Carmen.
“What do you want,” my voice comes out stronger than I thought possible as I stare across the table at the man in front of me, his maniacal grin letting me know he’s fully aware of what Eduardo is saying.
“Be a good little girl and listen to everything Gianni tells you, and I’ll let your friend go. Don’t, and she dies. It’s as simple as that.”
Gianni. Kevin is Gianni. I should have known. Bile rises up in my throat and I force myself to swallow it back down as I listen to my own personal devil on the other end of the phone.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, my love. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for you.”
The call disconnects and I drop the phone onto the table. My whole body trembles uncontrollably as I try to think of a way out of this. I could scream, fight, make a scene, but there’s no way to be sure Gianni wouldn’t shoot me before I could get away or get help. And Carmen will die if I do that; I have no doubt about that. Eduardo is a sick son of a bitch. He’ll torture her before finally killing her.
I squeeze my eyes closed, inhaling deeply though my nose, trying to calm myself before I look back at my devil’s henchman.
Finally, I ask, “So what now?”
***
I’ve been sitting on a conference call for the last two hours, listening to the other people drone on and on about a new real-estate venture they’re trying to get Bertozzi enterprises to back. Normally business transactions like this give me a high, knowing it’s the company’s bread and butter, but images of Marley naked, underneath me have been playing in a constant loop in my head. All the blood in my body is currently pooled in my cock, dragging all of my concentration to one thing and one thing only—when I can get the fuck out of here and bury myself between Marley’s luscious thighs again. Goddamn, that woman’s pussy is my fucking kryptonite.
A knock on the door pulls me from my erotic daydream just as it was getting good. Hitting the mute button, I call out for Evelyn to come in.
The older woman gives me a bright smile as she enters my office. “Mr. Bertozzi, a courier just dropped this off for you.” She places a large manila envelope on my desk and steps back.
“Thank you, Evelyn.” I reach for the package as she gives a nod and scurries back to her desk. Honestly, getting rid of Yvonne and hiring Evelyn was probably one of the smartest business decisions I’ve ever made. The woman is an administrative godsend.
Releasing the metal tabs holding the envelope closed, I lift the flap and remove the contents. Three pictures.
That’s it.
Three black and white pictures.
All of Marley the night of the company Christmas party, and all of them obviously taken without her knowledge. But the pictures are not what have my chest seizing and my heart threatening to break through my ribs. No, that would be the message written clear as day across the top picture.
First, I took your heart. Now I’ll take your soul.
Snatching the phone from its cradle, I disconnect the conference call, ending the man’s spiel mid-sentence. Dialing Marley’s cell phone, I close my eyes and pray for her to answer.
“You’ve reached Marley. Leave a message—”
I hang up and hit re-dial. Same outcome. I do this over and over, willing her to pick up, but she never does.
Disconnecting once more, I hit a button on my speed dial.
“Boss.”
“My office. Now. Almaraz has Marley.”
“You look more beautiful than ever, my love.”
The sound of his voice sends a chill through my body. Goose bumps break out across my skin and my stomach roils at the smell of his noxious cologne. Memories flood me, reminders of the nightmare that used to be my life. All because of this man. His breath against my neck causes me to recoil, pulling away from him as much as possible.
After leading me from the coffee shop, Gianni dumped my phone in the trash and shoved me into a dark SUV with two other men waiting inside. I was immediately blindfolded, my hands cuffed behind my back. The last words Gianni said to me were the only reason I didn’t struggle.
“Behave, and we’ll let your little friend go.”
That’s the only thing holding me together right now. Minutes ago, I was yanked from the car and carried into the room I’m standing in now, the blindfold ripped from my head to reveal my own personal devil standing in front of me.
“I’ve missed you, beautiful Marlena,” Eduardo whispers against my neck from behind me, his fingertips trailing down my arms to the metal cuffs clasping my wrists together. God, I hate this man with every fiber of my being. “Have you missed me?”
“Where’s Carmen?” I ask, refusing to dignify his question with an answer. I might still be terrified of this man, but I’m not the weak, broken girl I used to be.
He steps from behind me and waves his hand. One of his men opens a door and two more come through dragging someone along behind them. A sob breaks free from my chest and tears cloud my vision the second they toss the person to the ground in front of me.
Rushing forward the best I can with my hands bound behind my back, my knees hit the cold concrete floor just inches from my friend’s prone body.
“Oh God,” I sob, taking in her battered, naked body. Bruises mar Carmen’s skin all over her body. Blood has dried and begun to flake away between her thighs confirming my worst fears. My best friend has just suffered unspeakable torture. Torture that would break anyone, no matter how strong they were. The kind of torture that once broke me.
“Carmen, I’m so sorry,” I cry, lowering my head so my forehead is pressed against her shoulder. I feel her shudder beneath me just moments before her hand reaches up and threads into my hair.
“M-Marley?” she croaks, her voice raspy and full of pain.
“I’m here. I’m here, Carmen. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
Her eyes open, tears streaming down her cheeks reflecting the agony she’s experienced. “Not your fault,” she rasps, making me sob even harder.
“Let her go!” I scream, turning back toward Eduardo and his men. “I’m here. You said you’d let her go if I didn’t fight.”
“I’m sorry, my love; but you see, my men have grown quite fond of your friend. Imagine their disappointment if they found out I released their latest toy because some whore who’s been spreading her legs for the enemy wanted it.” Disdain drips from his words as his lip curls in disgust. “You know I’ve always been a fair leader to my men.”
“You promised! LET HER GO!” My screams are ignored.
“You’re really in no position to be making demands. You have no idea the kind of punishment you’ll be forced to endure for letting Gabriel Bertozzi fuck you!” He says Gabriel’s name like it’s the most vile, offensive word in the English language, his anger growing with every word he speaks until he’s yelling. Before I can so much as blink, Eduardo is by my side. “Do you have any idea how big of a fool you’ve made out of me?” The back of his hand makes a solid connection with my cheekbone, sending me sprawling on the cold, dirty floor just feet away from Carmen.
“You’ve humiliated me!” His declaration is met with a kick to my stomach sending sharp, stabbing pain through my entire body. I vaguely hear Carmen screaming over Eduardo’s rampage.
“You. Are. Mine!” each word punctuated with another kick until the air is forced from my lungs. “You’ve shamed me and everything I’ve worked to build!”
I see Eduardo’s form through the tears and bright spots clouding my vision. He’s angrily running his hands through his slick, salt and pepper hair, pacing back and forth as though he’s trying to get his rage under control.
Finally, with a deep inhale, he turns his attention back to me, crouching low to the ground so I can hear him clearly. “Your friend will suffer for your betrayal,” he tells me, his voice eerily calm. “You’ve forced me to do this, my love.”
With that he stands, shooting one last order to his men before stomping from the room. �
�Get them out of here.”
***
Aldo and Carlo bend over my desk, studying the pictures of Marley, looking for some fucking clue they aren’t going to find.
“Who was at the party who could have taken these photos?” I demand.
“No one, boss,” Carlo answers. “Aldo and I were on security all night. There was no one in that room who wasn’t personally invited by you.
“You didn’t notice anyone out of place? Anyone who didn’t belong?”
“There was no one, Gabe,” Aldo reaffirms Carlo’s words. “It was the same people you’ve invited for years.”
Carlo looks back at us from the pictures. “It was obviously someone familiar who took these. Marley’s a smart girl, she would have known if someone she wasn’t familiar with was following her around, snapping her picture all night.”
Reaching down to pick up the pictures again, I ask, “And you didn’t notice anyone following her around that night?”
“No one other than that psycho bitch when you and Marley snuck off to the bathroom…” His voice fades off just before he shouts. “Fucking hell!” Realization dawns on Carlo at the same time it does Aldo and me.
