A creaking sound jolts me. The stairs…shit!
“Shaye, what’s that noise?”
I gasp and jump off the bed and stumble over the corner of an area rug, slipping across the floor in my haste to get the fuck away from the psychopath struggling to his feet behind me.
“Lily!” I yell. “Get back upstairs and lock that door! Don’t come down here!” A firm hand grips my ankle, yanking me backward, but I grab onto the door handle for leverage, kicking at the bloody hole in his face with my free foot.
A loud roar that sounds more like it came from the lungs of a jungle predator than a man shakes the walls. Milliseconds are all I have before his beefy hands close around my neck again, and this time, I’m not so sure he’s going to care whether or not I’m alive when he fucks me.
The sound of screeching tires registers somewhere in the depths of my mind, but my window is about to slam shut. I slide across the floor, pulling my bag with me.
Thump, thump, thump!
“You fucking whore!” he yells, stomping into the foyer, reaching out to grab me by the neck again. I fumble around inside the bag, my fingers closing on the cold metal. Sobs explode out of my throat as I roll onto my back and point the gun at the evil monster staring down at me. “Die, you motherfucker!”
I pull the trigger, but my eyes are too blurred with tears, my hand trembling with an uncontrollable force. I fucking missed! All of those months of target practice, and I missed! He reaches down and pulls me up by the shirt, slamming me against the wall. Hard. So hard that my brain shudders inside of my skull. My hands fly up to my constricted neck, the gun clattering to the floor. I kick my feet against his shins and squeak out some imperceptible sounds, trying like hell to pry his fingers away from my neck as I gasp, flail, and pray for mercy.
Nico…Nico…please save me…
The front door slams open and Nico barrels in, my unspoken prayer answered, yanking Luca away from me. My body hits the floor, cold and limp. Lifeless.
I need to move. I need to help him. I need to do something before…before…
But the tingling sensation in my arms and legs is replaced by an all-consuming numbness that seeps into every cell of my body, draining me of any and all remaining energy. My vision is hazy, but I can see blood. So much blood.
He saved me.
But I don’t think anyone can save him.
Nico
Luca twists his hulking body toward me, blood gushing down the side of his face, pure malice in his demonic eyes. A slow smile lifts his lips as he takes a few steps toward me. My fingers twitch to grab my gun, but in my haste to get inside the house, I left it in the car. I glance quickly around the foyer to see if there are any potential weapons close enough to grab. Where the fuck is Max’s baseball bat when I need it?
“Salesi,” he grunts, closing the distance between us. “You finally found your balls. I was afraid you’d lost them for good, that I’d never get a crack at you because you were too much of a pansy ass to show your face.”
With a hammering heart, I look past Luca to see Shaye lying motionless on the floor where he’d dropped her. Her limbs are twisted, eyes closed, neck bruised and covered with welts. Rage courses through me as my eyes return to his twisted grimace.
“Don’t worry. She ain’t dead. She’ll wake up soon, hopefully in time to see me fuck your shit up. Maybe I’ll make her suck my cock before I kill you. Give you a good show as a parting gift. It’ll be a nice memory to take to the afterlife. Something to haunt you for fucking eternity.”
He lunges for me, and I duck around him, grabbing a brass candlestick holder from the entryway table. I launch my arm back and swing it to the side of his head, but he slips away before it crashes into his skull. Motherfucker!
“Come on, bitch. That’s all you’ve got? I’m gonna tear your fucking ass apart with my bare hands, Salesi. I don’t need a weapon. Remember your pal from the club? The guy whose throat I punched a hole through? You know what I’m capable of, so don’t fucking bother.” He leans closer, his breath hot against my face. “You can’t escape me anymore. Nobody can save you.”
I throw my weight against him, pushing him back against the wall, framed pictures crashing to the floor from the force of impact.
“Nico?” I look up for a split second to see Lily’s tearful face peeking out of one of the upstairs bedrooms.
“Go back inside and lock that d—!”
