2. Leona #2
“The Camorra won’t care about her,” Max insisted.
His teeth split into a feral grin. “She’s recompense to our bosses. We can do whatever we want with her. ”
“So your bosses want her,” he argued. “You can’t hurt us then.”
“I might not kill you, but I can make you wish you were dead.” Buzz Cut pointed the gun in my face again, and I held his glower. He couldn’t kill me. He’d already admitted it.
Whatever he planned to do, I could survive.
My thumb pressed against my engagement ring, trying to process everything going on. Max, thinking he can defend me even though he put me in this position. This asshole wanting to use me. A war across the world putting my life at risk. My father causing it all.
It was all bullshit. Fucking bullshit.
I wanted to be home . I wanted New York. I didn’t give a fuck about Italy or Albania or whatever shit Max had stepped in.
Adrenaline spiked in the pit of my stomach. The combination of my addled brain and my anger at being caught in the middle of all this shit fueled the worst decision I’d made all day, but I couldn’t help it.
I spat in Buzz Cut’s face.
The glob hit the middle of his cheek, and even though I knew he’d retaliate, it filled me with a sick satisfaction.
The room went silent as the two of us stared each other down.
I steeled myself for the inevitable slap. When he moved to hit me, I ducked under his arm and kicked his feet out from under him. Chaos erupted. Max yelled something at me, but I ignored it. I only got one good punch across Buzz Cut’s face before the other Albanians leaped on me and pulled me back.
My face slammed into the cold, hard ground, and a weight settled on my back. The force of someone yanking my shoulders back made them scream in their sockets. His weight drove the air from my lungs as I tried to wiggle, but he was so much larger than me.
“I would fuck you until you bled, but the bosses want you in relatively good shape so you’ll fetch a high price,” Buzz Cut growled in my ear.
His breath was hot and foul, with a heavy aroma of cigarette smoke.
He licked all the way up my ear, and my entire body convulsed.
I couldn’t move my arms. I couldn’t get free.
“You will make up for what we lost. But before that, we’ll have our fun, won’t we, boys? ”
The sharp sensation of my engagement ring’s gems digging into my thumb kept me focused. Tears stung my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall. He wouldn’t break me.
Suddenly, the weight lifted from my back, and I coughed before sucking air into my lungs. Before I could relax—or even wipe the spit from my ear—Buzz Cut’s boot slammed right into my ribs. I tried to scream, but there was no air to form the sound. Pain radiated across my torso. My vision spotted.
Another kick.
I rolled into a ball. Blood coated my teeth. Somewhere, Max was shouting.
My head jerked backward, my neck straining at his grip on my hair. “It’s a long boat ride back to Dürres. I don’t want to hear another word from either of you, or this little beating will be the least of your worries.”
“You have to keep us both alive!” Max shouted.
“True. Though maybe I’ll be the one who buys her. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, little bitch,” he responded. He jerked his head at the other men watching. “Take them back to the cell. No food or water. If they misbehave, take them down to the cargo hold with the other women.”
I slipped in and out of consciousness until I dropped face first onto the hard, cold metal of our cell again. Pain exploded through my body. A quiet moan left my lips. The door screeched shut on the other side of the room.
“Leona,” Max said. I squeezed my eyes shut as tears finally trickled down my cheeks. “Leona, talk to me.”
A soft touch brushed against my lip, but I jerked away and curled into a ball .
Everything hurt so fucking bad. I shouldn’t have spit at him and made everything worse, but I was so fucking angry . Why was I here? Why wasn’t I at home, wrapped up in bed with my men?
“Leona, please.” Max’s voice turned desperate. He leaned over me, fear furrowing his brow. He reached forward, but hesitated.
My mouth twisted down into a frown as I tried, and miserably failed, to keep the tears from spilling. A sob choked me. I could barely breathe. My face felt so swollen and tender, the tears stung. Was my nose broken?
This time, when Max reached out a hand, I timidly closed my fingers around his.
He sat on the ground next to me and maneuvered us both near the wall farthest away from the cell door.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “We’ll kill them, I swear it. We’ll get out of here.”
Buzz Cut’s threats echoed in my ears, along with the puzzle pieces of information I was still trying to put together. The Camorra. Max. Other women on the boat. Albania.
They would sell me to the highest bidder, and then what? Despair bubbled up my neck. My body shook with tremors. Would my guys find me in time? It had only been a few hours, but they had to be getting close…right?
Max’s arm was firm and steadying around my shoulders. I sank against his chest. My head throbbed. My ribs were on fire. But Max, at least, was a threat I knew. A fucked up comfort in the freezing cold of this metal cell.
What was the cargo hold like? Worse than this?
I tried to bury everything. To control all the fear and pain bubbling inside my chest into a little box that I could shove deep down within my soul. But I couldn’t. It was too much.
“ Mi dispiace, mi dispiace ,” he whispered, over and over as he gently wiped the blood spatter from my face with the sleeve of his jacket.
I sobbed against him while his arms tightened around me like bands.
For this little pocket in time, everything he’d done— everything we’d been through—didn’t matter.
He was warm against the cold. “ Piccola .”
Eventually, I slid down him, all the energy and adrenaline gone from my body. I didn’t even question how comfortable it felt, how safe, as I laid my head in his lap. It was just us, Max and Leona, the same kids we were when he held my hand and sang me to sleep.
I fell asleep with the gentle movement of his fingers through my hair.