Tears rose to my eyes as I turned. Sydney.
“Why are you naked?” she asked.
I looked down and my eyes widened in horror. No wonder I was so fucking cold. I was wearing nothing but my bra and panties. I pulled Sydney into my body and cradled her close. I reached up to my throbbing head and realized with horror that the beaded lock of hair was gone, pulled from my head by the roots.
“And you thought you were so clever.”
“Make him go away,” Sydney said, with a whisper.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’m right here,” I said.
“Did you really think you would get away with it?” the man asked.
I looked up into the eyes of the man looming over us. My vision slowly began to focus, and a familiar face came into view.
“You’ll never get away with this,” I said. “I won’t let you.”
“And what are you going to do?” he asked. “Run naked through the streets with the kid?”
I pulled Sydney close to my body as I tried to give a fierce look to our captor that didn’t show him just how terrified I was. I turned my gaze to Sydney, looking for any signs that she’d been mistreated.
Thankfully, she appeared to be unhurt.
“Don’t worry, I’m not in the business of hurting kids. But you, on the other hand. You, I wouldn’t bat an eyelash about,” he snarled.
Sydney was whimpering and crying. Shaking against me and trying to wrap herself around me. I pulled her into my lap and curled my legs up. I cradled Sydney’s face in the crook of my neck and shushed her, telling her it was going to be okay and that I was going to find us a way out of there.
But the man looming over us simply grinned.
“Are you done playing with your toys?”
I whipped my head up as a pair of footsteps moved toward us. I scooted us closer to the wall. I gripped Sydney as hard as I could and tried to shield her from all of them.
The other man came into view and I recognized him immediately. Gianni Russo. The asshole behind all this. He grinned down at me and I felt a wave of murderous rage fly up my spine. I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and wring him dry until he begged for mercy. He was the most disgusting creature I’d ever seen.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Simple. We want more money,” Gianni said.
“And how much is the billionaire’s girlfriend worth?” I asked.
“Four hundred million more than we were asking for,” he said.
“You want five hundred million dollars?”
“Oh, yes. And if I can get my hands on that little boy, I’ll want a hell of a lot more.”
“You’ll never touch Daniel,” I said. “I’ll kill you before that happens.”
“Did you hear that?” he asked with a chuckle. “This woman thinks she can kill me.”
“I will, don’t you worry.”
“How about this? We make a phone call and you tell your precious billionaire boyfriend that if we get our five hundred million dollars, we’ll go away and never bother anyone again.”
“After you threatened his son? Not a chance,” I said.
“That’s fine. If you don’t make the call, I’m sure Sydney would love a room of her own.”