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Didn't keep her from trying though.
I shoved down that sliver of pride that bubbled up. I liked that she didn't just take anything, that she thought about fighting back. There was something dark and masochistic about me that enjoyed the fact that she challenged me.
When she caught me watching her in the rearview, she lifted her chin in that way of hers. “I don't know what you want from me.”
“You have information I want. When you give it to me, I'll let you go.”
She wiggled her wrists. “You'll forgive me if I don't believe you, you know, with the kidnapping and all?”
She had a point there. I needed her to draw Massimo out. And then I was going to extract the information that I needed from him and take him off the board. She could go back to her life after that, putting herself in adrenaline inducing situations for fun.
“You don't need to believe me. You just need to sit and answer my questions.”
She struggled again. “What part don't you understand? I don't have any information for you. I don't know Massimo. Look, I appreciate the rescue, though I'm certain you will kill me just as easily as he would, but you wasted your time in kidnapping me. I don't have any information that you want.”
I kept my eyes on the road as I took the turn at high speed. The blackened forests just on the edge of the road, cast shadows, calling to me to lose my focus for just a moment.
“You know more than you think you know. I'll get what I need during interrogation.”
Her gasp was sharp and audible. “Interrogation? You mean torture, don’t you?”
She started kicking and thrashing. Trying to use her socked feet to push out the window. She would have no success that way. The windows and doors were reinforced.
“You're only going to hurt yourself. You'll be useless to me if you can't answer questions.”
“And if I can't answer your questions, you'll kill me, right? Which doesn't really mean a lot to me because you'll kill me anyway, won't you?”
I ground my teeth. I needed her. And she needed to cooperate.
Massimo Igno was a name known in the darkest, grimiest corners of the underworld, and Daphne? Well, she mattered to him. He’d come for her, and when he did, he’d make a mistake. The fact that Massimo wanted her so badly had to mean she knew something. Extracting her was the only logical choice. Getting that information out of her was all I cared about.
As I pulled onto the motorway, the scent of her perfume tickled my nostrils. It was soft and sweet, a stark contrast to the harsh reality of the situation.
“My plan isn’t to kill you. You’re not who I’m after.”
She went perfectly still for a moment. "I’m not who you’re after. Okay, I hear you, but I've told you, Drake," Daphne said, her voice steady but her eyes shimmering with fear, "I don't know who Massimo is. He's been stalking me, and I want nothing to do with him. He just keeps turning up."
It was the same tune she'd been singing since I swiped her from the castle, though I had to admire her gumption. She knew something. She just didn't know what she knew. Massimo was obsessed with her for a reason. It wasn't about her beauty or her body, though both were enticing enough to make you look twice, look hard, and fantasize even harder.
“Whether you’re conscious of it or not, you have something he wants. If I take you off the board, he’ll come looking. And when he does, he’ll make a mistake.”
I thought it was about where she worked. The more I dug into Baines Data, the more I realized that Massimo wanted something from there. I just had to figure out what she knew but didn't realize that she knew.
"Really, Drake, you have the wrong woman," she pleaded, desperation seeping into her voice.
I remained silent, a steely resolve hardening in my chest. That deep pull into her orbit, I needed to fucking ignore it. All I would do was scare her anyway.
Careful now, before you become just as obsessed as Massimo.
From the back seat, her voice was soft now. The adrenaline was probably waning and shock was setting in. "Where are you taking me?" she asked, breaking through my thoughts.
"Home," I answered curtly, catching her bewildered expression in the rearview mirror.
Daphne started to struggle again, her body straining against the ties. I sighed, pulling the car over to the side of the empty road. I needed to lay down the rules. I swiveled in my seat to face her, and her beautiful hazel eyes locked onto mine.
"Listen up, Daphne," I began, my voice stern, "I'm going to keep you for two weeks, just long enough for Massimo to fall into the trap I've set. If you're a good girl, I won't hurt you, and you’ll get to go home."
Her eyes widened, a flash of fear igniting in them. She swallowed hard, the question tumbling out of her lips before she could stop it. "And what if I'm a bad girl?"
