by Penelope Sky
“I’m worth more than billions. You would know if you’d ever had me.”
His smile dropped.
“Make the trade. I will cooperate fully. I will be whatever you want me to be. And I’m sure Cato will pay you whatever you want to let me go…so it’s a win-win for you.” That was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
He examined me with new eyes. “You were supposed to bring him to us. But now you’re sacrificing your life for his. Ironic, isn’t it?”
Cato started to wake up more, his breathing escalating.
“I suppose,” I said. “Do we have a deal or not?”
Damien looked me up and down as he considered it. “I have wanted to fuck you for a long time. I thought my interest would fade once the baby came, but I guess not. You clean up good.”
“Thank you,” I said with sarcasm. “Let him go, and I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Siena Russo, obedient?” he asked, his head cocked. “Didn’t think that was possible.”
“It is possible. You’ll see for yourself once you let him go.”
Cato pushed his body up so he could lean against the wall. His face was so bloody that his blue eyes were striking against the redness that dripped down his face. He must have thought I was a hallucination at first because he didn’t react right away. But then he realized his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. “Siena?”
“Yes,” Damien said. “She’s come to take your place. Isn’t that sweet?”
Cato yanked on the chains that kept him against the wall and tried to break free. “No! Siena, no!” His strength came out of nowhere, and he rose to his feet, using all of his power to try to break the concrete wall that bound him. “No! Don’t do this! No!”
I couldn’t watch him. It was just too painful. “Let him go. When I know he’s outside, I’m all yours.”
He yanked on the chains again. “I would rather die! Siena! No!”
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. “Cato, it’s alright.”
“It’s not fucking alright.” Cato gave me a fierce look of despair mixed with betrayal. “No. I would rather bleed to death than let him have you. No. Let me die here, Siena. Let me die here.”
I kept my eyes on Damien. “Do it.”
Damien whistled, so the guards came in. “Take him to the surface. I want proof that he’s free. I’m sure Siena won’t be cooperative until she knows for certain her man has been released.”
Cato went berserk. He fought the guards and the chains and behaved like a man who hadn’t been beaten bloody. His strength came from somewhere deep within, deep in his heart. “Siena!”
I stepped aside and let him pass. I couldn’t make eye contact with him, not when he was this furious, this heartbroken. I knew how much it killed him to leave me behind, to know what Damien was about to do to me.
They finally pulled him out of the cell, but I could hear him fighting the entire way. His yells echoed down the hall. Even when he moved upstairs, he continued to fight like a bull that couldn’t be tamed.
I did the best I could to keep my emotions in check, to stay calm. Watching them drag Cato away was one of the most difficult things I’d ever had to do, but looking at the bloody hammer in the corner told me I’d made the right decision. If I’d waited until morning, he might not have been able to walk.
Damien didn’t waste any time. He shut the cell door and stripped off his clothes. First, his shirt, and then everything else. He shed every single piece until he was completely naked, his dick hard and ready to take me. He lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head. “How should I fuck you for the first time? Hmm…”
I stayed in the same spot I’d been before, waiting for any indication Cato was actually free. The clothes he wore when he entered this place were gone. All he had were the boxers that hugged his waist.
I hated to think about how much he had suffered. It made me sick to my stomach.
“This is the best plan,” Damien said. “I get to fuck you. And then Cato will hand over everything to save you. Good thinking, sweetheart. You’ve always been too smart for your own good.”
No matter how smart I was, I always seemed to get into these situations. “How will you know when he’s been released?”
“The guards will send the security feed to my phone.”
I sighed as I continued to wait, wanting Cato to be free as soon as possible. He needed to get to a hospital right away. Even his chest and back were coated with blood. He probably had broken ribs and internal bleeding.
Twenty minutes later, Damien finally got the video sent to his phone. “Here you go, sweetheart.” He tossed the phone at me.
I hit play and watched the feed. They pushed Cato out of the building and onto the sidewalk. He could barely stand because he was so weak, probably because he fought the entire way to the surface. One of his cars pulled up, and his men helped him inside. Then they took off.
He was free.
“I’m a man of my word. Are you a woman of yours?”
I set the phone on the table and turned to him. “Yes.”
“Then drop the clothes.” He sat up on the cot with his legs hanging over the edge and his feet on the ground.
It disgusted me to drop my clothes and let him see me naked. But if I didn’t cooperate, that would be a dead giveaway. I took my time as I peeled off every inch of clothing, stalling as long as possible until I was just in my thong.
Damien’s dick was rock hard. “You’re beautiful. No stretch marks. But your pussy might not be as tight as what I’m used to. So maybe we’ll start with an ass-fuck. But first…I want you on your knees…your mouth on my dick.”
I couldn’t wait to kill this asshole. I couldn’t wait to avenge Cato. I couldn’t wait to get justice for my father.
I pulled my panties down my legs then moved to my knees like he asked.
“Grab my dick, sweetheart. See what a man feels like.”
I complied, disgusted at the feeling of his pulse against my fingertips. His size was pathetic in comparison to Cato’s. “How do you like it?”
