My hands blindly moved around the mattress, hoping for anything to protect myself.
I got nothing.
I moved further back against the wall as the door was pushed open, and two men stood at the entryway, their faces concealed in the shadows.
I tried to get closer to the wall. It wasn’t possible.
They walked in, closer to the small dim light hanging above us.
I gasped when I recognized one of the men.
Ricardo Ricci took me in with an unemotional look in his eyes.
“We meet again, Catalina,” he said smoothly as if he were talking to a guest in his home, not someone he had just taken captive.
The man standing next to him was younger than him by at least a decade, though his dark hair had a little gray in it. He had familiar brown eyes I couldn’t place, a tall build, and a handsome face. He looked at me with those soft eyes.
I frowned.
What did Ricci want with me? The last time I saw him, he told Mikhail not to look for him anymore, but now that he’d taken me, Mikhail would definitely look for him.
“Come closer, Catalina. I was to see you under this light,” the man I didn’t know said.
I ignored him. I was not getting closer to him. If he wanted me to, he would have to force me physically.
I eyed his hard muscle. That wouldn’t be a problem for him.
He was older than Damien, but he was built like a tank.
And like Damien, he had a scar on his face, though his was closer to his temple.
“Catalina,” the man said, his voice hardening. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I need to see your face. So we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You decide.”
He wasn’t going to hurt me?
Was this guy for real? Did he expect me just to believe him?
He let out a small sigh and signaled to someone else at the door. Another man came in and moved toward me.
I tried to get away from him, but there was nowhere to go. He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me off the bed. My knees slammed against the ground when I lost my balance. I winced from the pain. I was going to bruise there later. I knew it.
But the man didn’t seem to care. He just pulled me up and brought me closer to Ricardo and the strange man, showing my face fully to him for the first time.
I heard his breath catch. “Dios mío,” he said, turning to Ricardo. “You’re right.”
Ricardo just nodded, turning his attention to me. Judging by the way Ricardo seemed to defer to the man, I would say this man was in charge.
And there would only be one man the Bianchis’ enforcer would defer to.
I was looking at the head of the Bianchi Famiglia.
I forgot his name. It made me feel at a disadvantage.
The man walked up to me, and I tried to back away, but the other man who brought me over to them was still standing directly behind me.
The head of the Bianchi Famiglia cupped my cheek. I closed my eyes and turned my face from him.
“Has anyone ever told you, you have your mother’s mouth?”