Chapter 27
27
ASHE
“What the fuck happened?” one of the goons hissed through his teeth.
I rolled my eyes, shuffling in the hard seat that I’d been attached to for hours now. A quick glance towards Toni was all I needed to know he still hadn’t moved. I tried to reach my foot out far enough to nudge at him.
He’d been out cold for a while now, and I was starting to get worried.
Of course the rich boys hadn’t laid a hand on any of us, but their very young looking lackeys had laid into Antoni especially.
The boys were probably still teens. They were obviously inexperienced, though they seemed very keen to beat on a man tied to a chair. But I was sure that if they saw any of us on the street, that they would piss themselves and run.
The rich boys behind it all hadn’t made any requests, though. Hadn’t laid out any terms or tried to negotiate. Hadn’t given us any idea of why we were there.
The whole thing just seemed like a bit of a pissing contest. Like they were doing this for the sake of it, for the fun of it, perhaps for the thrill of it, rather for any real purpose. That was yet another reason why The East Allies were different to us.
Not like us at all, really.
Every move of violence we ever made had at least been for a reason.
Were they good reasons?
Maybe not always.
But reasons nonetheless.
“Think the power went out, fellas,” I recognised Rome’s deadpan, shit-stirring voice.
She hadn’t reacted at all when Toni went limp, at least not while anyone was watching her. But I noticed how she inched her chair towards him whenever she got the chance, how her concerned glances started to last a little longer with each stretch of time he went without moving.
“No one fucking asked you, whore.”
Then, the lights flickered back on.
Every building within sight out of the windows did the same, like it was a brief neighborhood blackout.
“That’s very rude.”
I would recognise that voice anywhere, and my head snapped towards it.
Zarina stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed under her breasts, delicious fucking unimpressed pout on her face as she surveyed the situation in front of her.
All of the men moved at once, taken off guard by her surprise arrival.
If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve guessed that I’d been knocked out too, and seeing her here, looking like that, was a concussion-induced dream.
“No!” Rome snapped. “Zarina!”
She shot her sister-in-law a blinding smile and a wave. “Hi!”
The boys surrounded her immediately, shoulders tense with their guns drawn and pointed at her, but they shot each other confused glances.
The four men in their makeshift thrones at the back, however, all wore different versions of the same look of intrigue.
Zarina spun to face them, turning her back to us and tilting her head at them.
“Call off your muscle, shit-for-brains,” she gestured to the man closest to her, but spoke directly to Theo.
He barked a laugh into the air, standing and stretching a little before heading towards the centre of the room where Zarina stood.
They had positioned themselves by the exit, had sat huddled there for hours, speaking in hushed tones excitedly.
I’d been trying eavesdrop, trying to hear what they were saying, but they were careful to be quiet as they passed papers and computers between them.
Theo approached slowly, swaggering up to Zarina like he was King Dick, looking her up and down like she was the most delicious thing he’d ever seen—which I’m sure she was.
Because fuck, even duct-taped to a chair surrounded by a bunch of Santinos, I was fighting a boner.
“Look. At. You.” Theo shook his head appreciatively, and Zarina offered him a flirty little turn to show off her outfit.
I mostly fought the primal instinct to growl my disapproval, but I must’ve made some sort of noise, because Sam frowned at me and shook his head. So I bit down on my lip until it hurt, hoping that it would be enough of a distraction.
“Why is my brother unconscious and duct-taped to a chair?” Zarina cooed, reaching out and fiddling with the collar of Theo’s button up shirt.
His mafia-associate facade was long gone now, and he was back into his pastel coloured button ups and too-tight slacks. He looked like he studied fucking finance or something—which he probably did.
“Because he needed to be taught to shut his mouth,” Theo said back, with dark eyes that gave away exactly what he was thinking about my girl.
“Mmm,” Zarina chuckled. “Ain’t that the truth.”
The three others approached, and the one that I recognised as William cleared his throat.
