Chapter 32 Eli
Chapter thirty-two
Eli
Iuse all my strength to force the warehouse doors open, the sunlight casting a glow directly over the two bodies hanging from the ceiling by their wrists.
Alastor and Adolfo.
Blood drips down their swollen faces and over the duct tape covering their lips. Their bodies sag, and their eyes appear heavy and hooded. They are two men who are moments away from meeting their demise.
“We were just warming them up for you.” Caine grins proudly, admiring his work.
He points a bloody finger at Alastor. “I’m pretty sure this one here already pissed his pants.
” As we approach, he clasps a hand on Mauro’s shoulder.
“Thanks for lending me the brass knuckles. Accidently left mine at home in my nightstand.”
Marco stands next to Cassio and Marcello, glancing at his phone. “We need to get going. Romeo said the plane is about ready to take off.”
“We appreciate your assistance,” Vin says as he reaches out his hand to Marco, who accepts it with a firm grip.
“What is family for?” Marco replies, a smug grin on his face that quickly fades. “I’m sorry that you’re now bound to the Vasiliev family, but if it’s any consolation, I’ve heard she’s not bad on the eyes.” He shrugs. “If rumors are to be believed.”
Vin squeezes the back of his neck. “Let’s just hope she remains missing. It’ll be better that way for both of us.”
Caine gives a mock salute. “Later, cousins.” He tilts his head, eyeing me. “I guess you’re one of us now.”
I nod. “I guess I am.”
“Take care of her,” he says. “If we find out otherwise…” He slides his index finger across his neck. “Capisce?”
“Crystal,” I reply as I turn toward Marco. “Thank you for your assistance.”
Marco looks me over before placing his hand on my shoulder, leaning in. “Se tu fai del male a lei allora noi facciamo del male a te.” A ghost of a smile plays on his lips as he stands straight. “Until we meet again.”
The four of them walk out of the warehouse just as the sun begins to set, the golden light casting them in dark shadows.
“Umm.” I look at Vin, scratching my head. “Care to tell me what he just said?”
Vin chuckles, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Nothing that you don’t already know.”
As I take a step toward the others, a black SUV pulls up outside. The driver exits the vehicle and presses a button on the side of the car. The whole door slowly slides open, revealing a ramp that extends to the ground. Enzio descends, making his way toward us.
“I hope you haven’t changed your mind. We were just about to have some fun,” Vin remarks with a slight frown.
Enzio shakes his head. “No, I just came by to thank you personally.” He slants his head to the side, looking around Mauro at his father and brother. “Have they been up there long?”
I shake my head. “They’ve been chained to the corner of the room while they’ve been here, awaiting their endings, which we’ve decided is today. So, they were strung up like pinatas this morning in order for us to give them a proper farewell.”
“Good,” Enzio affirms. Mauro hands him a folder—the one containing all the key documents that Adolfo was forced to sign at gunpoint, transferring the rights of Manacorda Enterprises to Enzio. “Thank you.” He flips through the pages, his eyes brightening. “You don’t know what this means.”
Alex approaches, looking better than he did a few days ago but still a bit somber. “I’m sorry about your sister.”
Enzio lowers his chin. “Father never believed in mental health, and I fear over the years, with no treatment or care, she only became worse. I guess I never realized how bad it was, though. I blame myself for not checking in on her regularly.” He regards Alex. “Did she suffer?”
“No,” he answers firmly. “It was a clean shot.”
“Then that’s all I could have asked for.”
Mumbling breaks out behind us, and we turn to see Alastor and Adolfo moving around. Mauro rips the tape off Alastor’s face.
“Enzio!” he screams. “You have to help us. They’re psychotic. All of them!”
Enzio merely watches them with boredom in his eyes. “I’m afraid everything they are about to do to you is rightfully deserved.”
Alastor’s eyes widen. “But you’re my brother!”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Enzio starts.
“You were never a brother to me. Not in the way one should be. And when you leave this Earth, you will leave me as a stranger. Nothing more.” He peers around at all of us.
“I’ll take my leave now. If you need anything in the future, I am in your debt.
” He returns to his vehicle, and we watch as it disappears past the gates.
We all turn toward the two monsters hanging in the center of the room, our eyes narrowing in on them.
“What do you want?” Alastor asks, with terror laced in his voice. “Money? I have lots of it! Just name a number!”
A laugh escapes me. Dark and consuming. It’s always about money with him.
