32
Harper
T he pills didn’t do what I wanted them to, they did help me sleep although I was haunted through every minute of sleep that I got.
Halfway through the night I woke up and puked my guts out.
I was sweating and dizzy as hell; it’s a fucking miracle I even made it to the toilet in time.
I’ve been in bed for the past two days, hearing Alessia come and go at the door without giving her even a sign of life at my side of the door.
My stomach rumbles at the lack of food but I can’t bring myself to get out of bed.
Although I’ve slept for the better part of forty-eight hours I don’t want to get out of bed. I can’t.
Again, a knock sounds at the door, I roll my eyes, irritated because Alessia is trying again to reach me.
“Tesoro…” Her voice is soft and cautious.
I don’t react.
“I kno w your in there and that you can hear me. Elio just gave me news you might want to know…” Her voice trails off.
She got me curious now, I sit up in bed a little straighter.
“They found them.” she says, barely above a whisper through the door. My heart leaps in my chest.
“Gianni and the other motherfucker are downstairs; I’m going there now.” Silence follows on both sides of the door.
“I hope your okay, baby. I need you to be okay.” I hear her footsteps walk away from the door.
I release my breath.
Are they here? They found them? How? A million questions course through me, trying to figure out what I should do. The house is quiet except for Olivia’s vacuum humming.
Did she say she was going downstairs? Where did she go? There’s nothing down there except the garage, right?
I swing my legs off the bed, the cold floor grounding me as my heart pounds against my ribcage. The garage. What the hell would she be doing in the garage with them? A knot tightens in my stomach as I replay her words: Gianni and the other motherfucker are downstairs.
I walk over to the closet and pick out a tight black crop top and a pair of black leather leggings. I grab the red flower Louboutin’s Alessia wore when all of this started, I could use a little of her confidence now.
In the bathroom I grab the hair wax and style my hair in a long messy mohawk, apply make-up to my eyes and paint my lips red.
I take a look in the mirror and a little bit of hope springs aliv e by my reflection.
I can do this; I can face these assholes and look goddamn powerful while I do it.
I slide on the shoes and walk over to the room across the hallway, Alessia’s office.
She must have weapons in here, I search her desk and bookshelves but I find nothing.
My hand glides along the walls, searching for ridges to any hidden compartments.
Suddenly something clicks and springs away from the wall.
“I knew it!” I say to myself. I pull away the panel and an arsenal of guns and knives appear before me.
“Fuck yes, jackpot!” I giggle like a little schoolgirl.
I grab a gun and a long 8-inch black oxidized knife.
It has a big black rubber handle and a dropped point with serrated edges.
I put the gun in the waistband of my legging and hold the knife in my hand as I walk towards the elevator and push the button for the garage.
Once I’m downstairs I look around the garage, searching for them, I don’t see any sign of them.
I scan every part of the garage until I find a door I haven’t noticed before.
I try the handle and it opens for me. Behind the door is a steep set of stairs, a fluorescent bar illuminates the steps and the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.
I walk cautiously down the stairs, my heart pounding in my throat.
At the bottom of the stairs, I look around the corner into the hallway, Vinnie and Alex are standing across two doors, nothing else can be seen or heard.
I breathe in and out deeply and straighten my back before walking down the hallway. Alex and Vinnie see me immediately.
“Miss Davis, you’re not supposed to be here,” Alex reprimands.
“I don’t care, Alex.” I retort. “I know Alessia is in there and I need you to let me in.”
Alex looks me over and sees the gun in my leggings and the knife in my hand. A scream of pain filters from one of the rooms.
“Let me in,” I repeat myself.
Alex sighs, “If I let you enter this room, this is something you can’t come back from.”
“It’s not like I’ve got anything to go back to, Alex…” I retort. “They took that away from me in Italy.”
He sighs, “I know, Harper, I know.”
“They took my past, Alex. But they don’t get to take my future. That’s mine. And I’ll be damned if I don’t make it into something worth fighting for.” I tell him.
We look at each other, trying to convince each other with our eyes to back down but I won’t. Not now, not ever again.
Alex hangs his head and gestures to me to go inside.
“Good luck, Miss.” Vinnie chimes in.
I exhale and lay my hand on the handle. Behind this door my worst nightmare is waiting for me. I calm my nerves and push the handle down.
I step into the room, the ceiling, walls and floor are all concrete and illuminated by two fluorescent bars.
In the center of the room Gianni and the nameless man are both strapped to a chair.
To my left there’s a surgical table filled with all kinds of medical and non-medical supplies that could all re ally do some damage.
My gun and knife feel pretty useless now.
At the far end of the room Elio slumps against the wall, his foot propped up against it.
In front of the men stands Alessia, the sleeves of her blouse are rolled up, her hair in a high ponytail and her expression is stone-cold as she turns around to see who just walked in.
Her expression stays the same when she notices it’s me, but her eyes get a little sparkle of pride in them.
She ignores the men behind her and walks over to me.
The world around us seems to dissolve, fading into a blur of shadows and silence.
She cups my face gently, her fingers brushing over my cheek as if committing the softness of my skin to memory.
I lean into her touch, my breath catching as my gaze locks with hers.
And then, her lips find mine.
The kiss begins softly, a tentative brush that sends a shiver racing through me.
It is as if time has slowed down, the air around us charged with an unspoken intensity.
The softness melts away, replaced by a fierce longing that neither of us can hold back.
Her lips move against mine with a hunger that makes my knees weak, drawing me closer until there is no space left between us.
My hands find their way to the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair as I return the kiss with equal fervor.
The world no longer exists; there is only the warmth of her mouth, the taste of her, the way her touch makes my pulse race.
