Chapter 28
One week later…
“You don’t have to do this,” Lorenzo reassured me, his voice laced with worry. The authority of who he was hung heavy around us. “Let me handle it.”
I shook my head. “I need to see him.” I may have sounded calm, but I had a storm raging inside me. “I need him to see me.” Tonight, I planned to take back my power. Take back the part of me he thought he claimed.
“Okay, then I’m right beside you.” He grabbed my face between his hands. “No matter what, I’ll be right there.”
His words were all I needed at that moment. They comforted me as much as his touch. My heart hammered in my chest. Not because I was scared, but because I was more than ready to end this and him.
We entered the warehouse, the air laced with the scent of metal, blood, and vomit.
Gino, Red, Emmet, and Finn stood in a semicircle around Chad, who was suspended in the centre of the room.
His wrists were bound in chains, hoisted above his head, his body a canvas of bruises and cuts. He hung there, broken but defiant.
“I’m back, you snivelling little cunt,” Lorenzo sneered as he stepped closer to Chad.
“Fuck off,” Chad spat,spit clinging to his chin, making me shudder with disgust.
“Ah, and here I was, thinking you’d be begging for your life.
” Lorenzo laughed. “But seeing you try and fight back has added a little excitement, a little spice, and I love it. I mean, what fun would it be killing someone who has already given up?” He smirked.
“But then again, it won’t be me killing you, it’ll be my wife.
” A maniacal laugh left Lorenzo’s body as Chad’s mask slipped, revealing his shit-scared expression.
I stepped out from behind Lorenzo, Chad’s eyes widening the second his gaze landed on me.
“Ana,” he croaked desperately. “You came.” He tried to smile, but it twisted into a grimace of pain. “I knew you’d come back to me. You’re mine, remember?”
Deluded fuck.
My stomach churned at the sound of his voice. But I stood tall, not letting him see any weakness. “I’m not yours,” I seethed. “I never will be.”
Lorenzo shrugged off his jacket, throwing it over the chair in the corner, never once taking his eyes off of Chad. He kept his guard up in case Chad tried something, not that he could. Chad’s twisted, vile voice spoke again, but this time his gratefulness was long gone.
“Oh, is it because you’re already his?” He scoffed, his lips twisting into a sneer. “I bet you’ve already spread those pretty little legs for him, haven’t you? Just like you should have for me.”
Lorenzo took a step towards him, yanking his blade from his waistband. He pressed the steel against Chad’s chest drawing a thin line of blood. “Shut your fucking mouth,” Lorenzo growled, his voice a low rumble, causing my body to vibrate beside him.
Chad laughed, a ragged, painful sound. “You can’t silence me, Ricci. You think just by fucking her, you own her? She’ll always belong to me and you know it.”
Rage surged through me, a fire burning in my veins.
I stepped closer to him as Lorenzo remained stoic and strong, letting me take control just as I needed.
“Nobody owns me, not even my husband,” I breathed.
“Lorenzo, hand me the knife.” I held out my hand.
He placed the blade carefully into my palm.
Lorenzo’s hand shot out, grasping my face between his fingers, his touch rough, yet intoxicating. I gasped at the intensity of his hold as my body reacted to his dominance.
He slammed his mouth against mine, his kiss savage and unrelenting.
It wasn’t a kiss of love or tenderness, but one of ownership, a brutal claim that left no room for resistance.
His lips bruised mine, his tongue invading my mouth with a ferocity that stole my breath.
My nails dug into his chest as he devoured me, marking me as his in the most primal way possible.
“Have fun, wife.” He smiled sinisterly, releasing me before he joined the men behind me.
Chad’s expression was hurt, yet angry, and I welcomed it, I wanted him physically and mentally feel pain. I wanted him to feel what I felt.
“You’re just doing this to hurt me,” he screamed, his voice damn near damaging my eardrums.
“I’ll show you just how much I can hurt you, Chad,” I sneered, watching the colour drain from his face as the realisation hit him hard.
With a steady hand, I pressed the cold steel of the blade against his arm, watching as it effortlessly cut through the layers of his skin.
Blood welled up instantly, a crimson river flowing down his forearm.
His scream tore through the stillness of the warehouse, a shrill, primal wail that bounced off the concrete walls like the crescendo of a symphony.
Each note of his agony seemed to resonate within me, filling me with a sense of liberation.
The raw power coursing through me was intoxicating, a dark satisfaction that gripped me and refused to let go.
“Stop!” Chad cried, his body twisting in the chains. “Please, just fucking stop!”
