Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

"EXCUSE ME?!" Moira screamed in my face while I sat on a sofa in the living room of the penthouse we had recently leased so that we would have some place to live other than the house which my new 'workers' were currently inhabiting. Back relaxed, llegs crossed and ever so calmly sipping some white wine like everything was right with the world and as if my best friend wasn't screaming bloody murder at me.

"I knew I should have gone with you today. I knew it." Henri was pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning solemnly. By the way that little vein in his temple throbbed, I could tell that he wanted to scream, but he was holding back, maybe for the sake of decency. Or maybe he just didn't want to yell at me out of respect because I knew by the way his arms were bulging in their sleeves that he wanted to ram me through several brick walls. Not that I would mind or anything. He could ran me against a wall anyt—

"I was upstairs. I was literally right above you, why didn't you call me?!" Connor yelled at me from his position in front of the bar where he was pacing back and forth, one hand tearing through his perfectly gelled hairstyle and a glass of malt scotch in the other.

"Well I couldn't exactly pull away to go get you without drawing suspicion, could I? I'm the manager of the club." They just didn't understand the pressure I was under at that moment. "Besides, I wasn't alone. We spoke right in front of Alan."

And my bartender was actually pretty beefy, if I said so myself. He could step in and protect me during a worst case scenario. There was also the bouncer but he was in the back rooms at the time.

"Alan? The bartender? What the f.u.c.k was Alan going to do? They have guns!" I was about to open my mouth and argue that so did we, in fact one was right beneath the plank of the bar counter, in Alan's reach the entire time. "You don't understand," Moira spoke tersely, like she was tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. "You put yourself at risk by even being in the same room as him."

"He already knew who Isabella was, Moira. I couldn't avoid him any further. I was at risk before even seeing him just because he knew my name. Speaking to him wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought it would be. I stuck to my persona with no issue."

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" All three of them screamed at the same time. I jumped, startled, and ended up spilling a little wine on my pristine clothes. The three of them glared at me as I sighed and set the glass down to fetch a towel and wipe myself off. I knew telling them would be a mistake, but everything had to be clear with them just in case something happened to me again. I didn't want to directly involve the people who work for me.

"What's done is done."

"You're being stupid, Katarina." Moira sighed at me, rubbing her temples. "We need to get you out of the country as soon as possible."

"What the— I'm not going anywhere!" I protested, finally fed up with them being fed up with me. "Are you forgetting that the whole point of this shit is so I can get my revenge?! If I wanted to give up so easily I would have just gone straight to Salvador, but I didn't, so you either help me or you don't."

"How the f.u.c.k are we supposed to help you when you just keep things a secret all the time?!" Connor was positively fuming and I even felt a little bad for the bloke. I'm sure dealing with me was stressful.

"I am not keeping this a secret! I'm telling you now, aren't I?"

"You waited until THE END OF THE F.U.C.K.I.N.G WORK DAY!"

"Okay, Moira, that was just six hours of time in between, don't get your bra straps in a twist." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Six hours in which you could have been abducted again or worse. That man wants to kill you, Katarina. What is it going to take for you to understand that? You could have at least told us." She crossed her arms.

"Well I couldn't exactly call you and say 'hey, guess what? My f.u.c.k.i.n.g kidnapper just showed up at the club I'm pretending to manage but in fact own, and he has a key tool for my escape hostage in his custody.'"

I was very concerned to see Lina with him, even though I had literally told her before leaving Italy to do everything in her power to slow him down. Maybe being his hostage was one of those things?

She would have to be rescued soon, though. I didn't like the look of those marks on her wrists.

"You could have come home and told us in person," Henri offered.

"How do we know he didn't have someone planted outside watching my every goddamn move?!" Now I was tired, and fed up and angry. "IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SUSPICIOUS!"

"Once again, I was right above you. You spoke to me and walked by me so many times today and not once did you think to fill me in on what took place while I was managing your office floor?" Connor scoffed.

"Well… you see, the thing i— it wasn't the time and the place." They all looked like they wanted to kill me. "And I wanted to tell you all at once?"

"Then why didn't you call us? We could have gone down there immediately." Moira was really asking the hard hitters here. Classic Moira.

"You were busy with the new guys."

Foolish of me, really.

"So where will we take her?" Moira was the first to break the silence, as if I hadn't said anything at all. Things which were very important and made a lot of sense.

"Immediately back to France," Henri put in thoughtfully. "She would be safest there."

"No no, I think we should take her to my father's house in Scotland where she has more pull on the people around her." That actually wasn't such a bad idea…

"She's supposed to be dead, you idiot. She has no pull."

"Excuse me, are you done planning out my future?" I snapped at all of them, arms crossing as I stood up to really glare to the best of my potential. "What's next, naming my unborn children?"

"You don't want kids, remember?" Connor rolled his eyes, prompting Moira and Henri to repeat the action in tandem. What was it with these three constantly rolling their eyes at me? Were my ideas so ridiculous? "This wouldn't be happening if you had just called me."

"I don't remember having to ask any of you for permission to do anything." I matched their looks with one of my own. "Last I checked you all work for me."

"Oh come on, Kat. Don't start that bullshit, you're f.u.c.k.i.n.g useless without us."

Okay so maybe Moira was right, even though my feelings were a little bit hurt. Would I accept it? No. At least not out loud because even if I was realistic enough to accept it, I wouldn't sully my pride.

"I'm going to cool off and think of a plan. A good plan. Don't wait up for me."

"It's five pm." Henri cleared up, unhelpfully.

"Okay then don't expect me to join you for dinner." I grabbed my purse and began heading for the door, deciding I wouldn't even change my clothes before I left the penthouse.

"Supper." Henri once again clarified.

"You're fired."

Of course I didn't mean to fire Henri, but I needed to distract him with something while I called some people who could help me carry out my unorthodox plans of revenge. First step? Make Marco waste his time.

After more than a month of being on the hunt for me, I was more than sure that he was getting desperate at this point. Every day without Katarina in his dungeon was a day when he could meet his demise at the hands of Salvador. Now that I had created all this suspense, step two was ready to come into action, so I stopped by a store where I could buy a burner phone and dialed one of the numbers I had memorised since I was four.

"Hey, it's Katarina."