SEVEN

RAFFAELE

If it had been someone else, spitting those words like venom, I would have dealt with the right amount of inflicted pain, one that would echo through the bones for over a month. But somehow, Celestia's misguided boldness left me more amused than heated. The girl, though not entirely innocent, was utterly oblivious to the mechanisms of the big, bad world.

Since I was a little too prepared for the outburst, I knew exactly what would shake the core of her bravado she displayed a moment ago.

Pulling out the GLOCK, I watched the flash of horror blanch her features, and before the word 'no' fell out of her mouth, I fired two misplaced shots.

One to her left and to the right, as the bullets ripped a chunk of the couch.

Celestia screamed her lungs off, almost falling down before I lunged forward and held her down.

"You are not shot, calm down!"

My words fell on deaf ears as the little captive trembled in my arms. She was a bundle of soft curves – all vulnerable and tender. For a fleeting moment, I wanted to offer her a wealth of comfort and croon in her ears that there wasn't a real threat to her life, but it would have been too rash of a promise on my behalf.

I did the best I could and held her tight until her body began to turn flaccid. Her petite frame sagged, almost slipping away, and I had to lay her against the crook of my elbow.

"Celestia?"

Shit. Double shit.

Leaning against the wall and arms crossed, I watched her was laid the prone and lifeless body on the bed while a doctor treated her. The moment she fainted on me, I untied her arms and brought her upstairs to one of the bedrooms.

Since then, almost half an hour clocked away, and she was still passed out.

"Would you like to elaborate?" Amadeo asked, sounding displeased though not any more than I already was. I didn't like feeling as if I'd caused her to collapse, all because I'd pushed her too far.

"One moment, she was screaming her lungs out, and then fainted on the next. In between, I was clueless."

"And exactly what made her scream?"

This time, I turned to him and scowled. "Two blank shots. They didn't even graze a fucking hair on her head, and she was screaming like a banshee."

"I know you wouldn’t ruin a beauty such as her.” Amadeo dragged his eyes back to her. “And this one is a stunning woman, big brother.”

"I don’t give a fuck how pretty she is. I need to make her bloody talk. Do you have any tricks up your sleeves to make it happen?"

In reply, he gave me one of his questionable grins, evoking a deep sense of possessiveness I tried to shove aside. Once again, I had to remind myself that she was the means to an end. A pawn. Something that would make her mother payback the ten million she owed me.

"Did you track down the mother?" I asked him.

"I did."

"And?"

"I made no contact. I want to see how desperate she is, to have her daughter back and then press where it hurts the most." Amadeo’s brown eyes gleamed with malevolence and I was more than sure that, if not diabolical, he was devious enough to see the plan through.

The doctor cleared her throat as she turned around, and expectantly looked at us over her reading glasses. Almost forty, Dr. Jenkins came highly recommended and exceedingly expensive.

"I don't think there's anything massively wrong with her health, apart from her low blood pressure level," she concluded. "But just to be sure, I have taken her blood work, Mr. Roselli. Once the results are back, and then only I can anything say for sure."

A raised a questioning brow. "For sure?"

She glanced at her briefly. "Have you tried a home pregnancy test kit? I don't know if she is expecting."

"She is not pregnant," Amadeo rushed to say as I glared at him.

"Well, in that case, I would recommend good food and adequate rest. She should be fine with the list of vitamins I prescribed."

"Thank you, Dr. Jenkins," I curtsied, holding the door open for her. Cesar took over and saw her out as I shut the door and turned to Amadeo.

"She is not pregnant." I mocked. "What was that?"

He gave a shrug. "Just a hunch."

"Anyway, the sooner she wakes up, the better. I have questions, and she needs to answer."

"Then try not to shoot at her, big brother." Throwing me a wink, he left, leaving me all alone with her sleeping form.

I should have left with him right away. Instead, against all my better judgments, I approached her and sat on the edge. Celestia wasn't the first pretty face I had come across, nor would she be the last. And yet I was hung on her, pining over her health as if she meant anything to me.

