21. Matteo
Chapter 21
Matteo
I had to be losing my mind. I was registering that that face and eyes and lips that I was staring at belonged to me. It was like staring into a mirror. The other two men were unfamiliar, but both dressed in suits and red ties.
Unease wrestled its way up my spine and my heart was pounding hard in my chest asI continued to survey them.
Synthetic, my Corsican was now wide awake and alert.
We scanned the faces of the other two men and in my bones, I knew I wasn’t ready to take on these three men.
Protect Rain, my Corsican hissed.
Without hesitation, and with swift motion, I vaulted my entire body over the banister without so much as taking a second look.
The second I landed the two men flanking my double were shocked. Their mouths were hanging open and their eyes wide. Only my double’s face stayed the same, not an ounce of emotion showed on his face.
The surprise faded quickly, and they were on me in the blink of an eye, raining down blows on my body. I felt every kick and every punch, feeling winded and weak.
You’re fucking terrible at this, my Corsican said as he rolled his eyes.
I haven’t had as much time as the others to get used to this, I thought back as I finally blocked a bunch.
It didn’t matter because I was getting nailed in the face once more from another angle.
E-fucking-nough!
My dark passenger had had it, and he slid into my minds driver’s seat. We began to move like poetry, blocking and kicking, moving away from Rain.
Glass shattered and shook as the four of us moved through the house. With my Corsican fully in control of my body, he began to choreograph a perfect dance. The more he fought back, the more they advanced until finally one danced in too close.
“I’d rather not kill him,” the words tumbled from my lips as my Corsican spoke through me.
My double smirked before looking at one of the other men with the red ties, sending him a cue.
“The mission is death,” he rolled his shoulders, and I could hear the air popping from his joints
“Fuck!”
My Corsican was already snapping the neck of the red tied man. His body slumped to the floor in a heap, quickly.
Holy shit, I closed my eyes, but it did no good.
Everything unfolded with cinematic intensity, and all I could do was grip the edge of my seat as the second red tie entered the scene. My double lingered in the shadows, just within my peripheral vision, his presence a constant, silent echo of my own. I could hear him popping his knuckles in anticipation.
The other red tie came at me in a rush dodging his buddy’s dead body on the floor. If they were truly synthetic versions of what me and my brothers were the best way to kill them was to make sure their necks were snapped good and hard, otherwise…
They can fucking regenerate…
The thought lingered only for a moment and my Corsican maneuvered into the kitchen. He had a plan, and it involved knives.
Before I could count to three, we were in the kitchen and sliding over the kitchen island. The knives were in a block under the cabinet.
Carmine’s going to fucking kill us, I thought.
He can try, my Corsican had pulled a frying pan into our hands, and he swung, missing Red Tie.
He raised an eyebrow and smirked never uttering a word. My Corsican used that to his advantage and struck again connecting with him hard. The blow caught him upside the head and he stumbled back a few steps.
Fuck that get the knife, I screamed inside of my own head.
Yeah, I fucking got this, thanks, my Corsican reminded me.
He began to beat the shit out of Red Tie with the frying pan until he was down on the floor trying to cover his face. Still, my body never let up until he went limp.
With ease, I felt my hands twist the other man’s head and a satisfying snap caught my ears.
Rain!
Panting heavily and drenched in sweat, we stumbled forward, our legs feeling like lead. As we edged past the lifeless figure sprawled across the floor, the reality of the situation hit us like a wave. My grip on the frying pan slipped, and it crashed to the ground with a metallic clang that echoed through the silent room.
Realization fluttered through my body. I’d just killed two men in cold blood.
And another remains, my Corsican replied.
He hadn’t moved from where he was, as if he’d known that was how it was going to play out. A smirk remained on his face.
He’s one gorgeous motherfucker, the thought tickled my brain.
Shut the fuck up, he’s not like us.
Okay, Kendrick, my Corsican retorted.
My double gave a slow clap and winked. “You handled them in record time. No one was sure if you had one…none of us do.”
“What?” the words exploded from my mouth in a feral tone, my eyes narrowing.
He’d been testing me.
Us.
He’d been testing us. Wanting to see how we’d react. How we’d move and handle ourselves. That was why he hadn’t joined the fucking fray.
My lookalike was a clever motherfucker. I watched as he began to pull his jacket off, neatly draping it over an empty metal flower stand behind him.
“None of us were sure that you had a Corsican. We’d been told you were born without one…not that it matters. And when I’m done with you,” he’d started unbuttoning the sleeves of his shirt, rolling them up slowly. “I’m going to fuck her, over and over again. She’s your mate, right? Your Corsican has bonded with her…”
Red began to bleed into my vision at the mention of Rain.
“You’ll never get fucking close,” I grunted.
He shrugged as if he hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of his existence. He’d threatened the woman I loved.
Tension had started to crackle in the air, and I knew this was going to be an even bigger challenge than the two dead red ties.
We kill him, we can get our life back, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
He smirked. “Why? You’ll be dead soon.”