“Get a man on Kiersten. Now!”
There is no doubt. Kiersten just put the final nail in her coffin. She’s a dead woman.
***
I have no clue how long I’ve been sitting in this cold, damp, windowless room. It feels like it’s been days, but without being able to see if it’s sunny or dark outside, I can’t be certain. With four bare walls and nothing but an old dusty mattress on the floor, I have nothing to do but stare off into space, contemplating my dire situation.
I have to get out of this room. I have to get to Carmen and find a way out of whatever hellhole Eduardo is keeping us trapped in. I just don’t know how.
There’s a quick knock at the steel door before the sound of the lock disengaging echoes through my prison. The door opens just enough to allow the man carrying a tray of food to squeeze through before he slams it shut behind him. His eyes trail over my body, causing me to pull my knees closer to my chest and wrap my arms around them tighter.
“You haven’t eaten anything,” he says as he looks down at the last tray that was delivered. It sits untouched on the floor next to the mattress. I keep my eyes on the wall in front of me, not bothering to acknowledge his presence.
“Eat,” he demands, dropping the new tray on the ground right beside me, causing the meal to splatter onto the floor on impact. Turning my eyes to the mess, I regard it impassively, not bothering to reach for it even though my stomach twists with hunger. I’ll be damned if I eat whatever these sick fucks give me.
“Fuck you,” I tell him without looking in his direction.
He bends down so his face is close to mine, his breath making me gag. “Soon enough, honey. I can’t wait to get my hands on those sweet tits,” he hisses. “I’m going to use that tight little body of yours until you can’t fucking stand it, and when you think you can’t take anymore, I’m going to pass you off to all my friends. We’re going to rip you and that little blonde bitch in half.”
Tears threaten to spill over, but I refuse to let them. These men broke me once; they took my innocence and destroyed it simply because they could. I might never get some of the pieces of myself back, but I’ll be damned if I let them ruin me the way they want to.
Turning to take in the man in front of me, I let my eyes trail over him. He’s nothing, really; short, balding, with a large paunch hanging over the top of his pants. Knowing Eduardo as I unfortunately do, if I had to guess, this man is nothing but a low-level minion. He’s a piece of shit unworthy of being on the bottom of my shoe.
I curl my lips into a sneer as I tell him, “I’m going to kill you. And I’ll be sure to make it hurt.”
The minion throws his head back in laughter, the loud barks reverberating off the bare walls. A sick, twisted smile remains in place once the laughter dies down. He wraps his dirty hand in my hair, pulling my face up to meet his. “You’re a feisty bitch, I like that. I’ll enjoy making you scream.” His fist connects with my jaw; the impact sends me sliding across the mattress into the wall. My face throbs, and I can taste the coppery blood filling my mouth, but I will not react the way he wants me to.
Turning to face him once again, I smile past the pain in my face and spit the blood in my mouth onto his shoe.
He emits a growl and lunges. I close my eyes and brace for the impact that never comes. In its place is a shrill howl of pain. When my eyes pop back open, I see the minion’s back arched at an unnatural angle, as if he’s trying to get away from something. Eduardo stands behind him wearing an expression of pure rage.
When the minion’s torso twists around, I gasp when I see what’s causing those awful noises to come from him. An eight-inch hunting knife sticks out of his back on the lower right hand side. The image playing out in front of me is like a train wreck I can’t look away from, an image which will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“You dare to touch what’s mine?” Eduardo asks the minion as he twists the handle of the knife. “You never touch what belongs to me!” he shouts.
Before the minion can get another sound out, Eduardo jerks the knife from his back and slices it through the air, cutting the man’s throat from ear to ear in the blink of an eye. His body hits the ground with a dull thud as blood pools all around him. The gargling, choking noises coming from his mouth will plague me forever as he desperately gasps for air I know will never come.
Without looking back at me, Eduardo pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and cleans the blade of his knife. Tossing the soiled cloth onto the now dead body, he slides the knife back into the sheath on his belt and turns, walking out of the room without another word.
