by Serena Light
And for the past month, she had been in captivity, she did not go a day without putting up a fight, demanding to be let go. Killing another man when he tried to take away her wedding ring and bit off another's ear when he tried to take her emerald and diamond jewelry from her, her attack then having been in vain when another man grabbed them off the table while she was busy beating up the first one.
The men were terrified of her and she was beyond overjoyed to know that. The maids refused to put the food trey before her, afraid that she'd kill them too, and the men trembled whenever they had to go in for something.
In the one month, she had been in Jayson's manor, she had left five men with broken bones, killed two, and impaired one's hearing. And she would keep this up until they let her go or Salvatore came to get her.
At night, she slept with her eyes open, fearing that Jayson would come in and try to have his way with her. He never did, but she wasn't going to take the chance by falling asleep.
It wasn't until recently did Jayson come in, holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand and put on his most bedazzling smile he could manage, and now as she looked at him, Nicole had to wonder, what did she ever see in this man. Flat limp dirty blonde hair that looked greasier than they actually were, bags under his eyes, flat white lips and crooked yellowing teeth; on top of that, he had put on weight.
"These are for you," He put them at the foot of the bed, causing her to look up at him with a raised eyebrow before she kicked away the bouquet, noticing him wince before realizing that he was just as afraid as the others. "Baby don't-"
"-Call me 'baby' one more time and I will castrate you with my teeth," Nicole looked him straight in the eyes, ensuring to harden her gaze just for him to understand that she wasn't joking.
"Are you going to keep fighting me?" Jayson sighed from the door, much too afraid to walk further than the threshold. "Don't you remember all the good times we had?"
"Oh, you mean the time you kept me locked inside for 2 years?" Nicole asked with a condescending smile. "Or the time you beat me bloody? Oh! How about the time you tried raping me?"
"Bab-Nicole-"
"-Yes, I will keep fighting you until you either let me go or you are bleeding to death at my feet," She stood on the bed, smirking when Jayson took a step back. "What's it going to be, puttana?"
Jayson gritted his teeth and looked over his shoulder, Nicole watching as an entourage of eight men stepped inside: four of them trying to restrain her as she fought them off, screaming and clawing. She had grabbed a man by his hair, kneeing him in the stomach when three men pulled her back, throwing her onto the floor as two men restrained her arms and legs while one planted his knee firmly on her back. Thrashing against them, she tried to bite at one's fingers when he tilted her head to the side, pricking her neck with a needle as she gasped and thrashed harder, screaming profanities at them before noticing her heartbeat to be slowing down and her vision began to blur before her.
And before she knew it, her vision turned black.
When she finally came to, she awoke with a gasp, turning on the mattress she was on before staring up at the brightly lit white ceiling. Groaning, Nicole forced herself to sit up and rubbed her neck before realizing that she was in a holding cell.
White walls, white floor, white ceiling. A white table attached to the fall beside the door with a chair beside it, a toilet placed in the corner and a barred window at the top of the wall above her bed.
"You don't look like much," A deep voice spoke up as Nicole glanced towards the door, seeing a pair of beady black eyes looking at through the bars.
"What?"
"The men who put you here said that you were some psychotic bitch who chewed his ear off. Literally,"
"I bit it off because he thought he could play games with me," Nicole stood from her place as the man let out a rumbling laugh at her words. "Where is here, anyway?"
"Tuscany," The guard shrugged. "So you killed a man, huh?"
"I killed two men," She corrected dismissively, glad to know that she was back home and it would be just a matter of days before her husband will find her again.
"Damn," He murmured under his breath. "You sure are one psychotic bitch,"
"You got a problem with that?" Nicole crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him from across the bars.
"Problem?" He laughed. "I love it. Giving that Leone character a run for his money is what I live for,"
She looked at him in confusion for a second before a smile cracked at her lips, knowing that this man didn't like Jayson either.
"I'm Nicole,"
"Davide,"
The sun had gone behind the mountains and darkness bathed the outside. Salvatore sat on the bed, staring at the darkness with unblinking eyes as he had a toddler laying on his chest, gently patting her back to make her fall asleep, Michele laying cuddled into his side and sound asleep.
"Daddy," Marina's sleep ridden voice spoke up as he looked down at her.
"Hmm?" He hummed at the little girl on his chest.
"Where is mommy?"
Salvatore sighed at the question, swallowing the lump in his throat and momentarily glancing up at his best friend sitting on the sofa, the American's eyes wide as he waited for his response.
"I don't know, baby," He sighed dejectedly, the failure and lack of progress making him weary.
"I miss mommy," Marina yawned and cuddled into his chest.
"Me too, princess," Salvatore hugged her tight and placed a kiss on the top of her head, Stephan watching with a grimace at how depressed his best friend had become and nothing he did, helped. A knock on the door had the American get up, knowing that the Mafia Boss wouldn't be moving.
Opening it, Stephen gave the elder man a weak smile at the sight of him.
"Hey," He stepped to the side and allowed him entrance.
