Chapter 15
Imogen
Ifound trust in the enemy.
Foolish, I know. Believe me. But if I can find a slither of common ground maybe I can manipulate him into a false sense of security. It’s a long shot. A hail mary. I’m exhausted from all other options. This is the only one. This is my only play to win my freedom.
The smile slips from my face as the light fades and I can clearly see my parents on the screen.
My heart shatters into millions of pieces as I look at ma.
Reddened and swollen eyes with heavy bags underneath. Cheeks flushed. Nose a blistering red. In the three days of my absence ma looks as if she’s aged twenty years. Worry lines etch her forehead. A visceral pain and sorrow shrouds over her, dimming all the light and hope she carries.
“Ma.” My voice cracks. I stifle a sob.
“My sweet deary,” she cries. Just hearing my term of endearment when I never thought I would again breaks me.
“You’re alive,” Pa breathes with relief.
He has ma tucked in his side protectively and tenderly.
His eyes that hold so much strength are weary.
His face weathered. I don’t think he has caught sleep since I’ve been gone.
From his shoulders dropped to the disheveled hair and unkempt attire it’s clear pa has been working endlessly to find me.
Even after our huge fight the night before the wedding.
“You see she is alive and well.” The flat tone of Rico comes from behind the camera pointed at me. His eyes flick to mine briefly before he steps in front of the camera. As he does he materializes into something else. More sinister. Darker. A man to fear. “Now it’s time to talk business.”
“Business?!” Pa seethes. He clenches his hand. I notice his knuckles are busted open. “You have my fuckin’ daughter tied to a fuckin’ chair like you would an enemy—”
“She is an enemy.”
Pa flusters. His vein is about to burst on his forehead. “She has done nothing to you to deserve this, you sick bastard!”
“Your blood runs through her veins Seamus. Don’t sit there and act like you haven’t done the same.
You’ve killed someone’s son. Their father.
Their brother. And casualties along the way mean nothing in your pursuit to regain control.
Your methods aren’t any different. You’re just as monstrous as the rest of us. ”
Pa silently fumes. I know he’s biting down on his tongue. “Constantine had my boy killed and you think you’re the one to be making demands? He killed my son! He’s the one I should be speaking to. Not you.”
Rico flashes him a cold smile. It’s unnatural. Unnerving. Unease blooms in my gut. “You want to speak to the man who killed your son?”
“Yes, out of fuckin’ respect,” pa spits through clenched teeth.
Rico spreads his arms out wide. The fabric of his shirt strains against his lats and hugs his biceps.“You are speaking to him.”
The blood drains from my face. Lead sits at the pit of my stomach. Bile burns at the back of my throat. I break out in a cold sweat.
Through bleary eyes I watch the devastation fall over ma. She holds her head in her trembling hands as she silently screams.
It’s palpable. Her pain. Pa’s fury.
And all I can feel is. . .numb.
Pa rises from the couch and gets his face in front of the camera. “You shouldn’t be fuckin’ standing! Let alone fuckin’ breathing!”
“Yet here I am doing both,” Rico says coolly. “And now I have your daughter Seamus. The only child you have left. What are you willing to do to get her back?”
“I will avenge my son,” he darkly promises.
“All this talk of your son while it’s your daughter who is being held captive. Tell me Seamus, what’s more important to you?”
Pa smiles coldly. “You think I’m just going to give in to your demands that easily?”
“For your daughter - yes.”
There’s too long of a pause on pa’s end. And I see it. I see the vengeance in his eyes. The blood thirst. It kills me. Breaks my heart all over again. Worse damage than the night before my arranged marriage. This face he wears, the face he’s worn since Niall’s death makes him unrecognizable to me.
And ma is just too heartbroken to say anything. It’s like she’s in a state of comatose. The trauma paralyzes her.
“Do you even care if she dies, Seamus?” I hear it. There’s a harsh infliction in Rico’s tone. If I didn’t know any better I would think he’s furious upon my behalf. “Does her life have no value to you?”
“I will not concede. Not to you fuckin’ Italians,” he spits.
The muscle in Rico’s jaw feathers with tension. A coldness emits from him. Any sane person would run and hide.
“Perhaps we up the ante,” Pietro chirps in mischievously. I see him behind the camera with a smile a tad too wide. Whatever it is he has planned, it's not looking good for me. I test my restraints once more but the damn things won’t budge.
Damn it all to hell.
Pietro gives one thunderous clap and masses move from the shadows.
One by one they appear. Soldiers of The Donati Famiglia.
