31. ~Caterina~
31
~Caterina~
I jolted awake in a panic, adrenaline flooding my system.
The first thing I noticed was that I wasn’t free to move around.
I was bound to a chair.
Not for the first fucking time.
There had been several kidnapping attempts on me during my childhood just because of who my father was, yet none of them had succeeded. Mostly because Dante had been such a competent guard. But now, in the space of a few weeks, it had happened twice.
And at the hands of my own family.
Well, my own family by name only, because they certainly weren’t anything else to me now.
I felt behind me, determining that it was a pair of cuffs that bound me. Yet again.
Definitely Santino’s work.
He’d taught that to Angelo and the rest of his soldiers. It was a part of their protocol when they took hostages. Or when they tortured someone. Always with the cuffs, never rope or zip ties.
Fortunately, that was an asset to me.
As I instinctively prepared to dislocate my thumbs to escape them, I pulled up short while I scanned my surroundings too.
This place.
This room.
This tiny fucking room.
The lone lightbulb in the center of the ceiling that had such a creepy and kind of sickening shade of muted yellow light emanating from it. And the chill and the damp, the kind that went right through your bones.
No wonder I was shuddering.
It wasn’t just adrenaline because I’d woken up bound after being beaten and stolen away from the Manor.
My jacket had been taken, so my arms were bare in my strappy black tank. Thankfully, I’d been wearing pants instead of a skirt or a dress, so at least my legs weren’t suffering from exposure to the freezing damp as much as my arms were.
Another involuntary shudder took me over as I stared out at the room.
I couldn’t believe he’d done this.
My father was really heading right into the psychological torment of it all.
This was the cold room in the Leone Estate. A place in which I’d spent far too much of my childhood.
When my mom had gone back to work after I’d turned four, my father had agreed to work from home running his despicable empire so I wouldn’t be raised solely by nannies.
Little had she known that it would have been a much better option for me.
It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t realized how sadistic Santino Leone was capable of being to his own blood. At least not back then.
He’d started by locking me in this room whenever I’d had a tantrum until I shut up and stopped making a sound. That had evolved to shoving me in here whenever I’d shown any emotion or any sort of reaction that he hadn’t approved of. I’d be in here for hours in this tiny, damp and cold space until I’d begun to feel the walls closing in on me and started screaming to be let out. That had only led to him keeping me locked in here longer. So many times I’d screamed until my voice was hoarse.
It was how my claustrophobia had been born. Something I’d managed to combat over the years and learn to deal with—or bury too at times. Yet, he was clearly trying to awaken that in me.
Trying to unnerve me and get under my skin.
Trying to break me.
That would just be the beginning, no doubt.
His words to me that day in his office when he’d forced me to sign that sickening contract played on my mind.
“You’re sentencing your own daughter to a life of abuse, degradation, and humiliation?”
“I warned you that there would be a price to pay for severing ties with the Family.”
He’d been almost gleeful about handing down that punishment to me.
Going by Angelo’s message, he now knew that I’d struck at him, so it would be a whole lot worse.
Basically, he wouldn’t let me leave here alive.
And it wouldn’t be a quick kill either. He’d want me to suffer.
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself past the panic that being in this room was inducing, focusing on what needed to be done instead.
“This little baby needs taking care of, Caterina.”
“This child is a gift.”
“You’re carrying our baby and that’s everything.”
The guys’ words ran through my mind.
I’d never been in a dangerous or life-threatening situation where I’d had to worry about somebody else before until that night I’d woken up kidnapped in that garage. I’d had my men to worry about, how they’d be if the worst had befallen me, if I hadn’t been able to make it out of that shitshow. That had definitely raised the stakes for me.
But this… knowing an innocent little thing was counting on me… it was so far beyond even that.
It had a deeply protective intensity rushing to the surface that had a powerful triggering effect on that twisted side of me.
A growl escaped me and I dislocated my thumbs with a grunt, using the pain as fuel as I slipped my hands through the cuffs.
The fear of being in this place and all the crippling sensations it tried to evoke were buried beneath the ire that surged white-hot through my veins.
I brought my hands in front of me, then snapped my thumbs back into place with a snarl.
But that animalistic sound wasn’t in response to the biting pain.
It was the thought of what I was going to do to my captors.
