2. An Impulsive Mistake #3
Three men collided with him, tackling him to the ground and knocking me down, too.
The gravel sliced my palms open as pain shot up my hands, and I scrambled back, breathing hard as I watched one of them pin Nero’s arms behind his back while another drove a knee between Nero’s shoulder blades, pressing a gun to his temple.
His glasses had fallen onto the gravel beside him, one lens smashed.
His face twisted towards mine. His jaw was tight, blood already flowing from his split lip, his eyes wild and furious as he snarled, “Run!”
My body jolted into action at the command.
I needed to get help. I tried to claw my way back to my feet when a muscular arm hooked around my waist, yanking me upright into a solid chest, and the file Nero had given me fell out from under the hoodie.
I fought against the man’s grip, clawing and kicking, but he yanked my head back by my ponytail at an awkward angle, and I yelped.
“Ah, ah, little maid. You’re goin’ to give the Del Brenta a message from us,“ the man holding me hissed in my ear with an Irish accent as I stared at Nero struggling on the ground.
Dread consumed me when Nero’s eyes met mine, and I saw what we both knew was coming.
The trigger was pressed, a silencer making the moment Nero’s eyes glazed over even more horrific.
I shook silently at the horror unfolding before me as they climbed off his dead body so another man could step forward with a huge axe.
The man holding me tightened his grip on my hair, forcing me to watch as the soldier rained the axe down on his neck in one clean blow.
He picked up Nero’s head by his hair, walking towards me as I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the bile rising in my throat.
“You take him back to your boss. This is a message for the Italians. Give us Arianna McKenna, or we will keep takin’ their heads.”
He dropped Nero’s head at my feet, the thump echoing through the night as I glared into his dark blue eyes beneath the black mask. He sneered at me, grabbing my jaw.
“Ooo, you a tough one? Not even a scream? Maybe we should give you somethin’ to scream about before we send you back. Would you like that, gorgeous?”
The car’s passenger door opened, and a man climbed out, walking unhurriedly towards the scene. He was dressed like the others, except his face wasn’t covered by a mask. The stronzo released my face and stepped back, letting whoever this higher-ranking man was get a better look at me.
He looked me up and down with a quizzical gaze and cocked his head to one side. My whole body was frozen in a state of shock as I tried to focus on breathing and not do anything to make them suspicious of who I truly was.
“Pick it up.”
The man holding me slowly released his vice-like grip, and my legs shook so violently I wasn’t sure how I was still standing.
My nostrils flared, and tears stung behind my eyes, but I bent down to pick up Nero’s head, cradling his face in both my hands.
I couldn’t look at it; instead, I focused on his cracked glasses on the ground, yet that somehow made it worse.
“Walk. Don’t run. And don’t forget our message.”
I turned slowly, staring straight ahead at the high walls of my home in the distance as I placed one foot in front of the other, stumbling a little under the weight of what I was carrying. But they were letting me go. They thought I was just a maid. I had to keep up the act.
“Hold on!” the unmasked man shouted. I froze, my lips trembling as his boots drew closer behind me. He stopped in front of me, blocking my path with narrowed eyes. “What’s your name?”
When I didn’t speak, he grabbed the ID badge from the maid’s apron and looked at it.
I swallowed. Sophia and I looked nothing alike. His head snapped up, suspicion flashing across his face. He reached around and yanked the band from my hair, and my favourite hairpin fell to the ground. My long ringlets cascaded over my shoulders, and a spark of recognition lit his eyes.
I knew I had a second to react, or it was over.
I threw Nero’s head at him, picked up my sharp, butterfly hairpin, and stabbed it in his shoulder, missing my target of his neck because he saw it coming just in time.
My feet pounded the street as I sprinted back up the road towards the gate, and I cursed my body for refusing to give me a voice when I needed it most. If only I could scream…
if only I could shout… I’d have an army of Italian soldiers racing out to protect me.
His body bulldozed into mine, pinning me to the ground. I thrashed and struggled under his weight as he laughed above me, leaning down to whisper in my ear.
“Well, look what we have here. An Italian princess playin’ dress-up and sneakin’ away from the safety of her palace walls. Didn’t your mamie ever tell you that only monsters play in the dark, Princess?”
His words sounded distant as he pressed a potent-smelling rag over my mouth, and there was a sharp pricking sensation in my neck.
The dizziness surged, the fog thickening with terrifying speed as my limbs became heavy and useless.
Whatever fight I had left in me bled out of my body as rough hands hauled me from the ground, and the world fell away.