Chapter 27
Bianca
They stuffed me in the trunk of a car!
I can’t believe this, though why am I surprised? These men, they have no moral, no conscience. I saw them down the guard patrolling Mattia’s property on the deck outside the living room. The shots didn’t even ring—I just saw him go down. Thankfully, he didn’t land in the pool, which would’ve caused a splash that would’ve alerted my son something was up.
He didn’t see a man fall dead right before his eyes, but he did see his mother being taken.
My heart clenches as tears burn my eyes and flow freely down my cheeks.
Something about this early evening didn’t feel right. I could sense something in the air, like the wind itself was whispering insidious and malicious barbs at me despite the breeze being gentle and balmy outside.
Enzo was playing with his dinosaur figures on the rug while Paw Patrol played on the big screen in the background. I remember thinking we just might escape the obsession so many kids develop for this show, and after being ensconced in Peppa Pig mania for years now, I’d breathed a sigh of relief.
Then something had triggered me to look out. I always kept an eye on the patrols. Dino was a good man, albeit taciturn. I knew he’d protect us with his life, and that’s what mattered. He grew up around Leo and was one of the first soldiers to swear Omertà to him. We usually exchanged a nod before he went on his way.
Except tonight, the second he turned onto the deck, someone got him from behind.
Everything inside me recoiled at the same time I knew I had to protect Enzo. I saw myself falling back and crouching over him, pulling him into my arms. He protested, his small whine turning to a sob when the screams of hoarse-sounding men resonated around us and a group of armed thugs stormed into the house.
They came from all sides. It was futile trying to resist, but that’s what I did. I kicked and screamed, clutched my boy to me. Someone clenched my shoulders hard, the hurt rippling through me as I tried to hold on. My arms were peeled away from him. Suddenly, he was there on the floor amid his toys while I was being pulled back.
In all the cacophony, I heard him calling out for me, every iteration of “ Maman! ” tearing something inside. The men were speaking a strange language I didn’t recognize, flutters of English coming through at times.
“Leave the kid,” one of them said. “We were told to bring her, not the trash.”
I wanted to rip their innards out for speaking of my boy like that, but their words also comforted me, in a way. They wanted me, not him. He would be safe.
That still didn’t mean I wouldn’t defend him with everything I had. I kicked and struggled, though I stopped screaming—the interior was soundproof, anyway, and I didn’t want the sound of my screams to be what my son recalled of this moment. For him, I had to stay strong and fight.
My wrists were bound, someone clenching my legs tight so I couldn’t wiggle. They dragged me out this way. Once outside, I did let a scream rip, but it was cut short when a black hood was pulled over my face, muffling any sound I was making. There’s no way the neighbors would have heard me and called my brother to tell him something was off at his place and his sister was screaming. Damn those big lots and gardens in the free-standing houses in this area.
Next thing I know, I’ve been thrown into the trunk of a car, the lid snapping shut and closing me off in darkness. My heart rate accelerated even more, worry for my son making me go mad with all sorts of thoughts running in my head.
Who were those people?
What did they want?
At least they’d not touched my boy, but the guards, they were dead. They didn’t hesitate to down anyone standing in their way. If Hana had been here… Horror made me gasp. I prayed she wouldn’t come back before they’d carted me away.
But we did make it out of the yard rather quickly. Just the one car, I can hear. I can’t bear to imagine they’ve left people behind. I don’t think they’re stupid—Mattia will be back to his house tonight, and Leo will probably be with him. They’d be sitting ducks if they camped around, as Leo and my brother would kill them on sight.
No, it’s me they wanted, and this forces me to wonder why. What have I done to warrant this? Who has it in for me? It can’t be someone gunning for Leo. Anyone trying to get a Mafia boss, let alone a Don, through his woman is reckless at best and a moron at worst. Leo already has a reputation as someone not to mess with.
No, this is about me. And possibly, this person wants me dead.
Or worse: to pay.
I gasp as the car swerves sharply, throwing me around in the tight confines, the metal hard and unrelenting against my body. The vehicle comes to a stop, and I can hear car doors opening and closing. Next, the trunk lid is lifted, a bright light shining in my face from a torch lamp, blinding me.
Harsh hands are reaching out and wrapping around my upper arms, pulling me out. I flail my legs around, as much to kick them as to alleviate the pins and needles that have suddenly burst into my limbs after so much time inert.
My resistance is futile, though, but I don’t let that stop me. I’m surprised someone hasn’t slapped me or kicked me yet. They just wrangle and tug, directing me inside a structure—I know we went in because the soft breeze on my skin has cut off, the interior still and a little sweltering. I can smell dust, and something heavier like motor oil.
