SUN
I don’t know where I end and the pain begins.
I’m locked in a metal cage Anzo brought down to the black room. Every day he comes to whip me, rape me with a dildo, electrocute me, over and over. The only time I’m let out is to use the bathroom. It’s Matteo who takes me.
Summer doesn’t have it much better. He’s forced to spend hours in the black room too, hanging by a hook. When Anzo gets bored of torturing me, he turns to Summer. Makes him fuck him, sometimes rapes him with the same damn dildo, sometimes just beats him until the omega blacks out.
Anzo’s rage is bottomless.
He takes it out on both of us.
But why? What the hell is he so angry about?
Sometimes, when Summer comes back to himself, I cry and whisper apologies to him through the bars.
"I’m so sorry, Summer… because of me, your life’s even worse now. But I swear to you, I never tried to seduce Rocco. That bastard makes me sick…"
But he just shakes his head and says, "I know, Sun. You don’t have to explain."
One day, I wake up curled on the floor of the cage, every inch of me screaming in pain. He electrocuted me so many times the night before I lost count. I see a shadow leaning over me. A face peering through the bars.
For a moment, I can’t process what’s happening. My mind’s too fogged up to make sense of anything.
Then, slowly, the blur clears, and I recognize the face.
Luca Ferro.
The purple alpha stares down at me. And I swear, Fate, I swear, I see something like sympathy in his eyes.
"I have a message for you, Sun."
I gaze up at him blankly, mouth hanging open, body completely numb.
"Hold on."
"That’s the message?" I breathe out.
Luca nods slowly.
"I… I don’t have a future. Doesn’t matter what I do, someone’s going to suffer…" I whisper. "I wasted my life."
There’s nothing left in me, not even tears. Just a faint sigh.
"Just kill me already. End it. But please… leave my family out of this. Let them live."
Luca reaches through the bars and brushes his fingers against my limp hand.
"Stay strong, Sun. Just hold on…"
I scoff, bitterness rising in my throat.
"Why are you telling me this? Who the hell are you to say that?"
"It’s not from me. Someone asked me to pass it on."
"Who?"
Luca shakes his head.
"I can’t say. But he wants you to keep fighting."
Then he turns and walks away.
What the actual fuck?
Did that really just happen? Or was it some hallucination, some desperate fantasy my broken mind conjured to give me hope?
He probably wasn’t even real. Just a dream. It doesn’t matter anyway.
There’s no way out of this.
So I close my eyes… and fall back into sleep.
When I open them again, Anzo is sitting in a chair across the room. Summer’s not here. It’s just the two of us. His black eyes are fixed on me.
I don’t say anything. No matter what I say, Anzo will only see it as another lie. So I rest on my side and just stare blankly at his face.
"I want to offer you a way out of here, Sun."
I hear the words, but I don’t believe them. It’s just another one of his games.
Anzo stands slowly and starts pacing around the cage like a lazy bear.
"When I first met Moon, we were close for a while," he says, choosing his words carefully. "And one day, he told me something strange. He said his brother was a magical being."
Anzo abruptly stops in front of the cage and looks at me.
"But to me, Moon was the magical one, with a talent that interested me so much. So I never pressed him for details about his brother. And whenever I tried, he’d just smile and say, ‘It’s hard to explain. He’s not like the others.’ "
I realize where this is going before Anzo even finishes the thought. I decide right then to do everything I can to convince him I don’t know anything more about Summer.
"What does that even mean, that he’s magical?" I ask in a tone so genuinely curious I’m almost proud of it. It sounds like I actually care about the answer.
Anzo stays quiet for a moment, then narrows his eyes.
"I was hoping you could tell me."
"And why would I? I don’t walk around asking people, ‘Hi, are you magical by chance?’" I reply, putting on a dumb expression.
Although, to be fair, I clearly remember doing just that the day Summer helped me for the first time.
"You’re good, but I think you know."
"Know what? What does that even mean, being magical? Like, special?" I’m laying it on thick, playing the fool like a pro.
Anzo stares at me. Whether he believes me or not, I can’t tell. Finally, he says slowly,
"I’m going to let you out for a while. Think of it as your shot. In return, I want you to find out more about Summer. Find out what makes him magical. If you tell me… I’ll let you leave The Sun in one piece. And I will leave your family alone. That’s a promise."
Wow.
There it is. He said it. The words I’ve been dreaming about…
I’ll let you leave.
I swallow hard. My mind goes completely blank for a moment, and then two conflicting scenarios crash into each other:
In one, I betray Summer, he lets me go, and it’s finally over.
