Belonging to the Italian Mafia Boss: A Dark Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (Possessive Mafia Kings Book 7)
Belonging to the Italian Mafia Boss: Chapter 12

I’d never felt as safe as I had when Bruce had brought me to his bed and rested me in the center of it. He showed me precisely how attentive he was regarding my safety… multiple times. And when I’d dozed, wearing nothing but one of his oversized T-shirts and a loose pair of his long jeans, I hadn’t ever slept so fitfully.

I was pulled awake by the jarring sensation of falling, and as I hit the cool hardwood floor, I gasped, the air shoved from my lungs. I gasped, trying to figure out what exactly had happened as I felt the immediate panic of being unable to breathe.

Then, hands came around my arms, pulling me upward. I bent over myself, still trying to catch my breath. Had I fallen out of bed? Was Bruce helping me stand?

But the hands felt more callous than his. Harsher. I tried to pull away, but the grip was bruising, holding me in place long enough that I couldn’t remove the hands that had been placed behind my back. I had experience freeing myself from such holds, but no matter how I maneuvered my hips and my legs, the feeling of breathlessness still clung to my lungs, and I couldn’t fully focus—not long enough to get myself out of this situation.

“I told you what would happen,” Tucker said from behind me, and I knew precisely what was happening. I didn’t know how he’d discovered what I’d done so quickly, but he had. Somehow, he knew, and there was nothing I could do to escape the bruising grip he had on me as he carried me out the door.

It was late enough that the sun had gone down, and that meant that all household employees had long gone home. “Stop,” I breathed, trying to suck in a deep enough breath to scream. But there, at my back, was a hard pressure, and I knew exactly what it was.

“If you scream, I’ll shoot you right now.”

What was he going to do if I didn’t scream, though? I knew it would be a fate just as horrendous as this one, but I may have a chance to get free eventually. If he had shot me in the back right now, I would never survive it. This baby that I carried inside of me wouldn’t, either. I hadn’t decided when to tell Bruce, but after last night, I knew it would be okay. I knew he’d accept it, and we could live a good life together.

I didn’t think he’d ever let Tucker touch me again, but now…

Before I knew it, the freezing Seattle air hit my bear arms, and he continued dragging me further and further—too far for anyone to hear me now. Shit, I had to do something, but as I wiggled around in his arms, nothing came of it other than surefire bruises on both of my arms.

“Tucker, you can’t do this. Bruce will kill you.”

He laughed loudly, and for the first time, I allowed myself to slow down long enough to look around. The manor was too far away—far enough that I knew the time had run together as I tried to escape his hold. We approached an old shed with boarded-up windows and a torn roof. The chill was biting on my exposed limbs, and the single layer of clothes I wore gave so little protection against the breeze and temperature that I involuntarily shook.

“He would kill me for taking you. I’m in too deep to turn back now.” He paused as he shifted me to one arm more efficiently and tucked the gun into the waistband of his pants. He worked a lock on the outer part of the door, and it clicked open. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to turn back. I finally have my choice of what happens to you, and nobody knows what I’ve done. I’ll get away with it.”

He would, I realized. Even if Bruce came to look for me, it would be too cold, and it would be too late. I’d freeze to death within hours of being out here.

Tucker propped me on my feet before shoving me back and deeper into the shed. I tripped over a piece of wood and landed on my back. Something sat beneath me, and I knew that, too, would bruise.

“You should have never been left alive in the first place. It poses too many risks and challenges. We won’t have a problem using brute force, but Bruce doesn’t see it that way. It’s his own biases that are going to kill him one of these days,” he scoffed, slamming a boot into a piece of rubble and sending it flying into my face. I barely managed to block it. “He didn’t deserve the title he inherited. Maybe he’ll be next.”

“No,” I shouted, jerking forward and trying to stand on bare feet. The harsh wood chips beneath me had me falling back to my knees. “Leave Bruce out of this.”

“Leave him out of it?” Tucker repeated, and I heard how ignorant those words sounded coming out of his mouth. “This entire situation exists because of my brother and his ignorance, but at least I get to see you die. That will be the highlight of my week.”

He pulled the gun back out of his waistband, and the moonlight glinted off of it as he leveled it at me. I had no idea how to convince him not to do this. I knew that begging for my life would do nothing but make him more interested in killing me, so I only stared, at a loss for what to do.

Was this how I would die? Panicking in a dark shed where nobody would ever replace my body?

“I like watching the light die out of someone’s eyes when they die,” he told me, stepping forward. “I don’t like making it slow, especially for people who have caused me problems. So don’t worry. It will take a while. Maybe the cold will get to you before the injury,” he mused.

“No,” I begged, shaking my head. “I…” I paused and knew that I had only one bargaining chip left. “I’m pregnant,” I finally said.

I expected him to react and drop the gun. I expected some kind of reaction, but he only stared at me for a long moment before laughing. The laugh boomed unstably, and I knew at that moment precisely how crazy Tucker truly was. “Isn’t that some shit,” he mused. “I would have needed to kill you anyways for that. I can’t have my brother bringing an heir into the fold. I’d never get what I was owed if he had a son.”

My breathing quickened as I realized how genuine he was. He didn’t care about killing his brother’s future child. He didn’t care about anything other than getting what he thought he was owed.

“He doesn’t know,” I told him. “You’d take that from your brother? The chance to have a family?”

Tucker knelt in front of me, pressing the gun into my stomach. With his other hand, he grabbed my throat in the same way as he had when he’d pinned me to the wall at the house. This time, the grip immediately cut off my air supply, and I wrapped my hand around his wrist, clawing at his in hopes that he’d release me.

“I would take everything from my brother,” he told me. “He has the only thing I’ve ever wanted, and if it takes killing you to get it, so be it. I’ll relish in the feeling of you taking your last breath.”

He released me, and I gasped in a long breath. I tracked him as he took one step away and paused, looking over me. A spark in his eyes was the only warning that he had an idea, and I didn’t want to know what that idea was. I was terrified to know what he was thinking as he chuckled to himself.

“Actually, I think you may have given me a unique opportunity to get what I’m owed.”

He took one large step out of the shed and slammed the door. I lunged toward it, hoping that I could wedge something inside of it and keep it from shutting completely, but I was too late as the wood chips bit into my hands and feet painfully. As he walked away, I shoved into the door and found that it had been made much more securely than anticipated.

If I didn’t get out of here, I would die. Whether it be from a bullet or the cold, I wouldn’t survive the night, and I knew it. I could feel the cold seeping into every part of me, dulling my senses and dragging me down, but I moved throughout the small area, checking all possible escape routes. The absolute darkness was blinding for a few moments, but my eyes quickly adjusted, and I found that there was nothing that would help me.

I sat back, thinking through all the options and forcing myself to take deep breaths, despite the shaking that felt bone deep through the thin T-shirt and pants.

I couldn’t tell how long it had been before footsteps approached, and I froze, listening as they seemed unsteady. I heard a second soft voice that had me forgetting about the pain in my feet as I stood. I rushed to the door, and as it opened, I tried to break past.

Tucker shoved me backward with a booted foot to the chest, and I barely managed to keep myself from flying into the wall as he dropped another body into the shed and slammed the door.

“You motherfucker,” shouted a hysterical voice that shook as fiercely as my body.

Karsen’s hysterical voice.