When her father told her to find her own way out, she knew no one was going to help her but herself. There was no one she could trust. Armand had made sure of that. Katya was dead.
She made her own research to find ways to save herself. She learned a lot about women who ran away from their abusive partners, changed their identity, and started a new life. Even so, many were not successful, their partner finally found them and the cycle began again.
She joined an underground internet group in the dark web to find a kidnapper. Not just a kidnapper, but one she can actually trust to keep his end of the bargain, because she had to consider that Armand was going to find out sooner or later and he would try to compromise her plan.
It took her six months to find a lead. El Diablo (The Devil) was his nickname in the underground world. He was the talk among the high profile clients who can afford to pay for his services. The only problem was, he was a hitman, not a kidnapper.
He was known to decline jobs to kill women. It said something about his character. She was intrigued. She dug more about him, there wasn’t much she could find other than he had a 100% kill rate and a clean track record, he was never caught.
She thought if she could offer him 20 times his usual tariff, he might consider kidnapping the heiress of a well-known mob family, on her wedding day. She was gambling with it. He took the bait.
There was no picture of him available. His name was fished from a hacker who hacked into the Interpol database. After he had accepted the offer, she went on to plan her next step. She knew he was going to be watching her every move.
“What’s your plan now?” he asked.
She shook her head, “I was supposed to get out of the country on the day you took me, when the drop was postponed … I thought you’ve switched sides.”
“The job was intercepted … that’s what my contact said … when the news blows over about your kidnapping … a lot of people were competing to intercept the job … you’re a national treasure, they say.”
“It could be anyone … shit, I never considered that, some fucking bastard was going to throw me in a trafficking network,” she shivered at the thought.
“There are some very powerful people involved, otherwise my contact would never let anyone intercept the deal.”
“The minute he married me, both Lombardo and Montenero businesses were under his name, all the other families must not like the power he has right now, having to be controlled by a boy … he’s very young to be on top of the whole thing, the Messinas are next on the hierarchy, to kill everyone in our family will automatically make them the leader.”
It started to make sense to him. “Do you think that’s why Armand turned away and saved himself?”
She shook her head, “I don’t know … maybe … or maybe he wanted to save his whore rather than saving me … he’s got the title, he doesn’t need me anymore.”
Diego saw the rage in her eyes, she hadn’t recovered from catching her husband in bed with another woman. “That’s not entirely true, he’s still looking for you … with the looks of it, he won’t stop until he finds you.” He paused for a moment, something doesn’t add up, “Or maybe we’re ignoring the obvious … maybe he knew about the ambush, maybe he planned all of it?”
“I … I don’t know … he’s a horrible person, but he wouldn’t kill my parents … his own parents.”
He creased his brows, it was a theory he was willing to exercise. From what he observed, Armand was more than capable of planning the ambush. “Are you sure about that? He did kill your best friend … you said it yourself, he eliminated everyone you care about just to have you for himself.”
She didn’t reply. Armand’s love for her was the worst kind of love anyone could ever give. He wanted to own her body and soul. He wouldn’t let anyone come near her just so he could be the only one she depended on.
He showered her with the best things in the world, but at the same time he showed her how her life could turn into a nightmare in an instant whenever she didn’t obey him, whenever she did anything he didn’t approve of. It was his way of torturing her. And then he would make her believe that it was all her fault, she was the one who made him do the ugly things he did, because he loved her.
“Did he ever hit you?” Diego asked.
“No … I think he didn’t want to see me with bruises and cuts, that was the only reason why he never hit me … he would hit other people when he was angry at me … not me … and then he would make me watch and tell me how it was all my fault.”
She hugged herself and crossed her legs together. She remembered how Armand always forced her to have angry sex after he was done hitting some poor guy on the count of her. His hands were still bloody sometimes. It didn’t feel like sex at all, it felt like rape. She looked away to shake off the feeling.
“I will never be free of him, once he found out I planned my own kidnapping, he won’t let this go, not until I’m dead.”
Diego fell silent. If Armand was as good as he predicted, he would find out soon enough that Ari had had some help. That will lead to him. He was in on this mess the moment he accepted the job. He had thought about it over and over again. There was no other scenario this whole thing would’ve turned out. Now he was even deeper into it.
“You’ve been running all your life? What do you suggest we do now, Diego?”
Running on his own was much simpler than running with Armand Lombardo’s new bride. He looked at her. The beautiful Ariana Montenero. The woman that could be the end of his everything.
“Now we find a place to sleep,” he said simply.