Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 48018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 240(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 240(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
He laughs harder when the smirk fades from my face, as if he finds it absolutely hysterical I hadn’t considered how far Angelo might go in retaliation.
“No, this isn’t about his revenge. This is about my revenge.”
“It’s always about Angelo’s revenge. What you’re doing right now is something I’d never dare do.” Bobby makes it clear, his big dark eyes wide with intensity as he tries to ensure that I understand just how badly I have fucked up. “And I shot the fucking guy.”
“So I should have let him out right away when he told me?”
“You might have been able to let him out right away, but he would have been disappointed in you. Now you have no choice. You have to follow through. He won’t respect anything else.”
“So he won’t respect me if I don’t carry this out, and if I do, he’s going to all but kill me?”
“Exactly. Are you going to have that last slice?”
I gesture for him to take it. I’m not that hungry anymore.
To run from Angelo, I am going to have to rob Angelo. I’ll need money. And I won’t have any protection from any of the enemies who now have me on their radar. Bobby and I haven’t exactly been careful over the last few months. We’ve been Angelo’s attack dogs, wild and brutal and cruel.
It occurs to me suddenly in a way it should have occurred to me before, that I, too, am probably on a kill list now. And not just one.
“Fuckkkkk,” I groan to myself.
Maybe I can negotiate my way out of this.
I go back down to Angelo. He is sitting with his back against the pillar, hands between his knees. He looks almost relaxed, as if he is basking in an unseen sun.
He doesn’t move when he senses me. He stays just as he is, still and stoic. I can feel him acknowledging me, though. His energy extends out and wraps around me.
In this basement lit only by slivers of light coming in through the half circular windows that sit in the thin slice of the room that is above ground, he is a dark and fundamentally supernatural force.
I feel as though I am coming before a god, supplicating myself to his strength and power. It is a testament to Angelo’s charisma that he has somehow remained dominant while chained like a dog.
I remind myself that this is all a mind game. Angelo’s not a god. He’s a man. A man who comports himself through the world in the manner a god might, given he acknowledges no authority other than his own, but still just a man.
Bobby has been winding me up, and I have been letting him. Everything he said about having to run, and about Angelo destroying me, that was just a way to get inside my head. It worked, but now that I’m looking at Angelo, I know that can’t be true.
“Having regrets, Riley?” His first words are in the form of a question.
“No,” I lie. “You did something very fucked up to me. You put me in a position where I thought my life was over. But you know yours isn’t over. You know I’m not really going to hurt you. You know I’m not going to separate you from the people you love. So this isn’t the same, and it never can be, and if you want to hollow me out with a spoon afterward and use me as a soup dish, fine.”
Angelo opens one eye at me and tilts his head slightly to the side.
“Adorable,” he drawls. “You’re almost too cute to hollow out with a spoon. Very vivid imagery there, Riley.”
“Thanks,” I say, trying not to visibly squirm and failing.
“I’ve never been kidnapped by anybody so visibly panicked about having captured me before,” Angelo says. “It is quite charming, but I will not pretend my patience is waning. You have made your point. It is better to let me go now and take what is coming than it is to…”
“Leave you there and run away?”
“That would not be a good idea,” he growls. “I would hunt you down, and you know with my resources there are few places on this planet you could go that I could not reach you.”
“I know.”
“Look at you, standing there like a bad little girl, knowing she has made a mistake, terrified of the consequences. I am the one in chains, but you are the one suffering.”
Goddammit. He’s right. I’m supposed to be making him suffer. I’m supposed to be scaring him.
“This is harder than it looks,” I admit.
“Most things are,” Angelo commiserates.
“I just don’t know what would scare you. You don’t really seem to be scared of anything. I don’t think you’re afraid of dying, and I know you don’t care about pain.”
I’m looking into his eyes when it occurs to me.