Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

Henri was furiously beating a remote against the palm of his hand when I was finally allowed to walk into his room. The man had his head and torso bandaged, but he still managed to look like something out of a modeling catalogue, like he was supposed to look like that. I took in his brown hair and the messy state it was in, and that's when I realised just how bloody young he was.

I'd known his age when I hired him, of course, and I'd seen him in casual clothes, or as casual as what could be considered given Henri's personal taste, but his mannerisms had always made him seem older. He was a m.a.t.u.r.e man. But he was young.

"Isn't it a bit absurd that you don't have a wife and children, yet?" I removed my coat, finally, and pulled a chair up beside his bed. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I have slept for long enough." He clicked his tongue. "It's been two days."

"I'm so sorry, mon amour." A deep sigh from the bottom of my lungs expanded my thorax and deflated it promptly. "I tried to come see you."

"I know."

"I'm happy you're okay." My eyes teared up again without my consent. "I don't know what I would've done if you— if he had— I wouldn't have—"

"You wouldn't have forgiven him. I know." Henri closed his eyes and leaned back onto the bed. "This isn't my first ride with bullets, madame. Have faith in me."

"I'm aware. Just let me be sentimental, damn." Rolling my eyes prompted tears to leak down my cheeks. "The bullet didn't hit anything serious. You're lucky you fell the way you did." This gave me a little pause as I recounted the way I'd seen him fall. "You swayed on your feet before you fell. How did you know to fall backwards?"

"It was my only option to play dead. Fall forward and risk life threatening injury or fall backwards, knock myself out and play dead." He adjusted himself on the bed. "Like I said, it's not my first time. I was trained to handle this, remember?"

"Yes." I felt a little embarrassed to admit that I'd become a little emotionally attached to my butler. "That's why I hired you."

"You weren't supposed to know about that." I really thought I was being so secretive about it.

Henri snickered and continued trying to get the remote to work. "I'm a prudent man but I'm not a novice. I know what d.e.s.i.r.e looks like."

"Yeah well, I have enough of that to drown this hospital." The underground facility wouldn't stand a chance. "Do you need anything? I can call a nurse if you need more pain meds."

"No, I just want to know how your father found us."

"He knows things even the Pope doesn't, I'm not surprised he found us. I'm thinking of Marco, though."

"What about him?"

"Didn't you think it was suspicious when he stopped searching for me?" Pause. Rewind. "Maybe he made it seem like he stopped searching for me. He knew my dad was sniffing closer and closer to home so he stood down in order to not get found out."

"That explains why he's retreated operations to England." I raised an eyebrow at him, confused. That was something I hadn't figured out. "If push comes to shove, it's better to be accused of overstepping boundaries than of kidnapping The Spanish Princess."

"He's brilliant."

"I'm starting to reevaluate why he kidnapped me…"

"Certainly not to steal your inheritance." Henri finally got the remote working and began surfing through the channels. "His family has enough reach as it is, there's no need for him to try and take yours."

"But he hates me. We have a history of trying to squash each other, it wouldn't take me by surprise if that really was the reason."

"And it wouldn't take you by surprise if it wasn't." Henri adjusted himself in bed, and I took a peek at his abs. "Monsieur DiBiancci is intelligent, madame. I don't think he wanted your inheritance as much as he wanted you."

That didn't make any sense to me. Marco had kidnapped me and brought me to his home where he allowed me free range, then he became tired of me and transferred me to a hostage compound before bringing me back to his house again.

Throughout it all, he didn't seem to want to hurt me. Even the torture I'd been subjected to in the compound seemed trivial compared to what I knew he could do.

I wouldn't put it past him to have an even ulterior motive for what he did. Even his family seemed completely supportive of it. What was so big that he needed me like this instead of just approaching me?

Maybe if he'd just spoken to me like an a.d.u.l.t, we wouldn't be in this position right now. I would probably be with my family, drawing up a peace treaty or something.

Now I was very curious, but I was in too deep to just retreat and start over with a different route. And what about Lina? What had happened to her?

My phone rang just as this last thought ran through my head, and I fished for it in my purse for a few seconds before coming up with the device. "VanBurren speaking."

"The message is sent." Francesca sounded awfully calm in contrast with the commotion going on in the background. "Vincente provoked a prison riot when I told him."

"Of course he did, he doesn't want you getting out of there in one piece." Knowing her, she'd disguised herself and snuck into the prison as a guard rather than be a visitor and expose her identity to anyone who looked. Her face was more valuable than anything. "Do you need help?"

"I'm not a novice, I got it." She hung up the phone and I was left staring at the thing like it was alien to me. Rude, much?

"Your aunt?"

"Mm." I nodded. "I sent her to deliver a message to Vincente DiBiancci. He tried to get her killed in turn." Not that he reacted that out of line. It was to be expected, really.

"You mix wires a lot," Henri observed. "Like you're trying to create confusion on purpose."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I flicked my wrist at him nonchalantly while placing my phone in the pocket of my coat. The mornings were beginning to get colder and colder.

"Your lips are twitching." Henri smirked at me. "You are a liar, mademoiselle."

"Ah, you are a killer." He nodded. "The farthest thing from pure."

"No, I just meant I'm not a v.i.r.g.i.n."

We both laughed into the silence of the room, me a little heartier than him because of his wound.

"Henri, I think we should return to France."

Henri frowned, but a light sparked in his eyes. He wanted to go home. "But what about your work here?"

"I'll return to England, but alone. I want you to stay in Saint-Etienne."

"No."

"I'm not asking. You will do it."

"Madame, this is highly—"