Chapter 14 #2
“What do you want from me?” I ask him point blank as I open my eyes. “I’m tired of listening to this.”
“Ha! You’re tired?” Eivor motions for the guards to surround me. “You’re going to be beyond tired after I’m through with you.”
Guns are so close to my head that I know if a trigger is pulled, I’m gone. My life is completely over.
“Unless of course…you agree to do your job,” Eivor suggests. He steps even closer and speaks into my ear. Feeling his breath against my skin makes me sick to my stomach. “I’ll give you one last chance. Find the information I’m after, give it to me, and help me bring the Dresvanni down.”
“Or?” I ask quietly.
My gaze shifts over to Rosalie. I can see the anger in her eyes, but she stays silent. I want to tell her to get out of here before things take a turn for the worst, but I don’t. I want to see if she’ll say anything. Do anything.
“Or you’ll wish you did,” he tells me. “I won’t let you die quickly. It’ll be a slow and agonizing death.”
I stare into his eyes silently, then look to Rosalie once more.
“Don’t look to her, she’s not going to save you. Not after you fucked her husband. You should’ve thought about that. No one here trusts you,” Eivor mocks me as he stands almost nose to nose with me.
“Right, darling?” he asks her.
Rosalie stands up straighter. “I won’t help you,” she says without hesitation. The look in her eyes is cold and harsh. I have no doubt that she’s not going to even try to save me from this situation.
Good. She doesn’t need to get involved. I’d rather be the only one to die.
“So. Make the choice, Damian,” Eivor insists. “Your life, for Alessio Dresvanni’s.”
I look back into his face again, and don’t change my expression from the serious and straight one. My heart thuds painfully hard in my chest, but I do everything I can to make sure he doesn’t think I’m sweating a single thing.
“Do your worst.”
And he does.
Eivor’s men begin to beat me to the ground with their guns.
One hits me in the back of the head and I instantly go a bit dizzy.
I know that if I try to fight them off now, I’m more likely to end up dead.
It’ll be easier if I wait until they take me to a second location—and I know that they will take me to a second location.
It’s said that you should never let anyone take you to a second location, but I know myself.
I know my area of expertise. I know that I can get out of zip ties, duct tape, and rope far easier than I can fight off four armed guards all at once.
I need some time to observe them and decide what their weaknesses are.
So, I let them beat me to the ground far easier than I might have otherwise.
I let them tighten zip ties onto my hands once I’m on my knees, and I ignoring the blood dripping down my nose and the corner of my mouth.
Before I’m pulled up from the floor by the collar of my shirt, Eivor slams his fist into the side of my face. I feel the bone fracture every so slightly, and the pain whips around my head. He leans down to me.
“You’re going to regret this.”
I’m blind folded as I’m stuffed into the back of my own car and one of the guards is given my keys. Rosalie is gone. Having apparently decided to stay behind at the estate while her uncle drags me to some second location to beat information out of me that he’s so certain I have.
He’ll not be getting it, but I know he’s going to try.
I take in as many details as I can. I count the entire drive, one second to sixty seconds, and then how many times I’ve done that.
I’m able to decipher how many minutes away from the Fiorelli estate the second location is by doing this.
Ignoring any threats that are sneered out at me along the way.
Ignoring the guards being cocky and shoving me against the window.
I count, and I count.
Twenty-three minutes.
It takes twenty-three minutes before the car finally stops and doesn’t keep moving again. I’m yanked out of the car and expected to just walk in whatever direction they want me to…and I do.
I do what I’m told. I don’t fight it off.
Now is not the time. Yet.
I’m shoved into a cold metal chair that is far too small for my body. It’s hard and uncomfortable, and my torso is tied down to it.
Wherever we are smells damp and rusty. I can hear the creaking of old aluminum walls and what I’m fairly certain are dripping pipes.
Finally, the blindfold is taken off and I see the old warehouse all around me.
It looks like an abandoned building that’s part of the factory compound the Fiorellis own. I’ve never been here before, but I know it exists because Eivor had given me a list of every building he owns. I wonder if he even remembers he did that.
It doesn’t matter. All that matters now is figuring out how to get out of here alive. I might lose some pieces along the way, but if I can get out that’s all that matters.
As my eyes adjust to the dim lighting, I see the four guards that brought me to my knees standing around me.
Two more stand near the entrance to the building.
There might be even more. I decide that I need to expect more than I see.
I can only see six guards, but I round up to ten.
Ten guards that I need to take out one way or another.
Ten guards that each, most likely, have a gun of their own.
This would concern me, but it means I’ve got ten guns at my disposal if I play things right.
“Where’s the boss?” I ask. Not caring who answers me, I just need to get them talking.
“Don’t worry about it,” one of them replies to me. A woman. She’s broad shouldered and strong. She looks like she could handle just as much as the three guys that stand nearby.
“I thought he was going to show me a good time,” I say with a smirk.
One of the guards, not her, steps over to me and backhands me without a second thought.
“Shut up unless you have something good to say,” he orders me.
I laugh, knowing it will only piss him off. He hits me again, and a third time. I can feel the imprint of his knuckles on my cheek and my face is throbbing but I don’t care. The angrier I make these people the more energy they’ll expend, and the more off their game they’ll be.
Anyone working for Eivor has to have a wicked side. Including me.
“Oh, I have a lot to say, motherfucker,” I say with a grin. “But I could show you better.”
“Yeah right, like you could take on any of us,” another guard says, his gun at his side and his arms folded. He seems like the most relaxed of the bunch.
“Don’t bother with him, he’s just trying to get a rise out of us,” the woman says, and I curse inwardly. Then again, maybe if I can get them to argue with each other that’ll be another plus.
The guard that has been hitting me smacks me upside the head this time and then grabs me by the throat.
It’s not the same as when Alessio did it less than twenty-four hours ago.
No, this man’s hand squeezes like he means to seriously hurt me.
He pulls me up from the chair and my bindings stretch slightly.
“You’ll get what’s coming to you,” he says with a sneer.
I gather up as much saliva in my mouth as I can and I spit it down my chin and onto his hand and wrist.
He recoils in surprise and disgust, and his hand pulls away from me quickly.
I laugh. “You’re afraid of a little spit?” I lick my lips. “How pathetic.”
The guy growls out in irritation and wipes his hand off on his pants before stepping back to me.
“You’re going to tell us what you know about the Dresvanni family or you’re going to be in a world of pain,” he insists.
I blink at him. “Sure, go ahead.”
“You think I’m kiddin’?” he asks and pulls a knife out of one of the holsters on his belt. Then he slams it down into my hand, straight through.
Pain shoots from my hand up my arm and my entire body tenses, but I bite my tongue in order to not make any noise. He won’t be getting whatever reaction he wants from me.
He pulls the blade out, and it hurts more coming out than it did going in. I suck in a breath through my nose as casually as possible, all while blood is pouring out of my hand and down onto the rusty metal arm of the chair.
“That’s all you got?”