I guess he was right on some level. Not many crime families allowed that. We were different. Did things differently. I think Pa thought she represented some kind of normal for me. She was the closest thing I’d had to a normal life so he allowed our friendship.
“Have you thought about the stuff you might have to do with him?” she asked with a tentative expression.
I knew all too well what she meant. Sleeping with him. Fuck. Just kissing him, it would be awful.
“Yes. I have. I have thought long and hard about it.” Thought long and hard and I didn’t know how I was going to flair out.
She sighed. “I wish I could tell you, you’d be okay with that part.”
“I wish I could believe I’d get through that part, it’s gonna be hard.”
Only yesterday I was with Xander. We woke up and I was cocooned in his arms. Within seconds of waking we resumed our activities from the night before. My eyes hadn’t even opened properly yet before he was buried deep inside me.
I sighed and tried to force the memory from my mind.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” I called out.
The door opened and Armand stepped in. I hadn’t heard the shuffling noise he’d previously made.
I didn’t care.
It was strange he’d knocked though. Maybe that was more for Anya’s benefit since he usually just barged in.
“Sorry to disturb,” he began and cut Anya a sharp glance. He then returned his attention to me and gave his fake as hell smile. “Your father is requesting your presence. We have to leave now.”
I narrowed my eyes. Pa was supposed to meet us later at the airport to see us off. What could this be now?
“Did he say why?”
Armand hardened his gaze and cut Anya another look as if to warn me to be careful when talking about our affairs. Shit, it was another preview of what being married to him was going to be like. He’d be exactly like that, and to a woman who was my best friend.
“He did not. We leave now.”
Anya slid off the bed. “It’s okay. It was good to see you. I’m happy we had some girly indulgence time.”
I got off the bed and hugged her hard. I was going to miss her so much, so damn much. I wished she was going with me. I needed her strength to do this. Whatever this was I was going to do with Armand.
When we released each other she cupped my face and planted a kiss on both my cheeks. It was as European as you could get.
“Thank you for being such a good friend to me, Jia Marchesi. I will see you for the wedding.” She nodded.
“Thank you, for being you,” I answered. She backed away and made her way to the door where Armand stood in the frame, with that stupid smug look on his face because she was leaving.
She glanced over her shoulder one last time before she waved and left.
As soon as she was out of sight, Armand dropped the cordial façade and walked into the room.
For a second I wondered if he’d lied about Pa needing to see us. It was just the sort of thing he’d do.
He came up to me and I backed away.
“You know you’re going to have to stop doing that right?” he taunted, stepping closer. I backed away until I was once again at the wall.
He placed his hands either side of me and my heart squeezed when he bent low to kiss my neck.
“Stop it Armand.” I winced. He didn’t stop.
“I can’t. I can’t stop wanting you.”
I pressed against his chest to stop him but he just took hold of my hands.
“Please don’t. I don’t have the strength to fight you.”
He still ignored me, his answer was to reach up and cup my breasts.
His disgusting hands were all over them, squeezing and kneading, then pushing past the fabric of my top so his bare fingers were on my skin.
“Did you lie about Pa?” I asked, trying to wriggle free.
It was only then that he moved back. “No, I’m just taking advantage of the moment. You feel so good Jia.” He ran one last trace over my right nipple. “I can’t wait to have you tonight.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that I don’t want you?”
“We will see about that. I think there’s something that will quickly change your mind.”
God… that made worry take me in an instant.
“What? What’s happened?” Of course Xander was the first person that came to my mind.
“Come let’s go. You will see.”
* * *
Tension-filled anxiety consumed me for the whole journey.
We went to the casino. The minute we turned down to the castle courtyard a lump swelled in my throat.
It swelled my throat right up and I couldn’t even swallow.
I’d been in here only once and that was when Pa was refurbishing and I had to take the fitters in. I never went inside the whole place per se, just the foyer. Not behind the doors to the actual courtyard. I wasn’t allowed beyond that point. It seemed like the rules had been bent for me today.
Something had happened indeed.
Something bad.
I wouldn’t have just been allowed down here like this.
We walked down the hallway and into a large room.
I saw Frankie first and his face was suffused with a type of sadness I couldn’t quite describe. He looked away from me.
Vinny too. Freddo did not acknowledge me at all.
Pa stood by a little balcony and crooked his finger to me.
“Come here,” he said, voice cold.
I hesitated and stopped in my tracks.
“What is this Pa? I’m not usually allowed in here.” I had to ask.
“Today is different. There are exceptions today.” He nodded and beckoned me to come to him.
I went and as I got to him I saw that the balcony overlooked something that resembled a pit.
When I heard a low groan, curiosity made me go faster than my legs.
When I beheld what was down in the pit, I screamed.
It was the instinctive response to seeing Xander attached to a metal-like structure covered in blood.