What I was prepared to do to protect my child and to spare my men from the pain and grief of losing us both.
Just how far I was prepared to take it.
And as the door opened, and I clasped my hands behind my back as a figure came into view, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no fucking limit whatsoever.
That slicked back blond hair filled my vision and then he stood in the doorway with his tan wool coat. A nasty grin spread over his face as he took in the sight of me seemingly bound to the chair and shuddering.
That shuddering was far from being fear now and it was barely even a result of the cold either.
It was a massive influx of adrenaline and rage, an extremely powerful cocktail that he was going to become a victim of all too soon.
Wipe that cocky grin off his face, the sadistic bastard.
As he stepped forward, the door was thrown open all the way and two of the guys from earlier who’d attacked me and obviously brought me here too came into view. They were down to just beige t-shirts and black pants now. Both their faces were expressionless as they stood there with their arms folded across their broad chests and stared at me.
“Putting me in this room was such a pedestrian tactic, Father.”
“It’s just the beginning.” He approached my chair. “Did you really think you could come at me?”
“You knew I could. It’s what’s had you so incredibly terrified this entire time.”
He sneered. “Foolish girl. You’re nothing but a fucking traitor.”
“Hmm, I believe your little pet uses the phrase traitorous cunt.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your obstinance isn’t doing you any favors.”
“What does it matter? You brought me here to kill me.”
“You’ve left me no choice where that’s concerned. You’ve challenged me, you’ve hurt the Family.”
I scoffed. “ Family? That’s a despicable claim coming from the likes of you.”
He slapped me across the face, making me hiss as his rings cut into my skin and blood sprayed.
He did it again and again until my cheeks were burning and I was clenching my fists behind my back.
Not yet. Not yet. Hold. Fucking hold.
His lip curled in satisfaction when he stepped back and took me in, obviously happy with the bruising and cuts I could feel marring my skin.
I spat out a mouthful of blood right at his feet, some of it spraying on his shoes.
He hissed and stepped back, and I smiled through bloodied teeth, ignoring the pain as it stretched my split lip from his assault.
“Where’s my money, Caterina? And keep in mind, how you answer that question will determine just how agonizing these last hours of your life are.”
“It’s gone.”
“Playing this game really won’t help you.”
“It’s not a game. Far from it. That’s something you lost sight of long ago, isn’t it? When you descended into utter madness and lost all respect for human life, for your own family, your own men. When you became nothing but a shell. So desperate to hide your failings and your weakness and inability to continue leading the Leone Family that you went to extreme and disgusting lengths. Now it’s all unravelling. You feel it, don’t you? Let me tell you, it won’t stop. None of it will. We’ll make sure of it .”
“After tonight, your little resistance will be broken. It’s come to my attention that not only was your marriage a ruse and that Nico Marchetti never abused you or degraded you like he was ordered to, but that you’re involved with him, the Bardi boy and that showman, Carver. I’m aware of just how much they care for you. And that was foolish for any of you to allow that sentiment to exist between you, because now it will be used against you.”
“You’re going to use me to shatter them? Another pedestrian tactic.”
He frowned at my seemingly unaffected reaction. “Your life is ending tonight, Caterina. Nico and his accomplices will be destroyed by that alone. I won’t have to lift another finger to eliminate the threat they’re intent on posing to me and Marco.” He pulled something from his coat pocket and then I was looking at my engagement ring. “If you think they’re coming to save you, they aren’t. My new associates here registered a signal coming off this thing, so they’ve disabled it. You’re all alone.”
Alone? No, I wasn’t. Far from it. Those days were gone now.
I even had this little baby here with me right now.
When I didn’t respond, my father tossed the ring on the floor and stared at me expectantly.
“Oh, you’re wondering why I’m not bursting into tears and begging for my life?”
“Yes,” he hissed, not liking that one bit.
“Simple. You don’t scare me.”
“We’ll see about that when you’re barely lucid from the torture my associates here are going to subject you to and all you can do is lie there in a hole in the ground as you watch me fill it with dirt and bury you alive.”
“Wow, that’s a hell of a picture you just painted.” I eyed him steadily and deadpanned, “I’m shaking with utter terror. Can you see it?”
