Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
Sofia
I come awake with a groan, my head feeling like someone took a hammer to it. When I try to raise my head off my pillow, white lights burst behind my eyes and I fall back onto the pillow, cupping my head.
What the hell?
Surely, I’m not drunk, am I?
I’ve never in my life had more than a glass or two of alcohol at a go, but I’ve heard some of the men growing up describe hangovers as a sore, heavy head and disorientation. But I don’t remember drinking.
My eyes flicker open, and confusion sets in at once. Why is my room so dark? Or is it still the middle of the night? I decide to get up and go downstairs for some of that chamomile or peppermint tea Alba keeps on swearing by.
I raise up my head and get the confusion of my life when my head bangs against a hard surface.
What the?—
It’s only then that I realize that the hand cupping my head feels wet and sticky. I bring down the hand and stare at it. In the pitch dark, I can’t tell what it is, but something inside of me already knows.
Blood . I have blood on my hands. I’m bleeding from my head.
“Hello?” I call out, stretching out my hand and patting the sides of the box I seem to be in.
Panic immediately swells inside of me when I feel the dimensions. Is this a coffin? Am I being buried alive? The only thing I can think of is that Sebastian finally discovered my infidelity, and this is the price of my betrayal.
“Help! Help me! Anyone?” I beat against the sides of the box, my breath becoming rattled.
I’m not claustrophobic, thank God, but neither do I want to die alone in a box in God knows where. Just as I have the thought, the wooden box sways and I freeze.
I shift against one side of the box weakly, cocking my ear, but I don’t hear anything. It’s almost like I’ve been tossed away and forgotten. Horrifying image upon horrifying image of where I can possibly be fills my head.
A land fill? Six feet under, perhaps? Tossed into the sea? A canyon? Oh God, my thoughts aren’t helping.
I shut my eyes and try to take a deep, even breath. Don’t panic Sofia, just relax, just try to remember how the hell you got here.
Another breath shudders out of me. The last thing I remember is that perfect kiss with Nero, and then I headed back to my room... Or at least I had been heading back to my room.
My head begins to hurt as I try to sort through the memory, but finally, I recall someone grabbing me roughly by the shoulder and yanking me into a dark hallway. Before I could even get my bearings to scream, he had his hand wrapped around my hair and knocked my head into the wall.
My eyes fly open in shock.
There’s no way that I was abducted from the house without anyone noticing. That place has been streaming with security since the fire at the Villa, which means that I’ve been taken under Sebastian’s order, which also means that he knows something, if not everything.
“Dear God, I—” the rest of it refuses to leave my mouth. I haven’t been the most devout Christian since I moved out of my parents’ house and anyway, it feels rather hypocritical to pray about a situation I landed myself in by committing adultery.
“About time you got here, Castello,” I hear my husband’s voice drawl.
Then I hear the cry of a seagull next. We are by the sea. My mind races with realization. Today is still Sunday, the day of the shipment and the day Nero is supposed to take Sebastian down. I’m probably in one of the shipping crates, and if I’m here, it means Nero’s in trouble.
“God please. God please,” I whisper to myself as I begin to beat against the sides of the crate with renewed effort.
“Nero! Get out of here! It’s a trap! Get the hell out!” I scream at the top of my lungs until my voice cracks, but it’s futile. He can’t possibly hear me. A sob catches in my throat, and I shut my eyes, feeling useless and defeated.
“I didn’t know I was so important that the deal would be put on hold for my sake. I’m truly flattered,” Nero is saying, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Please, leave,” I whisper brokenly, knowing that neither of us is going to make it out of this alive.
Sweat drips down my face and chest, and breathing becomes increasingly difficult inside the cramped crate. If I don’t break free soon, I’ll suffocate, which might be Sebastian’s sinister plan.
“You should be flattered,” Sebastian sneers, his chuckle sending chills down my spine. “After all, this entire charade is for your benefit.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sebastian’s laughter is over-the-top, and he mocks Nero’s deep voice, repeating, “What are you talking about?”
“Do you think me a fool?” he suddenly roars. “Do you think I’m so blind and stupid that I wouldn’t know that you are the snake slithering in my yard? Do you think I don’t know about all the times you put your hands on my wife and had her cry out your name?”
I stiffen, tears running down my eyes. Sebastian knows.
“If you had been a husband to her, she wouldn’t have had to be screaming another man’s name,” Nero sounds nonchalant. “I saw an opportunity, I took advantage of it. It’s not like you’re winning any prizes for chastity, Lucchese. You had your cock in that blonde whore every chance you could.”
I wonder if his careless description of the thing between us is a ploy to protect himself or if he means it. Either way, it makes my chest hurt.
“You stupid fool!” Sebastian snarled. “You know, the problem with you, Castello, is you’ve always been a cocky son of a bitch. You’ve always felt so invincible and untouchable, better than the rest of us. Well, you’ve gotten to the end of your road today, asshole.”
“Can we quit the endless back and forth and get this over with?” I hear a familiar voice say. “I don’t have all day, Lucchese.”
I immediately place the voice as belonging to the short, dull eyed man from that painful dinner a few days ago. Carmine Amato .
“Get him,” Sebastian orders.
“If any of your men takes a step—” Nero immediately counters.
