70. Chapter 70
Coming face to face with Eileen after all these years is a shock I wasn’t expecting.
Especially since it doesn’t look like time has done her many favors, though I can tell she’s trying desperately to hide it under her fancy clothes and layers of makeup. She still bleaches her hair too much, and I’m pretty sure I can see some of her shapewear peaking out from under her low-cut blouse when she bends over. She also looks like she’s been on the run for a while and hasn’t coped very well without her expensive health care regime. Regimes I’ve had to suffer through hearing about over and over in the past before she’d try to push them on me to try out in an attempt to help me lose weight.
“What? No hello for Mummy?” she fake pouts and then fucking cackles.
“Nope, but it definitely looks like you need to soak in a shit ton of those seaweed wraps you love so much. I’d much rather handle dealing with a real mummy than you any day of the week,” I sneer.
God, how I hate this woman! I was perfectly content with never seeing her again, and yet here we are and she’s still making my life a living hell. Just like she used to. All because I know where her precious dagger is and Tía (Aunt) Lucia named me as her beneficiary for Heritage Roots, which still boggles my mind.
Eileen huffs and I can see her breath in the air. Do they not heat this area? I knew it was cold, but I didn’t realize it was that cold. With how I’m dressed, I’ll be freezing in no time. Though, at least this time I’m not wet. At least not yet, anyway.
I was expecting the slap, but I hadn’t realized how much fucking hardware she was wearing on her hand. Fuck, I think she just tore my cheek to shreds with all the rings she’s wearing.
“I see you still haven’t learned any fucking manners, but what was I to expect when you went to stay with those pathetic excuses of human beings?”
I cock my eyebrow at her. “Huh, and yet here you are, my own fucking mother, and you’re treating me worse than they ever have.” Except for tonight, I can’t help but think, but I push that thought away. I can’t show her weakness. “Hell, you’ve always had it out for me and I never understood why.” It’s something I’ve always wondered, and since I need to keep her talking as much as possible, I might as well ask.
She scoffs as she waves a perfectly manicured hand in the air. “Because I never wanted to marry your father or even have you. I had everything planned out! And because of you , I lost everything and the life I was building came crashing down around me! I was working on my side hustles with Diego and Carlos, who were trying to help me get into the family business. I was engaged to the son of another Spanish mafia family, but then when I found out that a one-night stand with Nikos weeks before I met Raul resulted in me being pregnant, they broke everything off. Because of you , I lost the love of my life and had to fucking marry Nikos!”
By now, she’s pacing in front of me in my small cell as she fumes, her hands gesturing wildly.
“Of course, Nikos was the perfect gentleman when he found out about you. He bought me a ring right away and proposed, even though it wasn’t good enough for a Don’s daughter, but I couldn’t tell him that. I couldn’t tell him anything about my family’s true nature. He swore that in time, I’d learn to love him and you, but I knew I never could. Not when I hated you both to my very core.
“Then Daddy found out about my side hustles and kicked me out right before college graduation. He couldn’t understand my vison of bringing back the true way of the Dons of old. Well, almost all of their aspects. We could have been billionaires a hundred times over, if not more, if we had stuck to the old ways. But no. Daddy was adamant that the family would never work in skin again and he cut me off. I had no choice but to accept Nikos’ proposal. By then, Nikos knew my stance on kids and was determined that I would not abort you, even though I desperately wanted to.”
Nausea slams into me at hearing her so casually talk about killing me when she was pregnant. I could never have done that to any of my kids. Even with having Stephan as a father.
“At first, though, you seemed to take after me and I figured you could be my ticket back into the family, so I faked being a loving wife and mother. And it worked for a while. But then you had to go and start taking after your father. After college, he too started to change when we moved to Forest Creek so that his family could help with you after you were born. He started putting on weight the more and more time he spent around his family and I couldn’t stand their cooking or the smell of it,” she pauses as she gags, as if she could actually smell it. “Thanks to Mother, she created a secret account for me that I dipped into whenever I needed it. One of the times was to pay an old contact of mine to get us the fuck out of there and we moved to western Iowa.
“For a while, Nikos also seemed to improve until you fucking insisted on learning about your heritage. Of course, being the man that he is, he told his family how proud he was of you. Then both he and his fucking family doted on you like crazy, sending you recipe after recipe, care package after care package of meals to cook up with Nikos. I had to put an end to it and used the account again to bribe a doctor to tell Nikos we needed to get your health under control. I just knew that somewhere in there were my genes, and if I could mold you into the perfect daughter, then Mother would have convinced Daddy to let me come back home and work for the family.”
She pauses in her rant as she curls her lip at me in disgust. “But no, you had to go ignore my warnings and spill the beans to Nikos about everything! You ruined everything I was working for! Took everything away from me, again , and everyone was siding with you!” She points angrily at me. “I should have just sold you straight away to Alejandro, but Diego insisted that selling you to his new business partner would open more doors since he was a cop. A cop we had on our payroll.”
I swear my blood freezes at Alejandro’s name.
