Chapter 16
AIDA
I’m shrouded in darkness. It’s all around me. Like in my nightmares, the black dread skitters up my body. The pounding of my heart warns me of what’s to come. It hammers loudly, goose bumps zipping up my spine.
My legs race with a chill, and it’s not from the air conditioner inside my father’s SUV. It’s the fearful anticipation. The unknown. What am I stepping into and why do I need a blindfold to get there?
The car finally halts, his feet crunching until my door opens.
“Let’s go,” he snaps, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me out.
As soon as he does, I stumble, my knees hitting the ground, tiny pebbles digging into my palms. “Are you fucking kidding me?” His anger sways the incoming hurricane brewing in my heart, the roll of the tide before I drown in it.
I’m pulled to a stand, my knees burning with a raw ache.
“I—I’ve never worn heels before, Dad.” Especially on rocks. Asshole. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere I should’ve sent you a long time ago, instead of—” But he cuts himself off.
“Instead of what?” My body tingles with nervous energy.
“Nothing. The point is, you’ll be working here when I need you to. It’s time you earn this family some money.”
“What are you talking about?” My stomach dips as he opens a door and we step inside, the air current changing into something warmer, draping me in false safety. Fear like I’ve never known slams into me full force instead, as though it’s right there, taunting me, knowing I can’t see it at all.
“We’ll be hitting some steps. Try not to fall this time.” He scoffs as I carefully maneuver myself around his hold on me, feeling for every slope downward until he tells me they have stopped.
Music drifts from everywhere, the simmered conversations bathing the room.
“Agnelo!” someone calls with laughter in his tone. “What have you got there? A new one?” His hand runs down the side of my body and I flinch with a gasp. “Been holding out on us, huh?”
“Yeah.” He chuckles. “Something like that. Is Faro here?”
“What is this place?” I ask, but I may have whispered it. Did he even hear me?
“Yeah, he’s in with two in a room. Doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“All right. I’ll see you.”
“You coming to the show?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
A sudden coldness hits me at the core. What show?
“Cool. See ya, man.”
“Where the hell are we?” I shout at him. “Where have you taken me?” I yank the blindfold off, not caring that he warned me to keep it on.
But as soon as I do, I wish I hadn’t. Because this place, it’s ugly.
Cruel.
“Oh my God…” I plant a palm over my mouth, disgust riding up my throat as I take it all in. My father doesn’t say a word, his mouth rolling with a vile grin as I continue staring wide-eyed around the vast space.
Sofas line one side while rooms draped open, some closed, are on the other. Men, so many of them, but they’re not alone. Young children are beside them, on their laps. Naked. Scared. Women too. Looking just as frightened.
“What have you done?” The question hurls out of me with venom.
He comes at me, his clenched teeth nearing my face. “Whatever the hell we want. Your uncles and me, we own this place. We’ve owned it for years.”
A heavy feeling sinks into me. “You’re sick! I knew it all along, but now, I know for certain. You’re all monsters.”
“Call us what the hell you want, but you’ll be getting to know this club pretty well.”
“Screw you!” My palm reaches his face, my fingers clawing into his cheek to shove him away, to hurt him. “I wish I had the guts to end your pathetic life.”
He catches my hand, bending my fingers until I scream. “By tonight, you’ll wish I had ended yours. Now let’s go. You have people to entertain.”
Terror settles thickly over me, my body breaking into a full tremor as he drives a palm into my back, pushing me all the way down to the end of the room, until we reach a black, unassuming door.
With two knocks, it parts slowly, a masked man behind it, only the bottom half of his face uncovered.
My throat closes as my father shoves me inside.
“She’s new. Completely fresh. Never been touched before.”
I gasp, my eyes widening, tears welling as I back away, but my father holds me down with an arm enclosed around my throat.
A horrid smile slinks over the man’s face, his knuckles running down in between my breasts, and nausea churns in the pit of my stomach.
“We’ll take care of her, don’t you worry. ”
“I’ll be back to get her in an hour,” my father tells them. “Make sure you’re dressed by then,” he says to me, his voice swarming up my neck, causing me to wince, my fingers trembling.
Once he drops his hand away, he’s out the door, leaving me among the ruins, as though I don’t matter at all. But that’s because I don’t.
I stand there, shivering, my arms rounding the front of my body. Hiding. Wanting to disappear. I almost miss the other man in the same gold mask, sitting down on the chair, a leg raised over his other, a glass of something in his hand as he watches us.
