Chapter Seven
Salvatore
I sat on the other side of the door and listened to Mara pound on it until she wore herself out. Getting away from her let me breathe for a moment and think clearly.
Something about the darkness in Mara brought out the darkness in me. She turned me into a man I didn’t want to be, but damn it felt good. I’d been thinking I was a moment away from being a dead man for the last few days, and Mara made me feel alive again. It was frightening shit.
“Are you ready to settle the fuck down and let me make the goddamned video,” I called through the door.
I heard her come up the stairs halfway. “Yes,” she said, and then went back down to the bottom.
Instead, Mara was sitting in the chair waiting for me to tie her up and gag her.
I quickly bound her hands and ankles to the chair. There was always the chance she’d been waiting to hurt me when I was vulnerable, and I wanted her tied up and secure as soon as possible. Next, I put the cloth I’d planned on using as a gag in her mouth and tied it behind her head.
“Good girl,” I cooed and patted her on the head.
She growled and fought the bonds, but Mara was good and stuck. I laughed a little, and she bit down on the gag while making guttural, animalistic noises.
“I’m going to need you to act like a scared, sad little girl and less like a bound animal,” I directed.
Immediately, Mara’s body language changed. She looked frightened, and the crazy bitch even managed to turn on some realistic-looking crocodile tears.
I wasn’t going to be in the frame, but I put on a mask anyway. It was a safety precaution in case I accidently turned the camera lens on myself and didn’t realize it or caught a reflection of myself in something.
After pointing the camera at Mara, I said, “Ten million dollars or the bitch dies.”
Then I turned it off and watched Mara’s eyes. She was confused and had every right to be. It was twice the money she’d told me to ask for. But, fuck it. If her daddy had five million, he had ten. I didn’t know who her father was yet, but I knew men like him.
Men who sold their daughters to mafia rivals for money and favors were like kings in the world I had inhabited. Mara’s father would continue to benefit from the marriage deal for decades. If found the right match, the ten million I’d demanded was crumbs.
When I looked over at Mara, I knew her father would find the right husband too. Well, as long as he’d be able to keep her quiet. Any potential husband would think twice after she opened her mouth, but I imagined that the kind of man who would buy a wife from a rival family had his ways of breaking her.
That was the problem, though. Mara was already broken. Part of me wished that I’d met her before her father’s world ruined her. But then again, there was something about Mara that made it feel good to wreck her. It wasn’t so much that she was asking for it because she was such a cold bitch, but it was that she wanted it.
The video was short, but it was enough. I didn’t want to reveal any more information than I had to give for the results I desired. I slid the small recorder into my pocket and crossed the basement to remove Mara’s gag.
“What the fuck was that?” she yelled. “Ten million dollars is not what we discussed. My father is just going to ignore that.”
“No, he isn’t,” I said. “You’re trying to tell me he doesn’t have it? That the business deal I’m compromising isn’t worth it to him?”
“He has it,” she said.
“Are you trying to say you’re not worth it?” This question stung. I could see it in her face.
“It’s not that I’m not worth it. I’m property to him.”
“And I think, that as property, you’re worth ten million. But you can have a while to think on it. I’m going upstairs to send the video.”
“Wait, don’t you dare leave me tied up like this,” she spat.
“Fuck you, bitch. You wanted the video sent as quickly as possible. I’m just giving you what you want.”
Upstairs in the little den off the living room, I could barely hear her yelling at me, but I could hear her enough that the sounds of her screaming obscenities made me hard.
My mind kept drifting to thoughts of breaking her fully. Mara was not shattered enough to make her behave. She had to make her perpetually behave like a petulant teenager. Mara needed training.
Those were thoughts I had to push aside. Not just because they made me feel deep shame, but because there was work to do. I was by no means an accomplished hacker, but I knew enough to get the video to Mara’s father without leaving a breadcrumb trail right to the cabin’s front door.
My first step was to review the short clip for any signs of location. Once I knew the visual aspects of my video ransom note were clean, I moved on to the audio.
I had a program that I could use to mask my voice. It was something I normally used any time I had to converse with a client on the phone. No one knew what my voice really sounded like except a few close associates who I’d known since childhood.
It sent a chill down my spine that Mara knew more about me than almost anyone else. Even the men looking for me didn’t know exactly what they were looking for. I was certain that eventually they could hunt me down like a dog, but it would take considerable money and effort.
Mara was the only one who saw both sides. Detective Lindsey Vale knew one side, and the family I worked for had glimpses of the other. Mara tied it all together. How was I supposed to let her go? The situation was my own fault. I’m the one who risked meeting with her and letting her into my world. I’d done it because I needed the money.
Even with the money in hand, letting her go would be a stupid decision. If her father figured out who I was, he and the other families could use Mara to track me down. I doubted that she’d be able to lead them to me, but what would they do to her in their attempts to get to me?
I paced the floor while the computer cleaned and encrypted the video file. My heart thundered in my chest, and I could feel my throat closing up. Sweat broke out along my hairline. I’d never had an anxiety attack before, but I’d seen them enough to know that was what was happening to me.
Mara was breaking me.
The entire situation had thrown me off my game. I’d made dumb decisions in desperation. Anger was the answer. Fear would dull me to the point where I’d get us both killed, but fury would sharpen me.
I’d let the bitch put me in this situation, but I could feel my heartbeat slow as I imagined my fingers wrapped around her delicate neck. My breathing returned to normal as I shut my eyes and pictured her breath being cut off by my hands.
When I was calmer, I looked at the laptop screen and saw that the file was ready to send. I logged into , and set the file up to bounce from proxy server to proxy server until its origin might as well have been a black hole.
Even if Mara’s father responded right away, it would take some time for the message to get back to me. There were several protocols that incoming messages had to go through to ensure that they didn’t lead the sender to me.
Since I was calm again, my stomach growled angrily. It had been a while since I’d had a decent meal and I’d exerted myself physically quite a bit. I decided to whip up something to eat, and I imagined that Mara was hungry as well.
I wouldn’t go through with it, but it brought a smile to my face to picture making Mara perform favors for me in order to get food. I wouldn’t force myself on her physically, but I could make her beg for my cock if I let her get hungry enough.
These thoughts brought me the first bit of true relaxation I’d had since the night I blew my career to smithereens. While I prepared jambalaya with the foods I had on hand, I tried not to dwell on the fact that Mara could be my salvation. That mouthy cunt was not what I needed.
That’s what I told myself.