Page 61 of Conning the Billionaire
Her cheeks turned hot at the thought of how little she would be able to contribute because she was barely surviving. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
Salvatore Grande looked Kylie directly in the eyes, and then his gaze traveled down to her cheap high-heeled shoes and back up to her face. “What else could you offer them, or me, to pay off this debt?”
The burning on her face turned to ice, and her stomach clenched. “I don’t know, sir.”
“Think harder.”
“I—I’d have to think about that, Mr. Grande.”
“I’d want you for a year, Chiarina, in my bed and serving me on your knees. It’s a fitting position for Joseph Merlino’s daughter, to suck my dick and grovel at my feet. You’ll also be a mule and import certain commodities for me. I’ll enjoy watching the videos of you having condoms of heroin crammed up your ass.”
Kylie stared at the black toes of her shoes, shiny on the thick black carpeting underfoot.
Black carpeting wouldn’t show stains.
He continued, “If you don’t like that position, the other four gentlemen involved said that they would take you for a week, but I can’t guarantee what state you’d be in at the end of it. They said they would clear their schedules. They also said you’d be a great incentive for some of their enforcers.”
A thousand pinpricks stung Kylie’s skin, and a bead of cold sweat welled from every one.
“And don’t think of running, Chiarina. You might not know where Rachele is, but I do. You wouldn’t want her to pay your debt. She’s only fourteen.”
Sickness surged in Kylie’s throat. “Where are they? Is she still with my mother?”
“You’ll start with me on Wednesday. That will give you two days to get rid of your apartment and any pets you might have. Be here at my office at four o’clock. You’ll go home with me.”
Kylie whispered, “But what about your wife?”
Salvatore Grande shrugged, and one side of his nose rose in disgust. “What about her?”
“But if I got the money from somewhere else, couldn’t I just pay back the eighty thousand dollars?”
He shrugged. “You mean after my cut and with interest? Maybe. But we’d have to negotiate the final payment amount. I think I’d rather have you for a year, more as a warning to my other associates about what will happen to their families if they break the oath of omertà.”
“I’ll get the money. I promise.”
As Kylie walked out of Salvatore Grande’s inner office, she checked the walls and ceilings of his lair but didn’t see any other closed-circuit TV cameras inside.
After the thick steel door squeaked and clamped shut behind her and she’d made it down the hallway, Kylie stood in the stairwell and shook, her breath coming in panicked gasps as she clutched the handrail with both hands, lest her whole body fall apart.
Several minutes later, her knees steadied enough that she could walk down the three flights of stairs to the car where Micah Shine was waiting for her.
She climbed into the car and told Micah, “Closed-circuit surveillance TV cameras outside the office door in the hallway and in the waiting room. Solid steel front door. Electronic security system where you have to be buzzed through that main door. Bullet and blast-proof glass in the windows in his inner office. The walls looked different inside, like the drywall had been replaced or modified. Communication on a computer between the receptionist’s desk and Grande’s office. When his office door closed behind me, it thunked like it was also steel and had a security locking system, like it’s a panic room. I didn’t see any surveillance cameras or other equipment inside his inner office.”
Micah nodded as he pulled the car away from the curb and into traffic. “Excellent. Did you see di Credi’s Annunciation?”
Kylie nodded and swallowed the sick in the back of her throat. “It’s right behind his desk in his inner office. Look, I need to know when you’ll give me that first installment of a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“What, you don’t trust me?”
Kylie turned and was about ready to launch into a tirade about confidence and confidence men when she saw the humor glinting in his opalescent eyes.
Instead, she said, “Oh, I see how it is. But I want to know a date.”
“The first installment should have been delivered while we were out. It’s probably waiting for us at the hotel desk.”
Kylie held onto the armrest of the car door and stared at the grimy streets of Philadelphia rushing by as they drove. “It’d better be.”
19
