Chapter 28
MATTEO
“Tell me where they are!” I slam a fist into his stomach, both of us now back in that basement I wasted away in for years.
“I don’t know.” He coughs out blood, keeling over, his hands holding on to his midsection.
It’s been half a fucking day since we’ve been here, and he’s not told me one damn thing, even with a bullet in his thigh.
I don’t know how much more I can hurt him without completely killing him. If he dies, so does she.
I dangle the set of keys I got from his wallet on my index finger. There are probably over twenty keys here. I could only imagine what each one is for, how many damn prisons they can open, hostages they can let out. When he still doesn’t answer, I land a punch to his jaw.
“Don’t fucking lie to me. I’ll shoot every one of your limbs until you tell me.” He groans, the chain he once used on me, now cutting into his own wrist.
“Goddamn it.” He palms his face. “I think you broke something.”
“Start talking or I start breaking all your bones.” A sneer slithers to my mouth as I kneel over to grab his shirt in my fist, glaring into the eyes of the devil, unable to wait until I send him back to hell.
I right myself, readying to slam him with another punch to his face.
“I gotta tell you, kid.” He moves his chin side to side with his hand. “I’m proud of you. Look how far you’ve come. It’s too bad after all is said and done, I will have to kill you. I’m sure you understand.”
I give him a sinister smile, and my face nears his until only a hand separates us. “You don’t get it, do you? You’re gonna die. I’ll kill you, and I’ll enjoy it. And she and I, we’ll make a life together and we’ll put everything you’ve done behind us while you’re rotting away.”
He chuckles, his head falling back. “And what will you do when more of my men come? You gonna kill them all? By yourself?” His face twists with mockery, dismissing my power. My strength.
“I’ve killed many so far, and I’ll do it for as long as I need to find her.
If you won’t tell me where she is, I’ll make sure you die so slowly, you’ll beg for me to make it faster.
” My lips jerk with a snicker. “You forget you made me.” I right myself, heading to retrieve one of the knives on the floor a few feet away. “Give yourself some credit.”
When I pivot around, he eyes the blade in my hand, darting his wild stare back to me with a nervous grin. I can practically see his lips shaking. “What are you gonna do with that thing?”
“Well…” I flip the knife in my hand. “First, I’m gonna carve our names on your skin so that even as your flesh joins the dirt you belong in, you’ll never forget us.”
The quick jerk of his breath is small, but enough for me to catch it. A triumphant smile appears on my face, finally feeling like I’ve got the upper hand. After so long of being the captive, I’m now the one who holds the key. Literally.
“I’m done playing games. Who has her?” I clutch the black handle of the small knife, its blade glistening in the drops of light flickering against its sharp edges.
I prod slowly, back to the man who holds all the answers. Who’s taken everything and everyone from me.
I want to hurt him so damn bad, I’m literally vibrating with the need. I want him to suffer. I want him to bleed until he’s dead.
“You gotta let me go for me to tell you that,” he jeers with a flick of his thick, dark brows.
“You still think you’re in charge, don’t you?” Standing before him, I let the blade crawl down his chest until it reaches his stomach, and slowly, meticulously, without taking my eyes off his, I let the very tip of it puncture his skin.
He groans, his teeth gritted as he stares hard into me. “Fuck you.”
“How does it feel?” I continue to cut into him with a glare. “Not to be the one who hurts, but the one to hurt instead?”
“You can’t do shit to me, kid.” His nostrils expand. “I’m Agnelo fucking Bianchi. You hear me?”
“Yeah.” I shrug my shoulders. “I hear you.”
Before he can even pull in a breath, I stab his palm so hard, the blade makes it to the other side.
“Ahhh! You son of a biiiitch!” he screams, but I ignore it, pulling up his shirt in the front. Painstakingly, I cut her name across his chest in big letters.
“I’m g-gonna kill you,” he screams, trying to stop me with his working hand, no longer able to keep the brave front he’s been trying to hold on to.
“You really shouldn’t disturb an artist when he’s working.” I raise the knife in the air and stab that hand, once, twice, maybe more. I’ve lost count from the seething blaze burning inside me.
