Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

"What the hell was that in there? I had my guys ready to intervene." Claudette was staring at me from a plush suede couch, long legs crossed and somehow looking deadly in her heeled boots. My outfit consisted of something similar to hers, but I didn't look half as good as she did.

"Christ, don't f.u.c.k.i.n.g ask me, I don't know either." My embarrassment at the way I'd handled myself back at the café was through the roof. "It was like all of a sudden, I wasn't a grown woman anymore. It's not me."

"Did they intimidate you? Because if they did, I can—"

"Shut up Claudette, the only thing they intimidated was my libido." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, getting ready to sulk in my seat. Unbelievable. I was an a.d.u.l.t, getting ready to pull off the largest international con of my lifetime and somehow I couldn't keep it straight in the presence of two men flirting with me?

Abuela Montenegro would roll over in her urn.

"You need a boyfriend."

"I don't need anything, I'll get over it."

"You're not listening to me, Katarina." She uncrossed her legs and leaned toward me. "You need a boyfriend."

"I'm serious, Claudette, it's better if nobody else gets involved." I understood what she was saying. I didn't want it. A partner in crime was one thing. A partner in crime who I slept with was another.

"Suit yourself. You're so stubborn about working alone." She rolled her eyes. "It's ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous, it's cautionary. Look at what happened when I started asking for and accepting help from people, now I have to make sure everyone I care out makes it to the other side of the river alive, and the chances of that are slim."

The bad mood I'd been in since my date intensified at the thought of my friends getting hurt, or even worse, killed. We'd been on the brink of it already.

"Katarina, I understand your worries but you can't live in the shadow of that fear forever." She shook her head sadly, like a disappointed parent.

"I can and I will." Besides, I wasn't scared. I should have been, but I wasn't. "Things will work out better if I do this by myself, trust me."

"That's a loaded request." She raised a brow at me. "But whatever. Do as you will."

"I've got a handle on things, believe it or not." And for the first time, I was sure of it. "I know my style is messy but I know what I'm doing and who I'm doing it to."

"Correction, you know your dad. You don't know Marco." Well… I couldn't argue there. The time I'd spent with him was more shrouded in mystery than not. What little I'd learned paled in comparison to the truth. "What's your next step, anyway?"

"Take a breath as Katarina." Finally. "This had been my third round of filler refacial. I'm not going to do it again after this wears off."

"What, are you going to make it permanent?"

"If I must."

"Incredible. You're so committed to this." She scoffed. "You'll never succeed on your own."

But I was already succeeding. Already, at this time, Marco had people in Spain about to cross paths with the people my father had looking for me. They would take each other on, strengthen our feud, and effectively leave my path wide open and undisturbed.

"I have a plan, just sit back and watch." The clock struck six and I smoothed out my jeans while standing up. "Thank you for your service, love."

"Where are you going?"

"To the hotel. I have a bit still left in France and I think I want to relax a little before the action starts up. I'll call you to go shopping one of these days?"

"Or if there's any problems." She stood up as well and mirrored my stance. "I'm serious, Katarina. I want to help."

"This Katarina of whom you speak… never heard of her." I winked and turned to leave with a little smirk on my face. For the first time, I'd fooled everyone.

Except Henri, he could tell something was up. I knew he could.

"Isabella, how lovely to see you." Alistair flashed that panty dropper smile at me as I passed him on the way to the elevators.

"I'm sure you don't mean that. Have a good evening!" I flashed him my own smile before rounding the corner to the lift boxes. A few agents were waiting there already, and I resisted the urge to feel awkward just standing there as the only person with a visitor's badge.

The ride down was silent. Everyone's eyes were on me, I could feel it, but I didn't address it. The only thing I wanted was to crawl into bed and make the whole day go away. Planning a take-over was exhausting for sure. It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.

Oh wait… it was.

My phone rang just as I'd stepped outside the agency building. "Isabella speaking."

"Cara," Marco's voice melted through the phone and into my ear like hot wax. "I hear you're in France."

"Oui, I've been here for a few days. Pourquoi?"

"I don't mean to sound controlling, but I just wanted to check in on you. What are you doing in France?"

For some reason, that question of his sent a burning chill down my spine. It was entirely possible and more than a little likely that he already knew what I was doing here.

He had people following me? It would make sense. I was stupid to not have thought of this before.

"Making connections to spread our network further north. I hear Holland is running low on cocaine, and the market has nothing but wonders to say about your product. I've even heard you're f.u.c.k.i.n.g over Salvador Montenegro's market." And for that, he would pay.

Despite the casual way I said my words, my feelings were anything but. I was going to get rid of Marco one way or another, and I was going to f.u.c.k.i.n.g make sure the DiBiancci name never resurfaced in the underworld again.

"I heard you had a run-in with the man himself." His conversational tone made me feel like walking on eggshells. "I'm surprised you survived that encounter."

"Not unscathed." As I waved a taxi down, I decided to play to my strengths and make him uncomfortable. "Would you have avenged my death, monsieur DiBiancci?"

"Of course. No man kills my favourite distributor and gets away with it." He was messing with me back. I smirked. "How did he let you go?"

"I lied."

"I heard someone from your group got shot."

"Yes, unfortunately. But it's alright now, we're just taking some time to rest and recoup. I promise you, I am not slacking off."

"I didn't think you were, I just needed verbal confirmation." He sighed a bit. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Thank you."

"Well, I'll leave you to your business now. I'm sure you're busy."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and Miss VanBurren?"

"Yes sir?"

"Good luck with your new trade route."