“You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” The hand of the man before me lands on my ass, squeezing my body to him, another reaching under my dress, a finger sliding where I’ve never been touched before.
No, no, no! I scream in silence.
Heart stabbing. Skin prickling. My father can’t be this vicious. He can’t do this to me! “Please! Let me go!” I fight his hand away, trying to run, to escape, but with a sinister chuckle, his fingers bite into my flesh until it hurts.
“Why would I ever do that?” He squeezes harder. “I paid good money for this and we’re going to enjoy every last dime.”
The tears…they’re falling now, trickling out of me, while his hands split apart the dress. What will I wear home now? That’s the first thought which hits me when he grabs my arm.
My bare skin is on full display as he yanks me toward his friend who places his drink down on the table beside him, patting his lap.
I don’t have to guess what they’ll do. I’m not na?ve. These men, they’re going to tear away the one thing I promised to save for Matteo, the one thing we promised to save for each other, and my father, he managed to take that away too.
I’m thrown on top of his lap, and a hand slithers from the back of my head, down my spine and to the very depths of me.
When they touch me, when their bodies invade me, I close my eyes. I dream of better things, a better life, filled with Matteo, with Robby.
And I go there, and I don’t let go.
Not until it’s over.
MATTEO
I groan, my wrists throbbing like hell while I hang there, unsure what time it is or even what day. I’m thirsty, my mouth dry. My face and my back still fucking throb, but none of that matters. I have to get to Aida. I have to make sure she’s okay.
“Aida,” I call to her, but I could barely hear it. “Let me down,” I say, louder, but I don’t think anyone is even here. Minutes blend into one another, hours probably trickling away. And I think I’ll die here. That this is it—until footsteps draw near.
“Hello?” I can hardly lift my head. It wobbles as I do, but through one eye, I see a man.
“Damn,” Stan’s voice mocks with a laugh. “You look like shit.” He drags a chair toward me and stands on it, cutting the rope from my hands. “I guess you would be, considering you were here for nearly twenty-four hours.”
I fall to the ground with a heavy thud. “Fuck,” I mutter. Everything hurts.
He laughs as I stumble.
“W-w-where’s A-Aida?” I slur.
A smile slides to his face and I want to carve it out. He doesn’t say anything for a minute, but when he does, it’s as though he’s shot a bullet straight to my heart. “Her dad sent her to the club yesterday.”
Something inside me shifts, it’s sudden, like a flip of a switch. “What did you say?” The adrenaline courses through me, giving me the strength I’ve lacked.
I rise to my feet, lifting my head in slow motion, a fist curling at my side, my chest widening with pummeling breaths.
He snickers. “Kid, you heard me. Your girlfriend was sucking cock yesterday, definitely getting some too.”
With a roar, I’m on him at lightning speed, like my body has been reborn, forgetting the scars of the day before, forgetting everything it endured. And before I know it, he’s underneath me at my mercy.
I pound his face, over and over until his screams for help and his features are distorted. But I don’t end it there.
He attempts to get his gun out of his pocket, but I snap his hand back, bones cracking as an animalistic growl rips out of me.
If he’s telling the truth, if Aida had been sent there to be…. Fuck! No!
My hand clutches his throat, his eyes filling with terror, my teeth baring.
“You’re gonna die,” I tell him. “I’ve wanted to kill you for so long. I’ll enjoy this.” When I notice a knife only inches away, I stretch out my fingers to retrieve it, my palm tightening around his neck.
“Hey!” someone shouts, running up to me, his weapon cocked.
In that instant, I reach for Stan’s gun and shoot the asshole before he even has a chance to pull the trigger.
He dies on impact, the bullet entering his chest cleanly as he falls backward.
It was stupid of the Bianchis to underestimate me.
I’m stronger than they think. They made me that way.
I pick up the knife, aiming it at Stan’s eye, and slowly, I puncture it as he tries to scream but his voice is no longer there. This time, I’m the one who’s smiling.
It goes deeper, the blade sinking through his flesh until only the handle shows, until he’s dead.
“Fuck you!” I spit into his face, then grab his car keys from his pocket as I dash out of there. But I’m not running, I’m coming back to the den. For her. It’s always her.
Aida’s my lifeline, an extension of me. Without her, there’s no boat. There’s only fire. And I’m sick of being burned.
They thought I’d never get the chance to escape, so they’d let things like Agnelo’s address slip, not thinking I’d ever need it.