He grinned. “I like this version of you. The wetter, the better. I feel like I just bought the sexiest whore from the Underground.” His cock twitched in my hands, like he was getting off on his own words.
Egotistical freak.
I spat on his dick first and smeared my saliva up and down his base. Instead of being disgusted by what I was doing, I focused on the move I was about to make. I had to calm him, to make him drop his guard so he wouldn’t be able to stop me. I jerked him from tip to base, making his thighs tighten and his eyes close.
He leaned back on his elbows as his breathing escalated. “I’m so glad you fell in love with Cato Marino. Who knew it would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me?”
“And the greatest thing that ever happened to me.” I subtly pulled the knife from my hair then while he breathed through the pleasure. Then I pressed the blade against his shaft and severed it from his body—like the cold-hearted bitch that I was. “That’s for Cato.” Blood squirted everywhere, and he let out a scream.
I covered his mouth with my hand and pushed him against the cot, doing my best to stifle his screams. With an injury like that, he wouldn’t last long before he died. It was a horrific way to go, but after seeing Cato beaten so badly that he was hardly recognizable, I felt no remorse.
I smashed his face into the cot while he got blood all over the bedding. His severed dick was somewhere on the floor, probably shriveled up and lifeless by now. I tuned out the sounds of his cries and used my strength to anchor the pillow over his face, to wait until the fight ended and he passed on to the next life—in hell.
Finally, his jerks slowed down, and he gave up. His lungs screamed for air they wouldn’t receive. His heart slowly stopped as blood no longer flowed. After a few seconds, he turned motionless, but he also became rigid, all the muscles in his body tightening at his moment of death.
Damien was gone.
> Good fucking riddance.
I covered him with the blankets then put my clothes back on. Thankfully, the blood was on my skin so it was easy to hide underneath my shirt and pants. All I had was the small knife I’d just castrated him with, so I searched the room for a gun. Damien’s clothes had nothing useful inside of them, and since the cell was solid concrete, there wasn’t a place to hide a weapon anyway.
I could see all the blood from Cato’s body on the floor.
But I couldn’t think about that right now.
I knew he would be proud of me for what I’d just done, for taking my fate into my own hands. I got revenge for my father. I got revenge for Cato. And I got revenge for myself. Now all I had to do was sneak out of here.
I tucked the knife into my palm and moved down the hallway. I’d memorized the route during the walk, repeating the directions over and over in my mind so I wouldn’t forget them. But now I had to mirror those moves since I was going in the opposite direction—and completely flip them. I was starting at the end and going backward. But all I needed to do was get to the stairway with the hatch. The rest of the way would be easier.
Every time I came to a corner, I stopped and peered down the hallway to make sure no one was coming. I moved as quietly as possible down the hallways, and unfortunately, a lot of them looked identical.
That wasn’t good.
I stopped in front of a sign mounted on the wall and realized it was a map. It showed the location of the main stairwell out to the hatch.
Well, that worked out.
I kept walking, but I had to stop when a guard was about to cross my path. He moved down the hallway with a pistol sitting on his hip. Dressed in all black, he looked the same as the others guards I’d come across.
I wondered how long I had before someone discovered Damien’s body.
They would sound the alarm and lock the hatch. Then I would be stuck down here until they found me.
Micah would torture me until he killed me.
I waited for the guard to round the corner, and I thought about my little girl. I had to make it back to her no matter what. My daughter shouldn’t grow up without a mother. I’d lost my mother in adulthood, and I would never recover from it. She was the light of my life, my best friend. Martina needed me…and so did Cato.
I had to make it out of here.
A guard rounded the corner and reacted quickly when he noticed me. His eyebrows almost jumped off his face, he opened his mouth to yell, and he reached for his gun.
I punched him in the face, kicked him in the balls, and then stabbed him in the throat.
He crumpled to the ground—dead instantly.
There was nowhere for me to hide his body, so now I had to hurry. I took his pistol and moved faster, taking less caution at being noticed because I was running out of time. There were probably cameras around here, and now that the guard’s corpse lay in the middle of the hallway, I only had a few minutes to get out of there. The pistol wouldn’t be enough to keep me safe.
I finally made it to the big stairwell. It had taken us fifteen minutes to come down it earlier, so it would take me just as long to make it back to the surface. I put the pistol in the back of my jeans and started to run, knowing I was racing against the clock. There was probably a system override they could use to lock me inside. Then I would be trapped at the top of the stairwell with nowhere to run.
I ran as fast as I could, as quickly as my heart would allow. I’d been working out every day, but I was seriously out of shape. I gripped the rail to pull myself up as I moved, and within five minutes, I was panting hard and slick with sweat.
But I didn’t stop—because I had a little girl waiting for me.
I started to hear a commotion down below, an echo of voices that carried all the way to my position. “Shit.” I sprinted faster, running in spirals as I moved to the surface. I passed two lights at every interval, and I glanced up to see how close I was to the top. “Just a little more.” I kicked it into overdrive, knowing Cato would be furious with me if I got this close but didn’t cross the finish line.