“Zarina Santino,” he said with a smile. “It’s been a while.”
She turned to offer him another one of those fucking brain-melting smiles. “Wish it was longer, Willie.”
He laughed, and I watched as his shoulders dropped a little. Piece by piece, she was breaking these guys down.
I had no idea what she had planned, but I trusted her.
That still didn’t stop that feeling in my gut, that tremble in my hands from fighting off the urge to shoot each in the head just to get them away from her.
A few hours back I’d wished that I would get to see her again before I died, and now I was realising how selfish that was.
She should’ve stayed at home.
Should’ve lived a normal life and moved on.
But she loved too deeply for that. Cared too much. More than anyone in this room deserved.
The shorter man of the group, the one whose name I didn’t know, snatched the handbag that swung from her arm.
They were all still rattled from her sudden appearance, and fuck, it was a hell of a show.
“Hey!” she snapped. “That bag is Chanel .”
“Shut up, stupid bitch,” the guy snarled.
“Oi!” Theo scolded.
Zarina fluttered her eyelashes up at him, giving him her best ‘Thanks, Daddy,’ wide eyes that should’ve been reserved for me and me alone—but that’s besides the point.
But all of the other men turned towards Theo then with looks of confusion, disgust, and irritation on their faces.
Fuck, I almost felt bad for the dude.
I knew what it was like to have a desperate hard-on for Zarina. I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of those eyes, that pout, that smile.
The man emptied the contents of her bag onto the ground in front of them. A couple of kitchen knives clattered to the ground, along with a few rounds of loose bullets which were not accompanied by a gun, and a set of car keys.
“Jesus, Zarina,” Sammy tilted his head back to look up to the ceiling.
“A girl’s gotta protect herself.” She shrugged, pink cheeks pulling up into a look of feigned innocence.
“What are you doing here, sweets?” Theo asked finally, adding a bit of gruff to his voice and taking a step back from Zarina.
“I’m here to take my family home,” she sighed like it was a simple request.
They all laughed at her.
Chuckled and bellowed in her face.
Zarina stood and took it like a champ, even though I knew how much it hurt her to be laughed at constantly. I knew that she was leaning into the act, the ‘clueless heiress trying her best’ routine, but it still didn’t make my stomach hurt any less on her behalf.
“Look, we all know that you’re too much of a little bitch to kill anyone yourself, Willie. That’s why you’ve got your friends here,” she gestured to the gun-wielding men still surrounding her.
Rome and I shared the same exhale of dread.
Why was she egging them on?
“We don’t need to kill, Zarina. Because we’re smart.” Willie said with a tight-lipped smile. “You Santinos think that you’ve got everyone in the city under your thumb because they’re scared of you. Well, we don’t need that. We’ve got real power. Money.”
Zarina fluttered her eyelashes again. “You mean, your daddies have money? Because I know for a fact that none of you have done anything of note since leaving school.”
William’s jaw ticked at that.
But Zarina took a step towards him, tilting her chin slightly to look up at him.
“That’s why nothing has changed for you since then. You still sit around, probably in a big house that your parents bought you, and jacking it to the thought of being like us. But you’re not. You’re still a scrawny little rich boy that’s gotta beg for pussy.”
“You have no ide?—”
“Oh, but I do. You want to know how I figured out that Theo’s shit attempt at an undercover mission was tied to you? Because you thought you could impress someone like Larissa Bianchi with your little gang of pals.”
His friends turned their glares from Zarina to Will then.
“Zarina. Enough,” Sammy warned, but she ignored him and continued.
“She wouldn’t fuck you back in high school and she wouldn’t fuck you now. You know why? Because she knows that The EA—stupid fucking name by the way—is nothing .”
“I didn’t?—”
Zarina put up a hand to silence him.
“So don’t fucking compare your little play-time gang to my family ever again. Don’t talk about power like you’ve ever had a shred of it. Because if I wanted to fuck someone with power, Willie , I’d ask for your dad’s number.”