He grunted and stepped back, then barked at the two guys, “Do it. Get the information out of her and don’t hold a thing back. She just needs to be breathing when I bury her at the bottom of the construction site, nothing else.” He went to leave, then pulled up short and burst forward and grasped my throat, making me gag at the brutal grip. “These two are schooled in the art of torture and a whole lot else. Military trained. Unfortunately, certain predilections of theirs led to them not being appreciated. I promised them plenty of opportunities to delve into that, and you’re their first present. ”
He released me roughly, and I choked, sucking in a couple of desperate breaths. “You’re despicable. To do this to your own daughter. Just know that you won’t survive it.”
He laughed nastily. “Such hubris. Foolish little girl.”
With that, he left the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
The two guys moved in.
Lefty’s lip curled up nastily, and he made a show of undoing his belt and pulling down his fly.
So that was how it was going to be with him then.
Righty decided to start off with a different tactic, pulling a tactical knife and drawing closer, making a spectacle of spinning it around.
I eyed Lefty with the shaved head. “I’m gonna rip your throat out.” I looked to Righty with the eyebrow ring. “And I’m gonna slice your dick off.”
Righty laughed. “You’re not gonna be doing much of anything except gagging with my cock rammed down your throat while Reese here cuts into your pretty body.”
“Then when you’re vomiting all over yourself, we’ll break your knuckles, one of your kneecaps, then grab the pliers and move on to your teeth,” Reese added. He thumbed the other guy. “Tom’s got a real talent for it, knows how to cause the most pain possible. Let’s see if you’re telling us what the Boss wants to hear by then, huh?”
“Wow, that’s some vivid imagery.”
“Here’s some more,” Tom said, pulling a spider gag from his pocket. “Don’t want you trying to bite my dick, do I? Besides, this will help me to get nice and deep.”
He stepped right up to me, so eager to get down to it.
“Where’s the third guy?” I asked.
He frowned for a moment, then some sort of realization played on his face. “Oh, right, Santino mentioned you were used to being triple-teamed.”
It was actually strategic. I needed to know if their other team member was on the premises. They’d caught me by surprise before, at a time when I’d been wanting to hold back the dark and twisted part of myself, when I’d been struggling with it. But even though I was willing to unleash now, the fact that they were military trained , as Santino had put it, would still pose a challenge. I’d always had a one-up in combat because I’d been military trained by Joe, but coming up against those with a similar skill set ripped that advantage away.
“Sorry,” Reese said, drawing closer—exactly where I needed him. “He’s busy taking care of something else far away from here.”
“That’s a shame, because I’d rather make a deal with all three of you at once. I don’t like to repeat myself.”
“Deal?” Tom scoffed.
“You’re here to extract intel from me on how to access Leone Family funds that I’ve confiscated. You do realize that means that I have the power to compensate you far beyond what Santino currently has on hand?”
The two of them eyed one another.
Then Reese stepped forward ever closer. Just a little more. “It’s not just about the money for us.” He gazed at his knife in a twisted, lustful way. “The work we do, it gets us off, sweetheart. There’s nothing else like it.”
“We’re not just mercenaries for hire.”
Interesting information. Keep it coming. “Santino is restricted on what he can offer you where that’s concerned. This, with me, is more of a one-off. There are better places and individuals who you can work for to get that rush you need.” That sick, demented rush.
Another look passed between them. Hmm.
They needed him for something.
Protection, maybe? Was he a buffer of some sort for them?
Why would a group like this who clearly knew their shit need that, though?
It hit me as soon as I asked myself the question.
They were being hunted by somebody like them, on their level.
Only one name came to mind that linked to all of this.
Joseph Stover.
This was the connection that I’d been unable to make before.
Because it had been buried, it was so covert that there’d been no electronic trail for me to follow.
“Last chance to give up the intel,” Tom warned, bringing the spider gag closer, then trailing the metal over my lips, giving me a taste of it.
“Hmm… I’m not recalling anything,” I said, glaring up at them.
“Turn her head a little,” Reese spoke as he stepped right where I needed him, just to my right.
As Tom went to do as he’d asked and prepared to grab my head to attach the awful gag, I made my move.
I shot out my right hand from around the chair, snagged Reese’s knife-wielding wrist, then yanked hard and drove my knee up at the same time, successfully dislodging the blade from his grip.
In the next split second, I spun it in my hand, then drove it between his legs, slicing into his dick and wrenching it down until he was shrieking like a banshee.