In the other, I betray Summer, and Anzo keeps me locked up anyway, or hanging. No help from Summer this time.
To buy myself more time, I blurt out, "What exactly am I supposed to do, Anzo? Ask him, ‘Hey man, sorry, could you maybe explain what kind of magic you have?’ That sounds super cringe," I say with a dry, broken laugh.
Anzo stops pacing. "Don’t play games with me, Sun. I’m giving you a month to get me that information. After that, you’re coming back here. For good."
"In a month, I’m supposed to be back at college, Anzo. My parents will notice I never showed up. They’ll go to the police. What do you think is going to happen then?" I lay it all out because I need to know what his actual plan is for me.
Anzo straightens up. "Take what I said seriously, pet."
"Seriously? You didn’t believe me when I told you the truth about Rocco. Will you believe whatever I make up about Summer's supposed magic?"
"I never said I didn’t believe you."
"Then why the hell did you punish me!?" I cry out, my voice cracking with desperation.
Anzo’s expression shifts, something flickers across his face. But he doesn’t answer.
Then he turns around and leaves.
A minute later, Matteo walks in, yanks me out of the cage with a few rough pulls, and drags me back to my room.
I’m filthy, weak, and aching all over. Barely able to stay upright, I shuffle to the shower, sit on the floor, and let the water run over my head.
Tears mix with the stream. I’m shaking from the stress and the despair.
But one thing is getting crystal clear. The awareness that Anzo is never letting me go. Even if I betray Summer, I’m not getting out. That option’s off the table. That’s a quiet but intense certainty.
Why? I’ve seen too much. Seen how weak of a capo Anzo really is. Pathetic. Maybe a businessman. Simply not a real capo. I witnessed his failures and he won’t let me go away to spread it around.
I sit there under the water for a good half hour before I finally crawl out, dry myself off half-heartedly, and collapse on the bed. I haven’t felt anything soft in six days. Every bone in my body feels bruised. I bury my face in the pillow and a broken sob escapes my chest.
***
No idea how many hours later I wake up, though the sleep didn’t regenerate my body as much as I hoped. I still feel awful but… my first thought is of Ragnar, the only taste of freedom, the only flicker of ‘good feeling’ I’ve had inside this fortress. I need to see him. I want it so badly.
But do I have the strength?
I do. I have to.
So I force myself out of bed and stumble to the window. And there he is. Right away, I spot him in the garden, painting sticky insect glue on the trunks of trees.
My heart kicks into high gear. That man means nothing here, he’s at the bottom of the chain, but to me he… What is he to me?
If I were free, maybe I could let myself fall for him. Get close. But not here. Not with this constant level of stress. Here, he’s just… a comfort. A moment of relief. Nothing more. And yet, I still crave him. Desperately. His presence. His eyes, looking at me with understanding. With compassion.
His low status here doesn’t matter, because to me, he has the highest.
Me, who always dated the sons of millionaires, I’m drawn to a simple gardener.
I pull myself together, walk out of the room, head down to the first floor and out the side door that leads to the garden.
No one’s around. I step outside and feel the warm air on my face for the first time in days. The scent of flowers hits me, the sun nearly blinds me. It’s the height of summer.
Dear Fate, even the air smells like freedom.
I lift my head and watch birds soaring for a few seconds until my eyes start to water. I’ve grown unaccustomed to the harsh daylight.
Then I hear it.
A heartbeat nearby. I glance around nervously and spot Ennio Ferro standing at the edge of the patio near a line of planters.
He’s wearing a sharp suit and smoking something that looks like a vape. The smell is medicinal. I recognize it instantly. My brother Bay uses similar stuff all the time. It’s a strong anti-anxiety blend, a calming agent, usually prescribed for high stress or anxiety.
Does Ennio need it? He seems perfectly calm and unreadable, but maybe that’s just a mask. So many of them wear one.
He turns his head my way slowly, his face motionless, blank. But for half a second, his eyes flick to my neck, where there’s still a burn from when Anzo electrocuted me and cranked it way past normal. Then he just looks away.
Shit. As long as he’s here, I can’t go to Ragnar.
What should I do? Wait it out? Or engage? Maybe try to get acquainted with him. In a mafia stronghold, there’s no telling when I may need any kind of help or at least a little kindness.
The scent of the vape is strong, and to be honest, I’d love something like that right now. Just a little relief. Gosh, I really need it.
So, before I think it through, I approach him.
"Hi, I’m Sun."