26. Wynter
Wynter
M y legs quivered, my body ached, and blood covered my hands and face. I held the shreds of my clothes with one hand while I supported myself against the walls in the hallway with my other.
I had to get out of there. Clenching my teeth and ignoring the pain that each step shot through me, I kept moving forward and stumbled out of Bas’s red brick home.
Warm air hit me. The noise of the city matched my hectic state. My steps halted.
A car sat parked in front of Basilio’s home and a man stood in front of it. Big, bulky. Our eyes connected, and for a moment, I thought he’d kill me or send me back inside, to face my death.
“Go,” he mouthed and relief washed over me. I tilted my head, and tears burned my eyes.
I took off running. I was barefoot, blood stained my ripped shirt, leaving my back exposed. I only wore boyshort panties, now stained with blood. My phone was left behind. Everything.
Bas played me. Bas played me.
The words screamed in my ears as I ran down the street, glances thrown my way, but I ignored them all as my chest burned.
Oh my God! Bas’ father shot my mother.
How many secrets did our family have? I didn’t even know my mother was shot. She had a past with DiLustros? DiLustro had to be lying.
“Do you need help?” A passerby asked but I ignored him, rushing aimlessly down the street. I couldn’t call Uncle Liam. He’d kill Bas.
Idiot, I shouldn’t worry about Bas. He betrayed me. Left me for his father to-
A shudder rolled down my spine and fear iced through my veins. Bas left me.
The sound of screeching tires. Shouting. I ignored it.
I was such an idiot. I fell right into their trap. Like a lamb to the slaughter.
“Wynter.”
My heart sped up. He was coming after me. DiLustro was coming to finish me. I sped up, my ears buzzing with adrenaline and terror.
A hand wrapped around my wrist and I screamed, jerking against it.
“Wynter, it’s me.” Two hands wrapped around me and turned me around. Pale blue eyes met mine and I blinked. “Remember me?”
I frantically looked around. There was nobody else, just him.
“Sasha,” I croaked, with despair. My eyes burned and pain scratched at my chest and stole my breath. The sobs I desperately tried to contain choked me, making each inhale and exhale physically painful.
He nodded and I burst into tears. There was no stopping the floodgate of tears. Sasha’s big arms wrapped around me and my body shook with sobs.
“Who did this to you?” he growled.
My sobs wrecked me and words refused to come out.
How could I tell him? The fucking idiot in me still cared about what would happen to Bas.
I shouldn’t care. I wouldn’t care. One day, but right now, I just couldn’t utter those words.
Besides, if Bas and his father were so ruthless, it would put Uncle and Mom in danger.
Juliette and Killian, my friends. I couldn’t let anything happen to them, and I knew the moment I uttered Gio DiLustro, Uncle would go on a warpath against all of them.
“Tell me,” he demanded, his chest vibrating under my cheek. I shook my head against it. I’d never say the name.
“We’re getting an audience,” he grumbled, taking off his suit jacket. I raised a blank stare to his pale blue one. The moment he rested his jacket on my shoulders, I flinched and a muscle in his jaw tightened.
“Let me take you home.” Something bitter passed through his eyes, like ghosts haunting him. The thought made no sense, but I couldn’t shake it off. “I’ll call Brennan from the car.”
I jerked my whole body out of his hold and shook my head frantically. “No. Not Uncle,” I begged, my voice hoarse. “Not his house. Not yet.”
He glanced around us, growling at the audience that immediately dispersed. “Come in the car with me. My brother is there. We’ll take you somewhere safe.”
“Not home,” I repeated, my demand clear. If Uncle saw me, it would be bad. I couldn’t let that happen. It was my burden to bear. Even knowing who Bas was, I willingly went to him. Despite the warnings I’d heard, I trusted Basilio DiLustro.
“No, not home,” he promised, then his arm came around my waist, urging me forward.
His one, bulky arm around me, he nudged me to the car and I followed while staring at the ink on his fingers. They looked like symbols, but I couldn’t distinguish what they were. My sight was blurry from the tears, my focus even more so.
Once by the black Mercedes G-Benz, he opened the back door and helped me into it, then slid next to me. His brother was behind the wheel. I clutched Sasha’s jacket as I met Alexei’s pale blue eyes in the rearview mirror.
Something dark and unhinged flashed in his eyes that had me shrinking into the seat.