It takes five hours for someone to come and remove the body—I counted down every single second of those five hours—leaving a trail of blood from where he fell all the way out the door before slamming it closed and locking it once again.
No one bothers to return to clean up the blood. It takes another two hours, but I’m eventually able to cry myself to sleep.
I wake to the sound of muffled voices coming from outside the room where I’m being held. I strain my ears to try to understand what they’re saying, but I can’t make anything out. Just as I’m about to crawl from the bed to listen better, the lock turns and the door pushes open. Scrambling back onto the mattress, I lie down and feign sleep.
“Make it quick,” a man says and I instantly recognize his voice. Gianni. “If Almaraz catches you in here, you’re as good as dead. He’s already slit one fucker’s throat for touching her.”
“This won’t take long,” a feminine voice responds, and my eyes shoot open at the sound of it. Oh God, this isn’t good. This isn’t good!
“Make sure it doesn’t. I’m not going down for a stupid bitch like you. I don’t give a fuck how good your cunt is.”
Gianni steps out, shuts the door behind him, and turns the lock, leaving the two of us alone in the room.
“Bet you’re surprised to see me,” Kiersten tells me in a singsong voice.
“W-what…how…I don’t…” I can’t form the words to ask what’s going on. What is she doing here? How does she know I’m here? How does she know Gianni? Will she tell Gabriel where I am?
The deceptive smile on her painted lips is all I need to see to know I’ll get no help from her.
“I just had to see this for myself.” My heart plummets in my chest at the sound of her exuberance. “This is just too perfect!” she squeals as she claps her hands in front of her like a giddy child. “I mean, Gianni thought I was insane when I came to him and suggested we hand you over to Eduardo, but it couldn’t have gone more beautifully! When I told him we’d use your whore friend as bait, he jumped at the chance.”
“You did this?” I somehow manage to ask since all the air has left my lungs.
“No, you did this!” she shrieks, her joyous mood shifting to vi
olent anger in a flash. This woman is certifiable. “If you’d have just left Gabriel alone I wouldn’t have had to stoop so low as to deal with drug dealers.” Her lip curls up in disgust at the thought of dealing with people so below her white-collar world. “But you just wouldn’t go away.” She’s seething as she crouches down to my level, which can’t be easy for her in those heels and skin tight skirt. Her head cocks to the side as her eyes scan over my face. “What does he even see in you?” She voices the question aloud, but she’s saying it more to herself than to me. “You’re nothing. Once he’s back in my bed, he won’t even remember you.”
My jaw drops open and I can’t hold back my shocked laughter. “My God, you’ve gone completely off the deep end!” I laugh hysterically. “You think he won’t know you were a part of this? He’ll find out, Kiersten. You know it as well as I do. And when he does, he’ll kill you.”
I watch in silence as her face contorts with pure hatred. “LIAR!” she screams at the top of her lungs. Her nails dig in to the skin on my face and arms as she claws at me like a feral cat. Before she can get me on my back, I grab a handful of her hair and yank her head back as hard as I can. Her yelp of pain feeds the hatred building in my gut and I pull my right arm back, punching her in the face as hard as I possibly can. Blood spurts from her nose, sending a jolt of pleasure through me.
“You stupid cunt!” she lashes out, her palm connecting with my face, but I can’t feel it. For every hit she gets in, I get in two more. And I have no doubt mine are much harder. We’re rolling around on the mattress, locked into a raging catfight when Gianni bursts into the room, pulling me off her.
He tosses me to the side with so much force I crash into the wall, sliding to the ground unable to get back up. “Are you out of your fucking mind!” he shouts at Kiersten as he lifts her from the bed. Her dress is torn in several places, her hair a mess of knots from my hands. Mascara streaks down her cheeks as she cries, and her red lipstick is smudged across her jaw, mixing with the blood pouring from her nose. I can’t help but smile as I take in the damage I inflicted.
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