Chapter 28 Sera
SERA
Iforce myself to stand. Renzo’s gun moves with me.
I’m not surprised he’s willing to hurt me.
Hell, I bet anything he’s willing to kill me if his plans—whatever they are—don’t go his way.
Going anywhere with him is a very bad idea.
I have to keep us here, keep us talking until I can figure a way out of this mess.
One hand still behind my back, I press the other to my stomach. “See what I mean about delusional? The only way out is through a house filled with armed guards. You’ll never make it.”
“We, Principessa. Me and you. We’re both leaving.” Renzo taps his gun against my head then waves it at the door, message clear. “Ladies first.”
Delay. I have to stall, to buy some time.
It won’t take Alik’s men long to realize that some of their compatriots are unresponsive on the radio.
As soon as that happens, they’ll storm up here, check see what’s happening.
If we leave the suite, this conversation will turn into a hostage negotiation, one with me and Renzo on one end of a hallway and a bunch of armed guards on the other.
It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.
A wide, incredibly expensive barrel, but still. I don’t like the odds one bit.
Working like hell to ignore the gun aimed at my brain, I force that organ to formulate some sort of plan that doesn’t end in me getting shot.
With the hallway escape off the table, the next best way out of here is through the balcony doors and down thirteen feet of empty air to the rock-hard patio below.
Mental cogs whirring, I point to the suite’s door.
“If we go that way, we’re going to get shot.
Thanks to your pyrotechnics, the guards are mobilized.
Maybe they already know you’re in here. Maybe they’ve already found the men you shot.
One way or another, you’re about to be seriously outnumbered in the gun department.
You want to get us out of here alive, we need to go another way. ”
Renzo’s lips twitch, his fingers dancing on the handle of the gun. “You’ll leave with me, just like that? No fight? That isn’t like you, Principessa. Disobedience has always been your default setting. I can’t see you changing your ways now.”
I cradle my bruised stomach and say the first believable excuse that pops into my head.
“What would you know, you haven’t seen me in years.
Besides, you’ve already caused enough damage.
I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.” Renzo doesn’t look convinced.
I sag even more, exaggerating a wince. “My stomach hurts, thanks to you. I can’t make a run for it.
I don’t want you shooting more people. What option do I have left? ”
Renzo has always considered my lack of obedience my biggest failing.
Daughters of mafiosi do as they are told.
They don’t have dreams or ambitions or autonomy.
My mother certainly didn’t. Not her mother either.
Renzo’s mother died before I was born, but I’d say it’s a safe bet she was as caged as the rest. Renzo di Salvo has lived in a world where women are always subservient.
If they rebel, they’re punished. Killed.
The only reason I had as much freedom as I did throughout high school was because he wasn’t around and my mother was too broken to care.
Renzo vanished when I was ten and the following eight years were heaven for me and hell for my mother.
Not that she’d come out of her room long enough to tell me that, but I got the gist eventually.
Marriage to Renzo defined her life. Without him, she didn’t have anything left.
Certainly not the daughter she blamed for his departure.
Until the day my family clipped my wings, I’ve tried to live the life I wanted, not the one they prescribed for me.
And now, in order to have any life at all, I have to convince this man I’ve suddenly changed my tune.
Have to make him think he’s won. Just long enough to escape him or kill him, whichever comes first. “Are we leaving or what?”
Renzo’s blank stare feels all-consuming. I let my spine dissolve, feigning the weakness he’s looking for.
“I’ll be damned, I should’ve had my brother-in-law lock you in the basement years ago.” He grabs me by my left arm, yanks me upright. “Let’s go.”
He starts to haul me across the suite, heading for the balcony doors. I stagger behind him, readjusting my grip on the gun still concealed by my sweatshirt. He hasn’t bothered to search me. Hasn’t even given it a thought. “You haven’t told me where we’re going.”
“Simple,” he says. “I’m taking you where you should’ve been before Rocco fucked everything up. It’s time to make you presentable. Or as presentable as you get. I’ve got a lot riding on you, Princess. It’s time to do your duty and prove your value to the family.”
