10. Massimo
My hands were coated in gore. I’d have to clean up before Evelyn saw me like this. She wouldn’t like the sight of blood on me. It upset her so much, and this time, the blood wasn’t my own. I suspected she’d like that even less.
My delicate little butterfly had a kind heart and sweet nature. I wouldn’t disturb her by showing her the darkest parts of my life. She knew that I’d killed men to protect her, and she hadn’t turned from me in revulsion. As long as I didn’t show her the bloody evidence, she wouldn’t be upset by what I’d done tonight.
Adrián, Mateo, and I had saved the girl who’d been put up for auction. Every man who’d been complicit in selling her virginity was dead. She’d chosen to go with Adrián and start a new life in his employ. I approved of her choice. There was nothing for her here in this impoverished town. If she allied herself with Adrián, she would be safe and might even become powerful in her own right. She would never be a victim again.
I could at least tell that much to Evelyn. She still seemed to harbor na?ve notions about good and evil. What she’d witnessed tonight might’ve given her a good dose of reality. The drug lords that she thought were so evil had worked together to save an innocent young woman. We’d killed the men who’d hurt her and empowered her to make her own choices.
That suited the code I lived by. If Evelyn thought that was evil, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to sway her.
The thought made me uneasy, so I pushed it away. She would become accustomed to my lifestyle once we made it home to Naples. She would settle into my life and become comfortable in my care. I would make her happy.
I entered the mansion quietly, not wanting to draw her attention just yet; I needed to wash up first. I took a few soft steps down the long hallway, and something crunched beneath my shoe. I looked down and saw the diamonds glittering on the floor.
The house was dark and silent.
“Evelyn!” Her name boomed through the cavernous space.
No reply.
“Evelyn!”
I could search the rooms, but I already knew she was gone. Her necklace was on the floor, discarded. Had someone torn it from her neck, or had she taken it off herself?
But if someone had torn it from her, surely, they would’ve taken it with them? The gemstones were valuable, and a thief wouldn’t have left them behind.
I managed to pull my phone out of my pocket with shaking hands and called Stefano.
“Where is she?” I demanded as soon as he answered. My voice was barely human.
“Evelyn? I dropped her off safely and then returned to the club to help you and Adrián. But you’d already finished with your fun by the time I got there. She should be at the mansion.”
I stared at the fallen diamonds. They winked up at me, mocking me.
My chest hollowed out. Evelyn had run away from me. I’d left her alone, and at the first opportunity, she fled.
She’d said she wanted to return to America, but I never would’ve believed she’d try to escape from me as though I was her cruel captor. She’d pledged herself to me. She’d offered her body to me, and she’d promised that she was mine.
“She’s gone.” I choked on the words. “Fuck!”
I barely stopped myself from smashing the phone against the wall. I needed to stay calm so that I could find her.
And punish her for thinking she could leave me.
If she wanted me to be her captor, I could be that villain. She’d looked at me like I was her savior, like I was a good man. And I’d become addicted to it.
But the truth was that I was camorrista. I was a ruthless criminal, just like Stefano and Adrián. She feared them, but she’d never feared me.
At least, I thought she hadn’t.
I gnashed my teeth like a cornered animal. Whether she feared me or not, Evelyn was mine. She wouldn’t escape me so easily.
“I’ll call Adrián,” Stefano said, calm and lethal. “We’ll find her. She can’t get very far.”
I grunted my thanks and ended the call. Pain knifed through my chest with every thundering heartbeat. I breathed through the agony of losing her. One way or another, I would get her back.
And she would learn never to run from me ever again.
I raced out into the street, hunting my prey. Stefano was right: she couldn’t have gotten far. The town was small, and surely, she was too smart to venture into the jungle at night. Evelyn might be headstrong, but she wasn’t stupid.
I took a few seconds to decide on my next course of action. I could pursue her on foot. That would be slow, but I could check my surroundings more thoroughly than if I was in a vehicle. I trusted that Stefano would follow through with his promise and call for Adrián’s help. They would be out looking for her too, so being thorough was more important than covering lots of ground quickly.
I took off at a run, making my way past the boundary of the wealthy neighborhood and into the impoverished area of town. I remembered we’d passed a military outpost during the drive to the mansion. The officials would be on Adrián’s payroll. If I asked for their assistance, they would help me scour the streets for Evelyn.
The concrete block building was just visible at the end of the street, which was illuminated by a single light outside. Otherwise, moonlight guided my path, throwing the hardpacked earth road into sharp relief with the pale pastel buildings on either side.
A gunshot rang out from the building, accompanied by a distant scream. My heart stopped, but I managed to keep my feet from faltering at the punch of terror. Years of fighting for my life sent adrenaline pumping through my body, granting me lethal focus rather than debilitating me with fear for her.
Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe…
My name rang out through the quiet night. The sound of her scream was mostly contained inside the concrete building, but I was close enough now to recognize the cadence of her voice crying out for me.
I tore down the street in a burst of nearly inhuman speed. The world fell away around me, my full focus centering on her. She was seconds away from me. But if someone fired that gun again, I might lose her forever before I could get to her.
I burst into the building, revealing a nightmare. My brain took in the horrific scene without my body slowing.
Evelyn thrashed on the floor, a man holding her down. He was laughing as though he was having the time of his fucking life. An older man loomed over her, fisting his flaccid cock, preparing to violate her. There was a gun on the desk behind him, and the other had an automatic rifle tossed carelessly beside him, both of them too distracted by hurting her to think about their weapons.
The knife Adrián had gifted to me was in my hand.
I went for the one who had her pinned. He was too close to her, and once I attacked, he might grab her and use her as a shield.
He would die first.
I barreled into him with my full weight, shoving him off her. His shocked shout lasted only an instant before morphing into an agonized scream. My blade slashed his face, ruining the lips that had leered at her. I caught a flash of teeth and bone before the blood poured from his ruined mouth. His flailing hands scrambled for his rifle, but another harsh slash of my knife nearly severed his wrist. His scream of abject horror ended when I grabbed his body and lifted it in front of my own.
Just as I’d anticipated, bullets ripped into his chest. I launched myself at the older man, who’d managed to grab his gun from the desk behind him. I kept the body between us. At this close range, my meat shield wouldn’t hold out long before the bullets tore through and hit my own chest.
I used the body like a battering ram, slamming the dead weight into my enemy. He fell back as he lost his balance. The gun clattered to the concrete floor, and the body pinned him for a precious second.
I hauled the dead man away, discarding the corpse like garbage. The older man was covered in gore, but none of the blood belonged to him. I’d fix that. But before I allowed him to die, he would suffer. He’d touched her. He’d wanted to rape her.
“She’s mine,” I snarled and plunged my blade into his gut.
He’d thought he could hurt what was mine. He’d thought he could take her from me.
He hadn’t known who he’d provoked.
“Did you like her fear?” I growled, wrenching the knife free so I could drive it deep into his belly again. “Did you enjoy her screams?” I slowed my actions, pushing the blade upward. I made him watch as I tore him open from navel to sternum, revealing his shredded guts. “Who’s screaming now?”
He wasn’t capable of releasing another scream. He choked on blood, the wet sound echoing off the concrete walls. His entire, ruined body shuddered as death neared. Just before the life left his eyes, I drove my blade between his legs, severing his flaccid cock. He’d thought he could violate her. He’d never touch her.
His eyes flew wide in his final expression of abject horror, and then his face went utterly still, perpetually frozen in agony.
Both of my enemies were dead. I had to get Evelyn somewhere safe. There might be other soldiers nearby, and they wouldn’t stop to ask me questions when they saw the macabre mess I’d made of their friends.