They circle me. Great white sharks that have sniffed blood and are hankering for a bite.
I eye them as apprehension fills me. It spreads like a damn poison. My tongue lays thick and heavy in my mouth.
“You don’t worry what will happen to her?” Pietro presses. He claps his hand once more and each soldier pulls out their gun and points it at me. My nails claw against the metal chair.
“Pietro,” I hear Rico mutter his name under his breath in warning. Pietro only winks at him. Rico’s hand flexes.
“You kill her and what do you have against me?” Pa argues with hardened eyes. “You have fuckin’ nothing.”
“Seamus,” ma admonishes him with horror lacing her tone. “Do something! That’s our daughter!”
He shrugs her off him. Ma looks as if she’s been struck.
So do I. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Pa use aggression towards her.
He’s always been so passive. Adoring. Kind.
It reminds me all too well of the moment he lost control in my bedroom.
His fist through my wall. And I can’t help but wonder if his fist strikes ma next.
“This is mob business, Sherry,” he stresses furiously, spit spewing from his mouth. “If you can’t handle it then leave.”
“Seamus.” Her voice cracks. She wipes her tears with the back of her hands before clutching her heart. “That’s our baby girl. My sweet deary baby girl.” Pa works a swallow, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Please.” She begs him. “Please save her.”
“Seems like your wife has the right idea. Need more convincing, Seamus?” Pietro nods his head and all four of the soldiers close in on me. Panic sets in. I begin to choke on it.
I feel the butt of the gun pressed to the back of my head. Another pressed to my right temporal. The other pressed to my right.
Then there’s the last soldier. He wears a slimy grin that has spiders crawling across my skin. With his grimy fingers he starts to pry my mouth open. I bite down on his fingers, metallic exploding in my mouth.
Snapping his fingers back he lashes at me, “Fottuta stronza!”
I spit his blood at him and smile with all my teeth.
He pounces forward, hooking my mouth open and placing the gun there. His hand dangerously plays on the trigger.
“Seamus please!” Ma pleads hysterically.
“Enough Sherry!” He roars with finality. “Leave this to me. This is my concern. My business.”
Her eyes bulge out of her head. She throws her hands to emphasize her pleas. “It’s our daughter!”
“A game of Russian Roulette is always fun, isn’t it?” Pietro snickers.
“Sebastian, take her. Now,” he commands.
“Yes sir,” he says in a baritone voice. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard it. The man I was supposed to marry. He cuts in front of the camera and begins to manhandle ma.
I yell, though it’s muffled and hardly translates from the gun being in my mouth, “Let her fucking go!”
Rico’s gaze burns through my skull.
The soldier shoves the gun further in my mouth and I gag. My eyes water profusely.
Sebastian wraps his arms around her and with force takes her away as she kicks and thrashes. Her screams ring in my ears. They become the only thing I can hear. Over and over.
I try my best in getting out of the restraints but they only cut into my skin. Old wounds reopen. New ones burst. A warm stickiness floods my hands.
But I have to get to ma. I need to get to ma.
“Nicky,” Pietro orders and I still fight. At least if I die I know that I tried. The soldier behind me presses the gun harder against the back of my head and pulls the trigger. Stunned, I freeze.
He really did it. This sick bastard is allowing this to happen.
“Tony.” The soldier to my left pulls the trigger. “Only two left, Seamus. You’re really willing to risk your daughter’s life for revenge?”
“And how do I know you’re going to fuckin’ keep your word on keeping her alive? What insurance do I have that you won't betray me?”
Pietro shrugs. “I guess you’ll just have to trust us.”
Pa scoffs. “Trust? You want me to trust you? After killing my boy? You fuckin’ Italians couldn’t do a fair shake if your life depended on it. You slimy two-timing bastards!”
“Now that’s not nice to say,” Pietro playfully reprimands him. “Deano.” The soldier to my right pulls the trigger. It comes up blank. “And we’re left with one. What do you say, Seamus? Your precious revenge or your daughter’s life?”
Something sick and twisted takes over in the soldier in front of me. A cruel smile plays on his lips. His finger itches to pull the trigger.
“I will not yield to—“
It all happens almost simultaneously. Five gun shots ring in the air. And at first when the warmth coats my face I believe I finally met my end. I had thought of death so much and now it has come. Cruel in its nature. Almost anti-climatic for how I thought it would be.
“Enough!” Bellows a voice that has only ever followed me into my unconscious. A voice that has haunted me day and night. A voice that does not lie. One that promised me death by his hands.
“They were all fucking blanks, Rico!” Pietro shouts defensively.