by Reilly, Cora
I was still screaming and screaming until I couldn’t scream anymore because there was no air left in my lungs. And I could not breathe.
Remo sheathed his knife and stalked toward me.
I flailed, trying to get away from him, from the blood, from the sight of the dead man behind Remo.
My feet slipped on the floor, and I was falling. My knees sank into the blood, my hands followed.
Remo pulled me up, my body pressed against his, and the smell of blood filled my nose. I clutched at his shoulders for balance. And then I pulled one hand back and it came away red. And one glance down. Red. My skin. Red. Everything red.
My eyes found Remo’s blood covered body. Red. Red. Red.
I started struggling against his hold. I fought with all I had. “Please,” I gasped out. Remo lifted me in his arms, and I had no fight left in me. He carried me barefoot through the cell, stepping over the dead man. When had he got rid of his shoes?
A hysteric laugh bubbled up my throat, but it turned into a sob. This was too much.
Remo walked into another cell and set me down on the floor of the shower. I sank down, curling up on my side, unable to remain in a sitting position. My chest was heaving, but I wasn’t breathing. Through my foggy vision, I watched Remo getting out of his bloody clothes and coming toward me. Naked. I didn’t register more than that.
I closed my eyes.
He moved his arms under my knees and back and lifted me once more. Then cold water splashed down on me, and I sucked in a deep breath, my eyes shooting open. Remo shifted with me in his arms, leaning forward, his forehead pressed against the tiles as he looked down at me. His body shielded me from the cold water raining down on us, and his dark eyes held mine.
“It takes a while before the water gets warm down here,” he said calmly.
So calm. My eyes searched his face. Eerily calm. No sign that he had just killed a man in a barbaric way. I shuddered, my teeth chattering. Even when the water turned warm, my teeth kept clanking together, and they didn’t stop even when Remo stepped back out of the shower with me still in his arms.
Remo walked out of the cell and carried me through the corridor. Panic tore at my chest.
“Fuck,” someone said. A man.
“Get me a fucking blanket, Savio,” Remo growled.
He tightened his hold as he carried me upstairs. I closed my eyes, too shaken to put up a fight. Something soft and warm covered me, and then I was put down on warm leather.
“You can’t drive through the city naked. And there’s still blood on your body.”
“You can drive,” Remo said, and then his body eased in beside me.
“Where the fuck are we taking her?”
“Home.”
“Nino won’t like that one fucking bit. You know how protective he is of Kiara.”
“I don’t give a fuck. Now shut up and drive.”
I focused on breathing, focused on remembering what made me happy. Samuel. Mom. Dad. Sofia.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The minutes seemed to blur together, when Remo picked me up again and eventually put me down on something soft. My eyes peeled open, heavy-lidded and burning from crying.
The first thing I registered was the bed I was lying on. Soft satin sheets, blood-red. A majestic canopy bed made from black wood, the posts twisting as if two branches had wound around another to form each. Heavy blood-red drapes hung from the canopy, blocking the bright sunlight streaming into the bedroom. I put my trembling hand flat against the smooth sheet, white against red, like in the shower. I shuddered and started hyperventilating again.
Remo appeared beside the bed and sank down, causing the mattress to dip under his weight. He was naked except for a knife holster, which was strapped to his chest. Muscles and scars and barely restrained strength.
I averted my eyes, my teeth beginning to chatter again. Remo reached over me. “Don’t,” I said weakly. Then firmer, “Don’t touch me.”
Remo’s dark eyes held mine with intent. He bent low until his face filled my vision. “After what you saw me do today, you still defy me? Don’t you think submitting to me will make things less painful for you?” His voice was soft, low, almost curious.
“Yes,” I whispered, and something shifted in his eyes ... was that disappointment? “But I’d rather take pain than submit to your will, Remo.”
He smiled darkly and reached over me again. Before I could react, he pulled a blanket over my body, covering my nakedness. My eyes widened.
“How can you know what you prefer if you’ve never experienced either? Neither pain...” he brushed his lips lightly across my mouth, not a kiss but a threat “...nor pleasure.”
A shiver traveled down my spine. My throat was dry, my limbs heavy.
“I want to show you both, Angel.” He paused, his dark eyes burning into me. “But I fear you’d rather kill yourself than give yourself to me.” He pulled his knife out and put it down beside me. “You should end your life, take the easy way out, because nobody will come to save you, and I won’t stop until I’ve broken you, body and soul.”
I believed him. How could I not with the intense determination and coldness in his dark eyes? I reached for the knife then pushed into a sitting position and pressed the blade against Remo’s throat. He didn’t flinch, only regarded me with unsettling eyes.
“I won’t ever kill myself. I won’t do that to my family. But you will never break me. I won’t let you.”
Remo tilted his head, again with a hint of curiosity. “If you want to kill me, do it now because you won’t get another chance, Angel.” My hand holding the knife shook. Remo didn’t take his eyes off me as he shifted closer to me, climbing up on one knee then the other until he leaned over me. I pressed harder and blood welled to the surface. My eyes focused on the red coating the blade against Remo’s skin.
Remo moved over me and drove the knife harder into his flesh. I yielded, fixated on the blood trickling down his throat, on its smell, its bright color.
