Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Cormac
After sending Josh and Sam home, I pace around the living room.
My eyes keep flicking to the bedroom door.
Arianna is in that room. Arianna, the Italian girl I kidnapped to save my sister.
Arianna, the young woman who I need to hurt to get what I want.
Arianna, the person I stopped Josh from hitting.
Why did I do that?
The girl means nothing to me. I’m planning on cutting off her fingers if Marco doesn’t leave my sister within the next two days.
And yet, I didn’t want to see her get slapped across the face. When Josh did it the first time, I felt an anger rise up in me. Not an anger for Arianna but an anger for Josh. Why did it bother me enough to stop him from hitting her again?
None of it makes any fucking sense. She’s an Italian girl. Her family works for the Italian mafia. I hate her and her people. They ruined my family. Made Ciara marry Marco. Made me leave my own family because of the anger inside of me.
I do not care for the girl. Not at all. I just meant what I said: I’m the only one who’s allowed to hurt her. Nothing else. It meant nothing else.
What I really want right now is a beer but I should be clear headed. Arianna is itching to run. She was even smart enough to use that lamp on me. She’s smarter than I gave her credit for.
With a sigh, I sink onto the couch. There’s only one bedroom in this place and Arianna is in it. I’m not going to sleep in the same room with her. Not with her kind. It doesn’t matter how pretty she is. Soft brown hair and kind eyes. A perfect body. A dancer. Go fucking figure.
How can someone who belongs to the Italian mafia look as innocent as her? They’re all evil. I know it.
It’s the only way I can live. The only way I can save Ciara.
The exhaustion over the past day seeps into me and sleep takes over before I can stop it.
Arianna
I press my ear to the door, listening for any sounds but I don’t hear anything. Hopefully Josh and Sam are gone. Now, I just need to be rid of Cormac so I can be free.
I search the entire room for anything I can use as a weapon and yet, there’s nothing. I pace back and forth. This can’t just be my fate. A powerless victim.
My parents kept me sheltered all my life to protect me from this. They treated me like a child at times, even after I turned twenty-one. But right now, I’d give anything to return to their arms. To have them hold me again. To feel like a child again.
Because right now, the fear inside of me is too much to handle. I think I might break.
As I pace, my foot steps on a squeaky floorboard. I pause and then walk over it again. An idea forms in my mind. Kneeling down, I pick at the floorboard until it pops out. I gasp. It hurts my fingers but I manage to pull the floorboard out until it’s in my hands. A weapon. I can use this.
I just have to wait until Cormac comes back again.
It takes hours and in that time, I grow sleepy, but the second I hear his footsteps coming towards the door, I spring to my feet. I brace myself against the wall.
Cormac opens the door but he doesn’t step foot into the room. “What are you planning this time? The lamp is broken. You can’t use that to hurt me again.”
I don’t say a word. Make him come inside.
With a sigh, Cormac finally does as I want.
I swing the floorboard at his head and it makes contact.
He grunts, stumbling back. I run out of the room, keeping the floorboard in my hands.
My eyes land on the front door but I know if I try to run, he’ll just catch me. He needs to be seriously wounded.
Instead, I run to the kitchen and grab the first knife I can find. Cormac runs after me but hesitates when he sees the knife in my hands.
“Arianna, don’t be stupid.”
“Don’t be stupid?” I snap. “You’re going to cut me anyway.” I don’t even care that I’m standing before him naked. I lost my modesty the moment he kidnapped me. “I cannot let you do that. If hurting you allows me to escape, then so be it.”
A sneer crosses his face. “You’re just like every mafia person I’ve ever met.”
“What does that mean?”
“Selfish.”
“Selfish?” I gasp. “You kidnapped me.”
“Because I’m trying to save my sister.”
“I don’t care,” I spit out. “You kidnapped me. I did nothing wrong.”
“You’re Marco Amato’s niece. That’s what you did wrong.”
“And you’re insane.”
His eyes flick to my hand. “Let go of the knife.”
“No.” I hold it out before me. Cormac runs in my direction and I swipe at him, managing to land a cut to his arm.
He hisses. A surge of adrenaline takes over me and I run but Cormac catches me.
His hand wraps around my wrist, making me drop the knife.
I struggle against him as he brings me back to the bedroom and throws me onto the bed.
I don’t move. Is this it? The moment he rapes me?
But instead, Cormac backs away from me and stares down at the cut on his arm. It’s bleeding pretty bad.
“Fuck,” he mutters. “You know how to use a knife. I’ll give you that.”
“Self-preservation,” I murmur, all the fight leaving me. There’s no way I’m getting past him now – not without a weapon. There’s no way out. Tears threaten to fall but I don’t want Cormac to see me cry.
