The Don's Bride 4

Armando was furious at Natalia’s blatant lack of respect towards his father, and it showed in his expression as he forcefully dragged her into the bedroom by her arm.

Natalia continued to growl her protests against Armando as he then carelessly shoved her further into the room, now standing in the open doorway and blocking it off.

“What the hell is your problem, you asshole!” Natalia snapped at him.

He pointed at her with a seething expression.

“I warned you about not showing respect to my father, and then you go and pull that shit!” Armando growled.

“Your father doesn’t get to dictate my life!” Natalia shouted back at him defiantly.

“I’ll never agree to marry you. And there’s no way in hell I’m moving in with you! I’d rather die!”

“Careful, that can always be arranged.” he warned with a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You won’t kill me, Armando. You need me. I’m not an idiot.”

“No… you’re right. I won’t kill you, kitten…” he admitted, looking her dead in the eye.

“But I can certainly make your life a living hell if you push me too far.”

She swallowed nervously in response yet still held her ground.

“Like it or not, my father has given us his blessing…” Armando proclaimed.

He straightened his suit jacket, doing up his button as he spoke in a much calmer tone of voice.

“Now… I’m going back downstairs to celebrate our impending wedding. And when I get back, we can head to your new home. Try to behave until then, hm?” he mused.

“Fuck you!” she growled back at him.

“I’m not going anywhere; do you hear me! You’ll have to drag me out of here, Armando!”

Armando’s smirk morphed into a grin.

“I look forward to it.” he admitted.

He turned around and headed out of the bedroom, closing the door behind himself and locking her inside once more.

Making his way back down to the parlour where the others were still gathered, Armando headed straight for the bar to fix himself a glass of scotch.

“Ah, there he is.” Elio proclaimed with a smile.

“I trust everything is under control with the Mrs?”

“Of course.” Armando replied, pouring the scotch into a clean glass.

“She just needed a little reminder of how to show respect.”

Diego didn’t like the sound of that.

He glanced out through the open doorway with understandable concern for Natalia.

But what could he do?

Knowing that Armando intended on taking her back to his place later on that evening, Diego decided to try and convince his father to instead keep her there at his mansion.

He had to at least try, for her sake.

“Excellent.” Elio beamed.

“Come, Armando. Sit and have a drink with us. The night is still young.”

Armando grabbed the bottle of scotch and his glass, then made his way over towards the nearby armchair, sitting himself down and placing them onto the coffee table in front of him.

He downed the rest of his glass with ease before proceeding to pour himself another.

After twenty long minutes of gathering his courage for what he was about to do, Diego made his way over, sitting down beside where the Don sat and leaned in to plead his case.

Hopefully his father might see reason in his suggestion and agree.

“Father, about Mrs. Moretti…” Diego began.

The moment that he mentioned Natalia, Armando’s eyes flicked up to lock onto his younger brother with a hardened expression.

“I was just wondering, is it really necessary to have her moved so soon?” Diego enquired with a frown.

“What do you mean?” Elio queried.

“Well, isn’t it much safer for her here than anywhere else?” Diego pointed out.

“And what if Vincenzo tries something-”

“-If I didn’t know any better, little brother, I’d think you were protesting father’s wishes.” Armando spoke to Diego with a frown.

Elio too frowned.

“That’s not it at all, father you know I would never-” Diego tried to explain.

“-Then I suggest you keep your nose out of it.” Armando sneered from where he sat.

Diego looked submissively away in defeat, nodding his head in understanding.

“Armando’s right, Diego. He knows what he’s doing.” Elio proclaimed, patting Diego on the shoulder.

“I’m sure he’ll do everything within his power to ensure her protection while she’s in his care.”

Armando smirked as he drank the rest of his glass down, placing the glass onto the coffee table in front of himself.

“Well, I’m off...” he declared, standing from his seat and buttoning his suit jacket.

“Father, enjoy the rest of your night.”

He then started waking towards the open doorway headed on upstairs to go and fetch his bride-to-be.

“Armando, be sure to take good care of the girl.” Elio called out after him, causing Armando to pause mid-stride.

“Remember, she is vital to our plans to take out Vincenzo…” Elio pointed out.

“No harm can come to her, am I understood?”

Armando grinned, “Don’t worry father, I’ll be sure to take very good care of her.”

He locked eyes on Diego in particular before then marching on out of the parlour, headed upstairs.

Diego was forced to sit by and watch his older brother leave, knowing just how much trouble Natalia would now be in, under Armando’s care.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Natalia stared down at her wedding ring as the diamonds sparkled with each of her movements.

She wriggled her fingers again and again, causing them to sparkle.

How she missed Vincenzo.

She needed to know that Diego had been telling the truth, and that Vincenzo was indeed alive and well.

A part of her ached not knowing; it was driving her insane being left in the dark like this.

If he was indeed alive and well, she knew that he would search Heaven and Hell to find her, so there was at least hope that she might find a way out of her current situation.

But in the meantime, she needed to continue to defend herself from the lurking dangers surrounding her.