A piercing shriek erupts as my body flies backward, airborne for long enough that I know the landing will be fucking hell. Sharp pain slices through my jaw, but it’s nothing compared to the crushing agony of cracked ribs and mangled limbs. I lay in a corner like a rag doll, hunched over, trying to catch my breath, thanking God I can still feel my fingers and toes after being flung across my front hall. This guy doesn’t need a gun, but I fucking do. Panic settles into my shattered body. How the fuck am I going to battle this lunatic? There isn’t time to get to the gun safe, and if I can even manage to grab a knife from the kitchen, he’ll grab it and fillet my ass before I have a chance to use it.
I’m out of my fucking league here, but I have two people to protect. I take a deep breath as he kneels in front of me. “That was quick. I expected a little more from you. Now get up so I can knock you down again.” He fists my hair, yanking my head back. “I want you to feel real pain. You think this is it, but it’s not even close. And it won’t be quick, either. I wanna enjoy every goddamned second of it, so I’m gonna work nice and slow on both of you.” He nods his head back at Shaye, whose body stirs on the floor. Her eyes flutter open and then close again. “I want you to watch me fuck your girlfriend, Salesi. I want you to see me fill her with my hot cum. And then I want you to watch me kill her. You need to feel that loss, asshole. It’s what I’ve waited five years to do to you. Pain! Like you’ve never fucking felt before! You’re the reason I’m here right now, you’re the reason she’s gonna die!”
“You’re not gonna fucking touch her, you bastard!” I gather every sliver of strength in my bruised and broken body and shove him backward, cringing in pain. Adrenaline rushes to the surface, arming me with power I never thought I had. He tumbles back, caught off-balance, and I jump on top of him, pounding at his open facial wound, the only thing I can think of that might slow him down and give me a chance to get us the hell out of this alive.
Left, right, left, right. My fists are flying, and he laughs like the fucking psychopath he is. “Does it feel good? Do you feel like more of a man? You’re tickling me, jackass.” He shoots upward and pushes against my chest with his two huge hands. I groan and fall backward, the candlestick holder on the floor next to me. He grins, still taunting me. “Go ahead. Grab it. Take another shot.” He points at his face. “Come on, ya pussy! Right there! Hit me! Show me you’re a real fucking man, not some jealous asshole who needs to steal shit away from people to feel better about himself!”
He grips the collar of my shirt and pulls me up, pinning me against the wall. He says nothing. He doesn’t need to.
People use the term “death glare” all the time. I doubt they’ve ever seen one up close and personal.
And I have no fucking gun, so Luca looking at me like this shows that he’s confident in how this struggle will end.
I push against him, wiggling out of his grip only because he let me. I’m not stupid. This guy is almost guaranteed to be doped up on Christ only knows what, and when, not if, he wants to kill me using his bare hands, he will. In his own time.
It’s his MO.
Where the fuck are Rocco and Max? They were right behind me. I’d raced over here, expecting to find Duke with the girls, not shot dead around the corner from my house. I can only pray nobody got to the others.
But it still doesn’t buy me enough time.
I straighten up as much as possible, a loud groan rumbling in my throat. But I swallow it down. I take a few deep breaths and lunge forward to bury that asshole’s smile into his skull. I land the punch, hearing the satisfying cr
ack before my arm immediately recoils, a shattering pain exploding up my arm.
Thank fuck I’m ambidextrous.
I twist to my other side, clench my other fist tight, and launch it at his chest with as much power as I can channel. Jesus, it’s like fucking steel. I grit my teeth. I’m so screwed.
Those are the last words I remember thinking before a massive fist flies at my face. I didn’t even see it coming since I was trying to figure out how to save my girls without the use of two hands.
That concern was beaten out of me pretty fast, and I’m pretty sure it was joined by a couple of teeth. I crash-land against a table, the sharp corner jutting into my spine. I wipe away the blood streaming from the sides of my mouth, and with labored breaths, I straighten up as best I can to protect what’s left of my mangled body.