Stepping inside the room, they found Salvatore sitting against the headboard with his gaze out the window and both dogs settled on the vacant side with Michele lying cuddled into his side and Marina sleeping on his chest.
"How is he?" Major turned towards the American who shook his head.
"Depressed. Even I can't help him,"
"Can you leave us for a bit?"
"Sure,"
The older man watched him step out of the room and close the door behind him before he made his way over to the Mafia Boss. Nudging the wolf-hybrid, he settled on the other side.
"Your mom asked me to talk to you," Major informed, watching him looking out the window without a word as he gently ran his fingers through Michele's hair, unable to recall the last time he saw a baby this small. "She says you haven't been sleeping. Can I ask why?"
"It's funny," Salvatore spoke with no trace of humor in his voice. "When I first got married to her, I couldn't sleep due to her constant movement, and now I can't sleep because there is no movement,"
"You miss her?"
"It's like..." Salvatore swallowed the lump in his throat, creating a clawing gesture over his heart. "It's like someone tore my heart out of me. There is this...deep hollow feeling which just grows and grows and grows..."
"You love her," Major stated with certainty.
"Like anything," He shook his head with a humorless chuckle, throwing his head against the board behind him before rubbing at his eyes, trying to will the tears away. "I love her, and I never told her that,"
"What?"
"We've been married two years, and never once did either one of us say 'I love you'." He choked, running a hand down Marina's back. "I think both of us were just too scared to say it in case the other didn't feel the same way and everyone kept saying 'you two love each other' but we never said it,"
The older man looked at him in silence, not understanding what to say to make him feel better, because it had been one and a half month, and they had been doing all that they could and were nowhere close to finding out where Jayson has been keeping her. Major could see that he wanted his wife back, he could see that he missed her, and now that longing
had affected him in such a way that he had trouble working, to the extent that he couldn't bring himself to get out of bed on some days.
Major watched him reach over to his side table with an arm wrapped around the baby and picked up a photo frame, holding it out to him. Taking it, the guard looked down at the image, a soft smile making its way across his lips at the photo before him.
It was of Salvatore sitting on a log in front of a bonfire, his head thrown back and laughing at something and a girl under his arms, also laughing with a blanket draped over the two.
"Serafina took this picture," Salvatore sniffled. "I don't even remember what we were laughing about, but Nicole looked so gorgeous and I wanted it framed,"
"She is beautiful," Major agreed, taking hold of another frame held out to him which was a portrait of Nicole sitting on the steps, her legs pulled up to her chest as she looked at the camera with a soft smile, her eyes shining with adoration. "You took this one?"
"Yeah," He nodded, grabbing a box up from the floor before pushing it into the guard's hands. "Look at this. 675 pictures of us from the past two years,"
The older man couldn't help but give him a skeptical look as he opened the lid of the box, seeing a variety of photos before him.
"Don't worry, they are all decent." The younger man chuckled, forcing a smile on the other's face. "The indecent ones are private," That had the older man laughing out loud as Salvatore chuckled himself, allowing Major to look at the various pictures.
"You know Major," He sighed, leaning his head back as he hugged little Marina to his chest. "I married her as part of a business deal,"
"A deal, which stated that I export Mr. Lombardi's dealings for 10% of the earnings and his daughter which would allow me to expand my Mafia. To ensure that he stuck by the agreement, I had him redraft his will, clearly stating that the Mafia and all its various associate dealings will all go under my name since I would be his male successor, and it was written in the final contract, that if he violates this agreement, I kill Nicole,"
The guard looked up from the pictures momentarily, giving a disapproving look to the man who wasn't even paying him any attention.
"I married her for expansion, for growth," Salvatore chuckled under his breath. "And she allowed me to grow in ways I didn't think was possible. She's allowed me to grow in ways I didn't think was possible, Major, and I love her more than I could ever love my own life and I was such a coward to never have told her that."
"And me being the ignorant person that I am, never realized how much she had impacted me until the day of Rhea's funeral. Seeing her pick fights with all the attendants, arguing with her father, that also on her mother's funeral? Anyone would think, 'who does that', but watching Nicole, I realized she was hurting more than I had ever seen her, more than when Rhea would put her down, or when we would fight, or when I found out she had been drugging me. It was so bad, Major, and I wanted to fix it, I wanted to make it all go away, and I pulled her to the side, told her she was justified in feeling what she did, but she couldn't just go and fight everyone like that. And I told her, I told her that 'you just say the word and I will have that entire hall emptied out'. And you want she said to me?" He looked towards the guard.
"What?"
"She said, 'if I tell you, can you bring her back?'." Salvatore shook his head. "Later that night, Mr. Lombardi came to me, having signed the contract and thrown it at my table saying that the Mafia was mine. I simply encircled the clause which stated that "in the events of the death of Party B, Party A will take over all business transactions effective immediately". I knew he wanted to kill himself and when he did, everything would be mine. Everything, which had been my goal to achieve from this marriage, and I said no,"
"I told him, I don't accept, that I don't want his Mafia like this because Nicole was already hurting from the loss of her mother and she wouldn't be able to pull herself together if she lost her father too. I felt it was my duty, Major, it was my responsibility to talk him out of it and tell him to think about it, think about Nicole and how devastated she would be if he did."
