25. Giulia
T he longer I waited in the cell, the more my hopes faded.
I’d made up my mind. I would die before becoming Nickolas’s woman.
But I had no clue how to make that happen.
Renzo would know that I was missing. Hours had passed, and he would’ve realized that the bed was empty within minutes of their taking me out of that Bernardi villa.
And if he knew I was missing, he’d be hell-bent on finding me.
But then what?
His Family was the one that kidnapped me. I had to assume this was Giovanni’s doing. He called the shots. He wasn’t retired yet, and per that call I overheard, he didn’t seem to trust Renzo or agree with his style of taking over what Luka used to handle.
If Renzo learned that his Family’s men had snatched me out of that house, what could he do about it?
It was way too soon for Renzo to have obtained the loyalty of any of the men yet.
There was no way he’d be able to overpower his father’s men. While Gio was in charge, he’d order these guards to keep me here and hand me over to the Romanos.
To Nickolas.
No. I’ve got to get away.
I couldn’t fathom being with that man. Not for one second. Now that I knew how good it was with Renzo, I didn’t want anyone else to ever touch me.
So far, though, they were stalling.
They moved me from one cell to another, and while this one had a door to close and lock, they left it open. One small mercy was the absence of blood and excrement on the floor, but I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—get comfortable.
I had to stay on guard, even though the soldiers drank and snorted coke in the bigger hallway space outside my cell. With the door open, I could hear and see them as they passed by, and more than once, they taunted me to join in.
“You sure you don’t want to loosen up?” a Romano soldier teased. “I heard Nicky likes it hard and rough.” The others laughed along with him. “Might make it easier when he breaks ya in.”
I kept my lips clamped shut. They’d get no response from me. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
As I waited for them to make a move or to transport me, I tried to cling to the strongest sense of calmness that I could. I had to be logical and alert, not emotional and scared. Terror coursed through me. I was absolutely afraid, but I couldn’t show it or let it get to me.
“Eh, they’re still meeting,” one said eventually when they discussed whether they should start more lines of coke or they’d need to move me to the Romano residence yet. “They always got their meetings and shit. We’ll get a text when to bring her to the car.”
The they these men referenced had to be Nickolas or Marcus Romano and Giovanni Bernardi. It should have helped to know who I could hate and blame for taking me from Renzo. But it didn’t comfort me much. It hardly mattered who’d conspired to keep me and my lover apart. The biggest detail I had to pay attention to was getting out of this situation and avoiding being in the Romanos’ custody at all.
Renzo’s face stayed in my mind, and when I thought back to the strength that man gave me, I felt more confident deep inside. Just thinking about him helped my wounded heart. When I replayed the sweet, sincere words he’d shared with me, my determination to get out of here rose higher.
“I will always need you.”
I didn’t doubt him. I believed Renzo when he swore that his affection and desire for me would remain permanent. We might have started with a fling, getting frisky at the wedding and then when he snuck into my house, but it had solidly and steadily developed into something far more lasting.
Something like love. Forever.
I didn’t have a chance to think and dream about him. My fantasies of his rushing in here and rescuing me faded.
At the sound of the doors being opened further down the hall, I snapped to attention. While it wasn’t a commotion, the men who were drinking and snorting coke moved around. It seemed like some were leaving or expected to move out.
Another person was coming? Or leaving? I couldn’t follow all that they said, and with only partial comments given, I realized they were likely speaking on comms units in their ears.
“We’ll go get the trespasser,” one of Bernardi men said, gesturing for his fellow guards to go with him. He paused, glancing at the Romano soldiers. “I assume you’ll make sure she stays put?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got it covered down here.”
After the Bernardi soldiers left to deal with whatever incident had come up with a trespasser, I lost hope. It couldn’t have been Renzo. They would’ve identified him as someone other than a “trespasser”.
When the Romano guards came into my cell, I tensed.
Screw having hope and staying calm.
I strained to breathe steadily as panic clutched me.
It was in their eyes. The naughty, greedy glint that sparked there told me enough. Their quick and sure approach promised that they were determined to share my space in here. As the leader unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants, I scrambled back on the floor.
My wrists were still tied, but my mouth wasn’t gagged. I could kick with my untethered feet.
“What—” I stopped myself from asking. I knew . I wasn’t stupid. They were ganging up on me in here. Now that the Bernardi guards were gone, these Romanos wanted a sample.
