by Bella J.
“Vadik, you motherfucker!” Antonio went berserk, pulling and tugging, the chair screeching across the floor. “Get your motherfucking hands off her!”
“Oh, dear Valenti heir. If you can’t handle this, I can’t wait to see how you tear yourself apart when you watch me fuck her.”
“Vadik, stop. Do whatever the fuck you want with me. But don’t you dare fucking touch her!” Antonino screamed, but it was more a plea than a demand.
A tear moved down his cheek, and the sight broke me. I lost every ounce of strength I had, and finally, my silent tears turned into sobs.
Vadik rounded me again until he stood in front of me, reaching out and wiping the tears from my face. “I can’t wait to hear you scream.”
Antonio howled, he roared like a lion experiencing the worst pain in his life. “Stop, please.” He still struggled against his restraints, and I couldn’t look at him anymore. I couldn’t witness his anguish, the pain that now streamed down his face alongside the tears. It was the worst torture I ever had to endure, seeing the man I loved come undone in the worst possible way.
Vadik jerked on the chain attached to the collar around my neck as he started to unzip his pants. “Did you miss me, Nessuno? Did you miss my cock stretching your cunt?”
Even though I bit my tongue, my glare shot daggers through his skull. Every ounce of hate I ever felt toward this man all came to the surface.
“Spread those legs so I can remind you how it feels to be fucked by your true master.” Lust turned his eyes to orbs of black, his vile intent written on his ugly face.
Antonio continued screaming, but the more I focused on my hate for Vadik, the more I blocked it out—the sound of Antonio’s agony.
Memories of a little girl being defiled and raped flashed through my mind. A beautiful, innocent little girl, crying while she experienced the worst pain of her life, her tiny body feeling like it was being split in half. I was back there. I was that little girl again. The little girl, out in the cold, refusing to stop fighting. I was the little girl who wouldn’t stop thinking about her mother’s words, telling her to be strong, to never give up. The red-hot rage of that little girl started to rise inside me like the tide. It was crashing against bone, churning violently in the pit of my stomach, forcing the current through my veins.
When I felt Vadik’s vile cock brush against my inner thighs, I closed my eyes willing that little girl to give me the strength I needed to survive…one. More. Time.
Vadik moaned when his cock pushed between my legs, and Antonio screamed like a man who had a beast inside him, about to tear its way through his bones. But I just kept on looking at Vadik’s face, and when I felt him nudge against my entrance, pushing my body back, I acted. All it took was a blink of an eye, the lift of an arm, and a bone-shattering scream from my throat…before tearing his ear straight off the side of his head.
The scream that came from his mouth was like a psalm straight from the goddamn Bible. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. Like music.
He fell to the ground, jerking the chain attached to my collar, forcing me down with him. I was so high on adrenaline, everything that happened seemed vague and surreal.
The door was kicked open, and while I tried to get up from the floor as Vadik kept screaming, holding the side of his face, Lucio and his men came storming in.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the second I felt arms around my body pulling me up, I knew it was him.
“Doe.” Antonio helped me straighten then wrapped his arms around my shoulder. “Jesus Christ, Doe.” I was still in a haze of adrenaline, rage, and fear. But when I felt his familiar heat spread through me, I came down, reality slowly sinking through the cracks in my soul.
“Antonio,” I whispered as more tears poured down my cheeks.
“It’s okay.” He placed his jacket around my naked body then wove his fingers through my hair, pulling me close again. “You’re safe. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly as I buried my face in his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop it.” He placed his hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look up at him. “You did nothing wrong.”
“Antonio,” Lucio interrupted, and we turned to face him, “what do you want us to do with this fucker?”
Lucio had Vadik restrained, blood pouring from the side of his face. The sight of his blood was probably the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
I narrowed my eyes. “So, you do bleed,” I said to Vadik. “You are human.” I stepped away from Antonio, closer to Vadik.
“Doe.” Antonio reached for my hand, and I turned to him. It only took one look for him to know what came next. It was the best feeling in the world, being so in sync with someone.
Antonio nodded to Lucio. “Tie the fucker down.”
I searched the room until I found the necklace Vadik had removed from my neck before putting the collar on. It was on the top of the cage Vadik had kept me in, and when I picked it up, I felt Antonio move in behind me. I felt his hands brush against my neck as he swept my hair over my shoulder. No matter the situation we were in, his touch always felt like silk against my skin.
He unlocked the collar and pulled it off, throwing it across the floor. I handed him the necklace, and when he clipped it in place, he leaned forward, lips touching the edge of my ear. “Make him suffer.”
I closed my eyes, placing my palm on my necklace. The blade clicked loose, and I flicked the pad of my thumb across the sharp edge.
Antonio stepped back, and I turned to face Vadik, who was now tied to a chair. Lucio stepped back when I moved forward, my eyes focused on the devil in front of me. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dreamt of this moment?”
Vadik’s chest rose and fell with his rapid breaths. “You don’t have it in you,” he sneered.
