My Masters' Nightmare, Season 1 / Episode 13 (7 page)

My eyebrows rose. “Is that so? Well, then
I’ll make it my final mission to find Dominic and seduce him with
whatever personality trait he likes, then I’ll break his heart,
leaving him a shattered mess. How do you like that?”

“
He won’t go for you; he likes
nice people, not vulgar assholes.”

“
No, he’ll be
fucking
my vulgar
asshole.”

“
I’ll warn him about you, so if
you go near him, he’ll break your neck.”

“
It’ll just make it more
of a challenge.”

“
You’re just saying this
to anger me.”

“
Yes and no, and I’ve been
interested in the both of you for a while. That’s how I know he’s
fucked men. I’ve always wanted to have a crack at him.” My eyes
moved to my auntie. “Am I lying?”

She breathed out.
“No.”

Alessandro’s eyes blazed.

I raised my gun. “Don’t even
think about it,
muscles. I may not want you dead, but I’ll shoot you if you
threaten my life.”

“
Just keep away from my
brother!”

“
Nah, I really want to play with
his Prince Albert.” I snapped my teeth together.

He started swearing at me, half
of which I d
idn’t understand.

I pulled a gag out of my pocket and threw
it at my auntie. “Gag him; he’s giving me a headache.”

She focused on Alessandro. “Stop it,
Alessandro.”

He ignored her, his insults becoming
personal, Alberto’s name amongst them.

“
Now!
” I snapped.

She
covered his mouth with it, tying the
gag at the back of his head. Alessandro continued cursing me
through the material, looking like he wasn’t going to let up. I was
just grateful his feet and hands were tied, because, again, he
looked primed to kill.

My auntie
leaned her head against his
chest. “Sssh, calm down, your heart’s pounding like crazy. Once you
warn Dominic, he’ll be fine.”

Alessandro stopped swearing and pushed his
face into her hair. I shook my head, thinking he was a sap. Maybe
he would’ve given me a blowjob after all for her. Nah, the prick
would’ve bitten my dick off if I put it anywhere near his
mouth.

Th
ankfully, the rest of the car ride
was relatively silent. Once we’d reached our destination, the
window between the front and the back wound down. “We’re here,
boss,” the driver said.

“
Good.” I leaned over
and opened the
door. “Out, Alessandro.”

He didn’t move. He
looked
conflicted, no doubt over leaving my auntie.

Needing the exchange to go
smoothly, I
spewed out a lie. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll
convince my uncle not to sell her, so please get out before I
change my mind.”

“
You sure he’ll
agree?”

“
Without a
doubt.”

He
gave her a kiss, mumbling he’ll see
her again, then went for the door. I placed my boot on his back and
gave him a helpful push out of it, laughing at my auntie’s shout.
The soldier next to her grabbed her arms before she could attack
me. I stepped out of the car, along with the other soldier and the
one from up front. Outside, flat, dusty land stretched out before
me. About a mile on my left, a mountain range stood tall and
proud.

My eyes went to the line of Santini cars
parked ten or so meters away from me. Ricardo Santini was standing
next to the front car with his eyes locked on me. Like Alessandro,
he was an impressive man: tall and muscular, but with a harder
face. I typically liked rough-looking brutes, but the Santini were
the exception to my rule. Those handsome bastards were Viagra in
human form, their violent natures and incredible bodies always
making me drool.

I pointed my gun at
Alessandro’s head. “If you want your brother back minus a bullet,
bri
ng me the
ransom!” I yelled out, not taking any risks with him.

Ricardo barked at his soldiers
to get the ransom. Four of his
soldiers removed two containers from their
vehicles, carrying them across the divide. They laid the ransom a
few meters away from my feet, then returned to Ricardo’s
side.

“
Everything’s there, including
the bomb you wanted,”
Ricardo called out, “which my men will shoot,
destroying the ransom if you try anything funny.”

“
I’m alwa
ys funny, I’m a hilarious
guy.”

“
Don’t wear out my
patience,
Matteo, you know what I mean.”

“
T
hen come and get your brother.”

“
No,
untie him and send him to
me.”

“
But I like him tied up.” I
grinned, looking forward to his angry reaction. “So did the priest.
Oh, he liked Alessandro a lot.”

As predicted
, anger shot across Ricardo’s
face. “If you or that sick priest did anything to my brother, I
will make you suffer a painful death!”

I
grinned wider. “I was pulling your
chain, Don. I didn’t touch him, nor did the priest. My auntie stood
guard over Alessandro with a knife, threatening us if we came near
him.” I started laughing. “She even stabbed the
Padre
in the leg when he tried to get past
her. That was so funny; I almost pissed myself
laughing—”

My auntie started
screaming, cutting
me off. Next thing, she shot out of the car door,
followed by the
useless soldier who was meant to be guarding her. She wrapped her
arms around Alessandro, which she shouldn’t be doing, because she
was fucking supposed to have her hands tied. She started yelling
that she wanted to go with Alessandro. The soldier ripped her away
from her lover boy, dragging her back into the car. Alessandro
struggled to his feet, yelling at the soldier to let her go. I
kicked him to the ground, wondering how he’d gotten the gag out of
his mouth. But then again, my auntie probably had tied it
loosely.

“
Get your foot off him!”
Ricar
do
yelled. “Or I’ll shoot you!”

My gaze flicked back to
him
. “Not
unless you want to die.”

“
Just giv
e me my brother.”

