it would, you’d be on the next plane back. The only thing I can do in this case is eliminate the threat. Once it’s gone, I swear to you I’ll let you go, and you’ll never have to worry about seeing me again.” He lets me go and I back away from him.
“Once it’s gone? You mean once you kill them?” He doesn’t answer, and my blood heats. He does mean to kill. That’s the only thing he could mean. “What about my aunt? What will happen to her? Those men came to the restaurant.”
“I have people watching her. Men I can trust. She’ll be safe with them around.”
I can’t just trust that and believe what he tells me. “What about me? She’s going to wonder where I am.”
“She thinks you’re with me, like before.”
“You spoke to her?”
“Yes, I told her you’d be spending some time with me.”
Oh my God. Lurlene isn’t even going to question that. She’ll just believe we got back together and I’m at his place. Like before. This is such a damn mess, and I got myself in it.
“I can’t believe this. I can’t. Donny, how did this happen?”
“Someone set me up.”
“Set you up? Like how?” A million things race through my mind.
He brings a hand to his head and releases a shallow breath. “I was trying to sever links with men who were human trafficking. I was trying to stop it. I guess, bad as I am, I was trying to put a stop to it and it blew up in my face. The people involved want to kill you to teach me a lesson.”
I shake my head at the explanation.Human trafficking and mobsters. This isn’t my life. What am I supposed to think about that answer? I just want to get out of here.
“I need to get rid of the problem, Willow,” he adds. “And I need you to cooperate.”
“And if I don’t?” His gaze hardens, and I shake my head at him. “Damn you… I wish I’d never met you.”
Tears stream down my cheeks, and he backs away, leaving me.
The door closes, but he doesn’t lock it. He doesn’t have to. I don’t know where I am, and from the looks of things, I’m so far away it’s going to be difficult to get back to anywhere I know.
What the hell am I going to do?
Trust him?
I can’t.
Chapter Fourteen
Donny
She wouldn’t like to know how bad I wished she’d never met me either.
I already felt like an asshole, but when I spoke to her aunt, I felt even worse. I don’t like lying. I never did, not even telling those little white lies, and fuck did I ever truly feel like a criminal lying to her aunt, telling her Willow and I were back together again and I’d whisked her off for a mini-break.
She was happy to hear from me and happy Willow and I had gotten back together. She sounded so hopeful and excited. All the while I was the devil in disguise.
I make my way downstairs and stop in the hallway, gazing out to the floor-to-ceiling windows before me. We’re at the beach house in Marsala. The house I loved as a boy. The house Pa gave me. The place I should be calling home.
The idea to flee here came to me in those moments as I tied Willow up in the back of my car. I can’t believe I did that to her. Then I had to give her some chloroform when she started to stir.Monster. That’s what I felt like. Like a fucker exerting my strength over her and abusing her trust.
The house will be a refuge from danger. Only a select few know about it, so it’s as good as a safehouse. Not even my friends know about it, that works because we don’t tell each other the locations of our safe houses. It’s protocol to keep it secret. Doing so ensures optimum safety.
“Is she okay?” Pa asks, and I turn to face him.
