26. Rufino
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Rufino
I ’m loading the last canister of gasoline into my trunk when my phone rings in my back pocket.
I haul it out and stare at it with amusement.
Luca.
I chuckle.
I wonder if he’s figured out yet that it’s me. He would be foolish to think it was someone else.
I made myself clear the last time we spoke.
The grin on my face is wide and tainted with hate when I answer his call.
“Luca.” I say coldly.
The silence confuses me. Scrunching my eyes narrow I listen closer.
Why isn’t he speaking?
I hold my breath, waiting.
My heart stops when she speaks.
“It’s Verity.”
Her voice is life itself.
My body collapses inward when I hear her and I have to lean against the side of the car to steady myself.
She’s speaking softly, as though she’s far away. But it’s her, and that’s all that matters.
Blood pulses thick in my veins and I am dizzy with relief.
“Vixen. Are you ok? I’ve been searching for you. Every moment of every day. I haven’t stopped looking.” I stammer, wanting to make sure she knows that I never gave up and never would have.
My heart is running a million miles an hour. Her father must have surrendered and set her free. My plan worked.
“You can stop looking, Rufino.” She sighs, sounding annoyed, or angry. I can’t tell which. She doesn’t sound like herself though. Not the girl I know. That beautiful angel who lay in my arms.
“ W hat?” It makes little sense. “Why would I stop looking?”
Is it because she’s free? I’m about to ask her where she is so that I can come and get her.
“Because I’m over it. I’m - bored . Or whatever.”
Her words slice through me.
A hot knife slipping through butter. They sliced effortlessly. My heart is sinking into the pit of my stomach, weighed down by unspeakable pain.
But I shake my head. It’s not possible.
This can’t be real.
Verity would never say that. Someone is manipulating her.
I know her better than anyone on this fucking planet and I know she wouldn’t say these things.
“I don’t believe you.” I growl into the phone with pure hatred for whoever is making her do this.
“You should believe me. Did you really think that someone like you could keep a girl like me? I’m too good for you. You would never have been able to keep up with me, anyway.”
She goes quiet.
I swallow hard.
I don’t know what to say to make her stop lying to me.
I don’t know how to end this nightmare.
It can’t be real, but she sounds so sincere. So honest. Is this what our relationship has been all along?
Was she just trying to concur me and move on?
A game? A dare? A challenge? The thought of her using me, tears me apart. It is as though someone is pulling my skin away from my bones in thick layers. Piece by piece peeling it away while I scream in agony.
How can this be possible? How can this be true?
“Verity, don’t do this.” I say with intense warning in my voice. “Don’t give up on us.” If I can just see her, if she will talk to me face to face I can remind her of how we are together.
We will be together.
Destiny chose for us to be together.
“There never was an us , Rufino. And there never will be. Stop whatever you are doing to find me. Give up. Let go. Move on with your life.”
A heartbreaking sob echoes through the line.
She’s crying.
I knew it.
I fucking knew it wasn’t real.
Is she in tears because she’s frightened?
What the fuck is going on?
I press the phone harder against my ear trying to listen. She needs me and I can’t find her.
I have to get to her. I need a clue. I need something to guide me.
“Red, I love you.” I jump when she screams into the phone. “I love you, please find me.”
“Grab the phone.” Luca screams.
There is a thud and a scraping sound.
“You stupid fucking bitch, I wish you had died with your mother.”
My heart shatters.
“Get the fuck out there and find him. Do whatever it takes.”
There is chaos. Movement. Violence. Danger.
What are they doing to her?
I can barely breathe as I listen. Waiting. Every muscle in my body is tense.
I want to hear her voice again. I need to know that she is ok.
But the line goes dead and the intensity of my rage multiples by a thousand as I let out an ear shattering scream.
I throw my phone into my car and walk around the back to slam the trunk closed. The fires stirred him enough to fake a breakup call from my wife. Let’s see what else they can do.
And he’s coming for me by the sounds of things. Well - let him. I look forward to it.
Let’s see how many more buildings he’s willing to lose before he believes I will never stop.
“You fucking idiot.” I slam my fists against the steering wheel, screaming at a man who can’t hear me.
The sound of her crying has only made this worse for him. He made a mistake having her call me. It’s pushed me deeper into my anarchy. It’s made me set on making his life a living hell.
I click against the next building on the list.
Only eight minutes from where I am.
Perfect. The sooner I set it on fire, the sooner he will realize his mistake.
A seventeen story high rise in town, it must be worth a fortune.
