Chapter 4

I watched the two enforcers pull the door shut behind them. When I was sure their footsteps had died down the hall, I slipped the phone from beneath the mattress and called the Don.

"Padrino… they won't even give me food."

I swallowed the last of my pride and let my voice drop low. "Bianca… she made me eat from a dog's bowl."

For six years I had stood at this man's right hand, loyal beyond question, and in return he had given me a life most women only dreamed of. Not merely dignity. The finest table, silk against my skin, a house that wanted for nothing, cars that moved like shadows through the city. I had lived as a woman of means in the Don's world.

I had not felt this small in years.

His voice came through the line, cold as a blade left out in winter. "After tonight, I'll be there. You'll see me with your own eyes."

Beneath the calm I could hear it, the anger banked like a fire waiting for air.

I ended the call and hid the phone again. That little device was the last thread tying me to hope.

I did not call the Feds. It would have been useless. Even if I had, Salvatore would find a way to keep me buried in this house. He'd tell them I'd come back broken from what happened overseas, that my mind had cracked under the abduction, that nothing out of my mouth could be trusted. And once the badges were gone, whatever came for me would be far worse.

So I lay there with the hunger gnawing at me in the dark, and eventually sleep pulled me under.

By early morning, I saw Salvatore again.

The moment he crossed the threshold, his hand cracked across my face.

"Adriana, you vicious woman!" he roared.

"How dare you lay a hand on my son?"

"So I didn't come for you. So what? That doesn't give you the right to touch a child!"

His face went darker with every word, and the next slap landed harder than the first.

My cheek swelled instantly. When I tried to open my mouth, it filled with the metallic taste of blood. My lip had split under the force of his hand.

But the sight of me like that didn't move him. He stepped in close and drove his shoe into my stomach without hesitation.

The blow landed low and pain twisted my face as a cry tore loose from me.

His kick caught me square and I crumpled to the floor with a sharp scream.

Even curled up and shaking, I got no mercy from him. He kept coming, fists and feet, no restraint left in him at all.

His boy stood in the doorway, clapping and cheering.

"Yeah! That's right! This bitch needs to know how strong I am!"

"Dad, you're amazing! You made her cry!"

The child kept applauding, his small face lit up with borrowed delight, his little chin jutting up in perfect imitation of his father.

Then Salvatore fisted a handful of my hair and dragged my head back, his voice a low snarl. "Adriana, listen to me. You put a hand on my son again, I'll kill you."

I looked up at him, fear clouding my eyes.

He had gone completely mad.

"Dad, let me hit her next! Beat her to death, now!" the boy shouted, pointing at me, his chin thrust high.

Salvatore turned to him with a smile and a nod. He laughed, a half-beat too soon, and rubbed his thumb across his knuckles. "Of course, my good boy. Don't worry. Daddy will make sure this woman learns her place today."

Then he glared back down at me and raised his hand to strike again.

In that moment all I could feel was raw terror.

Even the men who had staged my abduction had not been this brutal.

I truly believed I would die here, beaten to death on the floor by the man I once bound my life to. And then Bianca's scream cut through the air from somewhere beyond the door.

"Who are you? How dare you break into my house?"

And in that instant, the whole house seemed to go still around her voice, and I knew. The Don had come.