“What in the fuck happened to her? Who?” He spat out in Russian, his voice colder than the Arctic temperatures. Sasha responded in Russian too and my eyes ping-ponged between the two.
“N-nothing,” I breathed, my voice sounding slightly distorted from my lip that started to swell. I swept my tongue across it and the cut stung badly.
“You understand Russian?” Sasha and Alexei asked at the same time, surprise on their faces.
I nodded. “It was an elective, and for some reason, it worked for me,” I muttered, each muscle on my face hurting as I talked.
“Give me a name,” Alexei said, the demand clear in his cold voice.
I shook my head.
“You know we can’t let whoever did this to you get away with it,” was Sasha's response.
“No,” I replied stubbornly.
Sasha ran his tongue across his teeth with agitation. I took Sasha’s big hand with both mine and squeezed desperately. “Please. Please, just let it go. I-I won’t go around B-” I cut myself off just in time. “I won’t go around that area. Please.”
Alexei shook his head and reached for something in his pants. I watched with wide eyes, holding my breath. It was his cell, he flipped through and dialed a number.
“Nico, need surveillance on the east side of New York,” he said, his voice monotone and raspy. Then he recited the block of the city he found me in.
“Please,” I pleaded in a hoarse whisper. “Please, no. I-I’ll give you anything.”
Alexei ignored me and I turned to Sasha. “Whoever it is, Wynter, don’t worry. We’ll protect you. They’ll never get to you again.”
I shook my head with desperation and my vision blurred, with tears and pain. The physical pain didn’t compare to the ache in my heart. It was supposed to be an organ that breathed life into a body but each pump and beat of it hurt worse than anything else I had ever experienced before.
“That’s impossible,” Alexei grumbled into a phone and my eyes left Sasha to stare at Alexei, trying to read his impossibly passive expression.
“Jesus, you’re bleeding all over,” Sasha hissed, then brought a handkerchief to my face, the movement reminding me of Bas.
My ears started to ring, my lungs closed up and my breaths came out ragged. I couldn’t breathe. I gripped the hem of his jacket and my body started to tremble. Tears stung my cuts, streaming down my cheeks.
“Fuck,” Alexei muttered from the front seat. “I’ll talk to you later, Nico. Keep trying. Sasha and I want that name.”
Sasha pulled me into a bear hug and I shook against him. The knowledge I’d never have Bas cut through my chest, splitting my heart wide open. My throat tightened and I squeezed my eyes shut.
I never had him , my heart whispered. It was all a lie.
“What did Nico say?” I could hear fury in Sasha’s voice and it burned further fear through my veins. If DiLustro's name came out, they’d go hunting for Bas, his father… every DiLustro. If they didn’t, Uncle Liam would for sure. No wonder Mom didn’t want to come to New York.
“City surveillance was already erased,” Alexei remarked, putting the car into drive. A tiny relief washed over me. “He’ll check the private ones.”
I had no idea what it meant. My body shook uncontrollably and now that adrenaline wore off, the pain grew with each second.
“We have to take her to the hospital,” Alexei grumbled. “Brennan will find out and burn down this fucking city. You know that, Sasha. We have to call him.”
My teeth clattered as I desperately shook my head. “N-no. P-ple-ase.”
“Wynter, the hospital will call him and you need medical care. Especially if you were r-” Raped.
He cut himself off. But I wasn’t raped. It came pretty close but I got away.
“N-no h-hospital,” I said coarsely, my whole body shaking uncontrollably “P-paper. They’ll recognize me.”
Sasha gave me a blank look, then turned to meet Alexei’s eyes. “She’s an Olympic figure skater,” Alexei explained. If I wasn’t in such a horrible state, I’d be surprised someone of his caliber even knew that.
Sasha must have thought the same because he muttered, “I didn’t take you for a figure skating fanatic.”
“Fuck off, Sasha,” Alexei told him. “Aurora likes it.”
He scrolled through his phone and dialed someone else as my whole body shook and a haze swelled in my brain.
“Cassio, we need to bring someone to your penthouse.” Alexei's monotone voice filled the fog in my head. An invisible hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off my oxygen.
I tried to hold on to my consciousness, but the ringing in my ears grew and grew. I moved my head, at least I tried. “Sasha, I think-”
And the world went black.