Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“What do you want?” Isaac asked.
Diago sat back.
The man was terrified of him. Even though he wanted to kill him and he saw that evil intention within his gaze, Isaac was too much of a coward to try. Most people were too afraid. Those that did attempt to kill him, well, it never ended well for them. They tended to lose limbs and die in the most horrible of ways.
“It’s simple. Seven years ago, you let go of a woman who had been a nanny to your daughter throughout her life. I want to know what happened to her.”
Isaac laughed. “That’s what this is all about? A woman? Is that why you decided to take my daughter?” He snorted. “More fool you.”
Diago stared at him “Maureen was her name. Where is she?”
“Why?”
Diago got to his feet and rounded the desk, and before Isaac could react, he’d put a small blade into his kneecap and then covered his mouth so he couldn’t scream. It was a struggle for him to even breathe as Diago had covered part of his nose as well. Isaac was struggling and Diago didn’t need to put in much effort to keep him in place.
“Because I asked you, and if you think this is painful, you don’t want to be left alone with me for another five minutes, insulting my wife, and not giving me what I want.”
He tightened his grip on the man’s mouth. “Now, I’m going to let go and if you scream for help, that’s great, I will take out your other kneecap, and we both know your two sons will come barging in here, trying to protect dear old Dad, which is great. You have to admire asshole loyalty, but I will kill both of them. Do you want to see your sons die before your eyes?”
Isaac shook his head, and he’d lost all sense of power. There was nothing for him, which was exactly how Diago liked it, and he offered the man a smile, and then released his mouth.
He was clearly in pain, but he didn’t scream for help. Diago wasn’t concerned at all. No one scared him. Everyone who had tried to take him out had died trying. It was sad, really.
He looked at Isaac and waited. “I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Maureen was a … she was a trafficked woman. She’d been stolen when she was eighteen, and she was a nanny. I liked her, and I brought her home to make my life easier. She knew too much, and she had been feeding me all the information I needed for years. Whenever I needed details on the men I was doing business with, Maureen had a way of extracting it. Men loved her innocence, her beauty, her kindness, and I know she was a good woman. My daughter adored her. Everyone did.”
Diago didn’t like this. Someone who was used like that could only go so far.
“You killed her, didn’t you?” Diago asked.
“There was no way I could have allowed her to live. She knew too much.”
Diago looked at the man before him, and he knew if he gave this news to Vanessa, it would destroy her. She’d be crushed. There was nothing good that could come from telling her the truth.
“You know how it goes, and besides, she was a liability.”
Diago didn’t care what excuses he used. The fact was, he used a woman, and then when she ceased being useful, he’d discarded her. Now, to him, he really didn’t give a shit. Men and women died all the time. Life was hard and cruel, and you either got accustomed to the bad shit that happened, or you ended up dead. It was what he’d been able to live by. Be the biggest monster.
Staring at Isaac, he couldn’t stand this man, but what had kept him alive was the fact he was still Vanessa’s father. Now, there was no way he could allow that son of a bitch to live.
The smirk on the man’s face told Diago he was gloating, that he had this power. Isaac was wrong. He had no power at all. All he’d done was seal his fate.
Chapter Ten
Vanessa knew she had stopped believing in fairy tales long ago. Longer than she could remember. She found it odd how she could look back at her life now and realize it hadn’t exactly been great. Like the memories of the family dinner table. The way her father yelled at her mother to keep her quiet, or the fact he would lose his temper with her. She’d always get told that he was busy and she had to give him time.
Her father was always the one in charge, which she didn’t have a problem with, but he had been an asshole.
Anyway, she found herself sitting on the stairs, staring at the front door, knowing if anyone was going to bring Maureen back, it would be Diago. She had that much faith in him, and she anticipated his arrival. She missed Maureen, and she wanted someone she could trust to tell the juicy gossip details about her feelings for Diago. Not that she needed advice on how to deal with him, because she already knew.