I’ll make sure every floor is a raging furnace that no one can extinguish. By the time morning comes, there will be nothing left but ash. Tires screech and burnt rubber spins in the air behind me when I take off.
I’ll burn everything. I won’t stop till morning. I’ll get through so much of that list tonight that he’ll have almost nothing when the sun rises.
Outside the building I come face to face with security which doesn’t surprise me. He knows I’m coming. He would have tried to secure his most important properties. I guess this one is a favorite.
The men don’t stand a chance against me though. They have no idea of the darkness festering in my heart. The pure rage I’m carrying for the man they are working for.
Their bodies litter the foyer and the elevator by the time I’ve cleared the first level.
I move, carrying all the bottles of gasoline into the elevator. Pressing every button on the panel I set it to stop on every floor.
At the start of each passageway I kick a bottle of fuel over, sending it skidding down the passage and flooding gasoline over the floor.
Level by level I make my way to the top floor.
I’ll coat the seventeenth floor from top to bottom and set it alight before I head back down, sparking each floor as I descend.
He’s pushed me too far. But soon he’ll see his mistake in underestimating me.
The elevator chimes on the seventeenth floor and I climb out carrying two bottles, their caps already off, I walk to the farthest end of the long passage, passing doors as I go. When I walk past I splash fuel against the doors and walls, letting it soak into the carpet.
Half way down the passage back towards the elevator I can barely breathe for the stench. It’s burning my eyes and my lungs. Making it hard to focus.
I’m taking too long.
If I don’t get out of here soon he’ll arrive with more forces and I won’t live to see it burn. I’m sure those other guards must have alerted them to my arrival here. Not that I gave them a lot of time. But there is still a chance they got a message through to him.
Down the passage I hear a thump and turn to see a guard come thundering through the door right at the end of the hallway.
“Fuck.” I mutter. Not keen on being delayed anymore.
Two more come running at me from behind. They must have come up the elevator while I was busy pouring the gasoline.
“Fuck.” I scream again in frustration.
I acted blindly and ignored everything around me.
I won’t let them kill me though - if they do I am taking this entire building with me.
I kick the bottle of gasoline over and watch the clear liquid splash out in a thick flood.
Lifting my hand over my mouth to block out some of the sharp stench I pull my gun from the holster and fire two shots towards the guards running down from the elevator.
My aim is brilliant and they both collapse to the ground. My gun clicks empty. The barrel sitting open to let me know I’m out of bullets and out of luck.
The other guard, coming at me from the end of the hallway - he reaches me faster than expected and slams into my back before I face him, knocking me to the ground. I roll sideways and avoid soaking myself in fuel, but he isn’t so lucky.
He swears and rolls again, drenching himself even more.
The darkest smile touches my lips as I flick the lighter to life.
The flame becomes a beacon of my rage.
“What the fuck?” he scream as I throw it at him.
It hits him in slow motion and the flames cover him like a strait jacket, wrapping around every inch of his body.
He staggers backwards, falling to the floor, rolling and screaming and trying to put himself out, but all he’s doing is moving towards where I’ve soaked the hallway.
When his burning body touches against the carpet near the back of the passage it’s a glorious sight.
The explosion knocks me off my feet and I scamper away from the wave of heat that slams into me.
Touching my face to check if it’s singed my hair off.
It hasn’t. But sweat is pouring of me.
The entire back end of the hallway is raging red, orange and blue.
The fire roars with anger, spreading.
I have to leave.
Now.
I should never have set it alight while I was still so far inside the building.
But it’s so beautiful. The destruction.
For a second I’m lost in the sheer power of it, watching the flames spread like a virus ready to take over every inch of this place.
Move, dammit, Red. Or you’ll die here.
Grinning, I turn to run towards the elevator - but freeze in place.
The scream that shatters through the seventeenth floor sends a shudder of pain through me. I know who it is. I just know.
“Verity?” I shout down the passage, but an explosion drowns out my voice as one of the side doors caves in “Verity.” I shout again.
Another scream carries to me from the far end of the passage.
No.
What have I have done?
I run straight into the uncontrollable furnace of death. Ducking low to save myself from the heat and smoke suffocating my lungs and stinging my eyes.
“Verity.” I shout again, but there is no answer.
At the end of the hallway I can hardly see anything.
I kick against the only door there.
I kick until it crumples in on itself.
“Verity.” My voice is just a dry whisper now and when I take in a breath to try to sooth it I choke on thick grey smoke.
Dropping to the ground I leopard crawl into an apartment.
It doesn’t make sense. Why is there an apartment here?