I take a few steps until I stand directly in front of him. Fury builds inside me like a forest fire that can’t be extinguished. It only grows stronger and more deadly by the second. “You think I want money after everything you put Madeleine through? After everything you put me through?”
I hear metal grinding against the floor and look behind me to see Mauro dragging a baseball bat behind him—a special one designed with nails sticking out all over it.
We’re not using it today.
But it’s sure entertaining to let them think that we are.
“No. No. No!” Alastor wails. “Wait! Wait! We can talk about this!”
“You want to talk?” I ask while cracking my knuckles.
“Then let’s talk.” I pace before him. “Your sister planted the seed in your tiny idiotic head about having me kidnapped. Once you did some digging and located where I was, you followed through with the plan by reaching out to your charming cousins, the Vasilievs, for assistance. Their men took me. Killed the men in my unit. Tortured me. And finally, you freed me only after Madeleine agreed to marry you. You then threatened to have me killed if Madeleine should renege on her verbal contract with you.” I look around the room at the Alarie brothers. “Am I forgetting anything?”
Leo scrunches his face and shakes his head. “Nope, think that covers everything.”
I face Alastor, watching as he swallows hard, sweat dribbling down his temple. “It was the only way.” He trembles against the chains. “You have to understand, my father saw me as weak, and I needed Madeleine to gain—”
“She is not a pawn in your fucked-up family’s chess game!
She is my goddamn wife!” My words echo across the space, thundering between every floorboard and ceiling beam.
“You meticulously planned everything like the snake you are, all to get what you wanted: power. You knew your sister struggled with mental health, yet you exploited that to your advantage, indifferent to the consequences, as long as it tore me and Madeleine apart.”
“I-I never told her to—”
I get in his face, gripping him by the collar of his shirt. “You will pay for everything you did to her. Everything you put her through. And everything she lost because of you.”
Adolfo mumbles into the tape, so Alex walks up to him and rips it off.
“I have nothing to do with any of this!” he yells.
“You’re the one who told me to go through with this whole thing!” Alastor shouts. “You told me that if I married Madeleine, then you would make me CEO of the fucking company!”
“But I didn’t know—”
“You knew, old man!” Alastor’s face reddens, his neck veins bulging. “You knew everything. In fact, you wanted to have Eli killed after the wedding!”
I arch a brow. “That’s news to me.”
Adolfo visibly swallows. “We weren’t going to follow through with it. It was merely an idea.”
“An idea that has guaranteed your death,” Leo tells him, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Can’t we come to an arrangement?” Adolfo asks, looking frantically among us.
“The arrangement is,” I start. “You two will die. And I will live out the rest of my life with Madeleine in peace, knowing you will never be able to hurt her again.”
“But we can—”
“Put the tape back on their mouths,” I tell Alex and Mauro, who do just that. “I’ve heard enough.”
Walking behind Alastor, I rip his shirt right down the middle, exposing his bare back.
“When I was taken, they used to burn my back for fun. They would rub an alcohol wipe across my skin and then light a match and drop it. My screams would echo against the walls. It was the kind of pain that no one should ever experience. But they didn’t just do it once.
” I shake my head, my mind reliving those memories.
“They would put the fire out and wait and then do it over again. It was a vicious cycle that never ended.” I step toward the back of Adolfo and rip his shirt down the middle, too.
“I was maybe only seconds away from dying when I was finally freed.”
Mauro comes to my side with a bottle of Macallan in his hands, unscrewing the cap. I step back to look at the two sons of bitches hanging from their chains. They won’t last long with what we’re about to do to them.
But I’ll enjoy every second of it.
For Madeleine.
For our unborn child.
For my comrades.
I will get our revenge.
“So, now, that’s exactly what we’re going to do to the two of you,” I state matter-of-factly.
The two of them begin wriggling against the chains, futilely fighting to free themselves as Mauro douses their backs in the whiskey. Fear reeks in the air around them as they mumble pleas against the tape.
“Sorry, we don’t have wipes to use, so the fire will probably be a little unmanageable,” I tell them as Leo and I both light a match. “Say hi to the devil for me.” I toss my match against Alastor’s back and watch as flames engulf him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Leo do the same to Adolfo.
The two of them scream out in agony against the tape as the smell of burning flesh fills the room. Alex stands by with a fire extinguisher in his hands, ready for us to repeat the process over and over again until, eventually, they take their last dying breaths.
And it brings me comfort to know that the villains of my wife’s story will no longer walk this Earth.