Page 34 of Twisted Throne

Thud.

Thud.

“I know you’re in here,cagna,” a male voice said tauntingly. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Oh god, it was Emilio.

My bedroom was so tiny, I knew he’d spot me any second now. His footsteps moved slowly and deliberately around the bed.

I jumped up and lunged forward, lamp raised over my head. I swung it down toward his head as hard as I could. Emilio sidestepped me and grabbed my arm.

“You’re a feisty one,” he laughed coldly. “Too easy to catch, though.”

He twisted my arm behind my back and the lamp fell to the floor, shattering.

I struggled to get away, kicking out blindly behind me. I managed to make contact, and he grunted. His grip loosened a touch and I twisted out of his grasp and ran to the door.

I’d made it only a few steps when he grabbed the back of my shirt and jerked me back.

He pressed a cloth over my mouth and nose. The chemical smell made my eyes burn and water. Choking, I tried to shove him off me. My arms felt weak, and my legs started to buckle underneath me. The last thing I heard before I blacked out was Emilio.

“Don’t worry,cagna, we’ll have time for plenty of fun later.”

Chapter Fifteen

Paul

The study door slammed open.

“Paul!” Ricky ran up to me. He was panting and red-faced—must have run all the way up from the gatehouse. Bad news. “I’ve got Lucy on the phone,” Ricky said as he ran up to me. “Gia’s been taken.”

“What the fuck do you mean, taken?” I stopped in my tracks.

“From her apartment. Lucy is following the vehicle,” Ricky replied.

I snatched the phone out of his hands.

“Inform Angelo,” I told him. I pressed the phone to my ear and bolted out of the study, practically running through the foyer and out the front door to where my car was parked in the roundabout.

“Lucy, where the fuck are you?” I snapped into the phone.

“I’m following the van! I’m on Redmere Road, headed out of the city,” she half-sobbed into the phone.

Goddamn it, I knew exactly where they were taking her.

“I know where they’re going. Get the fuck out of there and back to the house.”

“But I can help! They don’t know I’m following them!” Lucy said.

“Trust me, they know. Turn around and get your ass back to the house, now.”

I hung up the phone and slid into my car. Before I could start it, Carlos and Frank ran up and got in with me.

“Ricky called us in after he told Angelo,” Carlos said. “Backup is ready to meet us when we have a location.”

I nodded curtly, glad to have a couple good men at my back. Whatever I felt—or didn’t feel, damn it!—about Gia, no one touched a LaRosa and escaped untouched.

I jammed the pedal to the floor, tires squealing as I peeled out of the driveway with a squeal.