Remo lowered himself on top of me, the knife between our throats, his body covering mine with only the blanket between us. He regarded me, dark eyes peeling away layer over layer of protective walls that I tried to put up.
Hysteria swirled in my chest, the memories of the basement clawing at the fringes of my mind. Remo curled his hand around mine and the handle then slowly pried my hands off it and took the knife from me. He dropped it to the bed beside us.
I could feel every inch of his strong, muscled body against mine, but my eyes couldn’t focus on anything but the blood on his skin, dripping from the cut I had inflicted. He pressed two fingers to my throat, feeling my erratic pulse. “Still in the grasp of panic, hmm?”
I swallowed. He pulled away and stood. Then he bent over me. “You are safe in your weakest moments, Angel. I don’t enjoy breaking the weak. I will break you when you are strong.”
He grabbed the knife and turned around, presenting his back to me. My eyes traced the tattoo of the kneeling fallen angel. Was that how Remo saw himself? A fallen angel with broken wings? A dark angel risen from Hell?
And what was I?
Before he left the room, he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Don’t try to run, Angel. There are more men like Simeone waiting to get their hands on you. I’d hate having to send them after you and hurt you.”
As if anyone could hurt me worse than Remo would.
I forced a smile. “We both know you’re lying. You won’t let anyone hurt me.”
Remo cocked one dark eyebrow. “I won’t?”
“You won’t because you want to be the one to break me, to make me scream.”
Remo’s mouth pulled into a smile that raised the little hairs on my skin.
A smile that would haunt me forever.
“Oh, I will make you scream, Angel. That I swear.”
Suppressing a shudder, I dug my nails into my palms and forced more words from my tight throat. “Don’t waste your time. Kill me now.”
&nb
sp; “We all have to let part of ourselves die to rise up stronger. Now sleep tight. I’ll return later for a proper video message for your family.”
“Why did you even save me from Simeone? Why not let him start the torture you have in mind for me? Why bring me here to your mansion?”
Remo regarded me as if he, too, was wondering the same thing, and his silence told me that my guess had been right; this was indeed the Falcone mansion. It surprised me that he would risk bringing me into his family’s home.
“Like you said, I will be the one to make you scream and no one else.” He closed the door.
I shut my eyes and pulled the covers tighter around myself.
A power play. A twisted game of chess.
I wasn’t going to be a pawn or a queen, and Remo wouldn’t be the king.
CHAPTER 5
REMO
I grabbed sweatpants to put on before I headed downstairs into our gaming room, where Savio, Nino, and Adamo were sitting. Since Kiara had joined our family, my days of walking through the house naked when I pleased were fucking over. My brothers regarded me as if I was a bomb about to detonate.
I flashed them a smile.
Adamo shook his head but didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to hide his aversion toward me or his reluctance about becoming a Camorrista.
Nino rose slowly. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
I grabbed the pizza menu. “Savio, order pizza for us and an extra one for Serafina.”
Nino came around the sofa. My eyes flickered over the tension in his limbs. “Remo, take her somewhere else.”
“No,” I said. “She will stay here, under this roof, where I can keep a fucking eye on her.”
My brother stopped in front of me, a deep frown pulling his brows together. That was the equivalent of an angry outburst from him. “This situation might cause another one of Kiara’s episodes.”
“Kiara is your wife, not mine. Make sure she doesn’t see anything that she isn’t supposed to see. Where is she anyway?”
“In our wing. The moment Savio told me you were bringing Serafina, I told her to stay there.”
“See? No problem.” I moved past him toward the bar and grabbed a beer. Nino followed as Savio ordered pizza in the background.
“It is a huge problem. Your captive is upstairs, free to roam the place as she sees fit. She could walk around the house and cross Kiara.”
“I doubt Serafina will do that right now. She’s too shaken and probably taking a beauty sleep as we speak. She can’t escape from the premises, and one of you will have to guard her to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.”
Nino assessed me. “I really hope you know what you’re doing. This is supposed to bring the Outfit down. Don’t forget that, Remo.”
My mouth pulled wide. “It will crush them. They will bleed out slowly, painfully, without ever feeling my blade. This will destroy them.”
Nino gave a nod because even if emotions were still hard to grasp for him, he knew the effect mind games had in a war.
“You disgust me,” Adamo muttered.
“Four days,” I reminded him.
He stood, jutting his chin out. “What if I say no?”
Savio shoved him. “You’d be a fucking disgrace, a traitor. What would you do? Where would you go?”
Adamo shoved him back. “I don’t give a fuck. Anything is better than becoming like you.”
I stalked toward him. He lifted his chin. “You say this because from the day of your birth you’ve been protected. You’ve never been subjected to true cruelty. You are a Falcone, Adamo, and one day you will be proud to be one.”
“I wish I wasn’t a Falcone. I wish you weren’t my brother.”
“Adamo,” Nino warned, looking at my face.
“Fuck you!” Adamo shouted and ran off upstairs.
“He’ll come around, eventually,” Nino drawled.
“How much time until the pizza arrives?” I asked Savio.
He exchanged a look with Nino before replying, “Twenty minutes.”
