Allison's POV

I stared fast at the gun in my hand. My jaw slackened. My fingers trembled around the gun as I pulled the trigger again. But yet all I got was another sharp click. No loud bang of a gunshot—nothing.

I looked from the gun to him. I had just one glance at the silent smirk on his lips as he reclined onto the sofa, and I knew instinctively that I had been played. The gun doesn't work. He must have tampered with the trigger or magazine or something.

Damn! I grunted, grinding my teeth so hard my jaw ached. The bastard! How could I have let him fool me?

My eyes darted fast from him to the door, then alternated from one to the other. I calculated the distance from him to the door while he sat quietly, brushing his thumb over his lips. He said nothing, watching like a hawk for my next move.

He could catch me, and he could not. It all depends on how fast and crazy I ran and how fast a man in his forties like him can be.

There might possibly be no way to escape the island or his guards around the property. But that doesn't mean I would give up. I would rather die on my feet than on my back.

In one quick dash I jumped to my feet and rushed for the door. I grabbed the doorknob and was about to open the door when his thick hand grabbed my waist. He spun me around. Before I could get a grip on myself, I was back against the neatest wall.

He grabbed both of my hands and pinned them high over my head. I raised my knee up to kick him in the groin. He seemed to have expected that. That was the classical female defense strike anyway.

But what I didn't expect was how he countered it. He moved his leg with a speed and in an insane motion that could only have come from a judo expert, and he knocked mine down. Pain jarred through my thighs, shooting up to my head like hot needles. I groaned softly, shutting my eyes tight for a moment.

I opened my eyes just a second after, and his face was now just an inch from mine, his warm breath heavy on my nose. “I am not going to kill you, Allison. If that is even your name.” He said gently, trying to sound friendly, yet there was nothing friendly about his tone. He might not try to, but that authoritative crime boss tone stained each syllable that came from his lips.

“That is my name.” I gritted through clenched teeth. I struggled from under him, but the bastard was just too strong, and he was too damn close. My heart thrashed wildly against my chest, both from the sheer terror that split me from the inside and something more that I could not name—something that had to do with the closeness of his devilishly handsome face before me.

“Okay, then, Allison, stay still. Don't try to run. I won't kill you. If you run. I won't be able to protect you, because then, my men would find out that you are a spy, and then I would be forced to kill you.” He explained.

“Then let me go,” I yelled, struggling from beneath his grip again.

“I will, Allison.” He grinned. He brandished a smile. One that was supposed to be warm and placating. But he was still bad at smiling. Other than his lips, which stretched wide, the rest of his face still carried that proud, overconfident Mafia boss grin.

“Let me go,” I yelled again, struggling harder against him as he pinned me to the wall.

“I will, Allison. For a law enforcement officer, you do have a nasty temper.” He grinned.

Surprisingly, he leaned back from me and dropped my hands. My chest heaved as my heart kept up its tantrum within its small confines.

I rubbed blood back to my wrists as I leaned away from the wall. He had only held me with his hands, but he was extraordinarily strong for a man his age.

My eyes darted from his face to the door again. I was tempted to just run for it again.

He followed my eyes to the door, and our gazes collided as we both dragged our eyes back to the room. “Don't try it, Allison. Remember Rico,” he said, nudging his jaw to the door, yet hinting beyond it.

“What about Rico?” I queried. I tried to sound firm and in control, but my voice was made breathy by my wildling heart.

He sank into the sofa, his lips pressing into that half-baked smile again. “He is waiting to get his hands on you downstairs. Once he finds out you are an FBI undercover agent, he wouldn't hesitate to kill you himself.”

“I don't give a damn about that junkie. I would either die by his hands or yours, and that junkie seems way more predictable than you.”

“And more crazy.” Luca Tonelli chipped again. “Rico wouldn't kill you instantly. He'll capture you, then assault you first and continuously, and if you are somehow lucky enough to survive all that, then he'll kill you.”

“And you,” I demanded, my lips curled in a mocking sneer.

“I won't, Allison. I won't kill you. You are safe with me. You are far more important to me than you know, and I have bigger plans for you.”

There was a gleam in his eyes that scared me. My heart went on another rampage in my chest until my breath completely seized for a moment. “What bigger plans?” I asked. I tried to sound firm, but once again, my own body betrayed me.

