by Gina Whitney
Even though I was sure nothing coherent had come out, he shook his head, locking his despondent eyes with mine. “Don’t you dare fucking apologize to me. You hear me?”
The hot tears burned the lacerations as they soaked my face, but I couldn’t stop them. My mouth opened once more, but Stefan placed a tentative finger over my split lip, silencing my apologies on my tongue.
“Tesoro, what the hell happened?” he asked with strained words, his voice full of pain. Hearing my nickname cut me deep, and only forced my tears out faster.
“Barter,” I whispered as my vision blurred.
“Barter?” His voiced raised to a near roar. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Matty’s debt.”
“For your life? How did this happen? How did he get to you? I thought you were hiding out?” His frantic questions shot out without so much as a breath between them. I assumed he’d misunderstood what he’d walked in on, but I couldn’t find the words to correct him.
I shook my head and desperately tried to hold in the sobs that racked my beaten body. His arms went around my waist and he pulled me into him. That’s when I realized I had no longer been chained. I didn’t know when he released me, but at some point, Stefan had freed my arms and legs from the cuffs. Every part of my body tingled, burned, ached. There wasn’t a pain I hadn’t felt.
“I came here,” I finally managed to get out.
He pulled away and gawked at me with furious eyes. “By choice? You willingly came here? For what? Why?” Understanding crossed his face as he stared at me. “To be his whore?” Stefan stood up and began to pace in front of my crumpled body, pulling his hair taut with his fists. “I told you I’d protect you. I told you I would take care of everything. Why wouldn’t you let me? Why wouldn’t you let me keep you safe? Why didn’t you trust me enough to do that?”
My heart broke into a million pieces. Completely, utterly shattered. He thought I hadn’t trusted him. And with the secrets he’d kept from me, secrets about my brother’s debt, I had doubted him. But that didn’t mean I didn’t trust him. However, this had nothing to do with trust. This was survival. This was for my brother. Nothing about it had anything to do with Stefan or trust.
“How did you find me?” I asked in a weak voice.
“Zeke went MIA. My father is in Italy, taking care of business, and in his absence, the underboss is supposed to be in charge. When no one has been able to get ahold of him, I came to make sure nothing had happened. But now…now…I’ll make sure something does happen to him.”
“What do you mean?” My deprived brain couldn’t make sense of what he’d said.
Stefan turned to me, shoulders squared, feet apart beneath him. “He won’t live to tell of his mistakes. He won’t have the chance to beg for his life. I’ll make sure of it. No way in hell will I allow this bastard…this fucker to live another day.”
My strength decided to return, as best as it could. I managed to pull myself to my knees, causing Stefan to rush to me. He held my hand until I could stand on my own two feet, the aches of my injuries barely registering over the pain in my chest at seeing Stefan so distraught. I couldn’t imagine what he saw in front of him. I knew my body had been used, beaten, broken, and bloodied—the fucker used an air-pellet gun on my backside the day before. But I wasn’t about to hide from Stefan. These were my battle wounds. A battle I had not lost. A battle I would not back down from.
“No,” I said defiantly.
“No? You don’t have a choice in this, Jordana. This is my family.”
“And this is my fight!” I roared back hoarsely, finding more of my voice and strength.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Tesoro.” His words were soft and filled with agony.
“No. That’s where you’re wrong, Stefan.” I made sure to spew his name from my lips. Not out of hatred or even anger, but out of my own strong will. This was me, standing on my own two feet, doing what was needed of me to save my brother. Regardless of who my fight was against. “Your family knows we can’t come up with half a million plus the vig in a week. It was nothing more than a setup. Leaving my brother at the bottom of a river. If this is what I had to endure—if death is the price I’d have to pay—then it was all worth it to save Matty.”
“I told you I would protect you, regardless of what happened with the debt.”
“And what kind of person do you think I’ll be if I have to live without Matteo? Without my brother? Knowing your family is the cause of the missing piece in my life?”
