Free Marked For Love (Mob Romance) by Cristina Grenier

attention that would never come. Either way, Grace was most definitely screwed. The only possible option available to her to save her life was escape – and her kidnapper wasn’t about to let that happen.
    “You should sleep.”
    She jumped as his voice came, low and coaxing, from the seat across from her. The man hadn’t even opened his eyes but it was apparent that he wasn’t sleeping – more extraordinarily, he knew she wasn’t sleeping without even laying eyes on her. It took a moment for Grace’s heart rate to return to normal, but when it did, she answered him honestly.
    “I can’t sleep.”
    The low sound of the engine swirled around them, and had she been in a more relaxed mood it might have helped lull her into a state of unconsciousness, but Grace was on high alert. The man who had made it his one mission to avoid speaking to her had addressed her of his own accord. The young woman waited with bated breath for his reply.
    Slowly, her captor’s eyes slid open to fix her with his inscrutable stare. “You’re afraid.”
    That was the understatement of the century. “You needn’t be. When we arrive in Rome, we will record a message to send to your father. He will receive it and deliver the money within two weeks, at which point we will return you to him. It will be as if none of this ever happened.”
    Except it wouldn’t be that way. What would happen was her father’s refusal to pay such a sum – and everything that particular result implied.
    Exhaling a shaky breath, Grace closed her eyes. “I told you, he’s not going to pay.”
    The man across from her snorted. “If he values his daughter’s life, he will pay.”
    Grace was already shaking her head slowly. “He doesn’t value my life.” She shrugged, shifting so that the zip ties she’d been bound with eased their pressure on her wrists. “So far as I know, there’s no one’s life he values more than his own.”
    The man across from her stared as if she’d grown two heads before rising from his seat, his mouth a flat line of displeasure. “Ms. Trellis, I see you know very little of the human condition. I must assure you that however much you think your father hates you, he doesn’t. Men will always pay to free the ones they love.”
    Would they? Of course, Grace would know nothing of such things. She had a hard time finding a guy willing to pay for her meals at McDonalds', let alone a sum of money that comprised most of what people made during the entire length of their careers. “I didn’t say he hated me.” She corrected her kidnapper mildly, her scowl matching his. “I said he didn’t care.”
    “Of course he cares.” The words were snapped sharply, issuing from the man’s gorgeous mouth with the force of a gunshot. “What man doesn’t care for his own flesh and blood? Family are the ties that bind us…that define us .”
    Grace bit back a groan, shaking her head. Figured that the moment the beautiful Adonis truly opened his mouth he had to go all idealistic on her. “Your father may define you, but mine doesn’t define me.”
    A surprising, harsh bark of laughter emitted from the man. The sound was enough to make his twitching, fitfully sleeping companion shift his position, his frown deepening as he settled more comfortably into unconsciousness. “My father does not define me. He commands me.” Reaching out, the man poured himself a glass of cognac from the bottle the stewardess had left behind. “I am his right hand. His enforcer. But not his reflection.” He downed the small drought of liquor in a single gulp, and Grace watched the way his throat contracted almost hungrily.
    She came back to herself seconds later, realizing that this pseudo conversation may present her with an opportunity she’d never had before. She might actually learn something about the man willing to take her life for the sake of his profession.
    “What…” She started hesitantly, rushing on before she lost her courage. “What’s