Read Marked For Love (Mob Romance) for Free Online Page B

lie, just shy of her feet. He watched her as he reached for his drink to toss it back in a single swallow.
    Uncomfortable silence reigned in the room for a good minute or more until Grace could no longer bear it, the tension crawling over her skin. “What are you going to do with me?” Frightened of raising their ire, she spoke in little more than a whisper. “Why am I here?”
    The gray-eyed man turned to face her, setting his empty rocks glass down on the exquisite table to take in her bound form from head to foot. In that moment, Grace was reminded that she was still wearing the entirely inappropriate silver dress she’d sported to her father’s get together. The skirt was much too short – something that hadn’t been helped by her brief attempt to escape – and she felt as if her breasts were nearly hanging out of the damn thing. Blushing darkly, she looked away, utterly embarrassed. They’d probably mistaken her for a streetwalker and decided to kidnap her just for shits and giggles.
    It then occurred to her that men that could afford a room like this didn’t need to kidnap girls; they could more than afford to buy all they desired. But, if that was the case…why had she been taken? And more importantly, how the hell did they know her name?
    “Ms. Trellis, please listen to me because I am only going to explain things once.” Her captor’s smooth voice washed over her once again. Reluctantly, she looked back at him and was relieved to find that he had stopped perusing her, his face set into a neutral expression. “You are here because your father owes a very important man a lot of money. Thus far, he’s declined to pay what he owes, so we’ve been forced to bring you into the picture.”
    Grace’s eyes widened. Her father?
    She should have fucking known. All the shady characters and cash Ignacio dealt with day in and day out, the copious amounts of people he dealt with as months turned into years – the business that he had never fully explained, even to those closest to him…
    Christ.
    How much money was a lot of money? Though Grace didn’t have many dealings with her father these days, she knew enough to have seen that he always carried copious amounts of cash on his person. He paid for everything in cash. How on earth was he suddenly so broke that he couldn’t pay off his debtors?
    Or was he suddenly using cash to avoid them all? It made a bizarre kind of sense.
    “How much,” She took a deep breath, “how much money are we talking about here?”
    Sighing, her captor leaned back against the couch, straightening his sweater as he appeared to contemplate before answering her. “Somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred thousand US dollars.”
    Grace’s mouth dropped open in shock and horror. Half a million dollars!? How the hell did someone get into the hole for half a million dollars? Especially someone with the connections that her father had?
    …did they think she had five hundred thousand dollars? She might have one tenth that in her combined bank accounts now. If her dad was in enough trouble that it had spilled over into extorting members of his family…was her mother alright? And how did they expect to get the money out of her ? She didn’t have it!
    Which was where her inevitable and probably very violent death came in.
    “I don’t have five hundred thousand US dollars.” The words were out before she could stop them, her stomach twisting in anxiety as she tried to regulate her breathing. At her feet, the gray eyed man arched a brow and Grace’s heart dropped into her stomach. How could they possibly think that she had that much money? It was impossible!
    “I think you mistake our intentions, Grace.” Her captor poured himself another drink before standing to loom over her so his fresh, spicy scent drifted over her. “We don’t expect you to pay. We expect your father to. Especially when he learns what will happen to you if he doesn’t.”
    Grace stared at him, absolutely