“Holy—” Tom started, but didn’t get much further as I slammed my left fist into the spider gag, sending it clattering across the floor, thankfully out of his reach and away from me. Fucking thing.
I worked with the shock of it all to twist off the chair just in time as he threw his fist.
He missed me and before he could move in for another blow, I snatched up the chair and swung it into him, clocking him across the side.
He was too well-trained to go down that easily, though, and he took hold of it and tossed it at the door, the impact blowing it open wide.
Then he came at me.
I deflected another hit and blocked an attempted kick with my shin, then I managed to get in a swipe with the knife to his cheek.
He hissed, but still kept coming, and we met blow for blow.
His hits were like cement-block forces, but fortunately I was trained well on how to absorb something that fucking intense and brutal.
Not that it wasn’t going to leave a hell of a lot of bruises in its wake.
But then I hesitated as he went for my stomach and instead of taking the blow and absorbing it so I could land another strategic shot that would actually break the standoff and knock him back, I twisted out of the way, my need to protect my baby taking me over.
He slammed his hand into my chest and I blew back against the wall with jarring force.
He was there in the next second, ripping me around and grinding my face into the rough concrete, scraping my skin like a fucking bitch of a thing.
His other hand grabbed my wrist so I couldn’t wield the knife.
And then he released my head, only to wrap his arm around my throat in a clear attempt to choke me out, just like what had happened before.
No fucking way.
I slammed my head back as a fake out and it worked, making him jerk back just enough that his superior weight shifted and I was able to use the opportunity to wrench at his ankle and yank it out from under him.
He was good, I’d give him that, because he didn’t actually go down, but it did destabilize him and weaken his grip around my throat.
It was all enough for me to twist sharply to the side and rip myself out of his hold.
I smashed my fist into the underside of his jaw, then his throat, following it up with a brutal knee to his gut. The rapid-fire combo had him stumbling back.
It gave me enough room to leap up into a flying kick and gain a lot of power to drive into his gut.
As he doubled over, I was there, yanking on his hair and forcing him down, then bringing my knife-wielding hand up and plunging the blade deep into his throat.
A push kick sent him crashing into a heap beside his screaming accomplice, while all he could do was gurgle and splutter as blood poured from the fatal wound I’d inflicted.
“Just like I promised,” I spat, before wiping the blood on my pants, then striding from the room and out into the basement of the Leone Estate.
As I bolted up the steps, I heard the rumble of footsteps nearing the door at the top.
Adrenaline was thrumming through me like live wires.
And not just that.
I tasted my own blood on my lips, but I could smell my enemies’ all over the place too, their screams infusing me, calling to my monstrous side and fueling it like nothing else.
It was most definitely taking the lead now.
Hell, it was salivating at the prospect of dealing out more brutality.
Blood wouldn’t just spill, it would flow.
That was the dangerous thing about it. It wasn’t always rational.
My ideal focus should be on escaping.
But it wouldn’t let me accept that.
I couldn’t just disappear into the night.
Not while that fire raged within me to the point of painful, scalding intensity.
Not while he still drew breath.
The opportunity was here, and I wouldn’t allow it to slip away.
I wouldn’t be safe until he was buried.
My baby wouldn’t be safe.
My men wouldn’t be safe.
I had to fucking end this.
I had to fucking end him.
All bets were off.
I’d just reached the top of the stairs when the door flew open to reveal two of my father’s home security trying to barrel down to see what the fuck had happened to elicit male screams of agony, rather than those that they’d been expecting of mine.
I rapidly took in the situation and registered the single Glock each one of them had holstered at either hip.
I yanked one free from the guy on the left, spun it and cocked it, then fired off two headshots before either of them could make so much as a move, blood spraying all over my face.
As they dropped hard in quick succession, I stepped on them and walked out onto the ground floor.
In my heightened state of animalistic intensity, I registered the slightest movements easily, pinpointing a guard trying to creep up on me from the right at the end of the corridor that led to one of the living rooms. And to the left, a flash of a tan coat rushing away in the direction of my father’s office also caught my attention.
I fired off a shot at the guard, that sent him jumping behind a column to the nearest cover.
It was the couple of seconds I needed in order to lob my blade down the corridor.