“
Yeah, yeah, I don’t really give
a
fuck.” I
pulled out my knife and bent down to cut Alessandro’s foot
restraints, not touching the rope around his wrists. Once done, I
rose and pointed my gun at Alessandro’s head. “Get to your feet,
lover boy.”

Alessandro pushed up, looking
like he wanted to attack
me. I moved behind him, not taking any risks.
Although his hands were tied, he was still dangerous as
fuck.

“
Start walking,” I
said.

Alessandro remained still.

“
Now!”

Alessandro
went to move forward, then
lurched back, going for me. I dropped to the ground and whipped my
leg around, sweeping Alessandro’s legs out from under him. Ricardo
yelled at his soldiers not to shoot, probably knowing it would lead
to numerous deaths.

I straightened and again
pointed my gun at Alessandro’s head, now pissed off with him, the
man a meathead. “Get up and walk to your brother, and don’t do
anything stupid this
time, or I’ll shoot you.”

Alessandro pushed to his feet,
his face vicious, but instead of attacking
me, he started walking towards
Ricardo, hesitating as my stupid auntie screamed out his name from
the car.

“
Ignore her, Alessandro,”
Ricardo called out. “They won’t hurt her. She’s
on
e of
them.”

“
Not at heart,”
Alessandro
replied, “and she wants to come with me.”

“
That
’s not your choice to make.” Ricardo
paused. “The last time we tried to help a Donatelli woman, she
was
murdered. So, leave her, she’ll be safer with her
own
famiglia
.”

“
I will protect
her.”

“
Oh, for fuck’s sake,”
I yelled, bored to
shit with their banter. “This isn’t Romeo and Juliet, so fuck off,
so I can leave.”

Alessandro threw
me a
glare.

“
Just come here, Alessandro,”
Ricardo said. “Our
madre
needs you.”

Alessandro
resume
d
walking. As he neared Ricardo, the soldier next to me fell
backwards, the blood coming from his head making my eyes widen. The
fuckers were shooting at us!

Ricardo yelled, “Sniper!” and pushed
Alessandro towards his car, making me realize a split second later
it wasn’t the Santini attacking.

But it was too late,
my soldiers
reaching a different conclusion. One of them started firing on
Ricardo’s soldiers. As a result, the Santini soldiers returned
fire. The sound of a rocket caught my attention. An RPG flew
through the air, hitting the car behind mine. I launched myself
into my car, yelling at my driver to get the fuck out of here. He
planted his foot, the man bright enough to have kept the engine
running. I looked out the back window, praying that our other car
was following us. But it wasn’t. Instead, the soldiers were hiding
behind it, firing upon Ricardo and his men. Another RPG shot
through the air, heading for the car holding the weapons—which
included the bomb. It hit it square on, the car exploding, shit
flying everywhere. I swore, pissed off to the max, all the
ransom—the weapons and money, now gone up in smoke. Uncle Christo
was going to go psycho. First his brother was attacked, then the
ransom was destroyed, along with two cars and a handful of
soldiers.

Yeah, he was going to lose it big
time.

***

My
car rolled to a stop at the airstrip.
I grimaced at the sight of my uncle Christo’s car, not looking
forward to telling him about the shit that had gone down. I pushed
out of my car and headed for him, the wind making me shiver, my
button-down shirt too thin to stave off the cold.

T
he soldier outside my uncle’s car opened
the door for me. Exhaling loudly, I slid in next to my uncle
Christo, hoping I wasn’t going to suffer the consequences of his
temper. Like the back of my car, there were two leather-clad seats
facing each other. Thierry and the
Padre
were sitting across from me, the two
hugging like lovebirds. Sickened, I moved my attention to my uncle
Christo. He looked pained, probably due to his cancer. He was
getting worse by the day, his health deteriorating more in such a
short space of time.

“
Did everything run smoothly?”
he asked, looking at me expectantly.

I breathed out. “We were
attacked.”

He went stiff. “What happened?”

“
RPGs took out two of our cars
and two-thirds of our men were killed.”

His eyes widened. “Those fucking
Santini scum!”

I shook my head. “I don’t think it was
them. Ricardo looked just as surprised as me. Also, the RPGs came
from the mountains.”

My uncle
stopped ranting. “Then who was
it?”

“
Probably the Landi. I’m
lucky to have gotten out of there alive.”

“
Andriena?”

“
She’s fine.”

His jaw tightened. “Pity.”

“
No, it’s good. She’s worth a
lot of money now.” I grimaced, still not happy over her sale, but
knowing it was better than having her killed.

Uncle
Christo breathed out.
“
Sì
,
sì
,
we need that money now more than ever.”

“
I
also have an extra two million coming
in. I sold my soldier to one of my Japanese clients.”

H
e sat up straight, a smile gracing his
hard face. “
Molto bene
. You’re going to make a great Don.”

I smiled, hoping so.

He continued, “Now, on a different note,
you’ll be going to stay with the Black Russian along with my
brother and his toy.”

My
smile dropped. “But I’m supposed to
stay here with you.”

“
The Black Russian wants to meet
you, and he always gets what he wants.”

“
He wants me?”

“
Sì
, he saw a picture of you and was
rather taken by your looks. He kept saying you look like an older
version of someone called Yuri.”

I frowned. “Where’s this leading?” I said,
not liking the direction of the conversation.

“
Look, I know you like hard
men—”

I cut him off,
“You’re not selling
me, too?!”

“
Of course not. If you’re to
take over when I’m gone, you need connections, and the Black
Russian has a wide network of them. You need to get on his good
side. Powerful friends are very important, and the Black Russian is
extremely powerful.”