Chapter 54
Dean
Something had dried down the right side of my face, over the dull throb coming from my temple.
I groaned against the tape across my mouth, squinting at the bright lights that hovered above my head as I slowly came to.
When I tried to move my arms, I was met with resistance.
Restriction. They were strapped to the arms of the chair I was sitting in.
I tugged again, but the thick zip ties around my wrists refused to budge.
I blinked a couple of times, forcing the rest of the room to come into focus. Beyond the glow of the bright spotlight above, I saw a mezzanine shrouded in darkness, large wooden crates against the walls, and the lip of the stage I was seated on.
Not a stage, but a platform that once held a glass cube.
Fuck.
I brought my gaze forward, and my stomach dropped.
Lily was on the opposite side of the platform, also tied to a chair with her arms strapped down like mine. There was tape across her mouth too. Unlike me, she was wide awake and visibly shaking. The tears on her cheeks glistened under the light, and she was barefoot in her funeral dress.
I tried the zip ties again, thrashing until it hurt. I didn’t know how much time we had before someone returned, and I wasn’t going to risk waiting. I was also aware my phone was still in my back pocket.
If I could get one hand loose—
A bang echoed through the room, and we jolted. It was the door opening behind me.
Lily’s eyes were fixed on whoever walked into the basement of Castello di Vetro. I could see the flutter of her pulse in her throat as fear gripped her.
They approached me from behind before they gripped my hair and tore my head back.
“Ah, he’s awake!” Gabriele grinned. His auburn hair was slicked back, and there was a cut across the bridge of his nose that looked fresh.
“You know, I really expected you to be the one to not go down without a fight. But no, you went down easy. Her, on the other hand,” he motioned to Lily, “she almost broke my nose with her head. And managed to kick one of my men in the balls.”
He motioned again with his hand, and I realized Lily and I hadn’t been alone. A dozen other men were standing in the shadows. One adjusted the front of his pants after what Gabriele said.
“She is…feisty for something so unassuming.” The thoughts in his head were written in his smirk as he pulled out his phone. “I am getting off topic… Is this you?”
He tapped play on a video on his phone, showing grainy black and white footage of me breaking in and shattering the cube that was once here. It stopped when I dropped to my knees.
I was so blinded by rage that I didn’t even consider cameras.
Gabriele chuckled as he pocketed his phone again. “That was right after your mother died, si? My condolences, by the way.” He gave my hair another tug before he stepped back. And walked towards Lily.
I strained against the zip ties again.
Gabriele stopped beside her, watching her with his head tilted. “Did you like the flower? The lily flower represents death. We thought leaving one on his car was fitting, considering what happened to his mother, but you can imagine our surprise when we found out about your name, Lily.”
More footsteps came into the room. These sounded more like high heels than the dress shoes Gabriele wore.
Beatrice and Lucia stepped up onto the platform, the latter approaching me as she reached for my face.
I pulled my head back to avoid her hand, but she caressed my cheek anyway, filling me with disgust and helplessness.
I couldn’t fucking move.
I couldn’t get Lily away from here.
Lucia gripped my chin as she looked at her siblings, speaking Italian. “Couldn’t I have one moment with him?”
“It’s not that kind of evening, unfortunately.” Gabriele stroked Lily’s cheek with the back of his finger.
She closed her eyes, throat bobbing.
Lucia huffed her disappointment and stepped aside.
Beatrice, the only sibling not to approach either of us, had her attention on me, trying to figure something out with those calculating dark eyes of hers before she spoke in English. “What makes you so important to our father anyway?”
My attention flicked to Gabriele as he moved behind Lily’s chair, lifting a strand of her hair.
“You know the answer already, B. He’s the obedient child our father never had…” He lowered his head beside Lily’s, smirking when she moved her head away. “I wonder if our father plans to leave all his inheritance to your boyfriend.”
My pulse spiked as I watched him bring a hand to her throat.
She was frozen in place, trembling.
All I wanted to do was tear his fucking face off.
Gabriele trailed a finger along her collarbone. “If your boyfriend is dead, though, there isn’t really anyone else our father could give it to.”
“Except his new wife,” Lucia muttered.
Gabriele shrugged and straightened away from Lily. “We can deal with her. Like we did to his mother.”
“She didn’t see it coming if that makes you feel better,” Beatrice said to me.
“The fire was meant for you, since you were next on our list of names who worked for our father. But we couldn’t help ourselves when we found her all alone at home in her chair…
She was paralyzed after being shot while pregnant, yes? How sad,” Beatrice mocked.
I shut my eyes.
“Your addresses were so easy to find too. We barely even had to try.”
“I recognized Lily at the open house her mother was hosting,” Gabriele said, gripping Lily’s chin. “Her surname is the business name.”
“And then we had her followed, knowing eventually it would lead to you,” Beatrice continued. “Then all we did was have you followed. To work, home, Lily’s house. Anywhere.”
I was racking my brain, trying to remember if there were signs we were being watched.
