Free Ruthless: Mob Boss Book One by Michelle St. James Page B

around, he placed it a couple of feet away and sat down. She lowered her eyes as the silence stretched between them. The knuckles of his right hand were scraped and bruised. She wondered if he was a boxer.
    “How are you feeling today?” he asked.
    “I’m fine.”
    He nodded. “I’m sorry about yesterday. That’s not the way I do business.”
    “I’m glad to hear that.” She couldn’t keep the note of sarcasm from her voice. He might not be a rapist, but he was still keeping her hostage. If not raping someone was the measuring stick for being a good guy, it was a pretty low bar.
    “We need to talk,” he said. “I’m trying to make you comfortable, but this can’t continue for much longer. I need information.”
    His voice was steely. Where was the Nico she’d met in his apartment? The one with the gentle voice? The tender but passionate touch?
    She pushed the thought from her mind. She couldn’t afford to think about him like that.
    “I don’t know what I could possibly tell you,” she said.
    “I need information about your father.”
    Was her father in danger? Would giving Nico the information he wanted put her father at risk? On the other hand, hearing what Nico wanted to know might give her some leverage, or at least help her understand what he he was hoping to gain.
    “It seems like you already know a lot about him,” she said.
    Nico studied her face, and she felt her cheeks grow hot with the intensity of his stare. “He hasn’t contacted us. We need to know where he might be hiding.”
    “Maybe he doesn’t know I’m missing,” she said.
    “He knows.” There was an ominous kind of certainty in his voice.
    “We aren’t very close.” She was surprised to hear her voice crack. Like admitting it out loud somehow made it more true. “We don’t talk very often.”
    “He knows,” Nico repeated coldly. “We’re aware of the house in Boston, the apartment on the West Side, and the house in Miami. We need to know where else he might be hiding.”
    “I… I don’t know,” she said.
    She jumped as he slammed a hand down on the desk at his side. “You’re only hurting yourself, Angel.”
    She was torn between relief at his use of the nickname (it had to mean something, didn’t it?) and fear at his frustration. She’d only seen him a couple of times before this, but he’d always been in perfect control. Even the first day when he’d been angry that she wasn’t eating.
    She covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know what you want from me!”
    “I want you to make it possible for me to let you go without hurting you.”
    She looked up at him and felt desire roll through her body. She was more fucked up than she realized if she could still want this man while he was threatening her. How could she ever have thought he wouldn’t hurt her? Stupid.
    “I already told you; we aren’t close. I see him a couple times a year when he’s upstate. We used to take vacations, but since I graduated, we don’t even do that.” It sounded pathetic, and she suddenly hated Nico for making her say it all out loud.
    “Where do you spend holidays?” he asked.
    “I spent last Christmas with my brother in my apartment.” Her voice had become as cold as his.
    “Where did your father spend the holiday?”
    “In Boston, as far as I know,” she said.
    He stood and paced the room. “Where did you used to go on vacation?” He continued without waiting for her to answer. “Who are his closest friends? Come on, Angel! Help yourself.”
    She threw up her hands, standing as her anger built. “We went to different resorts in Hawaii, the Bahamas. We went to Tahiti once. I don’t remember the names of the places we stayed. You’re asking for information I don’t have. My father was obsessed with his business. It was all he thought about. He didn’t have time for walks on the beach or long phone conversations.” She stepped closer to him as she continued ranting. “And you know what? He may not