24. Cassandra
24
CASSANDRA
T hump thump, thump thump.
My eyelids feel like lead as I try to pry them open. Panic was already setting into my bones before the memories emerged from my too-foggy brain.
I was singing. The lights went out. There were gunshots. Then Mia was there. She was trying to get me to safety.
And then…
And then the pain had overwhelmed me, and everything had gone dark.
Thump thump, thump thump.
My body jostles against the unforgiving floor, elbows bashing awkwardly into my side. I try to move them to alleviate the growing ache in my shoulders, only to discover that they’ve been tied behind my back.
Something had gone wrong. Something terrible. My heart shied away from it, wanting to protect me.
Because I remember the gunshots and Teo’s scream. I remember when someone flew into my arms, and it wasn’t Rocco’s protective embrace but Mia’s frantic consolation.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.” It was as if trying to reassure herself as much as me.
She had come for me first. The club was filled with danger, but she had come for me. Despite how I’d yelled, accused her of lying to me, ghosted her. When it mattered the most, my friend had my back.
I’m such a fucking asshole. If I hadn’t been such a coward, I could have called her back and apologized a thousand times. I would have put this behind us before…
Thump thump, thump thump.
It takes me a while to figure out that my eyes are open. It’s not until the sound of the engine finally registers that I realize I’m in the trunk of a car.
I try not to panic. But the claustrophobia and darkness seem to press down harder.
I need to think. Come on, Cassandra.
Taillights. I need to kick out the tail lights. I should be able to flag down anyone on our tail so Rocco can…
My heart lurches. My chest tightens so hard I think I might puke.
No. Not now. I need to concentrate. Damn it.
But the sound of those gunshots fills my ears. Teo screaming his name, a mournful, desperate sound from a man who’d known him his whole life.
Rocco had been shot.
Rocco had been shot three times.
I just about have the wherewithal to turn on my side before I hurl my guts up.
The emptiness is overwhelming. Tears slide down my face, my throat burning, heart-shattering. He can’t be…he can't be…he can’t be…
Then the stench hits me like a slap to the face.
A voice in my head that sounds almost like Rocco’s screams at me to pull myself together. I’m the one in danger right now. If I don’t get out of here, I will never know for sure. I will never be able to say goodbye.
Determined, I wriggle down the trunk, inch by painstaking inch, and try to ignore the foul wetness seeping into my clothes. Finally, my foot can reach where I think the taillight must be, so I kick out.
Nothing happens.
I growl in frustration as I kick it again, harder, shoving my heel directly into the plastic casing. But still, nothing seems to move.
“Fuck!” I scream as I start kicking with reckless abandon.
Without any warning, something gives, and my ankle twists at a sickening angle as it pushes all the way through.
I gasp as fresh air immediately fills the small space. I ignore the pain that grips my foot as I scramble around toward the hole I created.
I push my arm through it, and the jagged plastic bites into my arm as I begin to wave frantically.
Maybe someone will see. Maybe someone will call the cops. I don’t stop until I feel the car lurch to one side and the engine growl to a stop.
All I can do is wait and listen as the car doors open and two sets of feet approach the back of the car. I’m bracing myself for whatever comes next.
Well, fuck them if they think I’m going anywhere without a fight.
I don’t recognize the men that open the trunk. Not that I gave myself much time to examine their faces before I began kicking and screaming with everything I have. My injured ankle throbs with every blow.
“ Mierda,” one of the men buckles as my attack hits his low-hanging fruit.
But my satisfaction is short-lived when the other manhandles me out of the trunk and throws me over his shoulder.
“You’re fucking DEAD!” I scream, unable to do anything else as he carries me through what appears to be some kind of abandoned warehouse.
“ Cállate,” the man holding me snaps.
But I don’t care. “He will fucking kill you for this!”
He shouts something to the man still on his knees by the car that’s barely audible over my shouting, before taking me through another set of doors.
The room we enter is two stories tall, entirely bare, save for a few decommissioned pieces of industrial machinery that are covered in dust and cobwebs—fishing, I realize, with a start. We must be near the docks.
The second captor appears behind us, dragging a collapsible chair from the wall to the middle of the room.
“Put me down!” I shout loud enough to burst eardrums.
My captor twitches, and with a grunt, he dumps me on the floor. I wince as I fall heavily onto my bad ankle.
I turn to run, but two sets of arms wrestle me into the chair, tying up my bound hands and feet.
When they step back, wearing a matching pair of smug expressions, I’m entirely motionless.
“You think this will hold me forever?” My voice sounds hoarse from all the screaming. “I’ll fucking kill you before he even gets here.”
But they both turn away, seemingly content with a job well done.
“Now, now, Cas. There’s no need to be like that.”
My blood runs cold.
A figure emerges from the shadows. His hair is unkept, stubble overgrown, and his eyes bloodshot and wild as he snorts something from the back of his thumb.
“You bastard.”
Claudio shakes his head too rapidly. “Now, now. You can’t speak to me like that.”
He walks directly over to me, steps clicking against the stark, concrete floor. Every inch closer feels like a hand tightening around my throat.
“Stay the fuck away from me.”
But he ignores me. “After everything I’ve done for you, you still don’t treat me with any respect.”
I spit at his feet.
Slap.
My vision blurs as I try to breathe through the pain of my throbbing cheek. Claudio has the audacity to shake his hand as if somehow I’d hurt him.
