~ANTONIO~
My mind was racing that night as I headed home. I could not believe that Isabella walked out on me and pretended as if she was the only girl who looked beautiful enough to get attention from me. She had the audacity to talk to me as if I had no power to pin her against the wall and make her beg for me. I wanted to teach her a lesson so that she would never think of herself as special enough to refuse when I decided to spare a minute of my life looking in her direction. My phone rang inside my pocket, and I quickly slipped it out and answered the call without looking at the caller ID. "Yes?" "Mr. Rodriguez, this is Andrea Albero. I don't know what my daughter did, but I'd like to apologize on her behalf, and I assure you that tomorrow she will be back at work." "Uh yes, Andrea Albero..." I pulled up on the side of the road with a mischievous grin. At that very moment, I knew just what to do and how to get Isabella to be mine. Oh, how I'd love to see the look on her face when she realizes that I won and kept my word, I thought to myself. I knew that this was not going to be a flop, but Isabella was going to be forced to be mine and only mine. I wondered why it took me so long to think of this. “I hope she didn’t cause you too much trouble. If she did before she left, I would deal with her.” “Don’t you dare think of lifting a finger on her,” I frowned at his words. No one dared to lift a finger at my angel, not even her father himself. “Of course, I won’t,” his voice trembled. “Andrea, you owe me half a million dollars. Do you remember that?” “Yes, Sir, I remember. And we made a deal that as long as my daughter worked in your club, you would deduct 30 percent from her salary.” “Do you think that 3,000 bucks a month will ever be enough?” “3,000? You can double it then, or take her whole salary. She can work for you for free.” “To pay the 600,000 dollars that you owe, she will need to work at the club for 5 years without pay. Do you know that?” “Sh-she can do that,” he stuttered. “I have a better plan, Andrea. Do whatever it takes to bring her to the club. If you won’t, I will do it myself,” I said to him firmly. “Yes, Sir,” he hesitated. I hung up the call and drove back to the club. When I got there, I instructed my bodyguards to fake a fire alarm to get everyone out of the club. And when it was finally empty, Andrea called and informed me that he was at the backdoor with her. My bodyguards went to help him get Isabella inside and tied her up on a chair at the podium. She looked unconscious, and I figured that Andrea must have drugged her. “What did you do?” I asked him when he got to my side. He hesitated for a second. “She will awake in a moment, Sir.” “I hope you didn’t do anything to harm her,” I wanted to confirm that he didn’t take my words literally when I said that he should do whatever it takes to bring her to the club with him. “No, she’s fine.” He confirmed. I nodded and watched as Melo finished tying her up on the chair. This was the only way to make sure that she ended up being mine. If I failed to lure her in with flattery, perhaps this was going to work, and it had to. “What’s going on?” Andrea asked as I leaned against the bar counter, waiting for Isabella to flip those beautiful eyes open. She just looked so beautiful even though she was asleep. Her beautiful face always aroused something in me, and I just couldn’t stand aside and not make sure that she was mine. “You are auctioning your daughter,” I looked at him and smirked. “What?” He looked at me horrified, but there was nothing that he could do. “Relax, this will be equivalent to the number of years that she was supposed to work without pay in the club. I want her to be my wife for 5 years. The good thing for you is that you will be the one to get the money, and you won’t ever be indebted to me.” He looked at me confused. “I don’t understand, Sir.” “Wait for the princess to wake up first,” I took my glass of bourbon on the counter and sipped. “Please, we can -” I interjected him before he could finish his sentence. “Look at that, she’s awake,” I put down my glass on the counter and instructed one of my bodyguards to go and give Isabella a bottle of water for her to fully regain her consciousness. I turned to Andrea. “Name a price of your choice, and it will be yours, but she will be mine as repayment for the money that you owe me.” “Father, what’s going on?” Isabella asked with tears in the corners of her eyes. “She’s my daughter, Antonio, I can’t sell her off to you just like that,” Andrea protested. “50 million dollars for her or you pay me the 600,000 dollars that you owe in 24 hours. Your choice.” I smirked. I knew that he could never say no to that amount of money. And the moment he heard it, his eyes went wide in amazement, and he was tempted. And just like that, Andrea Albero and I made a deal, and Isabella was mine. One of my bodyguards, Melo, came over with a piece of paper and a pen. I sat down with Andrea and gave him the pen to sign on the paper that he was consenting the hand of his daughter to me for a sum of 50 million dollars, and he scribbled his signature on it without hesitation. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, father-in-law,” I held out my hand once again, and he took it. We shook hands while Isabella watched with wrath on her face. She looked like she could walk through the walls if let loose from the ties on her hands. “Melo, let my wife loose and take her to my car. We are going home,” I got off from my chair. After Isabella got untied, she walked towards us and stood before her father. “I can’t believe you did this to me, Father. You just sold me off to a man you know very well that he will break me at every chance that he gets,” she cried. And oh no, I was not going to break her. She was far too precious for me to even think of doing anything to hurt her. She was my prized possession, and I was going to take good care of her. I was only going to break anything and anyone who thought of hurting her or even those who bothered to lay a finger on her delicate skin. “You have lost me as your daughter.” She looked between her father and me and then walked away with Melo to my car outside the alley. “You will get every cent of your money before morning. And don’t worry, I will take good care of her and she will never miss home,” I chuckled as I walked to the backdoor and went inside my car. “Are you ready to go home, sweetheart?” I asked before shoving the key to the ignition. Melo was in the passenger seat next to me, and the other Melo was sitting next to Isabella at the back. Well, I called all my bodyguards ‘Melo’ because I didn’t have time to memorize their names, and secondly, I preferred to drive myself. “Fuck you, Antonio.” Isabella hissed. I rolled my eyes, looked forward, and started driving home. I knew for sure that she was going to come around. One way or another.~ISABELLA~ I hated Antonio. His face repulsed me, and I wished to evaporate from the face of the earth so that I wouldn’t have to breathe the same air as him. He was a murderer, and I could never look at him differently. He always had an evil smirk on his face and looked like one of those guys who could strangle you in your sleep. There was no way that I was going to stay in the same house with him. I had to do something before I ended up as one of his many victims. When we got to his house, the pervert asshole led me inside and took me to a room that he said was mine until I got comfortable enough to share his bedroom with him, how dreamy of him. I just couldn’t help but wonder why he even wanted me. I was not even as hot as the girls that I saw him with at the club sometimes. He went out with model-sized women who wore nothing but tight skirts and dresses with 10-inch heels. They all looked like they were starving themselves with their snatched waists. So, who
~ANTONIO~ Nothing could describe the rage I felt when I saw Bella walk past me and Paul with a towel around her. Paul was my colleague and had no right to see my woman in a towel. The thought that he could have possibly had filthy thoughts when he saw her made me feel like taking out my gun and bursting out his brain. And when her towel fell while we were talking, it felt like a bomb thrown on my face. I had to kick Paul out of the house even though we were not done talking. And when I saw Bella’s magnificent body, I folded. I melted again like I did last night when that damn towel fell. If I had no self-control, I would have buried my face on her breasts and sucked them. She made me think of the many ways I could satisfy her. I wondered how she even tastes and how she moans. I couldn’t stop thinking of her legs curling up around me while I thrust deeper and slower inside her. “Go get dressed, I am taking you shopping,” I slipped out my phone from my pocket and calle
~ISABELLA~ The next day, while Antonio was out to work, I sneaked out of my room and asked Melo to drive me to the mall for shopping. He hesitated and wanted to call ‘his boss’ to explain to him that I wanted to go out and if he was allowed to drive me. “I am his wife, Melo, and I want to go out.” “Yes, ma’am.” He swallowed as he slipped his phone into his pocket and led me to one of Antonio’s cars, and we got in. He looked at me sternly before starting the engine and driving off. The truth was, I wanted to go home and see my father. For two nights now, since I was sold to Antonio, I couldn’t sleep without having nightmares of that night. I had so many questions for the man who I thought loved me unconditionally. When we got to my home street before the road to the mall, I stopped Melo from driving. “I need to go and see someone before you take me to town.” “But ma’am, this is the street to your house,” he looked puzzled as if I was never allowed to see my father
~ANTONIO~ “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know that it was your territory! I will never do it again!” Giovanni begged for his life as he was chained to a pole inside my warehouse outside town. This was where I handled all my businesses and brought anyone who disrespected me to teach them a lesson. I have killed people and buried them all around the yard after they thought that they could stab me in the back and get away with it. This was all also where I killed the people who took my parents from me when I was just a boy. “How dare you sell restricted drugs in my area? Do you want the police behind my back, huh, Gio?!” I punched him so hard in the face that he spat out blood. He tried to regain his strength before answering me. “Dante sent me!” I chuckled and leaned back from him. “Dante Conti?” He looked at me with fear in his eyes. “Y-yes. He said that if I didn’t do it, he was going to kill my family. You know Antonio, it is just me, Luca, and my nana. I can’t lose that old
~ISABELLA~ No one said a word in the car to his house. I looked out of the window, feeling sorry for myself and just wishing that I had run away from home before all this happened. It was one thing to be forcefully married to someone and to be auctioned off to a notorious mafia lord like Antonio. He was my nightmare. Though I did not dare to show it. There was a reason why people feared him and never wanted to be close to him. There was a reason why he treated his girls like trash but was still able to get anyone he wanted. I did not want to find out all those reasons myself. I wanted out before I found myself entangled with him. "You won't go anywhere without my saying so, angel. Do you understand?" He hissed as he pinned me against the door after we got inside the house. I wanted to spit on his face and see what he was going to do about it because he did not own me like he thought he did. But no, I decided not to. It was too early for me to dig my own grave when I
~ISABELLA~ After pacing up and down, trying to calm myself down after I just signed my life away to Antonio, I took out my cell phone to call Sarah. I needed to vent, and she was the only person that I could talk to. Antonio had already left for the club or wherever, so he was not going to be around to stop me from doing what I just thought of. Sarah picked up the phone after the fourth ring. “Isabella? Can you hear me?!” She screamed from the noise that was in her background. She was already at the club and it was 8 PM. “Can you go outside? Please, Sarah.” There was a long pause before she came back on the line, and she sounded to be far from the noise. “Hey, where are you?” I went to the door, opened it, and peeked around to see if Melo wasn’t outside my door and it was clear. “I’m at Antonio’s place. Long story, but I’ll explain when I get to you.” “Oh fuck, what’s going on?” I quickly went to my closet and changed into jeans, a sweater, and sneakers. I was not
~ISABELLA~ When we arrived outside the alley behind the club, I got out of Sarah's car and got dressed in the short, black dress that I bought when Antonio took me shopping. I also put on the stilettos that I brought with me, loosened my hair, and allowed it to flow over my shoulders. I took the little make-up mirror that I brought with me and applied lipstick on my lips. I was so proud of myself as I took the face mask that Sarah and I got from a bouncer in the club. He was close to her. "Are you sure that he won't see you, Bella? This is very risky," Sarah raised her concerns as she got dressed into her club clothes. I turned to her after I was done fixing my face mask, "Relax, he won't even smell me anywhere," I smiled at her. "If he sees you, I wasn't involved, okay?" "Sarah!" I placed my hand on my waist and chuckled. "I still need this job, and I don't want to die yet," she locked the car doors, and we headed toward the back door. "He won't do anything to you a
~ANTONIO~ "Giovanni, how did it go?" I finally checked up on him after he revealed to me that Dante was after me. If he had no idea that I knew what he was up to and had hired someone to mess up around my territory, he was going to let his guard down and give me enough time to formulate a plan to strike. One thing about my line of business was that you always had to look after your back. Anyone could be your enemy with their own agendas or just be people working for your enemy who want to take you down. You always had to know the game and the rules. "He did not suspect anything. He gave me another task to be a spy around your area and find any weaknesses that he can use against you." "Oh, I see. It is very brave of him to think that he can take me down. Very well then, I want you to tell him about a fake delivery that I will be doing tomorrow at 2 PM in Columbus." "Cocaine delivery?" Giovanni asked. "Yes, Gio. A cocaine delivery. Call me if you think that he is enthusi