41. Maricela
“Why did he leave us here?” Raven whispers and tries to get as close to me as possible.
I turn to her, hugging her as fiercely as I can. If she’s hurt, she wouldn’t be able to hide that instantly. I do the same with Lila, who gasps.
“Did that hurt? Where?”
I check her belly, trying to figure out if they did to her the unthinkable when we were passed out. Lila gasps again.
“Where does it hurt, Lila?” I demand, but Lila chuckles as melodically as ever.
“I’m not hurt. Just shocked that you hugged me, of all people.” Lila’s voice is full of amazement.
“I don’t understand.” When they don’t react, I explain myself. “How is it that you two were born into a fucking blood-stained life, and you don’t know how to do a simple impact check?”
“Because we have cunts instead of dangly parts,” Raven replies.
“For people like my father, women are gems who need to be kept in a safe. For people like Franco, women are holes to use as a transaction, but at the end of the day, we don’t have a part in the world they created. I’m not sure how it is in the corporate world that Lila lives in, but I can imagine it’s the same. All the woke movements are useless against the real problem. Most of them are as corrupt as any other if not more than any political party. Think about it: people go to rallies, but we’re all still sitting on our thrones while others are dying from hunger and senseless wars. You know that better than most.” I do know that. The world is backward.
“Why did he leave us alone?” Lila asks this time. “Isn’t he worried we can do something?”
The almighty Lila Knight sounds like an uncertain child looking for her parent in the mall.
“It has to be because there’s no way out. We’re trapped.”
I step to the door and wave a hand over it. “Just look at this door. Even if we had the strength to move this monstrosity, there’s probably an army of men outside.”
“How do you know all these things?”
I shrug and instantly realize it was a mistake. My muscles seize from the position my hands had been in all this time, and the cramping takes me to my knees.
“My father was a policeman,” I manage to get out between clenched teeth.
“He may have been an abusive father and a man without a backbone, but I learned many things from him, and constantly being in dangerous situations for the past four years helped too.”
“I’m sorry for that stupid video. Franco made me do it. And yes, I admit that at the time, it seemed like a good way to get rid of you.” Lila takes my hand in hers and squeezes once.
“I didn’t want you to suffer. Or maybe I did. I’m not a good person.”
“Are any of us?” Raven interjects.
“Maybe Mar is.” Too shocked to speak, I try to look into her eyes, but it’s difficult even though I long ago adjusted to the darkness.
“They’ll abuse us,” Raven continues in an emotionless voice that I didn’t know could come from someone as full of light as my best friend.
“They will. But not before they call our men. You said yourself that we’re just tools.” I’m not one to sugarcoat things.
“The contagious whores. What are we going to do with them, boss?”
I hear a man just outside the door ask. I don’t dare raise my head even though I know I need to see who it is because revenge is something I’ll serve him on a flamethrower when we get out of here.
“Are you sure they’re sick?” another man asks, probably the one he called boss.
The second man’s accent is much less drastic than the accent of the man with albinism who licked my face.
Although I suppose his accent wasn’t that different from that of every Italian I’ve heard to date. In that case, I’m sure he’s one of the people in the alliance. His voice is cold, calculated, and emotionless, just like Kai’s.
The door swings open again, and a new man steps inside. He spreads his feet wide and places his hands on his hips.
“Alec, you’re alive,” Raven says in a bored voice. Damn it, who is this Alec?
“Raven, the fragile bird of the mafia. You’re not a virgin anymore, I hear, and you already have chlamydia, of all things? How did my old friend Liam let it happen?”
“It’s HIV,” she corrects him as if knowing he’s testing her.
“Let’s stop this bullshit, Alec. When are you going to kill us? Does Uncle Franco know you’re alive?”
Raven gets to her feet. I want to stop her, but I don’t. Showing too much favoritism to each other in front of them can lead to trouble.
“Kidnapping, Alec? Really?” she tisks.
“It’s unbecoming, even for you. And even so, why did you take them as well?” she asks, waving a hand in our direction. “Killian has nothing to do with you. It’s me you want, isn’t it? And turn on the light. Let me see you.”
“Varishka moya,” Alec says in what I presume is Russian.
“Don’t call me that, and I’m not yours. The lights, Alec. Now.”
“You’re a thief. My thief, aren’t you, Varishka? You stole my heart. Besides, your dear Liam isn’t the only one who owes me. As far as I remember, Kai owes me a few things, too.”
Alec flicks on the light, and we cringe at the immediate pain in our eyes. I shift my head and shield my eyes before opening them again to see the most beautiful man standing in front of us.
Handsome doesn’t cover it. Alec’s long, straight hair falls to his lean torso, hair that is almost swallowed up next to his smooth, nearly transparent skin.
His body is long and thin, as if he came out of the runway or, better yet, a ballet where he plays the solo. His lips are wide, and his features are sharp, but what you see first are his eyes.
Fuck his eyes. They’re the most beautiful pair of chocolate eyes I have ever fallen upon. Maybe because they’re huge, or maybe because they’re the perfect contrast to his light skin and hair color.
