The Don's Runaway Substitute novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Where Did You Bury Me
Mara's POV
The cider-house cellar smelled of wet stone and old apples.
They had tied my wrists in front of me with plastic cord and put me in a chair bolted to the floor.
One of Dario's men took my phone out of my coat and dropped it face down on a barrel by the wall.
Neither of them looked at it again.
In the car I had pressed the green button through my pocket with the inside of my wrist.
Vincenzo's name had been at the top of my favorites for three years.
I did not know if the call had gone through.
I did not dare look.
The two men went up the stairs, and a minute later Dario came down them with a white box in his hands.
He had the same grey cardigan on, the same round kind face.
"Kiddo," he said. "You must be starving."
He set the box on the second barrel and opened it.
Cannoli, dusted with sugar, the way he had brought them to Sunday dinner for three years.
He ate one himself, slowly, and licked the cream off his thumb.
"Where is the photograph?"
"Vincenzo has it."
"He doesn't. I had a man search his car." He wiped his hand on a napkin. "You took it from the drawer. A girl like you puts a thing like that somewhere she can touch it."
He stepped close and took my jaw in his fingers, not gently.
His gold ring was turned inward against my cheek.
"Three years I watched you eat my cake," he said. "I said to myself, what a sweet little face. What a waste."
"Let go of me."
"I cut you the first slice every week. Did you ever once think about why?"
"Because you're kind," I said.
He laughed, and it was the first time I had heard what his laugh really was.
"Because I wanted to see if you'd choke."
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Don's Runaway Substitute from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend