Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Nina
Luca receives a new package in the mail. The moment I see it, I know it’s not a good sign.
“We don’t know who this is from,” he cautions me as he slowly opens it.
“Susanna has been missing for a day. She’s been kidnapped by Gabriel. I know it. Who else? You have to take this seriously, Luca.”
“I am.” He steps back from the box on the kitchen table.
“What’s in it?”
He sighs deeply before reaching into the box and pulling out a piece of blonde hair. Susanna’s hair.
I gasp, covering my face with my hands. My sister. She’s been taken. Maybe tortured and raped. Maybe even killed.
“We don’t know it belongs to her yet.”
I shoot Luca a hard look. “Who else’s hair is it? Susanna has blonde hair. Gabriel sent a severed hand to her house. And now she’s missing. Just because you don’t like my sister, doesn’t mean she deserves to be treated like this. You love me, Luca. Help me get her back.”
“There’s something else.” He pulls out a phone from the box.
“What does that mean?”
With a heavy expression, he turns the phone on and opens the video tab.
A video starts playing… one of Susanna on her hands and knees, completely naked, scrubbing at the floor.
Luca swipes to the next video which involves Gabriel touching Susanna with a knife.
The video ends with him pulling away from her, so that tells me she’s alive. At least for now.
“You shouldn’t have looked at these,” Luca says as I slump to my knees and start crying.
“That’s my sister, Luca. She’s in danger. Get her back. For me. Please.”
He cups my face, looking worried, though I know it’s more for me than it is for Susanna. “I will find her. I promise. But I’m not sure where Gabriel is keeping her. I’ll have someone look over these videos. See if they can figure it out. But I will find her.”
“Thank you. Susanna needs to know that someone cares for her. That someone is coming for her.”
“You really believe she thinks no one is coming for her?”
“I think my sister knows she’s been a problem in the past. That she has pushed people away. But she’s worked hard to better herself over the years. I just need her to know that I will fight to save her.”
“That’s what makes me proud of you. You’re a good sister. A good person.” He gives me a gentle kiss on the head. “I will find Gabriel. I will send a hitman after him to end his life. That I promise you.”
“But find Susanna first. If you kill Gabriel and we can’t find her… then we’ll never be able to.”
“I will get her back. I promise. And I will kill Gabriel for this. That’s a fact.”
It’s one I have to believe because the other outcome is too scary to even contemplate.
Gabriel
“That girl of yours is a bitch,” Chip grumbles before he bites down on his burger. We’re at some shitty diner halfway across town from where Susanna is being kept. I don’t want anyone finding her. Not yet. Luca needs to feel the sting of me. Needs to know that I have the power to decimate him.
“Susanna isn’t my girl,” I respond, popping a French fry into my mouth.
“You kidnapped her. You won’t let us touch her. That makes her your girl.”
Isacc frowns. “Why did you tell us not to touch her? It’s not like you care for the girl.”
“It’s not out of love, trust me. I just don’t need her raped and tortured for my plan to work.”
Chip scoffs. “You? You’re the man who hasn’t hesitated to torture people in the past.”
“Always men,” I remind them. “I’ve never tortured a woman before. I have a soft spot for them.”
“Do you have a soft spot for that bitch?”
“Stop calling her that,” I snap, harder than I mean to.
Susanna is amusing to me. A pawn in my game.
Nothing more. And yet… that doesn’t mean I want her mutilated.
When I threatened her with my knife, she didn’t flinch.
I had no intention of cutting her with it.
She’s too pretty. I find her nice to look at, so sue me.
“She’s a bitch and you just said it yourself: she doesn’t mean anything to you.”
“I kidnapped her. Whatever she says is just self-defense. Don’t take it so fucking personally, Chip. You’re really starting to annoy me. Susanna was right. You do give off incel vibes.”
Chip stops his burger halfway to his mouth. “I’m not an incel.”
“When’s the last time you fucked a woman?” Isacc asks.
Chip doesn’t answer as he stuffs his face with another huge bite of his burger.
I chuckle. “You have a problem with women, Chip. Just accept it.”
“And you don’t?” he asks around his mouthful of food. “You kidnapped that girl.”
“To get back at Luca. Not because I hate women. In fact, I’m in the mood for a good fucking right now. I should go find someone to spend the night with. I am a man with needs after all.”
“You could use those needs on that bitch.”
Isacc smacks Chip upside the head. “Gabriel is going to kill you if you keep talking like this.”
“In time,” I promise before scooting out of the booth. “Finish paying up.” I head to the nearest nightclub I can find and settle in at the bar. I don’t have to do much before a pretty blonde sidles up to me.
“Hi,” she says, giving me a seductive smile. I give one right back.
“Hi. I’m Gabriel.”
“Luna.”
“Nice to meet you.” I flag down the bartender and order a beer. Nothing too heavy. I don’t need to get drunk when I need to be on my guard for whatever Luca might throw my way.
“I noticed you the moment you walked in,” she says.
“I’m glad. I was looking for someone to talk to and I’m happy a beautiful woman such as yourself came over to me.”
“And if I hadn’t?”
“I would have gone to you.” It’s a fucking corny pickup line but a lot of women like it and judging from the way Luna bats her eyes at me, she definitely liked it.
“Good. Want to dance?”
“Or would you rather we just get out of here?”
She looks me up and down. “How do I know you’re not a serial killer?”
I lean in close to her ear and she giggles. “That’s just a risk you have to take. But I would never want to hurt a beautiful woman like you.”
“You’re just looking to fuck, I take it?”
“Interested?”
She smirks. “I am.”
“So let’s get out of here.”
I lead Luna out to my car but before I can open the door for her, a man comes walking right by me and tries stabbing me with a knife. I whirl around and catch his wrist, making him drop the knife to the ground. Luna screams and runs away.
I turn to the man and punch him in the face, knocking him to the ground. He whips out a gun from his pocket but I kick it out of his hand before he can shoot me with it.
Grabbing the back of his hand, I yank him towards me. “Did Luca send you? Surely, right? Why else would you be trying to kill me right now?”
“You weren’t exactly hiding yourself by coming here.”
“Good. Then that means I can kill you for trying to kill me.” I pick up the knife that he dropped, ready to stab him with it… when an idea occurs. “Get up.” I jerk the hitman to his feet and shove him into my car before I punch him hard in the temple. He blacks out.
It’s easy to get him to the house where I have Susanna stored away. It’s a nondescript place. Blends in with every other house on the street.
The hitman is still passed out when I drag him into the house and down to the basement.
Susanna jerks to her feet. Unfortunately, she put her clothes back on after I left her. I’ll have to rectify that soon.
“What’s going on?” she demands. “Who is that?”
I throw the hitman to the floor. He groans as he wakes up. I step on his chest so he can’t jerk to his feet. “I thought you should see the real me. You seem to not be taking this whole situation seriously enough. I figured this would get you to change your tune.”
Susanna looks between me and the hitman, trying to appear not afraid but I can see the terror behind her eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to kill him. And you’re going to watch.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because he tried to kill me. Luca sent him after me. I know it.”
She turns her back to me, wrapping her arms around herself. “I don’t have to watch. You can’t make me watch and kill him at the same time.”
“I thought you weren’t afraid of me.”
“I never said that. I just refused to cry.”
“Then maybe this will do the trick. Turn around, Susanna. I will strap you to a chair and make you watch if you don’t.”
Slowly, she turns back to me. “You’re horrible.”
“I never claimed otherwise.” That’s when I bring the knife onto the right wrist of the hitman.
“Don’t!” he screams right before I begin cutting it off. His shrieks are the sound of nightmares. He tries hitting me with his other hand but I easily slice through his wrist before turning to his other hand and cutting that one off too. His blood begins to gush all over the floor.
Susanna doesn’t make a sound as she watches.
The hitman’s face quickly turns pale as he dies out. The moment he’s gone, the room goes eerily silent.
“There,” I say, standing back. “That’s the real me.”
“You could have killed him in a more gentle way.”
“I could have but I chose not to. When someone tries to kill me, I don’t take it too kindly. So why would I offer him mercy? He’s dead now anyway so it doesn’t matter.” I use the knife to start cutting off his legs.
“What are you doing?” she gasps.
“I need to cut him up to send his body back to Luca in pieces. Maybe then Luca will understand how much of a threat I am.”
“You’re evil.”
I set the knife down and grab her chin with my bloody hands. She flinches but once again, doesn’t cry.
“What’s it going to take?” I murmur. “To get you to cry?”
“Nothing. Because I will never give in to you. I will not let you win.”
“Funny how you believe you actually can win this.” I rake my eyes over her. “Take off your clothes. I’m taking them with me this time.”
“No.”
“No? You just saw me kill a man right before your very eyes. Butcher him. And you’re going to deny me?”
I can feel how hard she gulps. “I can’t do it,” she admits.
“Then I’ll do it for you.” I make quick work of her clothes and toss them into the blood on the ground. “There. I’m sure you won’t want to wear those ever again.”
“There’s no blanket down here. It’s cold.”
“Not my problem. You look much better naked, by the way.” I pick up her clothes and whistle to myself as I head for the door. “I’ll come back for the body in a little bit. Let it be a reminder of what I can do.”
It’s only when I leave the basement that I hear Susanna scream and I smile.