Read Online Mafia Captive by Kitty Thomas - Free Book Online

you’ve set up next to your operating theater. They’ll start bringing you regular shipments of the blood late next spring.”
    He didn’t expect all of this to come up, but if anyone started talking about his work, it was the type of thing they’d expect him to discuss with his fiancée, particularly since he wasn’t involved in the family’s business. It would be suspicious if she looked clueless. You couldn’t slide a lot past his family.
    “Very good. What about the household staff?” Leo asked, going back to the questionnaire.
    She was confused for a minute. “Oh. You sent some of them through school to be nurses and assist with surgeries and recovery, allowing them to take care of the house and help you with your business.”
    “How many recovery rooms are there on-site?”
    “Three.”
    Her voice came out so small when she talked to him that he couldn’t decide which he wanted to do more: tie her down and whip her, or comfort her. As noble as he wanted to believe his gesture of letting her live in another wing was, he couldn’t be sure how long his self-control would hold. When would he take what was his?
    “Tell me how we met.”
    “We met at a deli in the city. I had forgotten my wallet and you o-offered to pay.” She took a deep breath. “Then you asked me out. And I said y-yes.” She squeezed her eyes shut as if the lie were too painful to speak.
    Leo stroked her arm. “I haven’t hurt you, Faith. Trust me. All I want is to protect those I love. I won’t allow Angelo to go to prison. And if you hurt the women—especially my mother—by letting them know the true nature of our arrangement, I will hurt you. That’s the only reason you’d have to fear me. It’s so simple here.”
    As she gazed up at him from beneath thick lashes, he knew she wanted to believe that if she played her role right, she’d be safe.
    “L-Leo?”
    He forced himself to hold onto his temper. She wasn’t trying to annoy him with the stutter. “Yes, Faith?”
    “What happens next Christmas? Am I still going to be alive?”
    What kind of question was that? “Of course you’ll still be alive. If I wanted you dead, I would have left you with Angelo.”
    There was a long pause while she gathered her courage. “What happens then? Or the next year? Will you lock me in the dungeon? We can’t pretend to be engaged forever.”
    So that was where it was going. “I know,” he said. “We’ll have to get married. I was thinking next June. Everyone loves June weddings, and my mother will be in wedding-heaven. Shut your mouth when you chew your food, please,” he said in response to her gaping fish impression.
    “I can’t do this,” she whispered.
    ***
    Faith raced down the hall to the entryway and flew up the stairs to her room. Once the door was locked, she pressed her back against the wood and slid to the carpet. Her sobs came out among strangled gasps for air.
    What he demanded of her was too cruel. Pretend she loved him. Pretend they were a couple. Have a sham marriage. All the while she’d be a princess locked in a tower with no true love or life to call her own. She wanted to survive and stay safe, but what kind of life was this? What kind of safety?
    The stupidest part of all of this was that she wouldn’t have told anyone. She would have been too scared. And calling the cops wouldn’t resurrect the guy Angelo had killed. But no matter what she said, there was no way they’d believe her and set her free. Especially now that she’d become their victim. They wouldn’t believe she’d let that go, too.
    She’d let anything go if it meant safety.
    “Faith, unlock this door, right now!” Leo’s voice boomed from the other side of the door, sending vibrations along her back as if his hands were on her.
    She couldn’t breathe. If she opened the door, he might hurt her. If she didn’t open the door, he might break it down and hurt her. Her mind flashed to the night he’d spanked her for such a small