by Cora Reilly
Where R U?
Instead of replying, a door opened and Lily’s dark blonde head poked out. Her face was puffy from crying and her eyes were huge and fearful. When her gaze settled on me, she ran in my direction and threw her arms around me.
“Where’s Fabi?” I asked when I could breathe again. My ribs were throbbing fiercely from her hug but I didn’t want her to know I was hurt. She looked terrified as it was.
“Asleep. They gave him some kind of sleeping pill because he was having a meltdown.” She looked up at me. “I was so scared, Gianna. I thought we were all going to die, but Romero protected Fabi and me.”
Her cheeks turned red. Her crush on Romero had been growing rapidly over the last few months. I didn’t have it in me to tell her what kind of man he must be if Luca chose him as Aria’s protector. Lily would realize soon enough that we were surrounded by the bad guys, not knights in shining armor.
“What about Aria? Romero only said she was fine before he left Fabi and me alone in that room and told me not to walk around the house because it was too dangerous.”
“She was shot in the shoulder, but the doc is taking care of her. She’ll be alright.”
That’s what I hoped. My eyes darted to the master bedroom again. I’d have to try to sneak in later when the doc and Luca were gone.
“Go back to your room, I’ll be back soon.” I turned to leave but Lily followed me like a lost puppy.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Downstairs. I want to see the damage.”
“I’m coming with you.”
I sighed. Aria would have told our sister “no,” but it was hypocritical of me to tell Lily to behave when I’d rarely followed orders in my life. Lily wasn’t a small kid anymore. “Okay, but be quiet and stay away from the men.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m not interested in them.”
“I didn’t say you were, but they might be interested in you.”
I really didn’t want to have to explain to Luca that I had to kill one of his men because they touched Lily. Of course, I’d first have to figure out a way to kill them. We headed downstairs. The entrance hall was a mess. Blood and broken glass littered the floor. At least the bodies were gone, but a trail of blood led outside to a pile of dead Russians. I really hoped they didn’t treat Umberto’s body like that. My chest tightened but I fought the sadness. Umberto had chosen this life. Death was part of the game.
I blocked Lily’s view of the corpses and dragged her toward the living room, which wasn’t in much better shape. The white couches would definitely have to be replaced. I didn’t think any bleach in the world could get out the stains. Lily made a small distressed sound and I pulled her further along, already regretting that I had allowed her to come with me. A couple of men were taking a smoking break on the terrace, and glanced our way as we passed. They didn’t seem bothered by the blood. I walked faster.
“Hey,” Lily protested but I ignored her. If I’d been on my own, I wouldn’t have cared but I didn’t want to put my sister in danger.
We headed to the back of the house where the kitchen was, and almost bumped into another man. “Watch where you’re going,” he said, then paused and actually checked us out. I didn’t know him and I had no interest of finding out more about him.
I pushed Lily past him. His eyes followed us all the way to the back of the corridor. When we turned the corner, we came face-to-face with a steel door, which was left ajar. A cry of pain carried out from below and made me shiver.
Lily clutched my arm, blue eyes wide. “What was that?”
I swallowed. I had a pretty good idea what was going on but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I don’t know.” I took a step closer to the door, then hesitated. I couldn’t take Lily with me, but I couldn’t leave her alone in the hallway when there were so many creepy fucks running around. I opened the door and peered down a long, dark staircase. Light spilled out from somewhere in the basement. Lily was almost pressed against my back, her breath hot against my neck.
“You don’t want to go down there, right?” she whispered.
“Yes, but you will stay on the stairs.”
Lily followed me a few steps down before I gave her a warning look. “Stay there. Promise me.”
Another cry sounded from below.
Lily flinched. “Okay. I promise.”