Maybe there’s another way out of this. Instead of fighting Cormac, I need to try a different tactic.
“I can help you,” I say.
He frowns. “What?”
I nod at his bleeding arm. “I know how to sew. I can help stitch it up.”
“You’ve stitched a person’s arm up before?”
“No,” I admit, flushing. “But I can help you.”
“Why would you do that? You’d just stab the needle in my eye.”
“Because despite what you think, I’m a good person. I help people. I don’t hurt them.”
“Well, you hurt me,” he snaps.
“Because you kidnapped me. You have to agree that it’s fair. I can help stitch up your cut.”
“Just so you can find a way to escape?”
“Would you blame me if I tried?”
He looks away from me so I can’t make out his expression.
“I can handle this cut on my own.” He leaves the bedroom and comes back a moment later with a first aid kit, settling on the floor.
“I’m not leaving you out of my sight again.
You keep managing to find a weapon to use.
I’m impressed, I’ll admit. A floorboard? Who would have thought?”
He cleans the cut and pulls out a needle and thread. I watch him struggle to use it on himself before he growls in frustration.
“I can help,” I offer. The last thing I want to do is help the man who kidnapped me but maybe this will warm Cormac up to me enough to let me go. If he sees me as a human, then he won’t want to hurt me.
“I don’t trust you.”
“And you think I trust you?”
He shoots me a glare before his eyes soften. “Fine. Here.” He holds out the needle.
I sink onto the floor, covering my body with the blanket, before I get to work on his arm. Neither one of us says anything. I have no idea if I’m doing this right but with my sewing skills, it’s not hard to figure out how to do it.
Cormac holds perfectly still. I can feel his eyes on me but I don’t dare look.
“Wouldn’t you have preferred I bleed out?” he asks.
“You’re still a human, just like I am. I help people, no matter who they are.”
“And yet, you keep trying to hurt me.”
“Just so I could escape. Need I remind you, you kidnapped me? Any person would try to escape. It wasn’t personal.”
“And me kidnapping you wasn’t personal.”
I force myself to look him in the eye. His blue eyes are stunning – if only they were in the face of a man who hadn’t kidnapped me.
“How do you think that makes me feel? You kidnapped me because of my uncle’s actions.
Not my own. Whereas I tried to hurt you because of your own actions.
” He opens his mouth but I keep talking.
“You know I’m right. You can try to deny it all you want.
You can call me selfish when I have done nothing wrong.
You’re justifying your actions, Cormac. But you know I’m not in the wrong.
It’s not my fault who my uncle is. The uncle, need I remind you, that I barely know. ”
He frowns, staring down at the stitches in his arm. I finish with them and drop my hands to my lap.
“You want to hate me,” I continue. “You want to save your sister. I get that. But my father is not a part of the Italian mafia. I know he isn’t.”
“He’s Marco Amato’s older brother. Of course he is.”
“No, he’s not. He left that world behind. He never told me what that world was exactly but I know he did.”
“So then how do you truly know?” His tone is hard. He doesn’t want to hear what I’m saying.
“Because he kept me sheltered all my life. He didn’t want me to be hurt.
He only ever told me that Uncle Marco lived a dangerous life.
That was all I knew. He didn’t want that life for me and he didn’t want it for himself.
It’s why I barely knew my uncle. You can believe me or not believe me.
That’s your choice. But I am not lying. I have no reason to lie. ”
“Yes you do. You want to escape.”
“Of course I do. That doesn’t make me the bad guy.”
“I have to save my sister,” he grumbles, not meeting my eyes.
Something compels me to grab Cormac’s face and make him look at me. Really look at me. He gasps and goes still.
“I don’t know what my uncle has done to your sister.
And I’m sorry that he’s hurt her as you claim.
But I am not my uncle. I am a good person.
I do not belong to the Italian mafia. I never have.
You’ve kidnapped the wrong person to hurt.
You’re using me to get what you want. Isn’t that the definition of selfish? ”
“What are you doing?” he asks in a softer tone.
“I am making you see me for me. I’m Arianna Amato.
I’m a contemporary dancer. I live with my parents.
I’ve spent my entire life focused on dancing and not much else.
This is who I am. I like to read when I’m not dancing.
I like to go for walks in the park near my house on sunny days.
I enjoy spending time with my parents, even when they can treat me like a child at times.
I…” My mind flashes back to the day I took too many pills.
I hadn’t meant to hurt myself. It was just to help me with my dancing.
“I almost died before. It’s why my parents are so protective of me.
This is who I am. You need to see that.”
Cormac’s eyes search my face and they soften, giving me hope, until a coldness crosses his features and he pulls back. “You’re just trying to manipulate me.” He leaves the room, locking the door again, and taking away any hope I could have had.