I stepped up, leaned down until I was eye to eye with the fucking boogeyman before ripping his shirt apart. “I’ve always had it in me.” With the blade pressed against the hollow of his throat, I pressed the tip into his skin. He hissed, but as I slowly pulled the blade down, tearing through his skin inch by inch, his moans turned to screams. Blood oozed out, dripping down his chest. The louder he cried, the more determined I was to gut him.
Down…down…down, I felt the blade slice through his flesh. More and more, louder and louder, his screams filled the room.
I pulled the knife from his flesh. “This is for every girl you’ve ever hurt.” And then I jabbed the blade into his chest, twisting, before tearing it out again. I stood, placing the knife at the top of his other ear. “And this is for the girl you killed before you cut off my ear.” The blade slid through the skin of his ear like a hot knife through butter.
His eyes rolled back into his head, and I knew I didn’t have long before the pain would let him pass out…or die.
With his hands tied behind his back, I climbed on top of him, straddling him, my eyes focused on his face contorted in agony. I held up my blade, one hand covering the other. “And this…is for me.”
I put every ounce of strength I had into my arms, screaming as I stabbed the blade into his groin. He cried out, his face red, blood oozing out of him from every corner.
But then I lifted my arm, stabbing him again…and again…and again. All I saw while tearing this monster’s flesh from his body was the ten-year-old girl whose life was ruined by men like him. Ruined by my…father.
I saw her face. Her innocence. I saw the little girl who witnessed her mother bleed to death. And while the face of that little girl occupied every fiber of my being, I continued to slash the blade through Vadik’s body. Over, and over, and over again. The more I cut through his flesh, feeling warm liquid splatter on my face, the more I wanted to keep going…until my screams eventually turned into cries. Sobs. Heart-wrenching sobs.
Two strong arms grabbed me around my waist, pulling me off Vadik’s lifeless body. “Let me go. Let me go!” I kicked and screamed. I wasn’t done. I wanted more. I wanted to sp
ill every ounce of his disgusting blood, drain his body of every drop.
“Doe, stop. He’s dead.” Antonio pressed my back against his chest, but I kept thrashing. I wasn’t fucking done.
“Doe! Stop!”
I cried so hard, it hurt. My chest hurt. Every bone in my body hurt. The gut-wrenching pain echoed in my cries as I toppled forward, my core feeling like it had been torn in half from the pain.
“It’s over, baby,” Antonio whispered as we both fell to the floor, his arms still tightly wrapped around me. “It’s all over. He’s dead. He’s gone.”
I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. It was as if my body and soul were purging themselves of years long of bottled-up rage.
Antonio rocked us back and forth, repeating the same words. “It’s over, Doe. It’s over.”
Epilogue
Doe
It had been weeks since I killed Vadik. Weeks since I broke the chains he had on my soul. It still felt surreal, knowing that he was gone. That I was finally free.
I still saw him in my nightmares some nights. His face. His eyes. His touch. In my dreams, whenever he touched me, spiders crawled all over me, covering me from head to toe until I couldn’t breathe. Some nights, I would cry myself awake, but most of the time Antonio would wake me, softly placing kisses on my forehead, brushing his fingers through my hair. Only he had the power to chase away the demons in my dreams. And once he managed to pull me from the nightmare, he would make love to me. Worship me. Cherish me. Every time.
We never spoke about what happened that night, the way it affected him watching how Vadik touched me, and almost raped me. I guessed it was something Antonio didn’t want to relive. It was something he tried to forget, just like I tried to forget every second I had ever spent in the clutches of that madman. But I knew it wouldn’t be possible. A part of me would always return to the past during a moment of weakness. I was okay with that…as long as I had my king.
“You okay?” I turned to see Antonio leaning against the doorframe.
I smiled. “I’m fine.”
“I don’t know if anyone told you this, but you do this thing with your nose whenever you lie.”
He walked closer, and I cocked a brow. “What thing?”
“Almost like you’re scrunching your nose. As if the lie makes your nose itch.”
I chuckled. “A lie makes my nose itch?”
“Something like that.” When he reached me, he placed his hands on my shoulders. “Seriously, are you okay?”
I took a deep breath. “I know he’s dead, Antonio. But he will never disappear completely.”
His features hardened. “I know that. At least you have the peace of mind that he can’t hurt you anymore.”
I only nodded. What was the use in telling him that Vadik hurt me every time I dreamt about him? Just thinking about him was hard.
Antonio leaned back slightly, staring at my neck as he pushed back the braid which hung over my shoulder. “Does it still hurt?”
I shook my head.
His fingers brushed against the Band-Aid before placing my braid over my shoulder, as it was.
“What did you do with it?”
He pressed his lips together, his fingers still lingering on the braid. “I took care of it.”
“How?”
“Don’t worry about it too much, Doe.” He touched my cheek. “I took care of it in a way that you never have to worry about it ever again. Trust me.”
The dark eyes which had become the center of my existence were filled with adoration as he stared down at me. It was when I lost myself within the earthy brown tones of his eyes that I felt most at peace. Well, that and whenever he claimed me, moving inside me, proving to me he owned me, body, mind, and soul.
Laughter came from outside and caught our attention, and I turned to look out the window. It was Rafe and Dante playing in the garden. Layla was standing a few feet away, laughing, watching her son and the man she loved play.
My heart bled.