Stephan talked about him many times. Mainly regarding how much he looked up to Alejandro and how he handled his businesses. Of course, on the nights when Stephan would get himself all riled up, thinking about what Alejandro does to his victims, it always ended up with me bruised and bloody before he’d fuck me. And it didn’t matter if I was conscious or not when he did that. Or how much pain I was in.
“But Stephan never made you hurt enough. Never made you bleed enough.” She pauses and a chill runs down my spine at the sinister grin on her face. “But this time, this time, you will. After X gets his fill of you, you’ll be solely turned over to Alejandro and you’ll never see outside of your new gilded cage again. Though, I’m sure with their tendencies, you’ll be shared by them since they have quite a few similar interests and preferences.” She looks down at me and sneers. “Not even being a fucking fat, beached whale will stop the sale. Unlike Stephan, Alejandro has his own doctors that live on his estate. You’ll never need to go to a hospital again. Not even if you become pregnant. And those little brats of yours, we’ll get our hands on them eventually, and I’ll sell them off to the highest bidder who will ensure they endure as much pain as possible.”
I struggle against my restraints and a second later; I feel something slip between the ropes, sliding against my wrist.
The dagger bracelets.
This time, I purposefully wiggle, making Eileen think I’m struggling when I’m really trying to dig out one of the bracelets from under the rope as I glare at Eileen.
“Luke won’t let you touch a hair on their heads! And neither will the club,” I snarl to which she cackles again.
“So fucking na?ve. Still so fucking na?ve and stupid. As soon as those two cunts have their babies, we’re moving in and storming that fucking whorehouse. When everyone except your precious Luke is dead, we’ll make him watch as we take the brats, handing them over to their new owners before slicing his thr—”
“Eileen!” Someone yells as they throw the door of my cell open and I swallow thickly when Diego’s hate-filled eyes fall on me before they narrow. “What the fuck, Eileen! There was an agreement that she would be handed over without any more injuries. You know he wants to break her himself.”
For a moment, my hopes that they aren’t going to hurt me rise. Well, at least not yet. That gives time for the club to find me. I’m sure by now they’ve noticed I’m missing. But then again, I don’t know what time it is. There are no windows in the cells either.
“Don’t worry, Diego,” she purrs and I fight to not roll my eyes as she switches into her sickly sweet and fake voice. “This, and anything else I deem necessary as a punishment, is already written into a clause in fine print at the end of the contract. If he didn’t read it, it’s his own damn fault.”
Well, fuck. There goes that hope.
“Now, what did you really need?”
“We have a situation.”
She scowls and after glaring at me, leaves the room with Diego after locking up my cell.
I wait for a few moments before I glance around better at my cell, but there aren’t any cameras. That I can see, at least. I really wish I had my glasses. Shaking my head, I force myself to look around as best as I can in the meantime.
To my right, there are two women laying down that are also tied up, but they’re both facing away from me, so I can’t tell who they are. To my left, there are at least six, maybe more, men stuffed inside, but they’re all knocked out. Or drugged. However, for some reason, the men don’t appear to be restrained.
Shuffling to my right has me looking that way again, and I squint, trying to see better since I don’t have my glasses. I gasp when I realize who’s staring back at me. Her face is hollow and gaunt, and there are yellow-ish green bruises along her jawline that are almost healed. She’s wearing some sort of white dress that does little to keep her warm in this cold cell. She gives me a small smile.
“Claudia?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I should have listened to you. You were right. When he posted bail for me and we got back to my apartment, he went ballistic on me that I had failed in giving you that drug. He tricked me. Everything you said would happen, happened. That’s when I realized he lied to me about you.” A tear slides down her cheek and she blinks rapidly to keep more from falling. “I thought he was a good bet because he was a police officer, but I was wrong. So wrong.”
A shudder runs through her and despite what she attempted to do to me, I feel sorry for her. No one should be subjected to any sort of abuse in my opinion.
“How long have we been here? Or were you in here before? Or did they bring us together?”
“Just a few hours, I think, but I don’t know we came here at the same time. Before they brought me here, they kept me locked up at some homestead. He made me wear chains as I worked with the other women. I was there for about a week. I went to bed in my cot and woke up here. At least, that was my fate once Stephan burned through all the money he stole from me. I had some privileges then, but when he took me to the homestead, he showed me what exactly I meant to him by selling me to some Phillip guy.”
Hatred once again simmers in my gut at Stephan, and I use it to channel my resolve to get the fuck out of here.
“Do you know if they drugged me?”
Shaking her head, she gives me a sympathetic look. “When I woke up, they were in here talking and said that you should be out for about another hour because of it, but they didn’t mention what they gave you. They usually drug us before transporting us anywhere. I think it’s just a sedative so that we won’t fight back against them, but I’m not sure.”
Fuck. I tilt my head toward the other woman. “Do you know who that is?”
“No, she was in here when I woke up and she hasn’t woken up yet.”
“What about those men?”