I wasn’t sure if she meant it but she looked freaked out enough that I was willing to take the risk. I crept down the remaining steps, but halted on the last step, scared of what I might see. Exhaling, I stepped down and found myself in a huge basement. Bile shot up my throat. I wasn’t stupid. I knew what the mob did to their enemies, especially if they wanted to get information out of them, but hearing stories and actually coming face-to-face with the horrendous reality of it were two very different things.
I braced my hand against the rough wall, my fingers curling around the hard edge. Two men were bound to chairs. Matteo and a tall, heavily muscled guy seemed to be in charge of pressing information out of them, while Romero stood back, but he must have had some part in their torture too because his hands were covered in blood, and so were his clothes. But it was nothing compared to the sight of Matteo. His white shirt was covered in blood, his rolled-up sleeves revealed blood-covered skin. There was red and red and red, so many different shades of it. But the worst, God the worst thing, was his face. There was no pity, no mercy, no nothing. There wasn’t excitement or eagerness either, that was what I tried to cling to. At least he didn’t get off on what he was doing. He didn’t seem to feel anything judging from his expression.
I’d always known his easygoing, playful, flirty attitude was a mask to cover up the ugly truth, but again knowing and having that knowledge confirmed in such a brutal way were two very different pair of shoes. Maybe if I’d been more naïve I could have convinced myself that Matteo was doing this because he’d had to bury his father today, because he was grief-stricken and needed an outlet for the pain, but I knew better. This was common mob business. Grief had nothing to do with it.
One of the tied-up Russians was the man who’d hurt me and I knew that was why Matteo had chosen him as his victim.
I’d always wanted out of the world I’d been born in, this fucked-up brutal world I knew, but in this moment I made the decision to actually try to flee. No matter the cost, no matter what it took and what I had to do, I would escape this hell. How could anyone want to stay when they saw this?
I knew people got used to these things, but I didn’t want to get used to them. I could already tell that I had less trouble with blood every time I saw it. How much longer until the sight of someone being tortured would do nothing to me? How much longer until the voice in my head that said the Russian bastard deserved it and would have done the same to me if given the chance wasn’t a quiet whisper but a roaring shout?
Something brushed my arm and I jerked back, barely stifling a cry of surprise. Lily stood beside me, and then everything went very quickly. I opened my mouth to send her back up but at the same time her eyes settled on the scene in the center of the room, and I knew things would get very ugly. I’d heart Lily scream before but that had been nothing in comparison to the sound breaking free from her lips when she saw the blood and the men who’d lost it. I supposed it was close to the sound fluffy lambs made when they were being slaughtered.
I actually flinched away from Lily. Her eyes went wide, then dilated scarily, her face taking on an expression that scared the shit out of me. All eyes jerked toward us. Matteo released the Russian, narrowed his dark eyes at me, as if I was the one doing something wrong. Lily kept up her screaming, a high-pitched wail that made the hairs on my neck rise.
“Romero!” Matteo snarled, nodding toward my sister. “Take care of Liliana.”
Romero advanced on us. Tall and imposing.
Lily had always fawned over him, but now even she couldn’t see anything but the killer in him. His hands were red. Red from blood, and Lily completely los
t her shit. I could only stare. I was unable to move. Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice was telling me to talk to my sister, to try to calm her, to do something, anything, but that voice was drowned out by the terrified static filling my head.
The steel door slammed against the wall above our heads and then Luca was suddenly there. “What the fuck is going on here?”
Nobody replied.
Romero spoke to my sister in a soothing voice. “Calm down, Lily. Everything is okay.”
Really? The scene in front of us told a very different story. Nothing about this was okay.
Of course, Lily wasn’t to be calmed. Romero gripped her arm and Luca went to help him, but she was fighting them like an animal. How could such a skinny girl fight off two men?
Romero slung his arms around her chest, trapping her arms against her sides, but that didn’t stop Lily from kicking out at him and everything around her, and she still didn’t stop screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Shut her up! Aria will hear,” Luca growled. He tried to catch her legs but she lashed out and kicked his chin. He stumbled back, more from surprise than anything else. Of course they could have subdued her easily if they hadn’t been so careful not to hurt her. I took a step in their direction, worried that they might give up the gentle approach soon, but the ground tilted under me and I had to grip the wall again.