“She’s gotta stay a virgin,” a second one warned as he pulled his erection out from his pants.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t fuck that tight ass,” another said as he forced me onto my hands and knees.
My heart thundered against my ribcage as I resisted. They swarmed in here so fast, all three of them eager to violate me the best they could while leaving my pussy for their Boss.
One covered my mouth with his hand as they shoved my nightgown up. My panties were ripped off next, no matter how fiercely I kicked and squirmed to get free.
They blocked off the door with the way they’d hurried in here. Bound and smaller, I was defenseless against all three of them coming at me.
“I want to fuck her first,” the tallest one said as he pushed one man aside.
I fell to the floor, unable to break my fall with my wrists bound. The aches in my knees didn’t last long. All I could feel was the utter terror of what they’d do to me. Before I could get upright on my own, the leader fisted my hair and yanked me onto my bloody knees.
“Open up, bitch.” He smacked his dick against my cheeks, and I smashed my lips tighter together. Tears leaked from my eyes. His grip on my hair was brutal, tearing at my scalp, but I would not sob. I would not open my mouth for him to violate me. The only cock I ever wanted in my mouth was Renzo’s. And if this fucker tried to force himself on me, I’d bite him. Hard.
“What’s going on in here?”
The sound of the Bernardi guard’s voice was my savior. He’d come back to the cells, scowling at the Romano men who shoved their dicks back in their pants. The man who clutched my hair tucked himself away before he turned to face the Bernardi soldier, but he didn’t release me.
“Bitch was talking back,” he explained, tugging me up higher by his hold on my hair.
I cried out at the rise, and as I lifted both hands to dig my nails into his hand, another cry reached my ears. Not mine.
But another prisoner’s.
They’d captured Uncle Dario. He must have been that trespasser the Bernardis were alerted to retrieve. With a rough shove, they dropped him to the floor near me.
“Dario?” I whispered, stunned and saddened that he was here. That they’d treat a handicapped and weakened man so brutally.
“Leave her alone,” the Bernardi guard ordered. He was older, taller, and while I didn’t recognize his face or his voice, I got the impression that he was in charge down here.
Under his command, the men filed out. It was a lucky save, but I didn’t have time to dwell on the blessing of being spared from rape.
“Uncle Dario?” I licked my dry lips and swallowed hard as I hurried over to him. My knees ached, stinging with pinpricks of pain at scrapes and also the throbbing radiation of a deeper wound. I scrambled over to him panting on the floor. As soon as I reached him, I rolled him over to his side and winced at the beating he’d received.
They’d hurt him, causing contusions to swell up and slight scrapes to line his face.
He rolled over, breathing hard. I felt the warmth of blood from his stomach before I could see where he’d been injured.
No!
“Uncle Dario. What happened?” I didn’t need him to explain that he’d been shot. That was evident. As he shifted, grimacing, I saw the hole in his shirt, a gap that was now stained with blood.
“I was…”
I blinked back the tears that burned my eyes. He didn’t deserve this. Whatever happened, he didn’t deserve this treatment. I didn’t deserve their kidnapping bullshit either, but now wasn’t the time to whine about the injustice of it all.
“I was trying to find you. Isabella made plans, and I couldn’t let her do it.”
“For me to marry Nickolas?”
He struggled to breathe. I couldn’t be sure if he heard me, if he understood. I’d just witnessed Cecilia dying, and I couldn’t believe that I was here holding my uncle as he seemed to near death’s door.
He opened his eyes, slitting his lids so he could squint at me as he labored through the pain. “You must go. Get your sisters and take them away. The Acardi name needs to die out once and for all with this vendetta. It’ll never end.”
“What vendetta? What is going on?” I brushed back his graying hair to clear his vision. “Uncle Dario,” I pleaded, “what is going on? What are you talking about?”
“Take your sisters and start a new life. New names and a new home. I’ve tried to siphon money into a fund that your parents never knew about. I started alternative investments when I was just the spare, and now you need to find it and leave. Take the girls and go.”
I nodded, desperate to let him know that I would obey his dying wishes. I’d already planned to leave this life. “But why? What is happening?” So many deaths. Too many questions.
I was sick of not knowing.
“Your mother…”
I clutched him closer as he sighed and his breath slowed with a wheezing sound. Blood left his lips, and I realized he must have been shot more than once. “Dario!”
