Page 106 of His Kidnapped Queen
“But Papa, why would I need to know this?”
“Everyone isn’t kind, Sophia,” my father said in a low voice.
How right he’d been.
My eyes pop open and I search my hair, hoping against hope I hadn’t lost the bobby pins I’d put in after my last shower, the ones I’d worn the first night I was taken. Thank god, I find one, then two. I let out a long breath through my nostrils.
Would have been nice to remember when I was first kidnapped.
I sit up on my knees, walking slowly toward the door, and starting work on the lock.
I’ve got to focus, so that I can see my daughter again. So I can finally tell her father she exists.
30
LUCA
When I come to, I’m tied to a post in my father’s mansion, my wrists zip-tied painfully behind me.Fuck. This is worse than I thought.
I squint in the dim room, the only light the moon streaming in through the window. I’m pretty sure this is the east wing, because it smells like dust and disuse. My father shut off the east wing of the mansion a few years ago, saying he needed it for storage space.
And now Nico’s using it as my prison cell.
I clear my throat and call out “Hey!” experimentally.
“Caputo,” a raspy voice answers me.
“Diego,” I call back, my heart racing with excitement. “Never thought I’d be so happy to hear your voice.”
“Don’t celebrate yet. I’m tied up. They roughed me up pretty bad. One of my eyes is swollen shut.”
“Nothing Charlie can’t fix, yeah?”
Diego hawks and spits.
“I think that was a tooth,” he says flatly, and I have to bite my lip not to laugh hysterically. We’re in a fucking mess. A pickle, as my father would say.
“Nico!” I yell. “If you’re going to kill me, do it now. I’m tired of waiting for you.”
Nothing. Just the sound of Diego coughing and spitting again. How bad is it? Does he have a concussion? He won’t be much good in an escape if he can’t fight.
I arch my back experimentally, testing for injuries. There’s the pull of my stitches, but that was there before. Other than a nagging headache, I seem to be alright.
Nico steps into view, wearing a big smile. His camouflage mask is nowhere to be seen.
In the background, a woman screams. My shoulders stiffen.
“That’s her. Your girl. Your cop,” Nico says, his voice lilting like he’s teasing me. Like this is some children’s game and not our fucking lives.
“Father doesn’t know about this.”
Nico snorts. “What Father doesn’t know can’t hurt him. I’ve been planting seeds for weeks now, having Alfonso show up late, skimming money from the fights.”
I set my lips in a hard line, glaring at him. “You did that on purpose?”
Nico shrugs. “Had to play up the playboy angle, didn’t I? Had to have you two thinking I’m hooked on that shitty coke youget from the Columbians. Had to have you two thinking I’m useless.”
He’s been planning this for a long time. Years.