Luca creeps toward me again. “You having fun yet? I sure as fuck am and cannot wait to pump my cock in your lady’s tight pussy!” He swings another fist, but this time I’m prepared, my fingers closed around a weirdly shaped vase I battled my decorator on years ago when I bought this house…she said it added character, I said it looked stupid. In the end, she won because she’s a woman and gave me a blow job since this place was her big calling card.
I’ve never been happier to see that vase than in this moment.
I slip away from the punch, which promised to be brain-shattering, and swing the vase at the side of Luca’s head. He doesn’t flinch. Fuck me, it’s lead crystal, and the guy doesn’t even blink. He just laughs. Motherfucker.
His eyes spit venom and reek of insanity, and that was my only shot to knock him off balance so I could get to my guns.
I blink fast, my head darting left and right, but there’s nothing here to grab…nobody to call…no fucking way out of this.
Lily’s cries pierce the air from her hiding spot in a corner of the upstairs hallway, and my gut clenches. What the fuck will he do to her once he’s finished with me?
Who the hell is going to save them both?
Luca’s face twists into a menacing grimace. “I can see the wheels turning. Trust me, you don’t wanna waste the energy.” He flexes his fingers as he inches toward me. “And it’s gonna be a long night. I’m having fun watching you suffer. But that ain’t nothing compared to what’s gonna happen when that girlfriend of yours wakes up. I’m gonna shove my cock in her mouth while you bleed out next to us, you son of a—"
Crack!
A glass-shattering explosion makes me flinch. Luca’s body buckles, back arching as the bullet tears through his spine. But he doesn’t fall. He doesn’t even grit his goddamn teeth. His eyes are wild, his breathing labored—the only indication that he feels the searing bullet now lodged in his body. He turns toward Shaye, lumbering toward her, swinging his fist at her head.
All it takes is one bullet…
Except when you’re trying to kill the devil.
Shaye
My breaths are short and sharp, hands clammy but steady. I grip the gun tight, pointing it at the man who has overshadowed our future for too fucking long. Luca’s eyes are wide, his mouth agape, but still he doesn’t fall.
He takes another step toward me, bringing his bloody fingers to his face, a look of disbelief momentarily veiling the rage. There’s no exit wound so I know that bullet is lodged somewhere inside of his body. How he’s even still walking is a damn miracle.
All of the emotions roiling inside me are not enough to stop me from pulling the trigger again.
“You’re not gonna shove your cock anywhere tonight,” I hiss. “In fact, the only thing that’ll be shoved is your body into a drawer at the fucking morgue, you bastard!”
He lets out a resounding roar, a frightening predatory sound that reverberates between my temples. “Fucking whore! You’re nothing like her! You’re a—"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
I’m not taking any chances.
Luca collapses to the floor, his body crumpled, torn, and bloody.
Dead. Retribution for all of his sins is finally granted.
His gruesome acts will be judged, his soul forever caught in a fiery hell for eternity.
He took so much from so many. Now he will suffer the same fate.
The gun clatters to the floor, and I crawl around his massive body, salty tears stinging the scrapes and scratches as they stream down my face.
“Nico,” I whisper, reaching out to grasp his hand. “It’s over. He’s dead.”
One of his eyelids float open, the other already swollen shut. His lips are split and bloody, his jaw bruised and shattered. And that’s only what I can see on the outside.
“You did it,” he rasps, wincing as he shifts himself on the floor. “I thought you were…fuck, I don’t even want to say it.”
Lily’s screams get louder and louder as she scrambles down the stairs and collapses on the floor next to her brother. He struggles to a sitting position, lifting his arm and draping it over Lily’s shoulders, his face twisted into an agonizing mask of anguish.
“Try not to move. You’re pretty mangled, babe. We need to get you to the hospital.”
“I don’t care. I need to keep my girls close,” he chokes, holding out his hand to me.
I lace my fingers with his and bring it to my lips.
I didn’t think anyone could save him.
But I was so very wrong.
I did it.
I saved him.
And he saved me back.
