To Find Isabel

Chapter 19

The flight back home is silent. Victor seems to be keeping his distance. I talked to Dante.

"I want him to talk to me," I whisper, "To tell me why he has me. Why he hasn't killed me."

"I already told you, my dove, he has no intentions of killing you. Think of him as your bodyguard."

My body guard. The human form of mood swings was my body guard. Italy's most powerful mafia man as my body guard.

"Are you crazy? Him? My body guard?" I huff back.

"For now," Dante continued, "He does want to talk to you once we get all settle back in Italy."

Finally.

I sat in the chair in the bedroom. We were finally back in Italy. Victor paced back and forth. He seems disturbed. I wasn't sure what it was that drew him to me but I wanted to find out.

"Are you going to say anything," I prompt him. He doesn't say anything. It's like he was contemplating whether or not he should tell me.

"I have you with me for a certain reason. Otherwise I would have let you go a while ago."

"Honestly, how many times are you going to tell me this?"

"If you let me finish, we might get further." He replies.

"Well I have a question."

"What."

"Are you like established as a man with many," I hesitate, "intimate relationships?"

He seems struck.

"Not necessarily," he starts, "I was like that up to a certain point."

I look at Dante, and he just shrugs.

"Okay, now go on and tell me, why the hell am I still here with you."

"Well, you," he stammers but then he stops. Something was holding him back but I wasn't feeling empathetic anymore.

"Why can't you just admit that you have me here because you need some female to show off! Isn't that how all you mafia men are?"

Dante's jaw drops. Victor turns to me, flames in his eyes like the first night we met.

"Because that's not the truth!" He fumed. Something was ripping him apart, and I didn't care at that moment. I didn't care that I was slicing his wound deeper. Whatever the hell it was, I wanted to know.

Dante leaves the room silently. The tension rose.

"I'm done with your shit," I announce. I push myself up but Victor moves so quickly.
He pushes me down, grabs my chin, and forces my head back against the seat.

"Listen to me, for your own sake," He says, biting down on his teeth. It wasn't an option. His tone told me it was an order.

"I have no obligation to take orders from a cheap gangster who kidnapped his enemy's daughter because he's too much of a coward to go face to face."

"Watch your mouth," he growls, his grip tightening.

"Or what?" I sneered.

He let go with a flick of his wrist and glanced out the window and then focused his gaze back at me. His angry breath hovered through the room. His eyes didn't move. He stood there like a sculpture.

I matched the energy and glared back at him.

"I don't want to hurt you," he muttered, "But you're testing me."

He's said that so many times, but each time he says it, a new wave of fear runs through me. What could he do to me? He could do anything.

He could leave me for dead in the middle of anywhere and no one would come for me.

Not even that bastard who doesn't even know I'm here.

Absolutely no one.

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