What terrified me the most, was the way I blanched and panicked when she fainted on me, and the very nerve of mine shook to the core. I wasn’t this man—this weak, uncontrolled man who was starting to care for a girl I have seen only a week ago.

If this doesn’t fucking change, I’d be a goner soon.

———

CELESTIA

My brain was throbbing in the confines of my skull, and my nerves felt disoriented when I woke up the second time in a place that wasn't my home.  In fact, it wasn't the same place as the last time.

I was lying on a soft mattress with pillows and silk sheets in a room, thrice the size of my bedroom back in the apartment. I would have found some humor in the quote 'lap of luxury' if I wasn't kidnapped in the middle of the night and brought in here without my consent.

Shoving the covers aside, I pushed off from the bed and shuffled towards the door. A part of me already knew the answer when I twisted the knob and found it locked or loudly banged against the frame, but I simply had to try. Hope against hope of an abductee, I guessed.

This vast room, intricate with every layer of the modern arrangement, had everything one needed except for a window. Even the bathroom had none, despite its deluxe features.

Dejected, I combed the place inch by inch, looking for anything that could of my help. Except for a tray of food, consisting of croissants, sandwiches, cupcakes, and dry fruits, I discovered there was nothing of my advantage.

For a long time, I stewed alone in the unknown place, confined and clueless, when the door finally opened with an insidious clack. Raffaele Roselli appeared once again, wearing the charm of a gentleman underneath his monstrous self.

"How's your tour around the room?" he asked, waving his hand in gesture. "I believe it's a bit more comfortable than the small office downstairs."

"Are you always this hospitable to the women you kidnap?" I hurdled back.

A wide smile crossed his face. "I see that you are quite back to your old self now." His gaze then drifted over to the table by the bed, where the tray of food left untouched. And just like that, the smile vanished. "You need to eat."

"I need to go home."

“Yeah, well, that’s very unlikely.” He sauntered forward, halting near the edge of the bed and stood his ground. “. However, if you and your mother cooperate with me, I can make that happen."

"What do you need from us?" I hated how weak I sounded. "You are already so rich that you definitely don't our money. What good am I to you?"

Unless his intentions were sinful.

Raffaele Roselli was a part of various white-collar criminal activities if tabloid rumors and speculations were to be believed. He was often regarded as the king of organized crime, one that was still beyond the reach of law enforcement and hence, gave him free rein of misused autonomy.

To date, no eyewitness has ever come forward, and pieces of evidence against him seemed to disappear magically. Therefore, he was a criminal with a clean chit. The undisputed tyrant of Las Vegas.

"You are right. I probably could not care about the money your mother stole from me, but I hate thieves and liars." The grey orbs turned several shades darker with every step he took towards me, trapping me against the headboard.

"My mother stole from you?" The information had my brain reeling or the lack of food in my stomach.

"Let me worry about her." The facade of a gentleman rolled back, and his lips stretched in a small smirk. Grabbing the tray, he ordered, "Finish it, and I will tell you all the things you need to know."

I looked at the tray and shook my head. "I can't have anything with chocolate."

"You are allergic?"

"No, but it makes my stomach ache."

He consented with a slow now. "I will have the staff get you something other than chocolate, so until then, have the sandwich and dry fruits."

Mutely, I ate under his intense guard because I needed my strength and wits back to escape this place.

I have a wild guess that Raffaele didn't kidnap me for money. A man who practically owned Las Vegas doesn’t need ten million. But what else could prompt him into abducting me?

To be honest, I had no intention to peek into this monster’s mind and seek for answers that would only land me in more trouble than I already was. I would rather plan an escape because the last thing I wanted to be was his prey.

I have already read so much of Raffaele Roselli and how his victims end up dead or mutilated, I didn’t want to know anything else. All I needed now was a full-proof plan to escape out of this hellhole.