“That ends today.”
Two fingers gently tilt my chin up. I shake them away with a thrash of my head. But Claudio grabs my chin instead, forcing me to look at him.
“You should be thanking me, baby. I’m saving you.” His breath reeks, and I try not to choke.
“You shoved me into the trunk of a fucking car.”
His eyes darken. “A necessary precaution. After our last encounter, I was sure that Moretti had turned you against me. But you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
The gunshots echo through my mind once again.
No. Claudio wasn’t smart enough for this. He couldn’t have pulled something like that off.
And yet he’s there, standing before me with that smug little smile that makes my heart ice-cold with fear.
“What have you done?” My voice wobbles as I speak.
“You think I was going to let that bastard take you away from me? After all the trouble I went to just to bring you here?” His laugh is low and cruel. “You’re mine, Cassandra Bellini.”
“You handed me over to him! You signed that contract!”
Claudio’s growl is the only warning I get before he slaps me again.
“I did what I had to. Let him think that he could control me. But none of that matters anymore, baby. He’s gone, and we can be together again.”
I take my time to recover, letting my hair fall over my face as I try to manage the grief boiling up inside me.
Claudio snarls in disgust. “I knew it. I knew he’d use you up and spit you back out like this. But you’ll fall in love with me again in time. For now, you only need to know your place and do exactly as I say.”
“Fuck you.”
“They will come for you, whoever remains loyal to that bastard, so I’m going to need you to wait right here until they come knocking.”
I yank at my restraints desperately, but it’s no use. I’m nothing more than bait. Mia…Teo…Martino…they were going to wander right into Claudio’s trap.
But…If Claudio only wanted me, then why should he care about the others? Why act against the entire Guild if this was just a personal vendetta against Rocco?
“Why, so you can kill them all and become don yourself?”
It’s a shot in the dark, and judging by the way Claudio laughs in response, I missed it by a mile. “Could you imagine? Me?”
He hunches over with merriment, and I cringe slightly at his overreactive display.
Irritated, I bite back. “Then why bother with them? Just take me and leave them behind.”
“Oh, I plan on it, but all in good time.” He reaches for me again, dragging his fingers through my tangled hair. “It’s just a shame he’s turned you against me. But that deal was just too good for me to pass up.”
All I can do is hope my stare conveys all the loathing and venom that I feel for him.
“I should thank you, really. When your father asked me to pick you up, he took the loan out in my name to incentivize me to bring you back. You know, so the Guild wouldn’t track me down and murder me for stealing from them.”
My words get stuck in my throat. My father…employed Claudio.
My father was in the Italian mafia.
Claudio grins down at the shock on my face.
“But the fucker went and died on me before he could pay the loan back. If it weren’t for that deal with Moretti…” he shakes his head. “It’s kinda poetic, though. You paid the price for your father’s incompetence.”
I think I’m going to vomit again.
Had any of it been real? That first night Claudio had watched me perform in Ohio, he’d asked me for my ID…was it to check that I was the person he was looking for?
“You…stole me from my home,” my words tremble in disbelief. “You seduced me and brought me here on purpose.”
“We fell in love!” Claudio’s voice booms in my ear. “It wasn’t part of the plan, but it happened, didn’t it? Don’t act like I’m some kind of monster.”
“That is exactly what you are.”
I can see the rage building behind his eyes and know instinctively that he’s about to hit me again. I flinch away the best I can, closing my eyes.
“Touch her, and you’re dead.”
Time freezes. My heart pounds rapidly. My breaths come out in rapid, short bursts.
When I look up again, there’s another figure standing there behind Claudio. His hand is wrapped around the arm about to strike me
He’s tall, dark, and menacing. His hair falls over his deathly gray eyes. His shirt is ripped across his chest, revealing the dented bullet-proof vest beneath.
His scent hits me a second later, and I sob at the familiar comfort it brings me.
Alive. Rocco’s alive.
Claudio startles. “How the fuck?”
Crunch.
Rocco punches him square in the jaw, sending him crashing to the floor.
“Rocco,” I breathe through my tears.
He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive.
His gaze softens the second he lays eyes on me. “ Angioletta .” Relief, pain, and worry lace his tone.
He’s by my side a second later, knife in hand. He plants a gentle kiss on my cheek as he reaches around to cut away my bindings. “I thought I’d lost you.”
A cruel, near-hysterical laugh booms from behind us, and we both tense in unison as Claudio rights himself from the floor.
“You think I’m the monster?” Claudio’s manic eyes glance between the two of us. “I guess he didn’t tell you, then.”
“You’re dead, Lazzaro,” Rocco snarls.
“Ask him, Cas. Ask him what happened the night your father died.”
Something numbingly cold begins to fester around my heart. Nothing Claudio said about my father could be true because that would mean Rocco would have lied to me.
And Rocco had never lied to me.
Yet…Rocco is shaking, visibly angered by Claudio’s words.
The numbness only grows.
“Rocco?” I whisper.
But Rocco just cuts away my last binding and stands, looming over Claudio with his knife now pointing at his throat.
“Consider your next words carefully.”
Claudio steps back, but that manic grin doesn’t fade. “He’s been lying to you, Cas.”
“Rocco,” my voice is desperate. I’m teetering on the edge of my own mania.
“He’s the one who killed your father.”