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The first thing he noticed was that she’d shrunk. He’d no sooner realised she’d removed her heeled boots than realised she was holding a small, slim, cream contraption in her hand that was vaguely shaped like a gun.

A huge smile on her face, she aimed it at him. “What do you think of my little precious?”

Chapter Three

The contorting of Mattia’s face was a joy to witness. It only lasted a moment before his firm lips curled into a sneer, but Elvira saw it, and she celebrated it.

That would teach the asshole to kidnap and underestimate her.

“A word of advice,” she said. “Next time you pat down a woman for concealed weapons, don’t be shy.”

Incredibly, amusement danced in his eyes. Incredibly, because she hadn’t known Mattia Esposito was capable of genuine amusement.

“What the fuck is that? A toy from a cereal box?”

“This, my love, is a 3D-printed gun of my own design, made entirely of plastic.” And which came in three detachable parts that could be hidden seamlessly in her clothing. “Clever, isn’t it?”

“You call that a gun?” He aimed his own, much bigger, silver handgun at her.

“As a man, you must know that bigger doesn’t always mean better,” she taunted, raising her aim to his face. He returned the favour.

“How many bullets does that thing hold? One?”

“Three, all neatly stacked one behind the other. Trust me, they can cause a lot of damage.”

A thick black eyebrow rose sceptically.

“Want to see it in action and satisfy yourself I’m not bluffing? Don’t worry about the sound carrying and disturbing the neighbours…”

“There are no neighbours.”

The silence surrounding the pokey apartment had made her think as much. “Cool. Then it won’t be a problem when I do this.” On the wall slightly behind him to his left was a black-and-white poster of a long-dead movie star smoking. In less than two seconds, she’d shot at the poster and swung the gun back to Mattia’s face. So quickly did she do this that he only had time to flinch at her unexpected movement, barely reacting at all to the little pop of noise that had come from her firing it.

“Take a look,” she invited when he didn’t move.

A tic throbbed beneath his eye before he straightened his aim and turned his head to the poster.

When he looked back at her, his green eyes had widened slightly.

She grinned. “Not bad for a cereal box toy, eh?” One of the immortalised movie star’s eyes now had a round hole in it in lieu of an eyeball. “If one of these bullets goes into a brain, the owner is never waking up, and now that you know I’m not bluffing or screwing around, I believe you’ll agree the dynamic between us has changed and that you’re no longer in charge.”

There wasn’t a trace of amusement on his face now. “You shoot me, I shoot you. We both die.”

“You’re not going to shoot me, but if you do, I shoot you, and you’ll definitely die.” Her grin widened. “I believe we’re at what’s termed an impasse… Unless you want to die tonight at the hand of a cereal box toy?”

“I’m not dying until I’ve taken back what’s mine. Your brother can keep the shadowed world, but the Esposito Group belongs to the Espositos.” Smiling cruelly, he added. “I wish your family luck in laundering all the money the shadowed world brings. Not even Vincent or the crack team of accountants your brother stole with everything else will be able to stop the authorities turning a blind eye to all that cash.”

“Hey,” she said, faking hurt. “I helped steal it all from you, too. And Bruno played his part, and Renata, so don’t give Elio all the credit. If you try to kill him, we’ll all be very hurt if you don’t try and kill us too.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Noted.”

“Great. So how shall we play this? Shall we spend the next two days standing in this poky corridor with guns aimed at each other’s heads, or are you going to do the sensible thing and let me go?”

His eyes narrowed.

Elvira sighed. “Look, you can’t kill me. Sure, you can shoot me, but if you kill me, you lose your one bargaining chip. My brother will shoot your mother and the rest of your family in vengeance.” Although probably not Siena, she conceded, but kept to herself. A man like Mattia wouldn’t recognise love if it slapped him in the face, and though Elio refused to talk about his now estranged wife, Elvira was convinced the idiot had gone and fallen in love with her. Oh well, even if he did love her, Elio would never put her over his siblings.

“If I shoot you…” She raised her shoulders. “We knew you’d still have a few die-hards left on your side, but they’re those Japanese soldiers we were talking about earlier, and they’re all you’ve got, or you’d be demanding the shadowed world too. Will your Japanese soldiers kill me to avenge you?” She shrugged again. “Who knows? If they do, they’re certain to die themselves. I don’t think either of us is feeling particularly suicidal, even if you are acting like some kind of kamikaze war pilot, so let me go. You’ve got time to run and hide before my brother sets his dogs on you.”