“Time for a phone call,” I said, nodding at Nino, who hesitated briefly but then took out his mobile and scrolled through it.
Nino handed me the phone with the number I didn’t recognize. “That’s Dante’s number if he hasn’t changed it from our last call years ago.”
“Good. Get some of Kiara’s clothes. A white nightgown if she has one.”
Nino frowned deeply but walked past me and disappeared into his wing.
“How are you going to keep her in check? Make sure she doesn’t try to run or kill herself?”
“She’s been sheltered all her life. She’s far from home, far from the men who’ve protected her. Freedom scares her more than captivity.”
Savio laughed. “You sound awfully sure of it.”
I grinned. Nino returned, looking as close to pissed as he ever did. He held the clothes out to me. Among them a silvery satin nightgown. Perfect. “Kiara suspects something’s the matter.”
I took the clothes, not bothering to comment, and walked past him toward my wing where I barged into Serafina’s room without knocking. My eyes wandered from the empty bed toward the wall behind it, where Serafina tried opening the window, which she couldn’t do without the necessary keys.
She whirled around, the blood-red sheets wrapped around her body, her blond hair a wild mane slithering down her shoulders. Her skin glowed so innocently white against the red of the covers. I wanted to run my tongue over it to see if it would taste as pure as she looked.
Not cowering in the bed as I’d expected but trying to escape. This little birdy seemed desperate to escape my cage, only to flutter right into Danilo’s. Her eyes and face held remnants of her earlier panic, but she tilted her chin upward and narrowed her eyes at me. Determined to play with the big boys.
I strolled into the room. Her shoulders pulled back, an act of defiance, but her hand flew up to press the sheet against her body, her fingers splayed out against the red, visibly shaking. My eyes never leaving her, I set the clothes down on the bed, catching the hint of her sweet scent. I’d caught it earlier, as if she’d been massaged with vanilla oil in preparation for her wedding night. My nostrils flared. “Trying to escape my cage, little bird?”
She tossed me a haughty look. “You’re awfully fond of creatures with wings.”
“I enjoy breaking them.”
Her lip curled, and still she managed to be perfectly beautiful. I could guess the images that ran through her mind, of me torturing tiny animals. That was for cowards, for men not capable of facing a worthy opponent. “I’m not that kind of psychopath.”
“What kind are you, then?”
I smiled. “You won’t be able to open the window. Don’t waste your energy trying to escape.”
“Did you have the locks installed specifically for me, or do you make a habit of locking women in your bedroom so you can rape and torture them for your personal entertainment?”
I stalked toward her, backed her against the windowsill then braced myself against the glass, glaring down at her. “No,” I said. “My father had them installed for my mother.”
Disgust flashed across Serafina’s face. “You Falcones are all monsters.”
I leaned down, breathing in her scent. “My father was a monster. I’m worse.”
Her pulse thudded in her veins. I could see her fear throbbing against the unblemished skin of her throat. I stepped back then nodded toward the clothes. “For you. Tomorrow morning you will wear the silver nightgown.”
Serafina walked toward the bed sideways to keep an eye on me then scowled at the heap on her bed.
I raised the phone to my ear and pressed the call button. After the second ring, Dante’s cold voice sounded. “Cavallaro.”
“Dante, good to hear your voice.”
Serafina’s head jerked toward me, and she sank down on the bed, her prideful mask cracking as her fingers curled into a fist, gripping the sheet.
Silence r
ang on the other end, and I smiled. I wished I could see Cavallaro’s expression as he was being faced with the consequences of his actions, and the realization that his niece would pay for his sins.
“Remo.”
I heard male voices in the background and a hysteric female one. Serafina’s mother. “I would like a word with you, Capo to Capo. From one man who had his territory breached to another. Two men of honor.”
“I’m a man of honor, Remo. I don’t know what you are, but honorable isn’t it.”
“Let’s agree to disagree on that.”
“Is Serafina alive?” he asked quietly.
I trailed my eyes over the glaring woman, clutching the red blankets around her naked body.
I heard a furious voice in the background. “I will break every fucking bone in your body!”
“Is that her twin?”
Pain flashed across her face, and she swallowed.
“Is she alive?” Dante repeated, his voice shaking with anger.
“What do you think?”
“She is, because alive she is worth more than dead.”
“Indeed. I don’t have to tell you that I will kill her in the most painful way I can think of if a single Outfit soldier breaches my territory to save her, and I can be very creative when it comes to inflicting pain.”
Even from a distance I could see her blood pounding furiously in her veins as she stared down at her fist.
“I want to speak to her.”
“Not yet.”
“Remo, you crossed a line, and you will pay for it.”
“Oh, I’m sure you think so.”
“What do you want?”
“It’s not time for that kind of conversation yet, Dante. I don’t think you are quite ready for it. Tomorrow morning we will have another date. Set up a camera. I want you, her brother, father, and fiancé in a room in front of that camera. Nino will give you instructions how to set everything up. I will set up a camera myself so we can see and hear each other.”
Serafina’s eyes met mine.
“Remo—” Dante’s voice held a warning, but I lowered the phone from my ear and ended the call.