He had on his boxers That was it. He’d been stripped of his clothes and blood literally took their place. Ropes bound his arms either side to the metal, his face was a complete mess.
Behind him was a guy I’d never seen before carrying what looked like a cat of nine tails. Attached to the ends were sharp knife-like blades. It was the kind of stuff you’d see in a horror film or a nightmare.
From the look of Xander it was very clear the instruments had been used on him over and over again.
This was insane. Pa had gone fucking insane.
“Pa, what are you doing, let him go!” I wailed.
Pa just laughed. “Jia, think of this as a parting gift I’m allowing. Your cooperation means he might die a little slower than intended. As in, I won’t pop a fucking bullet in his head in front of you.”
As I looked at my father I could see the monster in him was out in full force. There was no form of humanity left in him.
But then was there ever any in him to begin with?
Could never. A person could never do this to another.
Not after yesterday when Xander asked him to protect me.
This was not what you did to a man like that.
Adrenaline pushed me to Pa and I lashed out, punching and hitting him in his chest. It did nothing. Not one damn thing because Pa was an old, tough Mafia boss and a little woman like me, with her punches, couldn’t hurt him. Couldn’t even scratch him.
He grabbed my wrists and shook me hard. I actually thought he was going to hit me but he didn’t. He kept his promise to never do that again.
I wished he would hit me though. It would have been better than the viperous sting his actions gave me.
It would have been better than the soulless look he gave me.
In that moment I abandoned all love I had for him.
He squeezed my shoulders so har
d I screamed again. It was Xander’s cry that stopped him.
It was a muffled tortuous wail.
“Leave …her!” he yelled. It sounded like it took everything out of him, everything poured out of him to say those words.
Pa let go of me but took hold of my right shoulder, shoving me hard against the edge of the balcony rail. I knocked my hip into it and it hurt like a bitch.
“Look at him Jia, take a real, looooong look at him. Can you see him?” Pa taunted, shaking me.
“Yes.”
“Girl, my love for you is my weakness. I look at you and I see your mother. It’s like the living incarnation of my Gabrielle. I’m clutching at everything I have inside me not to kill you both right the fuck now. Rest assured if you were not my daughter, and if you did not mean all that you mean to me, you would be dead. I’d kill you in front of him and make him watch.”
I believed him. I truly believed him.
“What did he do?” I asked, keeping up the pretense that I knew nothing.
“As if you don’t know,” Pa screamed, shaking me harder. He shook me so hard I thought I was going to hurl.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything,” I lied.
He glared at me seething. “Traitorous girl! You’re going to look at me and lie like that? Your own father. I give my life to protect you. I have given you everything so you could have a good life. You would lie to me and hide this thief.”
I gasped. He raised his hand to hit me and I stared deep into his eyes, holding his gaze and attention. It seemed like I must have reached something inside him because his hand stopped mid-way and he hovered over my face.
Instead of hitting me, he shoved me hard into the barrier again.
“Who is he, Jia? Who is he really?” Pa asked.
“Xander Cage. Pa, why would you think I know more?” Because I was his daughter and he’d gotten used to me for a lifetime and he knew when I was telling the truth and when I was lying.
He knew I was lying now.
“Jia, don’t fuck with me.” He put his finger up in front of my face. “Don’t fucking do it or play fucking games with me now. Not now! Now is not the time for shit. This man came to steal from me, and you’ve been screwing him behind my back for weeks. I saw you myself. You must know something. You two got close, too close. There’s no way you can tell me shit about not knowing anything, so talk.”
Talk…
No. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t say anything, just like I promised Xander. I promised him I wouldn’t say anything and today I knew more than I’d known when I made the promise.
At the time I just knew he wasn’t who he said he was. I suspected he was an agent of sorts. Yesterday Balthazar gave me confirmation. I even had the name of the people he worked for. I had it all. The specs and the details, all of it. It was enough to blow things out of the water. Not just for Xander, but for people I didn’t know who were involved.
The decision lay with me.
The minute I talked Pa would kill him and all that Xander worked for would be lost.
“Talkkkkkkkkk!” Pa screamed after the long gap of silence.
“I don’t know anything.” I shook my head. “We didn’t talk about work when we were together.”
“He must have said something to you.”
“He… he said nothing. We just liked being together.”
He shook his head at me. “Well let’s see if we can jog your memory.”
Pa gave a signal and the man near Xander switched on a button. As it came on, sparks of electricity rippled through him. He screamed and screamed. The screams and the sight took me and tears poured from my eyes.
Then as if that wasn’t bad enough, the guy lashed him across his back with the whip making him scream even more. They were going to kill him.
They were.
“Stop it! Stop it,” I bawled. “Papa stop it.”
Pa raised his hand and the man stopped his lashing and switched off the electricity.