Yet, with all these model-like delicate looks, he exudes strength and power. It’s undeniable. Maybe it’s those broad shoulders against his overall lean psychic or his height, or maybe how he stands as if the world belongs to him and no one can take his status away.
If I didn’t know he was a mobster, I would think he belonged to the former Russian royalty.
Raven gets to her feet and stands before Alec. She slaps him across the face hard. We’re going to die. Of all the times she could choose, was this the moment for my best friend to grow a spine?
“Where did you learn that?” Alec asks with no emotion in his voice.
“From the Mexican telenovelas you love so much?” The most impressive man I’ve ever seen really knows my friend. I get to my feet to protect my mouthy friend, but instead of harming her in any way, he envelops her in his arms.
“Is this how you treat your future husband?” he asks.
Her what? Killian definitely skipped a few parts in his story, or has this guy lost it.
“Damn you, you son of a bitch. Kill me, or I will.” Raven shoves him in his chest, to no avail. He may be lean, but he’s definitely strong. “Let me go, Alesha, now.”
He moves but gives her the most blinding smile. Fuck if he’s really her husband-to-be. Their kids would look like angels.
Really Maricela, he kidnapped you all, I chastise myself, and then as if in a ninja move, Raven slips her hand into her bra and retrieves a small gun from her boobs.
I always told her she could hold everything in her boobs, but I never imagined that she would take me up on it and with a gun, no less.
“Our little varishka has grown up and learned to play with grown-up toys.”
Raven shoots into the air, and the thick walls and emptiness of the warehouse we’re in amplify the sound.
I cringe and put my hands over my ears. Lila does the same, while Raven doesn’t move as if the shot didn’t hurt her ears in any way.
“She’s strong, boss,” the Albanian, who is much scarier in the light than in the dark, tells his boss.
What the hell is going on here?
“Our varishka has grown into a woman who looks like a supermodel and is a lot more than Liam thinks she is. This is going to be fun.”
Alec rubs his hands together in what appears to be glee. Well, at least he sees her appeal.
Stop it. She won’t stay with the man who kidnapped her, no matter how hot and mesmerizing he is. I shake my head at myself and look over at Lila, who seems just as lost as me.
I step in front of the man and look up into his eyes.
“Shut up. No one speaks to her like that, no matter how hot they are, because really, you look like you came out of fairy porn.” Does everyone in the mafia look like a mountain next to me? Give me a fucking break. Alec chuckles, and yes, his voice goes deeper when he laughs.
“Fucking cabrones de mierda, a la chingada con todo.”
Alec’s laughter ceases, and he genuinely looks confused.
“She does that,” Raven explains.
“Curses in Spanish when she’s really mad. I think it’s your looks, Alesha.” I stare at Rav, who stares back fondly as if I amuse her.
“I don’t get what’s going on here, and I need an explanation now,” I demand as if I’m not surrounded by men who could kill me.
“Mar, I know everything,” Raven says with a heavy sigh.
“Franco is my biological father, and Isabella is my mother.”
She says Franco’s name with pure disdain, while Isabella’s name leaves her lips with pain.
“Killer is my twin. I know, and I don’t blame them. I don’t blame Liam, either. Not after what Franco did to his...” She stops as if remembering where she is.
“And this fucker knows most of it,” she says, waving a hand in Alec’s direction. “He probably plans to blackmail Killer.”
She turns to Alec and says, “I know it all, Alec, so do your worst.” Raven tosses the weapon to the floor as if she has no use for it. Alec doesn’t look pleased, which tells me that Rav was on point.
“Are you really Franco’s daughter?” Lila asks, and I see it when she stands. It’s like a picture has suddenly appeared before her eyes.
“And I’ve been jealous of Killian all this time for what? I thought he had some sick attraction to you. He always protected you from everyone, Raven here and Raven there. I need to check on her. And you, are you the Alec? The Russian Alec? What the hell are you doing with the Irish mafia? Didn’t you die years ago?”
“They, unlike Kai’s family, didn’t throw me away,” Alec says in a completely nonchalant voice.
“Fuck you, Alesha.”
Raven slaps him again, and a red mark instantly appears on his flushed skin. I stand before her, but my friend is in a rage and keeps going.
“Kai wouldn’t do such a thing. Even I know that.”
“How come the women of the alliance are so smart, boss? They can’t be whores. If they’re clean, I think we can take care of them in a more interesting way than blood,” the Albanian says, licking his teeth, and the disgusting thought of his tongue on me makes me shiver.
Alec pulls a weapon from the back pocket of his pants and shoots the repulsive man without a second thought. My face is covered in blood, and Lila screams.
“You’re not going to kill us.”
Raven sounds more desperate than ever, as if death is better than anything that’s going to happen to us now.
“Of course not. That would be too boring.”
Raven screams louder than Lila or any gunshot that has resounded here so far, and Alec laughs like a lunatic.
“Call him, Raven. You know what to do.”
Alec tosses a phone at her, which she catches like a ninja. Then he leaves us, leaving the door open behind him.
What the hell?