"Nicole allowed me to grow from a self-centered, conceited, ambitious boss to a decent human being."
"I found her, Major," Salvatore chuckled, picking out their wedding photo from the box. "She found me,"
"And in the process, she taught me how to find myself,"
Chapter XLV: Bedtime stories
Nicole did not know how long she had been locked away in that holding cell. She did not know what date it was, nor what time it was, but there were two things she was most certain of. One, her husband would come and find her soon; and two, she had a friend.
Davide had proven to be quite trustworthy.
She had been hesitant at first, but he kept talking to her, and she had been so deprived of human interaction of late that she took what she could get. He had the day duty with her four days of a week, and every time when he came to guard her, he'd bring one game or another and always had the most fascinating stories to share. Nicole laughed every once in a while and sometimes told him stories about herself, granted he didn't know who she was or whom she's married to, and he was very content with not prying.
Davide had warmed up to her as well.
She felt like a little sister. An annoying and sassy little sister whom he couldn't get enough of.
He absolutely refused to hear a single bad word out of any guard's mouth regarding her, straight out snapping at them to keep in their limits whenever they talked about her in a way he found remotely offensive. He would pull some strings and get her some extra rations of food, or sometimes he'd smuggle in something from outside, or get her something of her own preference.
But for the past two weeks, he had been off on vacation, having told Nicole that he would be taking his missus out to see the Eiffel tower for their anniversary. She had smiled at him and told him to treat her like royalty, show her that she's loved.
It was always at night that things got bad for Nicole. The lack of his warmth, his touch, or his presence, the absence of it all weighed like a ton on her chest and always had her sobbing into her pillow. Chanting his name like a broken mantra and feeling horribly desperate just to see him one last time.
Tell him, she loved him.
She sought comfort in the hope of him finding her.
However, now that seemed to fade away, much like her.
Since she had been brought into this holding cell, Nicole had begun feeling...off.
A part of her was terrified that she was pregnant, and she had Davide get her a pregnancy test, only for it to come out negative. She was both relieved and devastated at the revelation. Laughing and sobbing at the same time.
But, despite that, her condition persisted.
It started off as headaches. Something, which Nicole had passed off as lack of water. But then came the stomach aches which had her paralyzed with pain. They grew so bad, that no pain killer would help her, no matter how strong a dosage Davide managed to slip to her. Then came the confusion and dizziness, sometimes she didn't even remember where she was or what she was doing or how she ended up in a holding cell, sometimes she didn't even remember who she was until she slept it off. Nicole had begun to go numb due to the excessive pain her body was going through, and the fever did nothing to ease her situation.
The day Davide was supposed to leave for his vacation, Nicole had passed out mid-sentence, scaring the poor man half to death, and then it simply stroked his rage when all his fellow guards said: "let her be, she's acting,". He had entered her holding cell and did his best to wake her, and when finally she did come to, she never realized she had passed out.
"That's it," He shook his head, helping her sit up straight. "I'm not taking his vacation,"
"No! You have to go!" Nicole insisted like she hadn't just about dropped dead at his feet.
It took her the remainder of his shift to convince him to go, telling him that his wife had been looking forward to this for months and that he couldn't
just drop everything because she felt a little faint. He had been skeptical, but eventually relented, saying that he'd go upon her insistence but didn't feel good about it.
For the past two weeks, he had been gone, and Nicole's condition deteriorated. Her cries of pain and her tears did nothing to move the men on duty and they just kept barking at her to shut up or else.
Day by day, she felt herself growing weaker, so much so that she realized that she'd probably die in this holding cell. She was convinced given how feeble she had gotten.
The first week of Davide's vacation had been the hardest. The pain, and throwing up, loss of appetite, crying Salvatore's name at night, begging him to get her out of there. Her fever grew deliriously to the extent where she wasn't sure what she saw was her mind playing games or the reality, having given up on distinguishing the two not three days following its aggravation. And then she slept. She slept like anything and was sure about passing out in her sleep, praying that she died painlessly.
Today, Davide got back.
Going over to the only holding cell in the warehouse, he held the breakfast tray in hand before dismissing the night guard with a nod.
"Guess who's back, baby," He spoke in a sing-song voice, jamming the keys into the lock and pushing the door open, shaking his head with a chuckle to see Nicole laying with her back to him. "Oh, wake up, Nicole. I have got so much to tell you!" Daniel put the tray down on the table.
"And! I got you a donut," He took out the bag from his coat, and put it down on the tray. "Cream-filled, just the way you like it,"
He stood by the table, waiting for her to wake up and greet him with her infamous hug and smile, but when she didn't stir, he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, knowing that she would have gotten up by now.
"Hey, Nicole?" The guard spoke uncertainly, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, get up." He turned her onto her back, gasping in shock to see her.
Her face had gone grey, her lips turning a faint blue around the edges and sweat soaking her clothes. Her hair was a bird's nest and her cheeks hollow. If it weren't for her faint breathing, Davide would have been convinced she was dead.