“And what kind of life do you think you’ll lead after letting this sadist touch you? What kind of life do you think we’ll have after he’s tainted you with his sick need? I know you like to push me, to make me rough with you…but he goes beyond rough. His kind of pain isn’t for your pleasure—it’s only for his sick, twisted, sadistic gratification. What do you think that would do to us? Huh?” He lost his temper, yelling at me with fury lacing every deeply spoken word.
“Go to hell!” I didn’t need to depend on him. I was a strong, capable woman, able to stand on my own two feet and deal with matters myself. But the moment those three words came out, I realized how wrong I’d been. I’d allowed my stubbornness and arrogance to blind me against the reality of my situation. It didn’t matter how smart I was, or how conniving I could be, I didn’t stand a chance against a man like Zeke. I may not have needed Stefan to be strong, but having him beside me definitely fueled my fire. He gave me strength and power, more than I had on my own. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized that soon enough.
He turned his body to fully face me. His face was red, eyes narrowed, and teeth bared, yet his voice was low, filled with pain and despair. “If by hell, you mean a place where I’m betrayed by the one that means more to me than life itself…a place where I can’t protect the one person I can’t live without… If by hell, you mean walking into this room and finding the one I’m meant to protect, bloody and chained from the ceiling, helpless and lifeless…then, I’m already there. Satan himself couldn’t cause me more pain than what I’m feeling right now.”
I’ve fought my entire life to not be an emotional female. To think with my brain, rationale, and strength…but in this moment, my heart led the way. With his words, he managed to spur life inside of me, healing me, despite the torments my body had suffered over the last few days. My brain might’ve registered the pain, but my heart came to life by the love expressed in his words, by the broken man in front of me. He did care—about me. Even though he’d never uttered those three little words, I didn’t need them. Because the truth—the brutal, raw, and unspoken truth—was evident in his eyes, in his unyielding stance. Stefan more than cared for me…
And that’s when it all became so clear to me. Stefan is powerful, dominant, strong beyond normal strength, yet I am his weakness. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I didn’t need to be strong where Stefan was concerned. I could be weak with love, without it making me pathetic. I could conquer the world, take on any enemy, bleed, and feel pain…but that didn’t mean I had to sacrifice the weak-in-the-knees emotions that Stefan delivered with one look, one touch, one word. We could be each other’s weaknesses, while still keeping each other strong.
“I want to do it,” I whispered, though it was loud enough for Stefan to hear.
His eyebrows narrowed and his fists clenched at his sides. “Do what?”
On sore, unsteady legs, I moved closer to him. Each step brought me more and more strength. More and more power. And more and more purpose. I stopped once we were mere inches apart, and touched his worried face, cradling his cheeks in my hands. “You want him gone. You want this bastard to pay the penance. Well, so do I. Let’s do this together. Let’s take him down, show him what it feels like to be on the other end of a burning match. Together. But I want to be the one to still his beating heart. He did this to me…my body. Let me have that peace.”
I could tell that Stefan worried about touching me. He kept his hands to himself, probably o
ut of fear of inflicting more pain. But he didn’t realize that his touch healed me…he didn’t possess the ability to hurt me. The pain he caused induced a distinct pleasure and allowed me to breathe with purpose. I took his hands in mine and wrapped his arms around my waist, waiting until his eyes met mine again.
“Tesoro…this is my body,” he said as he held me gently against him. “That fucker touched something of mine. He broke something of mine.”
“No. He didn’t break me. He may have bent me…but I can assure you that I’m not broken.”
“Together?”
I nodded. “Together.”
“Where did he go?”
I shrugged and winced at the pain, but carried on before Stefan could back away. “Business is all he said. Someone called. I don’t know when he’ll be back, but he’s never been gone long. I have no idea when he left.”
He backed me up and held out the chains. His eyes showed conflict as his breaths raged in his chest. “I don’t want to do this to you, but he has to find you the same way you were when he left. He won’t know I’m here…so he won’t expect me. I won’t let him touch you.”