Antonio wrapped his arms around my waist, settling his chin on my shoulder. “It’s good to see their little family reunited.”
“Yeah. It’s a shame they had to be apart in the first place.”
Antonio heard the regret in my voice. “Stop doing that, Doe. It’s not your fault.”
I remained quiet, silently watching. Happiness was painted in bright colors on his face while he swung his son in the air. And Layla, she was a striking beauty, and I was convinced it was her love for Dante and her son which made her so beautiful—inside and out.
My heart ached thinking of what Vadik had taken from me. How he ripped my God-given right to bear a child from my body. “I can never give you that.”
“Doe—”
“I can’t give you a child, Antonio. A family.” I placed my hands on my stomach. “Vadik made sure of that.”
With a swift twist of my hip, he turned me to face him. “Don’t. All I want is you.”
I struggled to keep the tears at bay. “That’s what you say now. But is that how you’ll feel in two years, five years, ten years’ time when everyone around you has their own families?”
“Doe,” he pulled me closer, pushing his hard body against mine, “all I’ve ever wanted was to find something as pure and as powerful as what we share. There was a time when I thought it wasn’t meant for a man like me. But here you are, and I love you so much it fucking hurts.”
A tear slipped from my eye and down my cheek. “I love you too, Antonio. That’s why I want to give you everything you—”
“But you are, Doe. You are. You are everything I want. Everything I’ll ever want.”
“How can you say that when the blood of your enemy runs through my veins?”
“Stop that.” His voice was hard, demanding. “I don’t give a fuck whose blood runs through your veins. I don’t care that you’re the daughter of my enemy. Stefano is dead. The fucker is no longer able to hurt anyone. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re Doe, the woman I will love until I take my last goddamn breath.”
After that night with Vadik, I never pressed Antonio for answers about why he chose to keep the truth from me because I already knew. I knew deep down he kept it from me because he wanted to protect me. I would have done the same, made the exact same choices if the truth had the power to hurt someone I loved. So, I couldn’t blame him…and I didn’t.
Antonio wiped a tear off my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “You’re my woman, Doe. And I want to live every day to the fullest with you.” He shrugged. “Besides, when the times comes, and it’s something we both want, we can adopt.”
My heart fluttered. “Adopt?”
“Yes. There are lots of kids out there who need people to take care of them.” He smiled warmly. “People like us.”
“But the child won’t be blood. And blood is important for a family like yours.”
His eyebrows almost touched his hairline. “Lorik ain’t blood. Not even close, and yet here he is.”
I had to laugh. The love-hate relationship between him and Lorik was very amusing. Not a day went by that I didn’t laugh at the two of them.
“Did I hear my name?”
Antonio closed his eyes, and I smiled when Lorik peeked into the room.
“We were kind of in the middle of a private conversation,” Antonio said with annoyance.
Lorik walked in. “Yeah, so, here’s the thing…I don’t care.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Antonio mumbled before turning to face him. “What do you want, Lorik?”
Lorik’s eyes grew wide, the smile on his face even wider as he held up his hands. “It’s my fucking wedding day, baby. Jesus, there was a time when I seriously thought this day would never come.”
Antonio snorted. “Yeah, and there was a time I seriously hoped it wouldn’t.”
“Nah.” Lorik waved it off. “You love my Albanian ass.”
“My feelings toward you have abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with your
ass, Lorik.”
There was a knock on the door, and I frowned, thinking no one ever knocked around here.
“Is Lorik in there?” We heard Karina’s voice from the hall.
“I’m here, babe.”
“Don’t come out,” Karina said quickly. “It’s bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding.”
Lorik rolled his eyes. “Babe, we’ve been trying to get married for months now, thanks to your fucking brothers and the mountains of shit that always seem to follow them. I’m pretty sure we’re all bad-lucked-out.”
I let out a laugh.
“Lorik,” Karina continued, “I’m only here to get Doe. The make-up artist and hairdressers are here. So, if you would please just fucking behave and not come out into the hall, I’d really appreciate it.”
“Babe, but I really want to see—”
“Lorik!” Her voice rose an octave. “I’d really appreciate it if you would not piss me off on our wedding day. I’d hate for this day to end with my stiletto heel up your ass.”
Lorik’s eyes grew wide. “Ouch,” he whispered.
I snickered then turned to Antonio. “I better go.”
He leaned down, soft lips brushing against mine, reminding me how easy it was for him to affect me. Even the simplest kiss from him had the power to disarm and ensnare me at the same time.
“I have a surprise for you later, after the wedding,” he whispered, a mischievous glint in his eye.
“What is it?” I whispered back.
He took my hand and gently placed it in his jacket pocket. When I felt the silk rope against my fingers, my entire body was instantly electrified.
“Antonio.” I searched his face, hoping this meant what I thought it meant. For weeks, I’d waited for this, for him to take me in a way we both knew he wanted—in a way I wanted as well. But he wasn’t ready, and he was concerned I wasn’t either. But deep down, I craved it. I needed it. And I prayed the day would come when he would allow me to walk on that thin line between pleasure and pain once again.
“Antonio, does this mean…”
He nodded. “It’s time.”