“I think the best part was finding out you were going behind our father’s back and working with the police,” Gabriele grinned. “It would shatter his heart to know you betrayed him like that.”
The fucking delivery guy.
“We could’ve told our father this, but then we wouldn’t get the joy of ending you ourselves. It’s more fun this way,” Beatrice said.
Lucia smiled as she reached out to my face again, this time twirling a strand of my hair around her finger. “And I get more time with you now. Since you didn’t die in the fire.”
“Do you like the setting?” Gabriele asked, spreading his arms wide as he kept his unhinged stare on me. “A stage fit for a fighter’s death.” He took Lily forcefully by the chin again. “You’ll be collateral, though.”
I ripped at my restraints, jaw clenched as I cursed against the tape.
“I like him angry,” Lucia purred before taking a seat on my lap, resting against my chest. I refused to look at her. “Oh, please let me have one taste of him? At least while you’re dealing with the girlfriend.”
“If you get time with him, I’ll want time with her.” Gabriele stroked Lily’s hair. “Maybe then I can find out what makes her so important to him.”
The zip ties were beginning to cut into my skin as I breathed heavily against the tape.
Lucia chuckled in my lap while Gabriele leaned in close to Lily again. She pulled away as best she could.
Beatrice crossed her arms. “And what am I meant to do?”
“We could share.” Lucia stood, turned around, and climbed back onto me so she was straddling my thighs. She brought her face closer — inches closer — chewing her lip while she skimmed her hand to the front of my pants. “That would be fun—”
Her nose cracked under the impact of my forehead, and she toppled backwards off my lap.
Blood poured from her nose before she spat in Italian. “You bastard!”
Beatrice laughed, but helped her up. At the same time, Gabriele moved from behind Lily and strode toward me, smirking as he withdrew a switchblade.
“That wasn’t very nice,” he said.
He flipped the knife and stabbed it through the back of my right hand.
I roared against the tape, curling my body forward as Gabriele twisted the blade. The pain burned white hot, shooting through my nerves as blood pooled and flowed down the leg of the chair.
With manic in his eyes, Gabriele leaned closer. “I’m going to take great pleasure in cutting you up into small pieces and leaving them behind for our father to find.”
I groaned in pain, shaking. I could feel the knife against the bone in my hand.
He grabbed my hair, forcing my head back again. “The next fighter we divide into tiny pieces will be that friend of yours. What’s his name? Sebastian? My sources tell me he has a pretty girlfriend too.”
I dragged my eyes from him to Lily. She was crying behind the tape, pulling at her restraints. Her delicate wrists were red.
“But I’m getting ahead of myself,” Gabriele continued. He glanced at her too, and ripped the blade from my hand again.
More blood dripped. My hand was numb and burning at the same time, but it wasn’t my priority anymore. Not when Gabriele had started at Lily again.
“We need to deal with you first, little doe.”
A new panic set in, and I thrashed in my seat despite how much it hurt.
Beatrice and Lucia were laughing as they watched their brother.
I frantically rubbed my mouth on my shoulder until the tape fell loose. Saliva and sweat helped. “Leave her the fuck alone! We can talk about this. She doesn’t need to be here.”
Gabriele stood behind her again and lifted her chin to expose her throat. “But Dean, where’s the fun in that? All this death will drive our father mad as he watches his empire slowly collapse.”
“He’s a Capo,” I hissed, glaring from under my brow. “He has a boss that’ll only come at you harder.”
“Let them,” he shrugged nonchalantly and angled the blade at Lily’s throat. My blood dripped from it and stained her skin. “We take the favorite’s lover, and then we take the favorite from our father.”
Through the blood dripping from her nose, Lucia hissed, “Do it.”
My eyes narrowed. “Fuckin’ do it and I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Beatrice raised an eyebrow. “You’re tied to a chair and will be dead soon anyway.”
“Well,” Gabriele smiled. “Not soon. Slowly, yes, but maybe dead in a few hours? Her death will be quick, so that provides some comfort, si?”
Lily sobbed out of fear when he raised the blade beneath her jaw.
Everything was slipping through my fingers. My entire world was imploding right in front of me and I couldn’t do a fucking thing to stop it.
I fixed my eyes solely on Lily, trying to be some kind of comfort for her.
“Hey, Lily.” I tried for a smile when her eyes were on me, encouraging her to block out the triplets and their laughter. “We’re gonna be okay. It’ll be over soon.”
At least she wouldn’t witness what they had in store for me.
Suddenly, I was seeing every moment we shared. Her smile, her tears, her laughter, her anger. It all flitted through my mind right up until the moment I laid eyes on her the night of my fight, when I spotted her in the crowd.
I was the luckiest man alive to have those moments with her.
And then I remembered the day outside the courthouse.
She said hello to me; she acknowledged me; she gave some no-hope delinquent the time of day to share a smile with.
All those thoughts ran through my head in seconds.
“I love you,” I whispered.