He grunts. He screams. He cries. I’ve waited years to hear that son of a bitch cry. If only Aida was here. We could do this together.
“Now that you’re better behaved,” I taunt. “I can continue.”
Right under her name, I cut out mine.
There’s so much blood dripping down, I don’t realize it until I’m done.
“Had enough yet?” My laughter bites with a cold rush of emotions.
He coughs as he tries to calm his breathing, his chest swelling up with force.
“No? Fine. Have it your way.” I march back to the stash of weapons I found in the van, lowering to the floor to pick up one of the nines.
“I’m gonna hurt you every fucking way I can, but I won’t let you die.
Because I need you alive. For now. But how you die”—I lift the weapon aiming it at his hand, the one chained—“well, that’s on you. ”
Pop.
He screams loudly as the bullet enters another part of his hand, and it’s like music. I shut my eyes, breathing softly, enjoying his suffering. Does that make me a monster? Maybe. But I’m okay with that.
“Where’re Aida and Robby?” I ask calmly, yet my pulse is increasing every second. I need to find them. Fast. This is taking too long.
Gradually, his face lifts up to mine, his body shuddering as his eyes still spill with venom.
“Still won’t tell me? Okay.” Without a blink, I pop a bullet into the top of his foot and the deafening shouting of a coward is what I hear next. “I’ll keep doing this until you break. And you will break, Agnelo. I promise.”
I’m on top of him in an instant, and I let the knife fall across his flesh like it’s possessed, like it needs his pain for survival, as much as I do.
“Tell me!” I roar as the blade slices across his cheek, his forehead. “Fucking say it! Where are they?”
He fights it—the desire to tell me what I need to know. He fights it with every cut, every slice of his skin until he can’t fight anymore. Until his blood is all he sees around him.
Drip.
Drip.
It dances like the rain, slowly trickling from the slashes on his thighs, his calves. Anywhere I can hurt him, I do.
“I—” he stammers. “I—I’ll—I’ll tell you. Fuuuuck.” He cries real tears.
“Better do it quick.” The tip of the knife nears the spot under his chin, raising his face to mine, nicking him.
“You’re gonna kill me anyway,” he breathes, trying to mask the pain, but it shows. He can’t hide from it. “S-s-so why should I help you?”
“Because if you don’t”—I push the knife deeper—“I’m going to hurt you for weeks, killing you slowly. At least if you tell me, I’ll kill you faster.”
He coughs to catch his breath. “If I didn’t hate your family, I’d actually like you.”
“I won’t take that as a compliment.” I stand straight. “Address. Now.”
With a deep inhale, he speaks. “Carlito, his…” He coughs… “His family owns a factory. They’re there.” He gives me the address and I keep repeating it in my head so I don’t forget it.
Running over to the weapons, I pack them up, grabbing the handle of the bag as I head for the stairs.
“A-at-at least I let you piss in a bucket,” he calls when I’m a few steps up. “Wha-what will I do if I gotta go?”
“Piss yourself.” I’m out the door, hoping I’m not too late to save her.
AIDA
“Such a pretty thing, isn’t she?” Ethan hisses, grunting while inside me.
“Get off, it’s my fucking turn.”
“I’m not done yet.” He pumps faster as he robs me of my dignity, taking something that doesn’t belong to him. I close my eyes, wishing to die.
It’s been hours of this, using me whenever they see fit, while her body is still on the floor.
Pale. Dead.
Ava.
Is there someone who misses her? Will they ever know what happened?
The ache behind my eyes comes swiftly the more I look at her face—too young to die when she never even lived.
Am I next? Will they kill me after they’re done using my body? Maybe it’s better if I do die, then I could be with Matteo. At the thought of his name, there’s a clenching in my chest.
The raw anguish. It’s too much. The space he once filled in my heart, now devoid of anything at all, the pain from his loss bound to my soul like a tattoo.
I attempt to recall every second of our last few moments.
What he said. How he looked. But it all flies by in a flash and I can’t quite seem to grasp it.
Every inch of me fights to remember him—everything about every single moment of our life together, from when I first saw that little boy, his eyes grasping mine as he lay on that gurney bleeding, to the man who has grown to show me what love truly is.