A crude, hard, evil smile filled Pa’s face as he looked at me. “Anything come to your mind yet, Jia?”
I shook my head. “No. Nothing. I told you I don’t know anything.”
He snarled and raised his hand again to give the man the go ahead to switch the electricity on.
Xander’s screams tore through me once more.
I couldn’t look. I just couldn’t look.
“I’ll make it stop if you tell me.” Pa nodded. “I’ll make it stop and take him down from there. You said you loved him. How could you let this happen to someone you love?”
What a thing to say to me.
What a question to ask.
As if that was really it, like I was the problem here. It wasn’t me at all.
It was Pa again…
This wasn’t about me. It was him.
All of it was him.
The tears running down my cheeks blurred my vision. I could barely see him, but really did I want to see him? Him with his lies.
He had no intention whatsoever of letting Xander go or making anything stop. He didn’t.
And, how I hated lies.
The irony in that was I was the biggest liar here. The biggest liar. The actress who could have gotten an Oscar for her award-winning performance.
Me. That was my role here.
Xander continued to scream and my soul quivered.
This was the moment of reckoning. It was as he’d said, he would do what he had to do.
I would too.
I looked to him and knew he knew what I was doing. I knew he appreciated it.
“I don’t know anything,” I shouted, screaming at the top of my lungs. My voice rose above him, high into the black ceiling that covered us. “I don’t know anything.”
I kept saying it over and over again.
Pa grabbed me up again.
“Jia, you seriously don’t know who sent him? Who is he working for? Fucking tell me, tell me now, tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything.” It felt like a mantra now. I repeated it five more times. Pa released me and I staggered backwards.
He held a hand up to stop the man below and the switch went off again.
Pa pointed at me one more time.
“His death will be on your head girl. You say you don’t know anything. I feel you do. I feel you do! But it’s okay, you’ve done your part.” He looked to Armand. “Armand take her!”
Armand came for me and took hold of my arm. I tried to wrench free because of the tightness in his grasp but he held on tighter.
“Jia, you will do as you are told. I mean that,” Pa reminded.
“You evil bastard!” I whimpered. “You tell me you love me but you do this. How do you expect me to love you after this?”
Pa got up close in my face. “My dear I no longer care. I do what I have to, to keep our family safe. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. It’s shit to me. I have no place for emotion, not from you or from me.”
I shook as he dealt me his words. “Papa what happened to you? I can’t believe this is really you. I can’t believe you could be so wicked. Just let him go. Doesn’t the fact that I love him mean anything to you? You saw him yesterday. You saw us. Can’t you find it in your heart to stop this?” I don’t know why I bothered.
It must have been desperation talking. One last attempt.
Pa held up his hand in answer to my question, signaling the man to switch on the electricity again. Xander screamed.
I shook my head in pure disbelief. Pa really was going to kill him.
Yesterday wasn’t goodbye.
This was it.
I wrenched my arm free of Armand’s hold and rushed to the barrier.
“I love you,” I shouted out to Xander.
Armand got me though. Pulling me away from the balcony barrier at the same time Xander looked at me.
His eyes. Even past the blood that washed over his face. I saw his answer.
I saw it and felt it.
Saw his li
ps moving mouthing the words back.
He loved me too.
That was the last thing I saw before Armand pulled me away.
Chapter 19
Xander
I couldn’t talk.
I’d just managed that last time, when I shouted to leave Jia alone.
That was my strength gone.
All night they’d tortured me.
All damn night.
So the fact that I could speak was nothing short of a miracle.
As she’d looked back to me with so much love in her eyes, I had to say it back in some way. I had to find the strength for my lips to move.
She had to know that I loved her too and it was with my last breath.
She chose me.
There was the answer to the question of whether or not I could trust her. She chose me. She did as she promised and kept her silence. The woman was strong because she’d seen them torturing me and didn’t cave. She kept my secret even when she knew it could kill me.
Jia had to truly love me to know what I would have wanted her to do in a situation like this.
She did it.
I just saw the trace of her going through the door with Armand.
He was taking her.
She would be his now.
So much for that plan of mine. That sketchy plan of mine. I didn’t even know what the fuck I was really going to do, but it involved taking her, that was part A.
The next part would be figuring out what to do to keep everyone off my back.
I would take her though.
I didn’t truly allow myself to think of the intricacies of how I’d actually do it but my heart held the plan and the way. It gave me the spark of hope and I hung on to it.
I hung on to having happy moments like what we had at the diner again with no secrets.
But…
It wasn’t meant to be.
Just like that vision of Claire faded from me, all of that faded from me last night as I got captured.
The Chameleon had hit me with a tranquilizer.
It would have been foolish of him to kill me and not find out more about me or who sent me.
That was what happened.
Now it was only a matter of time before death came for me.
Tease of Spades: Game of Love Series Page 15
