Wrong (A Bad Boy Romance)(67)

He unlocks the car and opens the back door. “Get in,” he snaps.

“No.” Maybe I can buy some time, if nothing else. But he’s having none of it. He grabs me again and shoves me into the car. My head hits the door frame and for a second I see stars. I blink hard. Don’t black out, don’t black out. If I lose consciousness now, I’ll probably never wake up again.

“Don’t tell me no,” Sal growls at me from the front seat. “Don’t ever tell me no. I’ll put a bullet between your eyes so fast…” He stops. I look up and see him staring at me over the seat. “Sit up, bitch. Buckle your goddamn seatbelt.”

I manage to drag myself into a sitting position and pull the seatbelt around myself. Ironic that he seems to be so concerned for my safety, but he’s probably trying to make sure I don’t die before he gets to actively kill me. Although forcing him to wreck the car might not be a bad start to getting away, provided I survived it.

I toss that idea aside as too risky. He starts the car and pulls out. My head still hurts from hitting the door frame, but I hold still, just staring at what I can see of his face in the rearview mirror.

“What are you doing?” I ask him. “Nick’s going to find me. He’ll kill you for hurting me.”

Sal’s laugh is almost inhuman. “No, he won’t. He’ll sacrifice himself for you. He’s that kind of idiot. Shit, I think he might actually love you. You believe that?” His gaze meets mine briefly in the mirror. “Worthless cunt like you.”

I’m not so sure he’s right. All Nick really wants from me is the baby. His heir. And, sure, maybe he’d put himself on the line to save the baby, but that doesn’t mean he cares about me. “Why does it even matter to you?”

He gapes at me in the mirror, holding my gaze so long I’m afraid he’s going to wreck the car. “Are you kidding me?” he finally says, turning his attention back to the road. “Are you fucking kidding me? He stole from me. I own you. I own you and that fucking bakery and I own that brat inside you. And I’m going to take care of all of you, because that’s my goddamn right. And then,” he looks at me in the mirror again, nearly missing his turn, “then I’m going to kill your husband. Or maybe I’ll make you watch, and kill you after. I’ll hack his balls off and make him eat them. You’d like to watch that, right?”

I try not to shiver at his feral grin. We’re only a block or two from the bakery now, so I don’t have much time. If I’m going to figure out how to get away from him, I should do it before he stops. Once he gets me inside the bakery—I just have a feeling it’ll be all over.

“Or maybe I can do better than that,” he adds as he heads for a parking spot along the street. “You know, in the Middle Ages, they really knew how to kill a guy. Hung, drawn, and quartered—you ever hear of that?”

Of course I have, but I don’t answer him. The very thought of it—the thought of him killing Nick at all, in fact—has nausea crawling up my throat. As if I wasn’t already sick enough. I’m afraid if I even open my mouth, I’ll vomit all over the inside of Sal’s car, and he already has enough reasons to want to kill me.

He doesn’t seem to want an answer, though. “All kinds of ways you can kill a man. Lots of them I haven’t tried. Might be fun to give them a whirl.”

God. I have to get away from this man. I can’t believe I spent so much time with him—living with him, sleeping with him. How could I have been so stupid?

Suck it up. At least you got out.

Sort of. But that didn’t keep me out of danger. He parks the car and shuts off the ignition then pulls out his phone and dials. It’s a chance, I think, for me to make a move while he’s got his attention focused elsewhere. But when I unfasten my seatbelt, he reaches over the seat back with his other hand. He’s holding a gun, and he points it right at me.

“You hold still, little girl,” he mutters, then, “Angelino! So good to hear your voice.”

I freeze, my blood going cold. At the same time, I wonder why the hell Nick answered Sal’s call and not mine. It’s an irrational thought, of course, but I’m not exactly in a rational place right now. I can hear Nick’s voice over the phone, and even though I can tell he’s shouting, I can’t make out the words. Sal just smiles.

“Guess where I’m at right now, Angelino. I’m sitting in my car with a gun held to your wife’s head. Isn’t that nice?” A pause. This time I can hear a few of Nick’s words, including motherfucker and I’ll fucking kill you. “Well, if you want to do anything about it, you’re going to have to hurry. Otherwise I’m putting your woman and your spawn inside that fucking bakery and I’m burning it to the ground with her inside it. Is that what you want?” Nick is screaming now, and I’m starting to cry because I can hear the desperation in his voice even over the phone. How can he possibly get here in time? And what can I do to keep myself safe? I’m not sure there’s anything at all. “Well, get going, my friend, or there’s going to be nothing left here but smoke.”