My husband’s laughter cuts off the other man’s threat, and the smug satisfaction in it makes me feel cold and uncomfortable.
“You’ll do what ?” Sebastian taunts. “You will have your men on the roof or the ones posing as my men by the docks take me down? Come now, Castello, you’ve forgotten who I am.”
“How?”
“Since the fire at the Villa, I've been more cautious about Vittoria,” my husband explains. “When I noticed a shadowy entourage monitoring her every move, my suspicions grew. I traced them back to you. Initially, I assumed you were just protective of the woman I love like the family I thought you were. But then, the news of Tony's boat catching fire piqued my interest. I had people investigate.
“It didn't take long to discover that you were spotted at the scene during the explosion. That's when I became more determined to uncover your connection with Tony.”
“You bastard,” Nero barks. “You’ve been playing me from the start. That dinner where you let me hear all about your shipment plans?—”
“It was a bait, and you took it, hook, line and sinker. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. Especially when I had my hands all over what you’ve already started to consider yours.”
Chills sweep through my body. He means me . A bitter, hysterical laugh fills the inside of the shipment crate. Of course, I was only a pawn in the game. When am I never?
“Get him,” Sebastian spits, and I hear the sound of hurried footsteps, followed by a groan of pain, bone crunching, a thud of a body falling.
My stomach curdles and squeezes painfully as I imagine the pain he must be going through.
“Get the bitch out!” my husband barks at someone, and mere moments later, footsteps approach the crate that I’m lying in and there’s the clinking sound of a padlock being undone.
Light assaults my eyes a second later, and it takes me a while to adjust to it after being stuck in the dark. My eyes roam around the dock, taking in my surroundings and how close to the edge the crate I’m in is positioned. I shiver at the fact that I could have easily been dropped into the inky depths of the ocean and left to an uncertain fate.
I finally look over at Nero and what I see makes me reel in shock.
I assumed that he was getting the beating of his life, but instead, he’s throwing men off left and right like some kind of mindless beast.
Three men charge at him, and I watch as his fist cracks against one’s face, his other plants inside another’s stomach and the third he kicks in the knee, when the man stumbles, he falls into Nero’s ready elbow. God, he’s magnificent.
My mouth starts to pull into a smile and that’s exactly when Sebastian’s cruel eyes land on mine and narrow.
“The fun is over,” he says in a low voice and crosses the space to where I’m standing, frozen to the ground by both terror and shock.
He grabs me roughly by my hair when he’s close enough. Then digs out a gun and presses it right into my temple.
“There’s only one of two ways this can end, and unfortunately, neither of them involve the little, cheating bitch getting away with her brain intact.”
Nero’s dark, intense gaze falls on me, dragging down my body and back up. They zero on my bleeding head and harden.
He takes one step toward me, but Sebastian must have been expecting it, because he cocks his gun.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Sebastian tuts. “You could never get to her in time, Castello. You may think you’re invincible, but she’s not, and I’d like nothing more than her brain to go splat.”
“I will kill you,” Nero roars, the words ringing with certainty. “If you lay one?—”
“Oh, come off it.” His hand curls around my waist, the cold barrel of the gun still pressed insistently against my flesh. “I’m sick of the empty threats. You are defenseless. Face it, Castello, it’s over. You’ve lost this round, and I’m going to make you watch me kill her before I kill you, too. I do love repeating history, don’t you? Wiping off the Castello clan off the face of this Earth. Just like my father did.”
Nero snarls, gaze flying around wildly. A cornered dog. Tears streak my cheeks because I know that he can save himself. If he chooses to leave me to my fate, he can live to fight another day.
“Go,” I sob. “Please, go.”
He stares at me for one heartbreaking moment, and I begin to think that, for the first time in the history of Nero and I, he’s going to listen to me instead of being a bull-headed idiot. But then his hands drop laxly to his sides in clear surrender.
“You stupid man!” I scream. “What do you think you are doing? Don’t be crazy, you’ve waited for this day for?—”
The butt of Sebastian’s gun whips against my cheek and my face snaps to the side. I feel blood pool in my mouth, but I don’t feel the pain. The only pain I can feel is the one burning in my chest at the knowledge that the man I love is going to die right here, and it will be because of me.
“I’ll never forgive you,” I whisper.
“I don’t need your forgiveness, you slut,” Sebastian laughs.
But the words aren’t for him. They are for the beautiful man who a few hours ago told me he would never give up his revenge for me.
I watch with agony as he drops to his knees as blow upon blow are rained down on him. All I can see is blood, and I can’t look away. I want to, God, I’ve never wanted anything more in that moment than control of my own body so I can look away from the horror.
Suddenly, Sebastian’s hand wraps around my throat and he begins to choke the life out of me. I struggle against his hold, clawing at his hands.
“Nero,” I try to whisper. I love you .
From the corner of my eye, I see Sebastian raise his gun and aim it straight at the bleeding man.
God please, God please . I’d give anything. Anything at all. Nero can’t die. Not here, not now.
“It’s over, Castello.” His voice is full of delight.
From across the way, I see Nero’s dark gaze drop down to the center of my chest, I follow his eyes down to where there’s a red dot on the center of my chest that’s slowly crawling up.
I look back at him and see his mouth curl up into a small smile.
Just then, a bullet wheezes past me.