“I overheard Diego mentioning that they were his father’s men who had been patrolling his section of the estate.”
That gives me an idea.
We fall silent and I go back to my task, wiggling my arms to try and get enough space to where I can slip my bracelet out. It takes a while, but I’m finally able to get it out.
Carefully, I untwist the clasp and unhook it before starting to cut into the thick ropes.
I’m almost through the last tight section of ropes when I hear shouts coming from somewhere nearby and work faster. Finally, I’m able to get it just loose enough to where I can slip my wrist out. Quickly, I re-hook the bracelet around my wrist and carefully stand, but then I realized I forgot a vital flaw in my plan.
The fucking metal chain attached to my ankle.
“Fuck,” I hiss as I sit back down.
I examine the lock closer and what I thought was a chain and shackle, is actually just a metal chain and a bike lock.
Chuckling, I shake my head and grin. “I can work with a bike lock,” I mutter.
Last night before bed, I’d been so out of it because of what happened with Luke and the club that I never took down my hair. And right now, I’m grateful for it because I had it half up and had bobby pins helping to keep everything in place.
Taking out a couple of them, I do my best to remember how to bend them correctly, and when I hear the first pin of the lock disengage, I have to bite my lip to keep my giddy squeal from escaping. One by one, I repeat the process until all the pins are disengaged and the lock finally unlocks. Undoing the lock, I rotate my sore ankle a bit before standing again and hobbling over to the main door of my cell. There’s another large metal chain holding my door as well as the door holding all the men shut, who I’m assuming are de mi abuelo (Grandpa’s) guards. It’s almost like whoever locked us in here didn’t have the actual gate keys to the cells. Unfortunately, my bobby pins aren’t going to get this massive lock picked, I don’t think, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
Kneeling in front of it, I’m about to start picking the lock when groaning to my left has me looking that way. One of the men in the suits sits up as he holds his head and squints before looking around. When he sees me, his gaze narrows. “Who are you?”
Seeing as I have no point in lying to him, I tell him the truth. “Mary Catarino. Antonio Vasquez is mi abuelo (my grandpa).”
Recognition dawns in his eyes and his shoulders slump slightly. “Thank fuck you’re okay. Boss would have gone on a rampage if you were hurt again.”
I cock an eyebrow at him in question.
“I heard from the Boss that Diego and Eileen were trying to get their hands on you. I feared the worst when I saw you hanging over Leon’s shoulder right after they darted me.” He frowns when he sees my bobby pins and shakes his head. “Those won’t work against a heavy-duty lock like that.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured, but it’s either this or sit and wait for them to come back for me, and I’d rather take my chances on these.”
His frown deepens as he pats his pockets, and then it’s my turn to frown when he takes off his shoes. He pulls out his insert and my jaw drops in surprise when he lifts a small box out of the base of his shoe.
“Doesn’t that hurt to be standing on that box all day?” Internally, I roll my eyes. That’s the question I lead with? Seriously?
He grins but shakes his head. “Nah, with the insole, I can’t even feel it. I gotta tell you though, I always thought your uncle was paranoid when I saw him making storage compartments in his shoes and belts. He recommended we do the same, which I did just to satisfy him, but I’ll be fucking thanking him after this. Let’s see if there’s something in here that will help. It’s been a while since I did this, so I don’t remember everything that’s in here. I’m Jorge, by the way.”
Jorge didn’t end up having a lock picking kit, but he did have something that he thought would work. We both share a nervous look when we hear more shouting getting closer to us. He kneels at the door and starts picking the locks.
“See if you can wake any of the others while I do this, Mary,” he says over his shoulder, and I’m about to do as he says when I think about Claudia.
“Claudia, can you see if you can wake the other woman?”
“Yeah,” she replies weakly, and then shuffles across the floor as best as she can since she’s tied up. Turning around, I get to work trying to wake Jorge’s coworkers while at the same time, wondering exactly how weak she is. Did Stephan or Phillip starve her? I wouldn’t be surprised if either one did. Both are royally fucked in the head.
“Hey, come on, whoever you are. Time to wake up.” I push on the shoulder of the guy nearest me and almost cry out in alarm when his arm suddenly flies out and his hand clamps down hard on my wrist.
“Fuck! Louis, let her go! That’s Mary, Boss’ granddaughter.”
Louis drops my wrist like I burned him and he gives me a sheepish look. “Apologies, Miss Mary.”
I wave him off. “I should have expected it since you’re de mi abuelo (grandpa’s) guards. And none of this ‘Miss’ shit, either. It’s just Mary.”
He huffs and shakes his head. “Chip off the old block of Mateo’s, that’s for fucking sure.”
I can’t help but grin at that. I’ve heard lots of stories of a younger Tío (Uncle) Mateo, and we are a lot alike.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” someone snarls, and I spin, falling on my ass as I lose my balance.
My eyes widen as I stare down the barrel of the gun Isaac is aiming at my head.
Oh, fuck. This is so not good.
When did he get in here and how the hell did none of us hear him?