He dug his hand into the pocket of his night robe and brought out a black blindfold. He thrust it in the air to me. “Take it, Allison, and wear it over your eyes.” He said, then again, he wore his half-baked smile.

I stared at the blindfold and then him. “What is this supposed to mean?”

“Just trust me, Alison. If I wanted to kill you, then I would have a long time ago.”

He thrust the blindfold higher to me. I don't know what made me do it, but I snatched it from his fingers. My fingers trembled so bad I threw them to my back so he wouldn't find out how scared I was.

He stood up then with a short, yet heavy sigh. “Let's go.” And he began walking to the door. I followed his retreating figure with my eyes as he disappeared from view. I dug my fingers into my hair. How could I have fucked up the mission this bad? How could I have let him play me into revealing myself? How…

“Miss Allison.” He called from the hallway. “You are keeping me waiting.” He sounded more like a man waiting on his wife than a Mafia don waiting on his prey.

I had no idea what his big plans were, but one thing was sure: he’ll eventually kill me. It was just a matter of when. The one and only penalty every Mafia gang had for a spy was—death. 

I grunted, pacing before the room. I had no idea what to do. Escaping was the best option after an agent's cover was blown. But in this case, it was impossible. I was in the middle of nowhere, far away from the rest of the world, from my team, and from help.

“Miss Allison,” his voice blared from the hallways again.

I eventually damned my luck, and I ran fast after him. Let's see how this ends. If he wouldn't kill me now because of his big plans, then that meant I still had a chance of escaping this, escaping death. I wouldn't die like my father did. I hurried down the hallway to him as he stood, with his hands in his large night robe pockets, waiting for me at the middle of the stairs.

Another half-baked smile stretched his lips again when I appeared. He continued down the stairs and led me to the living room.

Rico was still drinking by the mini bar. He turned around on the high stool before the bar, his eyes following us curiously as Luca led me out of the house and into the harsh, stinging golden rays of the sunlight.

After the house were acres of lush green field, and then the forest. Long, sturdy trees rose high for the sky, with a dense canopy of lush green leaves, forming a massive umbrella, protecting the life beneath it from the scorching heat of the sun.

We strolled into a corner of the house. For a man who had so much to hide, a criminal desperately wanted by the FBI, Luca Tonelli seemed free and at peace with everything—at himself, at the world, at nature. He spread his arms and thrust his nostrils in the air, loudly inhaling the perfumed scents of the flowers around.

We stopped before a helipad. I heard the whirring noises of the helicopter blades even before we reached it. He smiled again and gestured for me to enter into the helicopter. “Get in, Miss Allison. It's ladies first.”

I reluctantly did as he’d asked, and he got in after me. As soon as we were in, the helicopter pilot took the helicopter into the air, and as we rose in altitude, a massive load of air began to scream in, charging in from both sides.

“The blindfold, Miss Allison,” he said.

My fingers trembled on the piece of clothes as I raised it fast to my eyes. I looked at him for a moment and then into the bright sunny sky. Does his big plan include killing me in a helicopter and dumping my body into the sea, thousands of feet above sea level?

I couldn't tell why, but I had no choice. I wore the blindfold over my eyes, then it was all silence, except for the continuously whirring blades and the screaming wind as we progressed in altitude.

The silence lasted for as long as I couldn't remember, and then I felt his hands behind my head, his breath warm on my neck as he took the blindfold from my eyes.

For a moment, I had to shield my eyes with my hands. When I finally got accustomed to light again, I raised my head to him. He handed me my phone then. “Take it, Miss Allison. Now call your superior and assure him you are safe and okay and that the mission is going as planned.” He said.

Then he leaned closer, looking straight into my eyes, letting me glimpse every corner of his deep blue eyes. “Remember, Miss Allison, your life is in my hand, and I am the only one who can keep you alive. I wouldn't like to hurt you, so don't give me any reason to.”

He gave me another half-baked smile, and he forced the phone into my hands. "Call your supervisor, Special Agent James Parlor." He said.

Cold tremors seized my spine then, and I jolted on my seat. The phone almost slipped from my fingers. I grabbed tighter to it before it could drop. How the hell did he know who my handler was?