There was a long pause where Faith heard indiscernible shouting on the other side of the phone.

“Calm the fuck down. Look, what you do with her once you get her is up to you. But if you don’t take her, she’s dead. If you let her go, you know I’ll find her, and once again, she’s dead. Her life is in your hands, and once you see her, I know you’ll take her. I’m doing you a favor, giving you what you want, and saving her life. I’m a regular saint. I could have shot the slut… yeah, I’m at the house… Yeah, well don’t pretend your hands are clean. You may not be in the family business, but you know where the money came from. Don’t forget that… Honest business my ass… You couldn’t have started that business without your family. Now get down here.”

Awful images flashed through her mind, even worse than the scene of the murder she’d witnessed or the recent threat of death. He was going to prostitute her out. She just knew it. What then? Would she be passed around until she was used up and then left in a gutter? Faith wrapped her arms more tightly around her body. Despite his personal lack of interest, she’d never felt so exposed.

He closed the phone, his gaze raking over her, assessing her like a horse he might sell. “You’re a lot more trouble than you’re worth. My brother is an ungrateful ass.”

The bathroom door opened and another attractive man in a slick suit walked in. Faith rushed to cover herself.

“The fuck?” the man said, spotting her in the tub.

“Relax, baby. She’s for Leo.”

“Oh.”

He chuckled. “Did you think I’d switched teams?” He turned hard eyes back on Faith. “Get out. You’re as clean as you’re getting.”

He held out a robe and she stepped into it, trying to figure a way out of this mess.

If this guy Leo saved her, it wouldn’t make her safe.

2

Leo stared at the phone in his hand, not sure what to think. Myriad emotions rolled through him: disgust, guilt, excitement. The guilt was premature. The disgust was warranted. The excitement was the problem. As repulsed as he was by his brother’s twisted gift, his cock had twitched in his pants the moment the scenario had unfolded over the phone. He hadn’t seen her yet, and already he was fantasizing about his very own slave, existing only to please and obey his every sexual whim.

Angelo ran a crew out in Brooklyn now. He wasn’t bluffing. He’d kill her. The family didn’t like having to kill women and avoided it whenever they could, but Angelo’s dick didn’t swing in that direction, which made a woman just another man to him. He was the least likely to hesitate, the least likely to give a shit what kind of genitalia his victim had.

Bad luck for the girl.

Leo was the first person Angelo had come out to. His brother had worried the others wouldn’t follow him if they knew, but it had turned out to be a nonissue. He was so brutal, his orientation didn’t make the slightest difference in the level of respect he could command. And Uncle Sal hadn’t blinked when he’d promoted him. All he cared was that Angelo was a big earner and family.