Chapter 6

Caterina lays in bed, unable to sleep as her mind is plagued with thoughts she desperately wants to forget. All she wants is a good night's sleep, but Mother Nature is not having it. Her desire to talk to someone about her dilemma grew with each passing second, but alas, there was no one she could call.

She couldn't call Seb as she needed a different perspective on things and he was all she had.

The deafening sound of her phone ringing breaks through the pin-drop silence of midnight. Startled, she reaches for her phone and an unknown number flashes across her phone screen. She hesitates for a few seconds but answers the call against her better judgment.

There's dead silence for a few seconds as whoever is on the other end of the call doesn't say a word and neither does she.

"Caterina?" A familiar masculine voice calls.

"Sorry, who are you?" She couldn't quite place her hand on it, but she could tell she had heard the voice before.

"I wasn't sure you'd answer." The person says with a chuckle.

"Who is this?" Her curiosity peaks and she decides to indulge whoever this is as she can't fall asleep anyway.

"I'm hurt. You don't recognize my voice?"

"Okay, I'm hanging up now." She teases, hoping he'll bite and give her something useful.

"It's Stephano, Love. No need to get all agitated,"

"Stephano...how did you get my number?"

"The casino is not that big, you know?" Of course, the casino.

"What do you want?"

"Can't I call you for no reason at all?"

"It's late in the night,"

"But you were not asleep. I can tell from the sound of your voice that I didn't wake you up with my call. I couldn't sleep, so I called you."

"Me and you both. What's bothering you?"

"I keep thinking about you." Caterina gags at his antiques.

"Yeah, right."

"Why are you up?"

"I have a lot on my mind." If she was going to talk to a man she barely knew at this late in the night, she might as well pour out all that plagues her mind to him.

"You can talk to me,"

Soon, Caterina finds herself pouring out all her life secrets to a total stranger whom she had only seen a few times. She didn't know anything about him, save for his name, yet she told him all her whole life story leaving nothing out.

Giovanni becomes pissed after he gets off the call with Caterina. Who the fuck is Sebastian to control her life? Only he had a right to do that. The thought of never seeing her again didn't sit right with him, so he started scheming for the perfect way to take her.

He picks up his phone and calls Giuseppe who is well-skilled in the art of making someone disappear. A few minutes pass by before the double doors to the patio come open and Giuseppe walks in.

"Giovanni," Giuseppe greets him as he gets settled on the couch adjacent to him.

"Giuseppe, remember the little lady I told you about?"

"Yes, boss. Caterina Russo,"

"What have you found on her?"

"Nothing much. It's surprisingly hard to get anything useful about her. It's almost like someone covered everything on purpose."

"Send me everything you have found. In the meantime, I need you to abduct her."

"Any specific reason?"

"Sebastian Riccardo is scheming to make her disappear. I can't have that."

"How is she involved with that fucker?"

"I have no idea,"

"What do you want it to look like?"

"Like she freaking vanished off the face of the earth."

Caterina, after much consideration, finally decides to listen to Sebastian and go with his plan. She packs up a few of her things and calls him up.

"Hey, are you free?" She asks as soon as she answers the call.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"About the job thing, can you come get me before I change my mind?"

"Sure, I'll be there in a jiffy."

"Can you stay on the call?" Sebastian senses a bit of distress in her voice and becomes alarmed.

"What's wrong?"

"Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I feel like someone is watching my house."

"For how long have you been feeling like this?"

"For the past two hours. I saw these suspicious-looking men in black suits patrol the area and there's this black Mercedes parked two blocks from my house."

"I'm only ten minutes away, okay? Whatever you do, don't leave the house until I get there."

"Okay. Can you talk to me about something? Anything?"

"Umm... let's see... Stephano, what's he like?"

"Honestly, he's quite mysterious. You won't believe he called me last night."

"What? Why? Is he bothering you?"

"I don't know why, and no, he's not bothering me. Weirdly though, I find him comfortable to talk to."

"In what sense?"

"You won't believe I told him my life story last night."

"You didn't! Catty?!"

"I know! I know! But, what does it matter? I won't be seeing him again after all."

"Hopefully. Now come open the door. I'm right outside."

Caterina rushes out of the kitchen and to the front door. She felt happy he was here and she wasn't alone anymore, but little did she know the troubles that awaited her at the other side of the door.

As she swings the door open, she is taken aback by the sight in front of her. Sebastian is standing with his hands raised above his head and behind him are two men dressed in matching black suits and facemasks, each holding a gun pressed against the back of Sebastian's head.

Her blood freezes.