I got to the keypad and stared at it blankly.
Shit, what was the password?
That ten-minute run had knocked me out, and I could barely think straight. Memorizing the path had been my priority, so I had shoved this to the back burner. I couldn’t randomly hit numbers because that would probably initiate a lockdown sequence.
Think.
Thirty seconds later, it finally came to me.
34892
I typed the numbers into the keypad, and then the door started to slide open.
Thank god.
Slowly, it moved, revealing the ground above. Once a crack opened wide enough for me to fit through, I climbed up and got to my feet.
There was a guard standing there, staring at me like he couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to be there or not. He finally made the right call and drew his weapon.
I shot first.
He fell to the floor with a thud.
The gunshot was loud in the enclosure, so the other men must have heard it.
I didn’t have time to creep around.
I sprinted like hell, moving through the main room and back to the secret doorway. I knew the way because I’d been there before. But now the trick was not getting shot. Men chased me with their weapons drawn.
If I didn’t stay ahead of them, I would be pumped full of bullets.
I made it to the front door and shot both men before they could react, each in the head. Then I pushed through the double doors and made it outside. It was still dark, but it was nearly dawn.
I sprinted to the meeting place where Bates would be sitting in the old car.
His eyes widened in shock when he saw me, like he’d never actually expected me to get out of there alive.
“Go!”
He started the engine and pushed the passenger door open.
Before I even made it all the way inside, he hit the gas.
I jumped in and shut the door as we took off at full speed.
Men poured out of the building and onto the sidewalk with their guns raised. A lot of them fired at us, breaking the back windows and destroying the taillights, but once there was enough distance between us, we were finally out of firing range.
Bates drove sporadically through the streets, speeding as he made sharp turns. Both hands were on the wheel as he got us out of the city and into the countryside. Once we were on a straight road, he gave me the most incredulous look I’d ever seen. “I can’t believe you did that.”
I still hadn’t caught my breath. Sweat dripped from my forehead and into my eyes. I tried to wipe it away with my hand, but it was no use. There was sweat everywhere. “Neither can I.” I chopped off a man’s dick and killed a few others. I’d turned into a killing machine, something I didn’t know I was capable of. But when it came to my family…I was willing to do anything to protect them.
And I wasn’t ashamed of that.
13
Cato
So much fucking pain.
Everything was broken. Everything screamed. It was the kind of agony that made you wish for death.
But it was nothing compared to watching Siena take my place.
That was the most painful thing I’d ever had to do.
To watch her hand herself over to that asshole so I could go free.
I would rather die a million times.
But there was nothing I could do. I fought the guards until they threw me on the sidewalk and my men carried me away.
Now I was at my estate, barely able to stand as I stepped into my home.
“Mr. Marino?” Giovanni caught me before I slammed into the ground. “What are you doing here? We need to get you to a hospital.”
“Martina? Where is she?”
“She’s in the kitchen, perfectly safe.”
I’d already lost one of my girls. I wasn’t going to lose another. “Siena took my place…I have to get her back.” I slow
ly slid to the floor, too weak to even hold myself up.
“Sir.” Giovanni used his strength to guide me carefully to the floor. “We have to get you to get you to a hospital.”
“Siena!”
“Sir, if you die, who will take care of Martina?”
All I cared about was saving Siena, even if it killed me. But I forgot about the person who mattered more, the person I swore to protect above all else. If I died, she would be alone.
“You need to go to the hospital, Mr. Marino.”
“I…” I could barely think, I was so weak.
The door burst open, and Bates walked inside. “Cato! Shit.” He leaned down and looked at me. “Jesus Christ, you look dead.”
“Siena…” I tried to get up again, but I couldn’t.
“She’s right here,” Bates said. “She’s right here.”
“What?” I asked, barely keeping my eyes open.
“Oh my god…” Her voice resonated in my ears, so beautiful it seemed unreal. “Cato…” She moved over me and cupped my face. “You need to get to a hospital. Now.”
“Siena?” I grabbed her wrist, wanting to feel her pulse, wanting to feel that she was real. “You’re here.”
“Yes, I’m here. I got away.”
I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it. “Thank god.” My breathing turned deeper and heavier as I became weaker. I’d never felt this weak in my life, never felt so powerless. Somehow, Siena managed to get us both out of there without my help.
“Bates, we have to get him to a hospital,” Siena said. “He’s barely holding on.”
“We’ll take the chopper,” Bates said. “We can all fit.”
“What about Martina?” she asked. “Can we put a car seat in there?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Bates hissed. “But Damien’s men are only a few minutes behind us. That chopper is our only chance to get out of here.” He turned back to me. “I know it hurts, Cato. But you have to walk to the chopper. I’ll get you to the hospital as soon as I can, but we need to hurry.”
I knew it would be painful, but I had to keep moving. I had to get Siena and Martina out of there. “Alright…let’s go.” I pushed to my feet then hooked one arm over Giovanni’s shoulder. Siena supported my other arm and took some of my weight on her slender shoulders.