Shaye
Officer Paxton scribbles a few things in his notebook and sits back in the plastic hospital chair in the hospital cafeteria.
“Thank you so much for taking my statement at the hospital. I just needed to be here.”
The officer nods and flashes a smile. “I understand. I hope your boyfriend is going to be okay.”
“So, that’s it?” I bite a stray cuticle. “Do you think there will be…” I swallow hard past the lump in my throat. “…criminal prosecution?”
Officer Paxton taps his pen on the table. “Judging from the circumstances…the forced break-in, the injuries sustained, the slain man found a block away who was coincidentally shot with the same bullet as the one that matched the gun in the intruder’s car…it’s a clear case of self-defense. This guy had an agenda, and if you hadn’t acted when you did, things would have turned out very differently for all of you. So, to answer your question, no, the DA won’t prosecute.” He stands up and holds out his hand. “Good night, Miss Oriani.”
I rise from the chair and shake with a relieved smile. “Good night and thank you again.”
My shoulders slump, and I’m suddenly overcome with the urge to curl into a ball and weep. So many conflicting feelings inside of me battle to surface, and a good cry seems like it’d be pretty darn cathartic right about now.
I push back my hair and take a deep breath before walking out to the waiting area. Nico’s dad woke up right before we got here, so he went in to see him as soon as the officer took his and Lily’s statements. I rub a hand down my neck, my fingertips sliding over the welts left by Luca’s thick fingers.
Things would have turned out very differently for you all.
A shiver slithers down my spine. It’s over…for now.
But there is no true end in sight.
It’s our life, what was chosen for us, and the legacy we will carry on.
The waiting room is almost empty, and Max and my dad are huddled in a far corner. He called my parents to have them meet us at the hospital, but my dad was already here to see Mr. Salesi. I walk toward them, their voices rising as I approach. Max’s face is bright red, his eyes narrowed to slits. I can’t see my dad’s face, but his spine is stiff as an iron rod.
Max jumps out of his chair, abruptly ending the seemingly intense exchange. “Shaye! Is everything okay? We saw Officer Paxton leave a few minutes ago.”
I nod. “No criminal charges, thank God. He said it was self-defense.”
Dad gets up, smoothing down the front of his shirt. He fro
wns and puts his arm around my shoulders. “You look like you need rest, sweetie. Let me take you home.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I want to see Mr. Salesi first. And I’m not leaving Nico.”
My father bristles at my rejection of his offer, but he gives a curt nod. “I understand. I’ll just wait for you.”
“No, go home to Mom. I’ll be fine.”
He shoots Max an odd look and turns toward the exit. No goodbye. Just a quick nod. I clench my fists, my fingernails digging into my palms. He showed up well after I left the hospital according to Sloane. I can’t imagine what was more important, given the circumstances. The nagging voice in my head tells me for the umpteenth time to beware…that things aren’t always as they seem. I’ve drowned that annoying voice out too many damn times in the past, but this time, I listen. Questions bubble in my throat, spewing from my mouth in anger I can’t control. Or maybe it’s just the release I need. “Hey, by the way, Dad, why’d it take you so long to get here? I thought things were a lot better between you and Mr. Salesi. You know how important it is to me for you all to get along. Why would you wait to make the visit, especially since he was in such bad shape? Don’t you care about him? About this family? About me?”
He looks at me, his brow furrowed, his face pinched with disappointment. “What would make you so suspicious of my motives? Did you ever think that maybe someone had to handle things while Joe is in here? I’d been in touch with the hospital several times today, so I knew his status.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe you think I’d purposely stay away out of spite, especially since it was a direct attack on the family!”
“I didn’t say it was spite. I just asked why—”
He holds up a hand. “I heard exactly what you said. Is this your boyfriend’s influence? Has he finally brainwashed you, turned you against me? Is that what this is all about? Is he the one who planted these crazy ideas in your head about the person I am?”
I roll my eyes. “Why do you always think that way? I’m asking the question because I want to know. Period. Nobody planted any ideas.”
Screwing the Mob Page 35