CHAPTER FIVE
RAINA
I stand in my garden admiring the hard work I’ve put into it over the last three years. The pink roses are my favorite, and they’re coming along so nicely. I also planted lavender, alliums, geraniums, and marigolds. I have vegetables on the other side, but the flowers are my favorite. This is my peaceful place. Nobody comes out here other than me, so I’m surprised when I see my brothers, father, and a few of their men, traipsing through the pavement that separates my two gardens. They aren’t alone. There’s a young blonde woman with them, and as they come closer, I notice her hands are zip tied behind her back. The panic is visible in her wide eyes, trembling bottom lip, and tears streaking her cheeks. The way she looks at me, it’s like she thinks I can save her, and I can’t. I know that, but her only words to me make my chest squeeze painfully.
“Please save my baby.”
She isn’t begging for her life. Her unborn child is her only concern, but they are currently one. Even if the baby had been born, I can’t help her. Nobody will listen to me.
Rocco lifts his gun and hits her on the head with the butt of it.
“Shut up, cunt.”
They yank her to the basement, and I know I’ll probably never see this woman again. My only hope is that they kill her quickly, even though I know that’s not their style. All three of my remaining brothers are into torture. They don’t just like it; it gets them off. This Bella woman will pay for Reaper Bonetti’s wrongs, and then they will come for us, and we’ll all pay for my brothers’, as well as my father’s, actions. It’s the mafia way. It’s not if they come for us, it’s when.
I want to save her, as I listen to her screams before the door closes. Yet, I know I can’t. All three of my brothers will have no problem beating me black and blue, but Rocco is the worst of them. He will kill me without thinking twice. He is the sole reason I know what she’ll be subjected to. The brutality. If Reaper and his brothers get here before she’s dead, she won’t be the woman she used to be. My brother changes women.
I stand staring at the door, willing it to open so the poor woman can escape. Of course, I don’t have any superpowers, so I’m surprised when it opens, and Edoardo walks out and closes it behind him. He walks over to me, and glances at my flowers before looking back at me.
All of my brothers look alike; tall, with dark hair, and dark eyes. None of them are kind, but Eddie is probably the closest to it.
He narrows his gaze at me.
“Don’t do anything stupid, alright? You know what Rocco is capable of, and I don’t think Mama could handle losing you right now.”
I blink back the unshed tears in my eyes.
“They’re raping her, aren’t they?”
He nods.
“Yeah, all three of them. As you know, that’s not my game, so I left. You should go inside the house. You don’t need to be here for this.”
I shake my head in disgust at my brothers, and my father. It’s my father that disappoints me the most. One might think a husband would be faithful to his wife, but dear old dad never has been. The basement is his playground. He fucks and kills whatever he wants with zero cares. There’s no humanity to him, and it’s that very reason, when the Bonettis come to kill us, that I hope he goes first, and I get to watch. I know what Edoardo said is true, he does not rape women, but he will torture them. My brother can pretend to be better than the other men in my family, but I know he’ll go back in there and hurt her.
Turning away from my brother, I do as he suggested and walk back to the house. I find my mother sipping tea in the dining room, and I sit across from her.
“They are raping her, Mama. All three of them.”
She doesn’t look at me, her gaze stays on her tea as if she’s waiting for it to do something enthralling, or maybe it already is.
“Of course they are. Did you expect anything different, Raina?”
I slam my hands down on the table as I yell at her.
“Does this not fucking bother you?”
She lifts her gaze to mine and shakes her head.
“Do not curse at me. I may not get respect from anyone else in this house, but from you, I will. We are women, Raina. They do not care what we think or say. It is best to let it go, unless you’d like to take her place. Your blood will not save you. It’ll be over in a few days.”
My father has controlled her for their entire marriage, so I try to understand why she is the way she is, but it infuriates me. I can’t do anything, and neither can she, I know that, but she could at least show some emotion, instead of being so detached.
I scoot my chair back and glare at my mother.
“And you wonder why I don’t want children? Do you think I’d want to bring anything innocent into this family? Risk having a girl, so she could go through the same thing I have? Maybe worse? You keep asking why. This is fucking why!”
I storm off to my bedroom, before she has the chance to scold me for being so brazen as to say the ‘F’ word. My brothers are in the basement, raping, and brutally torturing, a woman because she has a connection to the Bonettis, and she is worried about my language? This family is fucked up beyond reason, and I only wish I could get out of it.
I could. There’s nothing stopping me from running far away, and starting a new life, except her. My mother is my world, and while she pisses me off, I’d never leave her. Not willingly.
For tonight, I need to get the hell out of this house. I cannot stay here knowing what’s happening in the basement. I wish I could disconnect myself from everything, the way my mother does, but I can’t. So it’s best for me to not be here. If I stay, and keep thinking about what they are doing to that woman, I’ll do something stupid, and get myself killed.
I send a text to my best friend, Casey.
Me: Meet me at the club. I have to get out of here.
Casey: Everything alright?
Me: I’ll explain when I see you. Family is being family.
There won’t be any further questions, so I set my phone down so I can get ready. Casey knows when I say, ‘family is being family’, that there’s some nasty mafia shit going down. We met when we were in high school, and have been inseparable since that day. For years, people expected us to date, but we’ve always only been friends. I never had an interest in more than that, and if he did, he never expressed it. Although his distaste for my family’s business might have had more than a little to do with it.
After getting dressed, in black leather pants and a matching sleeveless shirt, I apply my eye makeup for the evening, when the sound of heavy footfalls echoes through the hallway outside my bedroom door. As calmly as possible, I set my brush on my dressing table and move underneath it, and adjust the sheer curtain so it’s covering me. It’s a black material, so it’ll conceal me a bit if no one looks too closely. My heart pounds in my chest as I squeeze my eyes closed tight. Mama. I don’t care if they kill everyone in this hellhole, as long as she survives.
The footsteps stop, and my bedroom door clicks loudly, as muffled voices penetrate the quiet space. I stop breathing and wait.