Chapter 20: Luca Who?

HAYLEY

“Hello, Miss Tate,” a man said in a deep, rough voice, then grabbed her wrists and pulled her out of the car.

She kicked and thrashed with all her might, trying in vain to get him to loosen his hard grip.

She could hear a couple of men laughing, but the one holding her didn’t laugh. “Idioti! Stop laughing and help me,” he growled through gritted teeth.

One man tried to grab her legs, but she kicked him hard in the face. She felt quite proud of herself when he fell to one knee.

“Little bitch!” he hissed as he clutched his nose.

Hayley continued to struggle with the first man, who now held her tightly around the waist. Another guy went to grab her legs, so she tried to kick this one too but kept missing.

There was a loud bang. Hayley didn’t scream, but she did stop struggling. She just hung there, panting, as the man holding her didn’t loosen his grip.

Hayley looked at the man who had fired the shot.

He had tan skin and dark hair and dressed as smartly as Luca. He had a trendy hairstyle and trendy stubble, and she guessed he was about Luca’s age. His eyes were a vibrant green, and they were intent on Hayley.

“Un lavoro, e non puoi farlo!” he said harshly as he looked at the men who’d been trying to subdue her, and the fact he was speaking Italian made her even more nervous than if he had spoken English.

And not just because she couldn’t understand what he was saying.

He walked closer to her, smiling darkly.

“So you’re the famous Hayley.” His tone was bright, and his smile showed his perfect teeth.

Hayley said nothing, just glared into his green eyes.

He gripped her face, then tilted her head to study her. “What a spectacular color blue. I can see why he likes her. Plus, she has coglioni. I like that.” He chuckled, and the men around them laughed.

Hayley yanked her chin out of his hand. “Who the hell are you?” She knew she was being reckless and stupid talking back like this, but she wanted to come across as fearless even though she was terrified.

But his smile never wavered. “All in good time, darling,” he said, his tone still light and his smile huge. “But first, this is going to hurt.” He raised his hand suddenly and stabbed something into Hayley’s neck.

Well, it was more of a pinch. But with the force he used, it hurt like hell.

As soon as he moved his hand away, she grabbed her neck protectively. “Son of a bi…”

But her words slowed, and her legs began to turn to jelly. She didn’t fall, though, since the man was still holding her around the middle.

The world around her went blurry, and he was talking again, perhaps in Italian, but it was so jumbled it could have been English. Then her eyelids closed, and she was forced into darkness.

HAYLEY

She woke very briefly, for just a few seconds. She was inside a gray room. It was cold.

She could hear voices, but her vision was too blurry to make sense of who they were or where she was. Her body gave up again and fell back into darkness.

When her senses slowly began to return to her, the first thing she felt was the pain in her neck. It was tender and sore, but the world was still dark.

Then awareness of the cold washed over her, skimming over her bare skin, waking her even more.

She could hear men’s voices now—some spoke in Italian, some were speaking English—but none of it made any sense to her. Her eyes fluttered open. Everything was blurry at first.

Someone, somewhere, announced she was awake, and someone banged a heavy metal-sounding door. She slowly began to get her vision back, two blurry figures coming into focus.

Two heavily built men stood on either side of a door, each holding a huge gun. They wore suits and fedoras.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw two more leaning against the gray concrete wall. They were just as bulky and held guns too.

She was sitting in a chair, her arms tied tightly behind her back and a rope across her waist tying her to the chair, along with rope at her legs and feet.

She said nothing. These guys were just yes-men—they wouldn’t tell her anything.

The door suddenly opened, revealing the green-eyed man from before, then banged shut behind him. He smiled broadly as he entered the room and stopped in front of her. “Hello, Hayley.”

Her heart pounded in her chest—she had no idea what the hell was going on and who this man was.

When she remained silent, he pouted and looked at the men around him. “Funny,” he mused before looking back at her. “I thought the British had good manners.”

She just rolled her eyes.

His face hardened for a second before he spoke again. “But Luca has probably rubbed off on you. He doesn’t understand respect either.”

Hayley shrugged. It was best to pretend she didn’t know anything—it was what he’d told her to do. “Who’s Luca?” she said flatly.

The green-eyed man laughed, clearly not buying her bullshit, and some of his men joined in.

He shook his head. “Let me introduce myself, darling. I am Lorenzo Borroni.” His voice was firm, authoritative, and—at least for now—very formal and polite.

She was determined to remain calm even though she’d heard the name before and, from what she could gather, he was no friend of Luca’s.

“But you, darling? You can just call me Enzo.” He flashed her one of his devilish smiles, but she just looked at him blankly.

“That’s okay. Dickhead works for me.”

He slapped her across the face. Hard. It caught her cheekbone, but she didn’t even whimper.

He then hiked his trouser legs up slightly and crouched down so he was eye level with her. “If I were you, ~darling~, I would be very careful what you say. You see, I’m a crazy son of a bitch and can’t stand people disrespecting me.”

Hayley just looked him dead in the eyes, willing herself not to let her fear show. She was stronger than that. But inside, she was freaking out. What was he going to do with her?

“Now, Luca and I go way, way back. In fact, I once would have called him a friend. But as you can see, the friendship has gone a bit downhill.”

He looked over at his men and laughed before returning his attention to Hayley. “He’s here by the way,” he said, making a sweeping gesture, and she glanced around suspiciously.

“Who is?” she asked, then looked back at him and smiled. She wasn’t going to let this prick win.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Keep pretending, darling.” He stood up and nodded to his men. “I think it’s time we reunite these two and play a little game.”

All four men descended on her and began to untie her roughly.

“You’re making a mistake! I have no idea who this Luca is!” she yelled, but he just walked over to her, smiling like he was enjoying her desperation.

“Please, I have no idea—”

He grabbed her face. “Shhh, darling. Even if what you say is true, you know too much now. So you have to die.”

Hayley’s eyes widened and her breathing accelerated.

“But we can make a deal. You can stay alive”—his gaze dropped to her lips, and his mouth curled into a wicked smirk—“if you figure out the correct use for your pretty little mouth.”

Her stomach dropped at his sickening words, and she did something that usually repulsed her—she spat in his face.

The grip on her arms tightened, and a man gasped, but she continued to glare at Lorenzo as he wiped off her spit.

He nodded, then took out a blade and held it to the side of her neck, just above her collarbone. “Stupid.”

He ran the edge from her exposed neck to the top of her chest, and she yelped in pain. It wasn’t deep enough to truly wound her, but it fucking hurt, and tears sprang into her eyes.

“Little bitch.” He lifted the knife and she looked at her crimson blood on the tip. “I ~will~ kill you. Make no mistake, you’re not leaving here alive.”

Lorenzo’s men practically dragged her out of the room and down a gray-walled hallway.

“Oh, Luca!” Lorenzo sang as he opened a pair of heavy metal doors, practically dancing with excitement.

Hayley’s eyes immediately caught Luca’s.

He was sitting at a table in his dress shirt, no tie. His face was bruised and cut, and he was tied to a chair with a piece of cloth in his mouth.

In front of him, in the middle of the table, was the kind of metal-domed plate cover they have in fancy restaurants.