“I’d just like to know the name of the man who came all this way to end my life…”
“Xander,” he spat. “Again, not that it matters.”
He moved in fast, attacking me with everything he had landing blow after blow and slamming me into the walls. The drywall cracked as soon as my back connected with it.
My teeth rattled in my skull as my head bounced against the wall behind me. Before I knew it, he had me in a chokehold.
He whispered into my ear, growling. “This is the part where you beg for your life or cry for your mother.”
His hold was tight as hell and I clawed at the arm around my neck, desperate to pull air into my starving lungs.
“Beg me!” He whispered again.
I refused to give him the satisfaction, but I was definitely about out of oxygen.
“Hey!” A voice called out of nowhere, sounding like music to my ears.
Rain had appeared at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes wide and filled with fear. Her entire body seemed to be trembling as she clutched the railing. Xander must’ve been in awe of her, because his grip had started to loosen.
Xander’s movement froze, and I could feel his head lifting, looking up. “Oh look, that pretty little
thing has come to me.”
“Please,” Rain stared at the two of us, a tremble rippling through her voice. I could sense her fear, so rich it threatened to drown me. “Please don’t hurt him.”
Hesitation hit Xander for just a moment, and I found an opening. It was all I needed, an opening.
Pulling air into my lungs, I pulled back and slammed my elbow into his gut. He doubled over. The wind knocked out of him. I swung my leg up and connected solidly with his face as he stumbled again and tried to regain his balance.
“Catch!” I heard Rain say.
Instinctively, I turned at her words and a gun landed in my hands.
I pulled back on the slide, the echo of gunfire ricocheting through the room as a bullet whizzed through the air. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, but happening instantaneously at the same time. My Corsican was still in the driver’s seat of my mind, but it seemed as if we were truly in sync, moving as one.
My sensitive ears picked up the sound of a bullet meeting flesh. It sounded like a meat cleaver pounding into a piece of steak, tenderizing it to perfection.
Xander let out a howl of pain, and realization covered his face.
Before I could blink, he was gone, running out of the back door. I realized the alarm hadn’t gone off at any point.
He’s gone, my Corsican hissed. And I’m exhausted…
I blinked again and I knew he’d slipped into the background of my mind, or wherever it was he went when he wasn’t talking shit to me.
“Fuck,” I murmured.
Rain’s breathing alerted me to the fact that she was still there. “Shit, are you okay?”
“We’re fine,” I walked over to her, ignoring how sore my body felt, wanting to reassure her.
“Who was that and why did he have your face?”
Taking a deep breath, I pulled her face up to meet my own. “A very bad man.”
She rolled her eyes. “And clearly I just saved your ass…”
“I had it handled,” I assured her.
She shook her head, a smile pulling onto her features.
“But where did you get this gun?” I looked down at the silver Desert Eagle that looked as if it’d been recently cleaned.
“That whole time you were getting your ass kicked, I was looking for a weapon. Found this in the master bedroom…”
I grinned and finally dipped low to kiss her, her mouth never looking more perfect than it had in that moment. “That’s my girl…”
“Oh, am I?”
I nodded. “Yes…you’re my woman now, Rain.”
She seemed thoughtful for just a moment. “That man…do you think he’s coming back? And what about the others?”
“Shhh,” I whispered to her. “The others are dead. And that asshole will be too if he tries to come back for us.”
“He left his jacket,” Rain looked over at the plant stand and I followed her gaze.
I walked back over and picked the jacket up. It appeared to be brand new. His cologne lingered on it, and I checked the label to see Armani stitched into the label tag.
“He would wear something expensive to kill me,” I grinned over at Rain.
“Check the pockets?” she shrugged.
Finally, I began to rifle through the pockets and pulled out a thin black card that seemed to shimmer in the light.
A symbol stared back at me.
A crescent.
A double helix.
I knew that symbol because I’d seen it every day of my childhood.
Around her neck, and in her books, I thought.
This had been the symbol around my mother’s neck and drawn in her books.
A chill rippled down my spine as I glanced back at Rain. “We need to get out of here.”
“What, why?”
“This is deeper than I ever thought…where are your keys?”
“Still downstairs,” Rain’s eyes were wild with worry again. “Wait…dead bodies?”
“I’ll call Mason and Carmine from the road. We’ve got to go…”
“The road?” Rain stared at me as I went to start walking back towards the basement.
Pausing in my movements, I went back to her, rubbing her face softly. “Yes…Rain, if you go back to your apartment, they’ll come for you. They will take you and they will breed you with him...”
“Who and what the fuck?!” She exclaimed.
“Trust me,” I whispered. “I’ll explain more but we need to get out of here.”
Finally, she nodded, and I hurried down to the basement to retrieve her car keys and some of the stuff I’d had down there.
There was a feeling in the air that I couldn’t shake. The discovery of the symbol was still rolling around in my mind.
I just knew I needed to keep Rain safe and the only way to do that was take her on the run with me.
I would die to keep her safe.