The limo drove them to a small airfield in Goldstone where Armand’s private jet was waiting for them to fly them out to Lancaster.
Pasquale received the information from Diego’s contact regarding her whereabout a few days prior. The contact was compromised, Diego was tricked into leaving her at the Inn so they could swoop her up without confrontation.
When they climbed the stairs to the plane, Pasquale’s phone rang.
“Arturo?”
Ari turned to look, Arturo must have some news about Diego.
“It’s done,” Arturo said.
Pasquale looked at Ari in the eyes, “Good … finish the job.”
Her eyes filled with horror, she gasped, “What did you do?” she grabbed his collar.
Pasquale held her hands, “It’s done, Ari, it’s over … okay?”
“What do you mean it’s over? What did you do to him? Leave him alone!”
He signaled to one of the men to carry her into the aircraft, she was hysterical and he didn’t want people to see it. The big man grabbed her from behind, bear hugged her while she was kicking and screaming.
“Let me go! You fucking bastards!”
Once she was inside, the flight attendant closed the door.
“Calm down, Ari, I took care of your mess, okay?” Pasquale was getting irritated by her tantrum.
“You think Armand is going to let him get away with this that easily? Would you rather he torture him and tear him apart limb by limb? You know he would do that, right? I did your friend a favor.”
She was crying, “What did you do to him?”
“Arturo took care of him, okay … it’s over.”
“No … no … please … just let him go.”
“It’s too late, it’s done.”
Pasquale took a seat and poured himself a drink. “It’s going to be a 5 hour flight … I suggest you cry it out as quickly as possible and get yourself together … you don’t want Armand to know you have these emotions towards your captor … he’s not gonna like it.”
She burst into an ugly cry, she hugged her knees and buried her face and weep. Diego was her only hope of ever having a new life, he was someone in the world that actually knew what’s going on with her and cared. She couldn’t stop crying, for Diego, for herself, for what could have been. She had caused him his life. It was her curse. Everyone she cared about died because of her. Everyone.
“What did you think was going to happen, huh, little girl?” Pasquale shook his head, his face was stern with concern, “You have no idea what this world is like for a girl like you … you think a common criminal can save you from your fate? At best he’s only going to rip you off of your inheritance and leave you to die.”
She didn’t answer, she was still sobbing by the window.
“Who is this man anyway? I tried to find out about him but couldn’t find anything … Where did you find this guy? You know you almost got traded in the human trafficking network if I hadn’t intercepted the deal … The underworld is no playground for you, these are bad business people, I know it’s absurd but you are much safer to stay with Armand than to go stray in that world.”
She shook her head and reached for a drink. She was finally looking for something to calm her nerves. She needed to drown her sorrows of losing Diego and face the nightmare of going back to Armand. Her hands were trembling.
Pasquale poured her a glass full of whiskey and handed it over to her, “Here … you need this, you can’t let Armand see you crying over your kidnapper, he just got out of the hospital … he had an overdose a few days ago, he’s been acting up like a little brat who lost his favorite toy … you need to get his shit together and rule the companies the way he ought to.”
He sighed and shook his head, “Other family leaders are having secret emergency meetings because of these extreme changes, I think they are forming an alliance against Armand … they won’t be easily convinced that the Lombardo boy can take over your family business.”
Ari paused for a moment when she heard about Armand’s overdose, but she didn’t ask any further, she sipped her drink. “Who killed my parents?” she hadn’t received an answer for that yet.
“They’re still investigating it … my best guess is the Messinas, they’re still the prime suspect.”
“Bullshit! You know who it is … all the other families probably know by now, don’t play dumb with me, it’s him isn’t it? Armand? And you expect me to go back to the man who killed my parents?”
“It’s not Armand … I promise, we don’t know who it is yet,” he had to lie because he needed Ari to come back.
“Then why is he not looking for them? Why is he wasting his time looking for me instead?”
Pasquale chuckled, “Don’t you see, Ari? He can’t live without you … you have to come back and make things right, so things can go back to normal … he is not functioning without you and he will spend a great amount of his time and money to keep looking for you, and the other families will take that opportunity to destroy your father’s legacy … this family needs you.”
She rested her head on the headrest, her mind wandered. She finished her glass and poured some more whiskey, the flight was almost over, in less than two hours she will be in his presence again.
It’s ironic, she spent ten days in captivity, yet she never felt freer. She had lost her captor, she was going back to her husband, but he was the real captor. She needed Diego, he will never save her now. She shed one more tear for him before she sucked it all up and braced herself to go home to Armand.