And she would.

She would fight with her very last breath to protect herself.

The sound of the bedroom door unlocking alerted her to turn and glance in that direction.

She watched as the door opened and in walked Armando, followed closely by two tall henchmen dressed in suits.

Natalia immediately felt herself beginning to panic at the sight of them.

Why did he have henchmen?

What was going on?

Standing from the edge of the bed, she watched them with caution.

“Time to go home, kitten.” Armando mused with a grin.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” she protested sternly while standing her ground.

He smiled, then gave a simple nod to his men.

Both Michele and Pietro then proceeded to advance upon her, making their way across the length of the bedroom towards where she stood by the bed.

“Stay the fuck away from me!” Natalia warned them as she took a fighter’s stance.

“I mean it!”

Realising that they weren’t backing down, she reached out and grabbed the nearby glass vase, hurtling it directly at the Michele, the shorter of the two.

The vase ‘crashed’ hard against the wall beside him as he managed to dodge it.

As the two men faced off against her, Armando stood by in the open doorway watching the fight as it began.

Rushing in, Michele went to grab her, but Natalia deflected his outstretched arms with hard punches and a jab to the stomach that made him grunt and step back in surprise.

She kept her eye on Pietro who was slowly moving around behind her.

It was two against one, but she wasn’t afraid.

She’d faced worse odds than that before.

Moving in from behind her, Pietro tried to grab a hold of her, but she sent her leg back, kicking him in the stomach, before Michele then launched himself at her from the front.

Natalia skilfully defended herself in a series of swift movements, twists and punches, managing to land one hard punch to the side of his face as Michele grunted again.

Having recovered from his kick to the stomach, Pietro came in as Natalia was defending herself from Michele.

He grabbed a hold of her left arm, preventing her from using it to continue fighting off Michele, then twisting her arm around to an uncomfortable position.

“Ah!” she cried out in pain, then twisting herself in underneath him and kicking his legs out from underneath him.

The larger henchman went tumbling down towards the floor, landing with a hard ‘thud’ as Natalia then refocused her efforts on Michele.

“Try not to hurt her, guys.” Armando reminded from where he stood by, casually watching.

Pietro pulled himself back up to stand as Michele launched a barrage of assaults in her direction, punches, kicks and unexpected movements that she somehow managed to fend with ease.

Armando had to hand it to her; she certainly knew how to fight.

He was going to have a lot of fun taming her.

Grabbing a blanket off the bed, Pietro threw it over Natalia’s head, blocking off her line of sight and rendering her helpless as he then moved in and bearhugged her from behind.

“No! Let go of me!” she grunted, struggling in his arms.

“Get off of me!”

Michele in the meantime grabbed a set of metal cuffs and proceeded to force her wrists into each cuff, one by one, linking them together in front of her as she continued struggling desperately.

“Let go of me! Let go!” she continued to protest.

Now with her hands cuffed in front of her, Michele pulled the blanket off her head as she kicked her legs out at him, aiming to hit him with her sharpened heels.

“Get the fuck off me!” Natalia growled.

“Gag her too, would you?” Armando called out to his men.

“It’s a long drive. I don’t want to hear her screaming the whole time.”

Using a long black sash made of silk, Michele gagged her with it, tying it into a tight knot in behind her head as she grunted angrily.

Her warm brown eyes were now filled with tears of terror as she came to realise that she couldn’t defend herself anymore.

That she’d been beaten.

Releasing his hold on her mid-section, Pietro forcibly spun her around to face him before then leaning in and flipping her up over his shoulder, as she screamed into her gag, kicking her legs wildly into the air.

“Mmmph!” she cried out in a panic, unwilling to be taken like this.

“Finally.” Armando spoke with a roll of his eyes.

“Let’s move.”

With that he turned on his heel and started leading the two henchmen out of the bedroom, headed down the hallway and on their way downstairs.

Making their way down the outside stairs leading towards the waiting car parked nearby, Natalia continued to fight angrily by hitting her balled-up fists in against Pietro’s back as her legs kicked defiantly.

“Mmmph!” she grunted beneath the gag, screaming out for anyone to come to her aid.

Reaching the pristine black Mercedes Benz S-Class, Michele opened the car door while Pietro then forced her inside, still kicking and screaming defiantly against him.

He worked to attach a second cuff to hers, clasping it onto the grab handle above her head and anchoring her in place.

She pulled at her wrists as Pietro then closed the car door behind her.

Michele then rounded the back of the car to open the door for Armando who slid himself into the backseat.

Closing the door behind their future Don, Pietro hopped into the driver’s seat while Michele got into the front passenger seat.

As Natalia continued to pull at her wrists, trying to break the grab handle, Armando spoke to her while he used the large screen in front of him to select some music for them to listen to during their trip.

“Settle down, kitten… or I’ll have to have you sedated.” he warned her with a sinister smile.

As the pop music started to play, Armando then sat himself back and unbuttoned his suit jacket to relax into the seat for their two hour-long drive to his mansion.

And then the car started to pull away, beginning their journey.