“Lily,” I said. “Lily, stop.”
She didn’t even hear me.
The tall, muscled guy took a few steps toward them as if he was going to interfere, but Matteo pushed him back. “No. Stay out of it.”
I’d forgotten about Matteo, but while I had watched Lily, he’d managed to clean his hands. They were still pink but at least not smeared with blood. His eyes settled on me but I had to look away. I couldn’t return his gaze right now. I had a feeling I wasn’t far from pulling a stunt like Lily and going bat-shit crazy on them. The coppery scent of blood hung like fog in the air, clogged my throat and nose, seemed to sink into my skin, bury itself deep in my body together with the horrible images.
Lily managed to kick off the wall, causing Romero to stumble back, lose his balance and land on his back with Lily on top of him. He grunted and lost his hold on my sister. She pushed to her feet, a look like a hunted animal on her face. Her gaze passed right through me.
“Lily, calm down,” I tried again.
She tried to storm past Matteo but he was too quick. He grabbed her wrist, and wrapped an arm around her waist. Then she was suddenly on her back and he was kneeling on her legs and had her hands pinned above her head. Luca headed toward them with a syringe in his hand. That was the final straw.
I stumbled toward them despite my wobbly legs. “Don’t hurt her!” I hissed. “Don’t you fucking dare hurting her!”
“I’m trying very hard not to hurt her, but she’s making it difficult. Luca, now!” Matteo growled from his spot on top of my sister.
I blocked Luca’s way. “What is that?” I pointed at the syringe.
“Something that will calm her down,” Matteo said.
“Get out of the fucking way.” Luca brushed past me, knelt beside my sister who was still struggling against Matteo’s hold, and pushed the needle into her arm. It didn’t take long for her to grow quiet and stop struggling. Matteo released her wrists and sat up. Lily whimpered before curling into herself and starting to cry silently.
“I hope you all burn in hell,” I whispered harshly as I knelt beside her and stroked her hair. Matteo watched me with unreadable dark eyes. There were a few specks of blood on his throat; they seemed to be all I could see.
One of the Russians started to laugh. For a second I considered punching him in the face. I wasn’t even sure how he was still capable of any sound the way he looked.
Matteo shot to his feet and got right into his face. “Shut the fuck up, or I swear I’ll cut your dick into pieces while you watch.”
“Romero, take Liliana into her room and tell the doc to check on her,” Luca ordered, his voice already back to business.
Romero lifted Lily into his arms, and she actually pressed her face into his chest and sobbed. He was the last person she should seek out for comfort. He was one of the fucking reasons why she’d freaked out in the first place. Maybe she didn’t even realize who held her.
I stood as well to follow after them. I wouldn’t leave my sister alone with any of them. Luca gripped my wrist. “I want to have a word with you first.”
“Let me go!” I snarled but he didn’t budge.
Matteo grasped Luca’s forearm. “Let her go.”
Luca and he stared at each other for a moment, then I was finally free but now Matteo was blocking the stairs. I still couldn’t look at his face. I glared at Luca instead. “I need to go to Lily. Maybe you didn’t notice but she had a breakdown because of you sick fucks.”
“She’ll get over it,” Luca said dismissively.
“Do you hear yourself? You make me sick. Lily won’t ever get over what she saw today. She’ll probably have fucking nightmares for years, only because of you.”
Luca smiled coldly. “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself, because I have a feeling she was only down here because she followed you.”
“Luca,” Matteo said in warning. “It wasn’t Gianna’s fault.”
It was my fault, at least partly, but I would never admit it in front of them. If it weren’t for their sick business, nothing of this would have happened. I decided to switch to attack-mode. “I wonder what Aria will say when she finds out what happened.”