The thought of being back in those chains terrified me, and I shook with fear. But I knew it needed to be done. I only needed Stefan to make it all better. “One condition.”
“Anything.” His breaths were labored and his voice broken.
“Once I’m back in these chains…make it better for me. Please.”
A low groan bubbled up his throat before his lips met mine. It was harsh and needy, splitting my lip back open from where it had begun to heal. But my brain registered no pain, only the relief of having his lips on mine again.
My wrists were in the cuffs as I stood in front of Stefan, my legs spread beneath me. His warm lips trailed down my body, lighting a fire within me and erasing the burning pain with searing lust. The second his hot tongue ran over my aching clit, my knees wobbled. “Please,” I begged, knowing it wouldn’t take long. I had been deprived for days—aside from the forced, punishing orgasms that filled me with regret and hatred—and I needed the kind of release only Stefan could give me.
“This is mine. Never share this with anyone else…ever.” His hot words hit my moistened slit and sent a sweltering pleasure through every nerve in my body. His tongue touched me once more and that was all I needed. I came with the force of a volcano, releasing my gratitude on his tongue.
And now we wait. Only this time, I’m fueled by so much more than simple revenge.
I’m fueled by love.
And nothing is more powerful than a woman in love.
“I’m wound up, bitch. Hope you’re ready for me.”
I heard him before I saw him, and the moment his voice echoed in the room, my breathing quickened and my body began to shake violently. Yet nothing compared to how I felt when he rounded the corner and I became face to face with the monster. His presence made my pulse pound in my ears, and I feared I’d pass out from being lightheaded. I hated this man, and the only thing that got me through was the knowledge he’d soon be lifeless by my hands.
“I’m going to enjoy taking my time with this one. I’m feeling particularly wound up right now. You can thank your fucking father for what I’m about to do to you.” His sadistic sneer covered the lower half of his face and it made me want to scream and cry at the same time. “In fact, I think I’ll have you call me ‘Daddy’ this time.”
He made it one step in my direction before Stefan had his arms around Scarface’s neck, choking him out. I wanted to say something, scream with joy, yell for him not to kill him yet, but nothing came out. I remained silent, shaking from both fear and excitement.
In seconds, he was down on the ground, on his back, passed out. Stefan rushed to me and released me from the chains, his chocolate eyes hazed over by an emotion I’d never seen in them before. “We need to hurry before he comes to,” he whispered, the adrenaline evident in his husky tone.
Stefan set me on the couch and gave me a blanket to cover up with. I was shaking and he must’ve thought I was cold, but in reality, I couldn’t feel anything. I could’ve suffered from hyperthermia and not even realized it over the extreme levels of adrenaline that coursed through me. He took off his shirt and threw it at me before dragging Scarface to the chains I had just been released from. He stripped him of his clothes and restrained him, exactly the way I had been with his knees on the floor, spread beneath his dangling body. Seeing the bastard that way, a confident, controlled calmness overcame me.
This was it. This was my time.
And I knew just how to start the festivities off.
I held the Taser gun in my hand and delivered the first few zaps to his balls, awakening him to his very own nightmare—the same nightmare he had me living in for days. Each time he went into orbit, the veins in his neck and temples practically popped. But I didn’t let up. Even when he looked at me with desperate, unfocused eyes, I didn’t let up. I had no doubt in my mind that he’d planned to kill me at the end of week. There was no conflict within me over what I would do to him…only blinding rage.
“Aww, are those tears welling up in your eyes?” My words were meant to taunt him, the same way he’d taunted me for days. I wanted him to know how it felt to have everything stripped away from him. “Is Daddy gonna cry?”
“Fuck you, cunt.” He spat in my face once he finally started to come to. He blinked and focused his gaze behind me, noticing Stefan in the background. “You’re going to pay for this,” he seethed with struggled, forced words due to the extreme levels of voltage that’d been sent through his body.