I picked up the rifle and slung it over my shoulder, arming myself in case more men came pouring into the building, drawn by the gunshots and screams.
I turned to her, and my stomach dropped. Her dress was torn, and she clutched at the frayed silk in an attempt to cover herself. Blood splattered her pale cheek, and my fear grew black claws, digging into my chest so that each breath was agony.
“Evelyn.” Her name was a garbled exhale. She might be bleeding. I didn’t know what they’d done to her before I arrived, but I’d heard her cry out my name in desperate terror. There had been gunfire.
I dropped to my knees beside her. A pained whimper like an injured animal slipped between her parted lips, and she scrambled back. Away from me.
Her lovely eyes were wide with horror, her pupils dilated with fear.
I suddenly became aware of the gore that coated my hands and forearms. My face felt tight and sticky. I hadn’t wanted her to see me like this, but that choice had been taken from me the moment I’d heard her scream.
“Farfallina…” I rasped, reaching for her again.
She shook her head and scooted back, struggling to hold her dress closed and put distance between us at the same time.
For an awful moment, I saw my mother’s face, her caramel eyes wide with horror as she took in the bloody, broken bottle clenched in my fist. My act of violence was the last thing she’d seen, and it’d broken something inside her.
The black claws of fear ripped at my lungs, scoring deep enough to cut into my heart.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I swore, my voice tight with pain.
Her petrified gaze swept over the ruined bodies of the men who’d assaulted her. Her throat convulsed, and she vomited—a visceral reaction of physical revulsion.
As she shook and gasped for air, I gathered her up in my arms. She thrashed, but I held her firmly to my chest.
“I have to get you out of here.” The words were harsh, desperate.
She shuddered and squeezed her eyes shut tight, as though she couldn’t bear to look at me. Her delicate fingers fisted in her torn dress, as though the flimsy fabric would shield her from me.
My heart shredded. I couldn’t draw full breaths.
I forced in oxygen and focused on my surroundings. Protecting Evelyn was all that mattered.
As I nudged open the door and assessed the situation outside the building, I saw an armored SUV pull up and skid to a stop. Before I could decide whether or not to set Evelyn down so that I could grab my rifle, Adrián got out the vehicle. He’d clearly had the same idea to enlist the help of the authorities in searching for Evelyn. He would’ve arrived too fucking late.
I shouldered the door open and stepped out into the night, confident that no one would attack us while he was present. He took one look at Evelyn cowering in my arms, clutching at her torn dress, and his face tightened into an almost feral mask.
“Who?” he demanded. Men on his payroll had assaulted my woman. It was his duty as my friend to make them pay.
“I handled it,” I growled.
His pale green eyes roved over my bloody face, and he nodded his approval. He opened the SUV door and gestured for me to get Evelyn inside the armored vehicle.
We rode to the safety of his mansion in awful silence. Evelyn didn’t sob or scream. She was utterly still in my arms, her eyes closed. I would’ve worried that she was gravely injured, but her shallow breaths came in a quick but steady rhythm. She wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t command her to. I couldn’t bear to see the horror in her eyes again.
Fear of me.
We arrived at the mansion, and I carried her straight to the bedroom, passing the diamond necklace where it’d been discarded on the floor. My stomach knotted. She must’ve taken it off. She’d run away as soon as I’d left her alone. I’d trapped her in my dangerous world and dragged her to Colombia against her will.
She’d tried to escape from me, to get back home to America. And she’d been assaulted without me to guard her in this lawless place.
This was all my fault.
But I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t.
I pulled her tighter to my chest, caging her in my arms. I would fix this. I would fix her.
She looked shattered: my broken little butterfly.
I carried her into the bathroom and turned on the shower. A cascade of water sprayed from multiple directions, and it warmed almost immediately.
Not bothering to strip off our clothes, I toed off my shoes and stepped into the massive shower stall with her in my arms. The water immediately ran red, and I was grateful her eyes were closed so that she didn’t have to see it.