But I didn’t stop. I didn’t want to. I moved methodically, slicing into his flesh, each cut a reminder of the pain he and his masked men had inflicted on me.
Lorenzo watched, his eyes burning with a dark intensity.
I bet the fucker was turned on. He always seemed to be, anyway.
But he also knew what this meant to me. He knew I needed this.
Trailing my blade across Chad’s exposed flesh, his body trembled. “Don’t tell me you’re scared?” I chuckled.
“I know what you’re capable of,” he cried.
“That’s true. Shame you didn’t stay on the right side of me then, isn’t it?”
“You’re too good for him, Ana.” He thrashed against his restraints as I watched him exhaust himself.
“Oh, and I suppose you’re perfect for me, are you?” I toyed with the tip of the blade as his eyes flicked between mine and the steel. “How about we play a little game?”
“Fuck you!” He raised his feet from the floor, trying to launch himself at me but it was useless. He had no strength left.
“I see you want to play, lucky me.” I winked, patting his cheek as a stray tear left his eye.
I didn’t know if it was from the pain or if it was from the fact that it was me he was facing.
“Question one—how could you and the cowards you call men beat the woman you supposedly love?” I asked, waiting for his stupid response.
“You provoked them, and you provoked me! What did you expect me to do?!” he screeched.
“Okay, squealer, calm down. It’s too early for a headache, and if you survive what I’ve got planned for you, we’ll be here a while,” I replied, pondering what I wanted to do next.
“I know you’re going to kill me, so get on with it,” he roared.
The door behind me opened and closed. “Room for one more?” Nicolo beamed, clapping his palms together.
“What the hell is this? Some sort of party?!” Chad tried to crack a joke. How cute.
“If you want it to be,” I teased. “How about this, you can be the human pinata.” I laughed.
“That’s not a bad idea, Ana,” Red called from behind. “Save a whack for me, yeah? I want to see what candy falls out.”
I picked up a bat from the table beside me. Maybe not a weapon some would choose, but I wanted to have fun. I wanted to make him feel it. Chad’s eyes widened. He knew the ideas and thoughts that played in my mind.
“The difference being, we play for body parts, not candy.” A sinister smile played on my lips as he let out a pent-up roar.
I ran the bat along his body, pausing at the tip of his shrivelled-up dick. “Maybe I’ll start here. What do you think?”
“Get fucked!” he spat, thrashing in his chains.
“You know what, that’s not a bad idea.” I glanced over my shoulder at Lorenzo who wore a mischievous smile.
“Everyone out,” Lorenzo demanded from behind.
The guys hesitated for a moment, their eyes flicking between Lorenzo and me. But in the end, they obeyed their boss, their footsteps echoing as they disappeared into the shadows.
The warehouse fell silent, except for Chad’s ragged breathing and the occasional whimper. I felt a strange mix of satisfaction and revulsion as I stared at the man I once called my friend.
Lorenzo stepped closer to me, his presence overwhelming. He grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me toward him with no hesitation. His eyes burned with a raw and primal hunger as he pressed me against the table, the cold metal digging into the backs of my legs.
“What’s going through that mind of yours?”
“I want you to fuck me.” I whispered, as his teeth grazed my earlobe.
“Right here? Now?” The warmth of his breath caused goosebumps to decorate my skin.
“Yes.”
“You’re something else,” he murmured. His hands moved to my hair, fisting it tightly as he pulled my head back and exposed my neck. “So beautiful. My wife. Mine.”
I felt his cock press against me, his desire palpable. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but there was something about tonight that made me need him more than normal, made me crave him wholeheartedly.
Within a split second, he lifted me effortlessly onto the table. “Lie down,” he demanded, the softness in his eyes gone.
Chad’s screams filled the air, his pleas for mercy ignored.
“Stop!” he cried. “She’s mine! Anastacia, please, you’re mine!
” Despite being so close, it seemed as if he wasn’t in the same room.
I had never been fucked in front of anyone before, but there was something about it that made my pussy ache with need.
“Don’t move,” Lorenzo ordered as he fetched the duct tape from the table beside us. He ripped enough off to cover Chad’s mouth , shutting the bastard up.
“Shut the fuck up, Chad,” Lorenzo scolded, patting Chad’s cheek in a humiliating gesture. “That’s a good boy.”
Lorenzo turned his focus entirely on me as he undressed me, savouring each passing second. I was submitting to him, something I vowed never to do, but right then, that had gone out the window. He could take whatever he wanted from me.