“From where I’m standing, it looks like you’re the one paying, Zeke.” Stefan’s controlled voice came from over my shoulder. His presence gave me the strength to carry on. Not that I would’ve backed down from giving this monster everything he deserved, because nothing would’ve stopped me from doing that. But with the blinding rage that whirled inside me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from traveling down the roads too dark for my own mind. I was capable of a lot, had seen a lot in this life, but even I had my limits. If I didn’t have Stefan behind me, supporting me, lending me his control, who knows how far I would’ve gone…and those demons would’ve haunted me far worse than the ones caused by Scarface’s torment.
“You won’t get away with this,” Zeke barked, sounding like the rabid dog he was. But it gave me an idea. The fucker had spent days treating me like some mutt he’d picked up off the streets. I’d let him know just how bad my bite was.
I knelt down to him, fighting a deep desire to claw at his face, attack it with my fucking teeth. Gnaw his nose off completely. Mangle him in ways he deserved. But instead, I smiled and moved the bowl of water he’d offered me closer to him.
“Are you thirsty?” I asked sweetly. However, the undercurrent of ambivalence became heavy on my tongue. Stefan had moved behind him by this point and met my gaze with a quirk of his lips, showing me his approval.
Zeke’s dark eyes flared with burning rage as he stared back at me, unmoving. Apparently, the bastard didn’t take too kindly to being treated like an animal. But that’s how it was with sick, demented people. The ones who beat on women, abuse children and animals…they never liked it when the tables were turned. And nothing felt more gratifying than turning the table on someone like him.
Stefan must’ve grown tired of the stare down, because he lurched forward, taking Zeke by the back of his neck and shoving his face into the bowl of water. He fought against Stefan’s hold, the water splashing over the sides and onto the carpet. I watched with amusement as he thrashed about, arms and legs chained, unable to do much other than buck against Stefan’s body behind him. But once Stefan pulled his gun from his holster and pressed the barrel to the base of Zeke’s skull, he seemed to give in, calming his erratic flailing.
“I’ll be right back. I have to go find a few things to make him a little more comfortable.” I sent a wink Stefan’s way and stood up. I didn’t know where to fin
d the things I wanted, but I figured the first place to start looking was in Zeke’s bedroom.
After spending a few minutes searching through Scarface’s personal belongings, I came back to the living room with my hands full of a few objects I thought would be useful. Zeke’s face was no longer shoved into the water bowl, but he did have a gash along his right eyebrow that left the side of his face painted red with his blood. I had no idea what had been said in my absence, but from the enraged expression on Stefan’s face, I knew it couldn’t have been good. His nostrils flared, his lips pressed tightly into a hard, firm line, and his eyebrows were pinched together so hard it caused deep creases in brow. But once he noticed my presence, his fiery gaze met mine, and I watched them soften right in front of me, as if the sight of me eased his inner turmoil.
I threw the zap collar and umbrella onto the couch, and unfolded the newspaper I found to lay out beneath him. Stefan sent me an inquisitive look, but I knew better than to explain my actions. If I told him the meaning behind the paper, he’d lose control for sure. And it would hinder my chances of taking this beast out on my own. If Stefan knew of the specific things Zeke had done to me, he’d kill him with his own bare hands before I ever had a chance.
Once I had the newspaper beneath Scarface’s shaking body, I grabbed the collar and buckled it around his neck. I stood back to examine the scene, to see what it looked like from this angle. A surge of triumph flooded me, but not because I enjoyed torturing someone, not because I found some sick pleasure in humiliating another human being to this degree, but because this man, and this man alone deserved to experience everything he’d done to me.
“Just fucking kill me already. I know that’s what you’re going to do anyway, so just get it over with.” His voice was filled with heavy desperation. He wasn’t desperate to live, because he knew that wouldn’t happen—it didn’t matter how much he begged or pleaded for his life, it wouldn’t save him. He’d given up, and that offered a small amount of satisfaction.