He owns me. Even in death.
I miss you so much. I’ll never stop loving you.
And it’s true. There’s no way to forget the only man who holds a piece of my heart no one else knows even exists. He’ll be the first. The last. The always wrapped in forever. “Pinky swear,” I whisper as though somehow, he could hear my promise, but how could he?
“Did you say you like my cock?” Venom in the man’s voice hisses past my ear, and as my eyes open, I find someone standing behind him and I gasp.
My mouth tries to move, to say even a single syllable, but it can’t. Old tears distort my vision and I know I must be imagining him standing there. It’s a hallucination, or maybe I’m dead and this is a dream.
A finger lifts in the air, landing across his lips, telling me to quiet. And I do, even as I stare hard, even as every hair on my body stands up. Surely, Matteo isn’t here at all.
But then he vanishes like he wasn’t there. I knew it. My mind is playing tricks.
“What a good whore,” the man groans, still in me, but I barely feel a thing.
My heart tightens, new tears springing into my eyes.
Please come back. Let me see you, just one more time.
“What the fuck? Why are you touching my ass, man?” Ethan instantly pops off me, glancing behind him. As he does, I quickly sit up, pulling my pants back over my hips, scooting backward as far as I can go. I realize I wasn’t hallucinating at all.
“Oh my God!” A shaky hand clamps over my mouth as the tears make a path down my cheeks. “You’re here!” I cry, seeing the other man already dead, his body at his friend’s feet.
“Of course I am, Aida. I’ll always come back for you.” He points his gun down at his side.
Ethan looks confused, jerking his eyes from Matteo to me. Before he has a chance to react, Matteo fires into his chest. Once. Then again, and again, my attacker stumbling backward until he lands on the ground.
My heartbeats ripple through me as I look at the carnage, then stare at the one who caused it.
Matteo’s gaze snaps to mine in an instant, and I get to my feet, unable to rip my eyes away from his. He assesses me as I tread toward him slowly, like I’m still unsure if I’m seeing his ghost. “Matteo, is—is that really you?”
He walks just as slowly at first, until his feet pick up pace, and mine do too, both of us running the short distance between us, both of us breathing hard as we come to stand before one another. My brows tighten, moisture building behind my eyes, his gaze filling with his own emotion.
“I thought I killed you.” Tears fill the space between my words, my palm cradling his cheek.
He clamps his hand over mine, his thumb rubbing my skin. “Thankfully you’ve got a crappy shot.” A grin spreads across his face, his eyes glistening.
My laugh comes out strangled with a sob. “Matteo…” I rise on my toes, leaning in close, my lips hovering over his. Our breaths mingle with aching desperation, his hands clinging to the back of my head, gripping tight enough to keep me tied to him for eternity.
“I know.” His forehead falls to mine. “God, I thought you were gone for good.”
“When I’m lost, you always seem to find me.”
“And I always will,” he breathes, his lips brushing tenderly with mine.
“Pinky swear?” A sob escapes me, my free hand tightening on his shoulder, my fingernails sinking into hard muscle.
“Pinky swear.” He scoops me into his arms and I kiss him, my hands crawling to his back, holding on with a ferocious desperation.
If this isn’t real, if I somehow imagined this moment, I don’t care.
Just the mere thought of being with him again is enough.
My head falls against his chest as he carries me out of this nightmare.
“We have to get out of here before more of them come,” he says as we step outside.
I nod. “We have to go back to the house and get Robby, then go somewhere far away. Just us three.”
But instead of agreeing with me, his gaze turns clouded and his jaw twitches.
“Matteo?” A shudder slinks up my spine as he settles me inside the back of a van. “Where’s Robby?” My pulse throbs at my neck.
“I don’t know. I thought he was here. That’s what that fucking bastard said.”
“No.” I shake my head with a tremor in my voice. “It was just Ava, the girl they killed, and me.” I suddenly feel sick to my stomach. “Wait, what bastard?”
“Agnelo. I have him chained up in the basement.”
My gaze widens. “Take me to him. I need to see him. He knows where Robby is. I’m sure of it.”