“Oh damn.” Rome whispered to herself.
Then Willie lifted his hand and backhanded Zarina. Hard enough that her head snapped to the side from the force, but not enough to knock her down. She drew a hand up to her lip, taking a few breaths as she pulled herself together easily.
But I, however, was no longer composed.
I was bucking against the hold, pressing with all my might against the tape that kept me on the seat, all so I could rip his fucking throat out.
Zarina chuckled though, rolling her head from side to side before swiping a thumb across her bottom lip, fixing her red lipstick. “Big man. So powerful.”
So fucking savage.
So fucking gorgeous.
Toni started to stir then, blinking and squinting under the heavy rays of fluorescent lighting. His eyes seemed to search for his wife first. Rome offered him a relieved smile before turning her attention back to the centre of the room, and Toni’s eyes followed.
“Zar?” Toni continued to blink hard, like he was still coming to.
“Now,” Zarina clapped her hands together, spinning around to face the row of chairs that contained me and her family.
She found a free chair, pulling it in line with Rome and sitting down, crossing one leg over the other and letting the split in her dress ride up to the crease between her thigh and her torso.
If I made it out alive, I wanted to lick that spot.
I didn’t miss how every other man eyed the spot of flesh too, but Zarina didn’t shy away from the dozen eyes on her. Instead, she reached her arms up high, arching her back in a stretch that pushed her breasts up in a heaving motion, before swinging them down again.
“Are you going to let my family go, or am I going to watch the fucking life drain from your eyes?” she shimmied like she was excited by the prospect.
Who was this woman?
And why wasn’t I inside of her right fucking now?
God, I focused on the guns pointed at us instead of the way my cock pressed uncomfortably against my jeans.
“No one needs to die,” Theo rolled his eyes. “That was never our plan. You see—” he got that glimmer in his eye, excited to explain his carefully thought-out plan, but Zarina wouldn’t allow him that joy.
She gave him a dismissive wave of her hand.
“Yeah, yeah. You were just going to hold them here, lock them in somehow and call the cops, framing them for what I assume is weapons and drugs in those crates.” She pointed to the boxes in the corner of the room with an unimpressed blankness on her face.
“Kinda hard to pin a crime on an unconscious guy though, right?” she gestured to Toni, who was still looking a little confused and probably very concussed. “I assume you were just waiting for him to wake up?”
“You little brat,” Willie snapped, snatching a gun from one of his men and pointing it towards her.
Zarina just rolled her eyes.
“We all know you’re here just because you’ve been riding Redliner dick,” he pointed the gun at me briefly, before turning back towards Zar.
She scoffed at that, shaking her head as she stood.
“Nah. I’m just better at undercover work than Theo is,” she purred, walking up behind my chair and wrapping her arms around my neck. “I’m very… dedicated to my role.”
She leaned down and nipped at my ear, giggling.
I would’ve been devastated to hear her say those words if I hadn’t felt the slice of a knife go through the tape holding my hands at the same time. But I kept my hands in position. Waiting.
“Maybe you should’ve hired me instead,” she ruffled my hair, pushing my head away like she was disgusted by me.
I wanted her to do it again.
Zarina moved back towards the men, folding her arms over herself once more and tipping her head to the side.
“So what’ll it be, boys?”
“You talk a big game, Zarina. Like there aren't four of us and one pretty little mouth on you. Maybe we could put it to better use than all the shit talking you’ve been doing,” Theo smirked.
“Yeah, I like the sound of that,” Willie laughed, stepping closer to her.
Zarina chuckled once, but it was tense.
“What do you think, Zar?” Theo quirked an eyebrow.
“I think that I’d cut your cock off before you got the chance to try.”
His arrogant laugh was cut off by a scream of pain as Zarina stabbed the knife that she had just freed me with right into Theo’s cock-adjacent area.