I froze in my seat just as I shut the taxi door beside me, realising how hugely I'd been f.u.c.k.e.d over. The line cut as my mind started to race at a million miles per hour trying to figure out how I could salvage this situation.

For sure, Juan-Carlos had opened his big fat mouth and blabbed, and someone heard it and took it back to Marco. I would get my revenge on that idiot.

My even worse mood followed me back to the hotel andl startled Henri when I slammed the door shut. He looked up from the chaise in the living room where he was holding a cloth and stared at me with inquisitive eyes.

"What happened to you?" He asked as I started pacing back and forth in the room. This was a dangerous situation to be in, and even though I was masking my true intentions neatly, I had to be even more careful with what I said and to whom from now on.

"I think someone's feeding info to Marco about me." Or maybe he really was following me, but I absolutely refused to accept that possibility. "He just called me and wished me good luck with my new 'trade route'."

Which s.u.c.k.e.d majorly because I had planned to use that route for my own purposes. What the f.u.c.k was I supposed to do now?

"Are you sure?"

I paused my pacing and turned to face my butler with my hands on my h.i.p.s. He was polishing silverware. What the f.u.c.k.

"I might have a hearing aid but that actually makes my hearing better. I know what I heard."

But maybe I could spin this to my advantage somehow? He certainly didn't seem angry about it but then again, Marco could see through lies like lasers through glass.

"Shit, this is bad. If he knows I'm opening new routes, then he might know that I'm—" I stopped myself, quickly changing my train of conversation. "—trying to push into enemy territory. It could potentially cause a war."

I wasn't an idiot either. Marco had placed a tracking chip in me once and I'd been lucky enough to rip it out with little to no damage.

There were a lot of people at that party and he could've easily had someone place a bug on me. But I had checked myself and my stuff thoroughly. There was nothing in them.

Henri opened his mouth just as I moved to sit beside him on the couch, but I placed a finger to his lips while pulling out my phone.

There was a hidden feature on it now that when I pressed the start button twice, it would scan my surroundings in a certain radius to check for any interference machinery. I didn't remember what the distance was, but it was something.

When the scan came back clean, I sighed in relief and removed my hand from Henri's face. "Okay, all clear."

"You think he bugged you?"

"I thought he did. Apparently not." And now I felt like a fool. "This is so exhausting." I slumped back into the couch with a sigh and rested a forearm on my forehead. "I feel like I'm going about this all wrong."

"You're doing this from scratch, be kinder to yourself." Henri patted my t.h.i.g.h and returned to polishing his silverware. "Most people your age are stressed about exams. You have three continents on a leash."

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for them to bite me." I smirked to myself. "What were you doing at my age?"

"Assassinating the president of Hungary." He raised the spoon he was working on and turned it in the light. Where did he even get this stuff from? "My most high profile kill."

"I'd heard about that, it was big news. I never knew it was you." I hummed and crossed my arms at this news.

"You're the only one who knows about this besides me now." He put down the spoon and picked up a serving fork. "I killed my contractors after they paid me."

"Are you going to kill me too for knowing about it?"

"If I have to." He side eyed me and I knew he was completely serious. "Or I could just let Marco get at you."

"Funny. The man had me in his hands for months and instead of exploiting my stay, he made me play nurse." I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of the situation. Marco and I were truly just kids trying our hand at this whole organised crime thing. We weren't ready to lead but I was in too deep to stop now. "Claudette says I need a boyfriend. She insisted, actually."

"A boyfriend?" Henri raised his eyebrows but didn't turn to look at me. "Why?"

"I have no clue. Maybe it has something to do with s.e.x." And how I was super deprived of it. "My drive has been through the roof lately."

"Then maybe she's right."

"If I'm lucky, I'll have two of them."

"Hector and Finley?" Henri asked. I hummed in return, thinking back on the date I'd just been on. It started out incredibly boring and ended unusually. Those two were not normal. "How'd it go?"

"It was weird. Interesting. Not as bad as I thought but definitely not great. If I didn't need them, I wouldn't see either of them again." I scrunched my nose at the thought of how I'd reacted when they cornered me. Instead of the confidence I would've exuded, I did the opposite. My honesty got the better of me and I showed them I was startled.

"Then why not get what you need from them?" Henri turned to look at me slumped back on the couch beside him, eyes trained on the ceiling. "Two is better than one. You've always been open to threesomes."

"How'd you know that?"

"You told me."

"Oh." I remembered now. "Right. That's not an option."

"Why not?" He turned back to his silverware and picked up a knife, watching the silver glint in the sunlight. It was around five in the afternoon and it still looked like twelve midday. The Parisian sun was something else.

"I can't sleep with anyone until they know who I truly am, and I doubt I can reveal that without telling them my whole secret plan. It would be a disaster and it's wrong."

Henri nodded carefully, setting down the knife once he'd polished it. "Then I guess you'll have to get used to celibacy."

"What?" I w.h.i.n.ed, sitting up and turning to him. "But you're right here."

"Ma—"

"Oh come on, I felt what you were packing. Or are you always shoving guns down your trousers?"

Henri's face turned red, and I knew I'd done my job well. He cleared his throat just as I was leaning back into the couch again and tried to speak once more. "Madame, I could list the reasons why it's a bad idea."

"Yeah, either of us dying being one of them. I got it." It's not like I wasn't aware of those dangers. I was. And that was one of the reasons why I refused to give them leeway too. But getting rejected was always a bummer.

"Where are you going?" He asked when I stood up, just as he was grabbing his gun to polish next.

"Shower. Wanna join?" I smirked at him, making the poor man stutter and splutter and try to find the best way to say 'no.'

"I— madame, please. Are you serious?"

"No."