It is both fire and solace, a perfect storm of emotions that leaves me breathless.
When we finally break apart, our foreheads rest against each other, our breaths mingling in the narrow space between us. My eyes flutter open, meeting hers, and for a moment, neither of us speak. We don’t need to, the kiss has said everything.
Alessia takes my hand and turns around to face Gianni and the nameless man.
“So, now that my gorgeous fiancée has joined our little party we can truly get started.” she proclaims.
My head whips to her and shock covers my face, my heart is racing. Fiancée? I know I was out of it for a while the past few days but I could never miss something like a fucking proposal. Alessia winks at me and focusses back on the men before her, leaving me stunned.
Alessia
“You’ve made a grave mistake in kidnapping Harper, thinking you could play games with me at her cost. Do you hear that silence?
That’s the sound of every chance you had to walk away fading away into nothing.
But no, Gianni, you had to kidnap my girlfriend and do unspeakable things to her.
” I walk over to the surgical table and run my fingers over all the tools that Elio layed out for me.
I pick up a pair of needle nose plyers and walk in front of the nameless man.
“Seein g as that I like to know who I’m speaking to, would you be so kind to tell me your name?” My voice is all sugary when I talk to him.
“Fuck you, bitch!” he spits out.
“Damn, that’s what I thought. Honey, could you come over here and help me?” I look over my shoulder to Harper. She stands frozen, I stick out my hand and she takes it.
“Good girl.” I urge her on. A blush creeps up her neck before a small smile plays on her lips.
“Tesoro, would you please stand behind this man and hold your knife to his throat? Elio, can you hold his hand still please?”
Harper goes to stand behind him and lays the sharp edge of her knife to his throat, I can see her trembling. Elio stands at the side of the chair and holds the man’s hand.
“Tesoro, I believe this is the man who’s responsible for your scars, isn’t that right?”
She hums and nods in agreement.
“Words baby, I would like these assholes to hear you loud and clear.”
“Y-Yes.”
I look at the man before me, his chin raised now that there’s a knife at his throat.
“I don’t give many chances. For the last time; What’s. Your. Name?” I punctuate every word in that sentence.
“Screw you!” He glares at me with fire in his eyes. To bad for him that that fire will soon be snuffed out.
“Elio? You’ve got him?”
“Yes, boss!” A cheeky grin spreads on his face. That man lives and breathes for these kinds of things.
I place the plyer under the nail of the man’s index finger and clamp down. He starts thrashing but he has no room to move or get away from the three of us.
“Last chance…” I singsong,
“Never going to happen!” He gathers his saliva and spits in my face. I knew I should have skipped the formalities and just got down to business with this one.
“Bad move, sir.” With one swift tug I remove his nail from his finger. Screams fill the room and out of my periphery I see Gianni wince in his chair. When the screams stop, I place the plyer on the next fingernail.
“Let’s try this again. Your name is…” I draw out the last word.
“I’d rather die.” He spits.
I apply pressure on the plyers and pull out the nail, blood is leaking from the armrest on the floor.
Tears stream from the mans face and drool leaks from his mouth.
The knife Harper is holding has apparently nicked his skin because blood is dripping from his neck.
With a small nod of my head, I signal her to step away from him.
She lowers the knife and walks around him to come and stand next to me.
“You did good, baby. Apparently the man likes being hurt just as much as he likes to hurt women. Could you please tell me what he did to you?”
Harper looks at me with terror in her eyes.
“I don’t know if I can.” She whispers.
I go to stand behind her and snake my arms around her. I lay one just above the waistband of her leggings, the other around her neck and across her chest. My fingers playing just below the fabric of her crop top. I kiss her slender neck and nip at her ear, she shudders beneath my touch.
“Tell me baby, he can’t hurt you anymore.”
She takes a deep breath in, gathering all her strength before she starts.
“I was in the shower when men took me. I just cleaned Anna’s blood off the tiles. They took me to the room where you found me.” She trails off.
“And then.” I urge her on, she needs to get this out. She needs to take her power back. My fingers keep caressing her skin, she leans into me, anchoring herself to me.
“They took off my clothes and threw me on the bed.”
My hand glides down her arm to sooth her.
“They cuffed me at my hands and feet on the bed. They fucked my mouth and came on my face.”
“And did you want them to do that, baby?”
“No…” she whispers.
Elio stands between the man and Gianni and clenches his fists at his side. His hands are probably itching just as much as mine.
“But her pussy did feel amazing” Gianni chuckles.
Before I have the opportunity to respond I hear Elio’s fist connect with Gianni’s face. His head whips to the side and I hear bone crunching. Gianni’s head bobs, Elio knocked him unconscious in one blow.
“Thank you, Elio!” I smirk at him and return my attention to Harper and the man before us.
“Sorry for the interruption baby. I have a question… You said you didn’t like it. What do we call it if you don’t give consent before someone has sexual contact with you?”
“Rape…” Her breath hitches, tears land on my arm across her chest. I kiss her cheek and turn her around to face me. She doesn’t look at me.
“Look at me baby.” She hesitates but after a few seconds her red-rimmed eyes look up at me.
“I feel so ashamed… And dirty.” Her voice is so soft it’s barely audible. I cup her face in my hands.
“Baby, you hold all the power here. You came in here with a gun and a knife, knowing who was down here. You came here to fight and I will fight beside you every step of the way. They took your power, which makes you feel weak but you are anything but. You came out alive and you can end this nightmare once and for all. You can revenge Anna’s death.
If you want, I can do it for you, I can kill your monsters and I will do it over and over again for you. ’