Luca narrowed his eyes. “You won’t tell her.”
“Oh, I won’t?” I asked. I had absolutely no intention of telling her. She didn’t need the extra baggage, but Luca didn’t need to know that. Matteo stepped between his brother and me, and touched my arms. I jerked back as if he’d burnt me. “Don’t touch me ever again.”
“I really don’t get what you see in her,” Luca said.
“Luca, stop provoking her,” Matteo hissed, then he turned his dark eyes on me. “You can’t tell Aria. It won’t serve any purpose, only make her miserable.”
“Maybe she’ll decide to leave him.” I nodded toward Luca.
“Aria won’t ever leave me,” Luca said quietly. “She took a fucking bullet for me today. I almost lost her. I won’t ever lose her again. And I won’t let you ruin things between us.”
The worst thing was that I knew he was right when he said Aria wouldn’t leave him, not even when I told her what I’d seen today. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what kind of man Luca was and what kind of things his men did on his orders. He’d killed and tortured for her before, and she still loved him. Somehow she could forget the monster and only see the man when she was with Luca. I was pretty sure I couldn’t do it. I could hardly meet Matteo’s gaze.
“I won’t tell her,” I said eventually. “But not for you. I’m doing it for her. I want to see her happy.” And for some fucked-up reason Luca was making her happy, happier than I’d ever seen her. For her sake, I would pretend.
Luca turned to Matteo. “Take her to her room and make sure she stays there until Scuderi comes to pick them up. I don’t want her to make another scene.”
I bit back a snarky comment. “I want to see Aria. She needs me.”
I could tell that Luca wanted to tell me “no” but he surprised me when he said, “You can stay with her when I’m not around.”
“It’s not like I’m eager to be in a room with you.”
“Come on, Gianna.” Matteo gripped my arm and didn’t even release me when I protested. He led me up the basement stairs, then along the long hallway and up the stairs. We didn’t speak until we reached my room and I jerked free of his grip.
My eyes darted to his pink hands and blood-covered shirt. Matteo followed my gaze, grimacing. “I’ll go change.”
“Don’t bother. I won’t ever forget what I saw.”
Matteo walked up to me and I stood my ground, despite my body’s desire t
o flee. “You are clever, Gianna. Don’t tell me you didn’t know what we were doing behind closed doors. Believe me, the Outfit doesn’t handle enemies with kid gloves either.”
“I know. That’s why I despise everything about the fucking mob. And you are right, I wasn’t surprised about what I saw today. It only confirmed what I’d known all along.”
“And what is that?”
“That you are a sick fuck and that I’d rather die than marry you.”
Matteo pulled me against him, his dark eyes practically scorching me with their intensity. “Maybe you think you could live in the normal world, maybe you think you could date a normal guy, but you’d get bored, Gianna. Maybe you don’t want to admit it, but it excites you to be with someone like me. If a normal guy tells you he’d kill and torture to protect you, he’d be lying, exaggerating at best, but I’m making a promise I can keep.”
“Let me go,” I gritted out.
He did, then gave me his fucking shark-smile and headed for the door. “I’ll lock the door. Luca will unlock it when he takes you to Aria.”
“So you’re going back to torturing that guy?”
Matteo’s gaze flickered with an emotion I couldn’t place. “Maybe. I’m a sick fuck, remember?” He slipped out. “But maybe I’ll let Luca have some fun with the Russians first.” His gaze lingered on me for another moment before he closed the door and locked it. I reached for a vase on the sideboard and flung it at the door where it shattered and tumbled to the floor.
I squeezed my eyes shut, making a promise I was determined to keep. I would escape before my wedding to Matteo. I would leave this life behind and never return. I would try to live a decent, honest, ordinary life.
Afterward I felt calmer, even if I knew it would be close to impossible to escape from the mob. It would take a plan and help, but I still had ten months until my wedding. Plenty of time.