I waited until the worst of the gore had been washed from my skin. I wouldn’t start to take off our clothes until she was calmer; stripping her naked in the aftermath of what she’d suffered was the last thing she needed.
She still clung to her ruined dress, her fingers locked in the soaked black silk.
I sank to my knees and set her down so that she was sitting with her back against the tiled wall. Her eyes remained closed as I quickly stripped off my sodden shirt. No amount of soapy water would get the bloodstains out of the white material. She didn’t need to see that.
The blood splatter no longer marred her pale complexion. It hadn’t been her blood.
She began to shiver despite the heat of the water, her body quaking violently as her teeth chattered.
I pulled her tightly against me and pressed my palm over her racing heart, calming her before she could go into shock.
“Breathe, Evelyn.”
My sweet girl had never disobeyed a direct order. She heaved in a shuddering breath, her chest convulsing with the effort.
“Good girl. Keep breathing.”
I breathed with her, forcing my own chest to rise and fall in a steady rhythm. After a few minutes, her breaths slowed to match mine, and hear heartbeat resumed a normal pace beneath my hand.
She drew in one more deep breath, then released it on a harsh sob. A keening sound like a wounded animal echoed off the tiles, the most horrific thing I’d ever heard. My shredded heart twisted violently, as though the ruined organ would tear asunder. I could endure physical pain, but her distress was agony. An awful sense of helplessness robbed all the strength from my muscles. I’d never felt so weak and useless, not even as a boy when I’d been scrawny and sheltered.
I rocked her gently, a stream of soothing words dropping from my lips in my native tongue. I didn’t know what I was saying, but the cadence seemed to slowly soothe her.
She trembled in my arms, but her sobs quieted.
“You’re safe,” I murmured, stroking her wet blonde hair back from her chilled cheek. Despite the heat of the shower, she was still cold and pale. “No one will hurt you.”
Finally, her eyes fluttered open. They were dark with pain and lingering fear.
I cupped her nape, holding her close. “Don’t be afraid.” It was meant to be a reassurance, but the words came out as a rough plea.
“You…” her chest convulsed. She breathed and tried again. “I can’t…”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, mingling with the water.
I shushed her again, and she went still and quiet. But she wasn’t soothed. Her eyes were dull, detached.
My stomach lurched, nausea rolling through me. This was all wrong. She was supposed to look at me like I was her salvation. Like I was her everything.
But she just looked…broken.
“I need to make sure you’re not injured,” I said, keeping my cadence slow so that I wouldn’t spook her.
I covered her tight fists with my hands and encouraged her fingers to unfurl. She didn’t resist as I carefully peeled the ruined dress off her to check her over. A shadow of my murderous rage tightened my jaw when I took in the bruises forming on her arms, but I forced myself to remain calm. Any show of anger or aggression might terrify her. As it was, her disassociation was terrible enough.
When I was satisfied that her body was otherwise unharmed, I picked her up and turned off the shower. I wrapped her in a plush white towel and carried her to the bed, my sodden pants leaving a wet trail on the floor. I wouldn’t strip them off just yet. She didn’t need to see a naked man after what she’d just endured.
I laid her down on the bed and tucked her under the duvet. Her eyes were closed again, but I knew she wasn’t sleeping. She was drifting somewhere blank and quiet, her mind refusing to process the night’s awful events.
Satisfied that she wasn’t watching me, I quickly took off my pants, dried off, and put on a pair of black sweatpants. I got into bed with her. She didn’t struggle or tense when I pulled her into my arms. She was limp like a lifeless doll.
I wanted to roar out my frustration and fury, to release some of the volatile emotions that were tearing me up inside.
Instead, I caressed her gently, soothing her with light strokes of my fingers over her soft skin. After a while, her breathing evened out, exhaustion pulling her down into sleep.
I lay awake until the sun came up, tormented by my fear that she would never look at me as her savior ever again.