I’m slammed down unceremoniously into a chair. My legs are spread wide with a booted foot, zip ties wrapping around my ankles and the front chair legs. The tie on my wrists is broken only for someone to pull my arms back and tie them, spread out like my legs, to the back of the chair. I am rendered defenseless and immobile this way, no matter how much I struggle.
A low chuckle breaks the oppressing atmosphere, and the sound is so sinister, I freeze. A shudder of dread courses down my back as the air around me shivers when the hood is removed.
The light inside this space which looks like an abandoned car workshop isn’t bright, yet it hurts my eyes nevertheless. I blink and focus on where the huff of a laugh came from, though everything inside me is going heavy with trepidation.
My gaze lands on a tall, big man in a violet three-piece suit. His fair skin is a sharp contrast to the vivid color, and his body, though it looks honed, is also straining a little against the seams. The features of his face are sharp, as if carved with a delicate blade from cool marble. Devilishly handsome is what comes to mind…until one looks at his eyes.
They remind me of a snake’s: cold, calculating, insidious. However, in a snake’s gaze, you do see life swirling in the depths.
Jasir Abrashi’s eyes are empty, soulless, devoid of anything making a person human.
I’d never met him before. But the resemblance with Ardian is there, strikingly so. The nose, mouth, chin, it’s as if the same mold was used for both brothers.
I’m staring at The Butcher , and it clicks now. He’s a man hellbent on revenge, and that’s what he wants from me.
I sneak in a sharp breath and force myself to swallow so I can wet my throat and my tongue.
“You’re going to kill me?” I ask him.
I don’t want this to be my fate, not when I’ve just reunited with Leo, when we’ve just started sketching the etchings of our family together.
He contemplates me with narrowed eyes for a long time. I want to squirm under his intense stare, but I keep myself still. Like a snake, he will smell weakness and fear. I won’t give him that.
“I won’t,” he finally says.
I blink, not getting it.
He chuckles again, the same sinister sound raising all the hairs on my body.
“It’s a marriage that was promised, dearest,” he states, smiling at me.
“No!” I gasp.
I won’t marry him. I can’t.
He approaches me, long strides smooth and calculated, like a panther closing in on its prey. He stops and peers down at me from his impressive height. When I refuse to look up, a small form of defiance I dare oppose to him, his long fingers close tightly on my chin and force my head to tilt back.
I’m staring into those depthless eyes, a small puff of fear escaping my lips.
He smiles, one side of his mouth more crooked. “You’re not usually my type.”
I want to spit in his face, but I don’t have enough saliva in my mouth to do so. Whatever happens, I’ll go down fighting.
“I like to see what I’m doing, you know,” he continues. “On your skin?” He shakes his head softly. “Then again, maybe…”
The trailing off alerts me something is coming. I’m still surprised when his right hand lands in a hard slap against my cheek. My skin is instantly burning.
He chuckles again, pure delight in his tone. “You do mark easily. Well, gonna have to go in a bit heavy-handed, but that can be fun.”
He’s wiggling his eyebrows at me as he says the last part. It dawns on me what he means. Ardian Abrashi was into torture porn, something we all thought was his brother’s tastes. But Jasir, he’s the kind of man who’d make such scenarios happen, and he’d take great pleasure in doing so, too.
I flinch when he trails a finger on my still-smarting cheek and then down my neck to where my caftan covers my collarbone.
“Don’t worry, dearest. Nothing will happen to you. At least not now.” He gazes at me almost tenderly next. “A man doesn’t touch a woman who’s not selling her body unless she’s his wife.” He pauses. “Soon,” he adds in a whisper.
Everything inside me stills and shrivels. He did say his family was promised a marriage. His plan isn’t to kill me but to marry me…all so he can enact his twisted perversions on my body and break my spirit, too, in the process. The slap he gave me, it’s just a prelude of what’s to come.
Bile touches the back of my throat, and I retch.
Jasir Abrashi clamps a hand on my mouth, forcing me to swallow back the vomit as his eyes turn hard on me.
“Learn how to choke, dearest, because there’s a lot of that coming your way after tonight.”
It’s astounding how outwardly handsome this man is. I can picture Lucifer or Satan taking his form when walking the Earth as a human. And this is exactly what could’ve happened, the devil now my handler as he plans to make me descend to Hell with him.
I gulp, swallowing the burning bile back, my throat closing. Yet, as fear makes me shiver, another thought inserts itself into my mind.
Even the devil is not spared from the angel of death… Leo will be coming for me. I just hope he’ll get to me before I’m forced to marry this man. Because then, even death will seem like a respite.