I understand the implication, but I want to hear him say the words out loud. “You’re selling me? Like, to a man?”
Renzo looks at me over his shoulder just long enough that I can see the triumph flash in his otherwise dead eyes. “Not to a man, Princess. To a master. To someone who’s paying handsomely for the privilege of breaking your defiant nature. Of breaking you full stop.”
Nothing he says is a surprise, but that doesn’t make it any less nauseating. I take a few deep breaths, suffocating the instinct to vomit. “You came here, risked getting killed, just to take me away to auction?”
Renzo stops, turns. I swear I see his jaw tick. “There’s no just about it. Your mother and her useless brother fucked everything up and now I have a debt to pay.” He squeezes my arm painfully. “We have a debt to pay.”
“What does mom have to do with it?”
Yup, Renzo’s jaw is definitely ticking. “That jealous bitch. She couldn’t leave well enough alone. Couldn’t let me have my fun with that pretty little Russian. Your crazy mother, she just had to attack the most valuable of all the girls. Jesus, the mess she made, all that blood…”
A sick dread fills me. A pretty little Russian. Could he possibly mean Rina? Is it possible that Renzo had Rina and my mom attacked her? Killed her? I have to know. “What Russian? Who did mom attack?”
For a second I think di Salvo is going to answer my questions, but then his expression blanks. “Aren’t you a curious little princess? Don’t worry, your new master will break you of that too.”
“Who is this man you keep talking about?”
“Again, with the questions.” Renzo resumes dragging me across the room.
“You have to fucking stop, Principessa. The only thing you need to know is that your mother broke his favorite toy and we owe him a new one. Rocco swore he had a replacement, but she vanished. Somehow escaped that pathetic fuck. So now it’s down to you.
You’re everything the Albanian wants and you’re going to do your duty to the family.
For once, you’re going to prove your worth and you’re going to keep me alive.
Now, shut that mouth before I do it for you. ”
We’re almost to the balcony. I don’t know how, but it seems like it’s Renzo’s idea of an escape route. A fear of falling temporarily drowns out all the horrible things he’s just said. “You can’t be serious about us leaving this way.”
Renzo’s gripping me with one hand and his gun with the other. He doesn’t let either go to open the doors, catching the lever handle of one door with the silencer and swinging it open. Icy air rushes in. “Clearly, I’ve been away too long. You should know by now I’m always serious.”
“It’s a thirteen-foot drop.”
“Good thing I know my way around a rope.” Renzo turns, yanks me forward until his face is inches from mine, my left arm locked painfully between us. “I’m not going to risk the merchandise.”
I stare into my father’s face and repress every instinct I have to scream.
He sees me as a piece of property, something to be sold to the highest bidder.
We don’t have a relationship. There’s nothing but distance and cruelty between us.
But knowing that doesn’t make any of this hurt less.
I’m not as stone cold as Renzo. I can’t keep the pain from seeping into my voice.
“The tattoo on my chest—did you do that?”
“Save the indignation for someone who cares, Principessa. It’s standard. All the high value girls have them.”
“I don’t remember—” I swallow back angry tears. Grip my concealed weapon tighter. Slide my finger around the trigger. “When did you do it?”
“You can thank your mother for that one. She took care of it. In Rocco’s basement, not long after he locked you up. While you were still eating the food—and the drugs in it.”
“That’s so fucked up.”
“Welcome to the real world, Principessa.” He turns forward, using his grip on my left wrist to haul me closer to the balcony’s edge as his attention shifts to our escape route. “Fucked up is just the start of it.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” If my comment doesn’t catch Renzo off-guard, my gun in his back does.
He freezes and for one insane moment, I think I might pull this off.
I just need to pull the trigger and push, then he’ll be over the balcony and gone.
But in my rush to shoot Renzo, I’ve forgotten that he’s still gripping my other arm.
Leverage that he uses to push me off balance as he whips around to face me.
I keep my aim steady but can’t stop from stumbling back.
He points his muzzle at my head.
There’s no time to catch my breath. I scream, he curses. We both try to escape at the same time we both pull the triggers. The room explodes in gunfire.