I watched as it embedded in my father’s upper back, making him cry out, stumbling and crashing into the wall before he made it any further.
Motion from my right caught my attention as the guard tried to take aim at me with his piece.
I fired off a shot before he could, my bullet driving through his chest. He fell against the column and crumpled to a heap on the floor.
That wasn’t the end of it, though.
Half a dozen more guards rushed into the area.
I ducked and rolled and cleared the open area, making it on to the corridor that my father was stumbling down. Bullets bit into the wall just as I’d cleared it.
I sprinted down the corridor as my father opened his office door and threw himself inside.
I was there before he could lock it, kicking the door open and blowing him back.
As he fell against his desk and ripped the knife out, I slammed the door shut and locked it, just seconds before thumping started at the door, his security trying to save his worthless ass.
As soon as I spun back, he was there, lunging at me with the knife.
I dodged the attempt, then delivered a roundhouse kick that sent him crashing into the ugly beige couch.
I stormed over there, blood roaring in my ears, the thrill of the kill heating my veins.
The thrill of killing him at long last, unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
Even the sounds of his soldiers trying to break down the door faded into the background compared to the immediate overwhelming need of him meeting his demise.
At my hands.
I couldn’t think straight.
I was so deep in my animalistic state, that the prey was all that mattered.
It wanted blood.
It wanted pain.
It wanted his fucking life.
Nothing else would suffice.
Nothing else would sate it.
He pushed off the couch and came at me with the knife, but I snagged it before he could bring it down, spun into him and brought my arm down with such brutal force that it had him screaming as a definitive crack sounded and managed to dislodge his grip.
I yanked the blade free, then snagged his arm and used his weight to haul him around into his desk, face-first.
“What the hell is this?” he rasped.
I drove my elbow into his back, keeping him down. “This is yet another example of you not knowing your own daughter!” I roared, wrenching on his hair, then using the hold to slam his face down onto the desk. “You sentenced me to a life of degradation and abuse! You set me up to be fucking raped! Repeatedly!” I smashed his face into the expensive wood again. “All because you were so afraid I’d supplant you!” I yanked him around, then drove the blade into his chest, just shy of his heart, making him choke, his eyes shooting wide. “All because you couldn’t admit to your own loss of power, your fucking inability to lead the Family! That you’d lost it long ago! I don’t want it! I don’t want any part of this fucking madness!” I twisted the knife, then yanked it out, making him scream, the sound beyond satisfying. “But I will destroy it! I’ll tear it all down like it never existed. And that will be your legacy. Fucking nothing! ”
In my mind’s eye, I heard the door cracking, security coming closer to breaking it down.
I didn’t care.
The only screams I wanted were his.
“Caterina…” he rasped. “I’m… I’m… sorry.”
I snarled, enraged that he’d think me so foolish as to believe his half-assed apology at this late stage of things, after what he’d just left me to face in that basement. After everything he’d done!
“Lies. All fucking lies!”
I spun the knife in front of his face and his eyes shot wider than ever, true terror emanating from him.
“Everything you’ve done to me, no matter how hard you tried to break me, you failed. You fucking failed! Do you hear me? Do you?”
“Yes… I… please.”
I scoffed. “There’s no mercy for demons like you. You’re too fucking far gone.”
The door flew open.
A warning sparked in my brain.
Rushed footsteps came at me.
I blocked it out, then growled in my father’s face, a second before I brought the blade down again, this time driving it deep into his throat.
Hands grabbed at me roughly and I fired off a bullet, blood and brain matter spraying all over me, because the shot had been so close range.
The grip fell away, and I fired wildly behind me, keeping the rest of them back.
There was no rationality for me right now.
Nothing but needing to watch my prey, my despicable father, die right before me.
I needed to see the light go out of his eyes.
I needed to see him fucking dead!
Finally, it happened. And the last thing he focused on was me, knowing that I’d stolen his life away, that I’d fucking ended him, that he’d failed to do the same to me, that through everything he’d done I’d won.
I spun back to face what amounted to four of his security personnel now. I’d apparently dropped two with my wild firing.
They were stunned, taking in the sight of their Boss, the almighty Santino Leone, now dead to the world.
I yanked my blade from him and spun it in my hand, eyeing the fools who’d pledged their loyalty to a madman.
And then I stepped forward with a snarl.
It’s not over yet.