He nodded weakly, roused. “Isabella.”
“What about her?” I demanded. I knew she had to be involved, but how?
“She was Giovanni’s first lover.”
I blinked my eyes open wide, not counting on that.
“She knew he was arranged in a marriage, but she thought she could sleep with Giovanni and win him over. Marcus was already married. But she wanted the Bernardi name and wealth despite his being promised to another.”
“And she slept with him?”
He nodded again, even weaker. He was fading fast.
“She wanted Giovanni for herself, but he stuck with his duty and married Arianna as he was expected to. No one could have anticipated that they’d fall in love, and that made Isabella so bitter that she vowed to seek revenge. I think… I’ve always suspected that she killed Arianna all those years ago. As payback for Gio not choosing her over his arranged bride.”
Holy shit! This was a hell of a bombshell to take, but as I let his words sink in, I knew this had to be the foundation for that damned rivalry that set me apart from Renzo.
“Gio loved her. Arianna. But I think Isabella killed her after Renzo was born. She couldn’t stand it while she was married to Rocco, her second choice, and suffered from infertility until you were born years later.”
It would take a while for this shock to filter through me. I didn’t have time to sit here and ask for a history story. “But what does this mean now?”
“It means you need to go. Leave, Giulia. Save yourself and your sisters.” His finger shook, and it was with that tremble that I felt the need to look down.
He pressed a small knife into my hand, and as I took it, I understood what he was doing.
“I suspected you were held here. Isabella mentioned meeting with the Romanos, and I wondered why she was heading here, so near the Bernardi estate.” He coughed, spitting up more blood as his breaths slowed. “I took a chance that getting captured would bring me to you.”
I sniffled, letting my tears drip down on his bloody shirt. “Oh, Uncle.” As I tried to hug him, so grateful and overwhelmed by his ultimate sacrifice, I held back from crying.
“Please. Go. Francis will help you get away. I beg of you, Giulia. Start a new family. A new life. It’s long overdue.” With those final, whispered pleas, he closed his eyes. Once, then twice more, he exhaled.
He was gone.
Dead.
I stared down at the only relative who’d ever tried to stand up for me. The spare brother, considered less than compared to my father when he was the patriarch. But also, the only man who’d ever attempted to raise me with courage while under the watchful eyes of my parents.
Go.
He’d begged it of me with his last breath, and I couldn’t sink into a pit of despair now. I would mourn him. I would grieve for this giving man, but I had to heed his last orders first.
I stuck the handle of the knife between my teeth and sawed at the zip ties that bound my wrists. It took longer than I wanted it to, and with the tears that blurred my eyes as I looked over my uncle’s corpse, I strained to work harder and faster.
I had to get away. I couldn’t let his sacrifice be all for nothing.
As soon as the ties snapped, broken from my hasty cutting, I dropped my arms and shook out the aches. My limbs were numb, but as blood rushed through and my muscles could move free of the binding, I grabbed the knife once more.
Fisting it in my hand, I prepared to leave.
They’d have to come back soon.
And that would be my moment.
I’m sorry, Uncle Dario.
I stared at his lifeless body, overwhelmed with sadness and remorse that I’d lost him like this and would have to leave him here. I couldn’t drag him with me to give him a proper burial and send-off. I couldn’t spend another moment praying over him and telling him my sorrows.
I waited. Tense and bracing for a fight, I plastered myself to the wall next to the doorway.
The moment someone touched the doorknob, I locked my muscles and held my breath.
The panel pushed open, and I leaped forward, the knife coming out before me.
It was only one. A single Romano guard. Seeing that it was the man who’d slapped my face with his dick, I crouched lower and yanked my hand back, only to plunge the knife in again—upward near his groin.
Because I’d caught him by surprise, his reaction was stalled. I wasn’t too na?ve to assume it could be this easy. Already, he reached for his gun. With my lucky stab up near his dick, likely severing something down there, I’d rendered him almost speechless. But for good measure, I stood and gripped his head to bash his face on an upward swing of my knee.
Then I ran. With Dario’s bloody knife, I sprinted up the stairs and refused to stop until I’d reached safety.
Nowhere seemed safe anymore. I only ever felt secure in Renzo’s arms. I ran from his family home, though, knowing I would need to carve my own safe haven somewhere else in the world, far from the drama and danger that saturated our lives here.