BOUND: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Leah Wilde

  “So it was Guido?” Vince asked. “Guido killed Paulie? You’re sure?”

  “I think so,” his mother whispered softly, rubbing her forehead back and forth a few times. “He was just so mad, and I saw him go into your dad’s office when he thought I wasn’t looking, holding coffee and a gun. At the time, I thought, he’s just going to see his dad before doing a mission with his boys. But I realized later…he made your father drink the poison that killed him. I’m sure of it.”

  Vince felt a surge of anger explode inside of him, forcing him out of his seat until he was standing over his mother, glaring down at her with all the fire that burned inside of him. “Then why the hell would you put Guido in charge of the company?”

  “What other choice did I have?” Mama Romano whispered, blinking rapidly as she battled to fight back the tears that had pooled into her eyes. “He threatened to have you killed if I didn’t support him, and anyways, I know that Guido will never be happy unless he’s in control. He isn’t like you. He’s like me.”

  “Stop with the bullshit!” Vince yelled, no longer having any patience with his mother’s crying fit. “You’re manipulating me, and I’m not going to fucking fall for it. You had men killed so that the top people in the organization would support Guido. You want him in charge, not me. Don’t act like you’re some innocent flower who just got caught up in this mess.”

  His mother nodded and sniffled, straightening up until she was at her full height, nearly as tall as Vince, looking him directly in the eyes. “You’re right. It’s my fault. I created him. I set him loose on the world. I just thought, if I gave him what he wanted, if I kept watch on him, I could keep him under control. I could make him into something better, something stronger. Like I did with your father.”

  “You’re evil,” Vince spat at his mom, feeling the burning righteous fire of fury continue to consume any emotions he still held for his mother. “You murdered innocent men, men who were the best friends of my father, and then you let my father get killed, all to preserve your own power. You’re sick.”

  “Maybe,” Mrs. Romano said, smiling sadly up at her son. “But I’m strong. I’ve survived. Who else can say that?”

  “You’ve survived because you’ve killed other people. Say it. Admit it,” Vince said harshly, staring into his mother’s eyes until she sighed, apparently relenting.

  “With Guido’s help, I killed Tommy and Sal and Bobby and Harry. And your father. There. I admit it. Happy?” she said, finally letting tears leak from her eyes.

  He got it. It was on tape. Confirmed. After another few seconds of overwhelming anger, Vince felt a little thrill go down his spine, the glow of victory descending over his head. He had to fight to keep a grin off his face so he wouldn’t betray his real intentions to his mother, but before he could come up with anything else to say, his phone rang, ripping him out of his thoughts.

  Vince pulled his phone out of his pocket, intending to just check who it was and then go back to talking to his mom, but he saw that it was Fiona’s number. That’s odd, he thought, feeling a little wave of anxiety crash over him. She knows what I’m doing right now. What could be so important to interrupt it? Maybe something happened with her dad?

  “I got to take this,” he said to his mom, no longer particularly concerned with good manners after his mother’s confession. “Hey, what’s up?” he said after answering the call.

  “Vince! Vince, okay, you have to help me, you have to—” Fiona stuttered into his ear, her voice filled with panic and terror.

  “Fiona, what is it? Calm down, honey. Tell me what’s happened,” Vince said slowly, walking away from the table and grabbing his coat off the back of his couch. He heard his mother start to follow him into the living room, but at this point, he didn’t really care. He got what he needed from her.

  “Guido! It’s Guido. He—he came to my apartment, about an hour after you left and he made me come with him and he just stopped to get gas and he doesn’t know I’m calling you, but I’m on Oak road, okay? And I think we’re heading for the compound. Please, come here, please come get me, Vince, I need you, I need—oh, God, he’s coming back, okay, I have to go, please, never forget me, please, goodbye.”

  “Fiona! Wait, Fiona!” Vince called out, but she already dropped the call, leaving him with static.

  “What’s going on?” his mother asked, tapping him on the shoulder until he turned around to look at her.

  “Your precious, perfect son,” Vince spat at her, all of his fury from before returning tenfold. “He’s going to kill Fiona, just like you taught him.”

  “Wait, wait, Vincent, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, okay? Let me help,” Mama Romano said, stumbling on her way to grab her coat.

  “No,” Vince said, opening his front door and heading out, yelling behind him so his mother could hear her. “You’ve done enough damage today. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the confession. You might want to get out of the country while you still can.”

  “What? Vincent!” his mother cried behind him, but by now he was dashing down the stairs, going as fast as he could to get to his car.

  “Donnie,” he called out to his driver, who was waiting for him in front of the apartment complex. “Head for the compound. Go as fast as you can.”

  I’m coming, Fiona, Vince promised silently as he clambered into the car, which rushed off in the direction of the compound. I’m coming.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Fiona leaned her head back on the headrest of her seat, looking blankly ahead at the stretch of woods ahead of the car. She felt numb now, completely drained of all energy and will to fight. She was going to die. God had let her live this long so she could talk to Vince, but now He had abandoned her, leaving her to die in this awful place, perhaps a payment for all the crimes she’d helped this family commit.

  Her body felt fuzzy, wrapped up in static, her head empty except for stray thoughts like, I never fell in love. I never went to Europe. I never got married or had kids or did anything meaningful with my life at all. She didn’t feel any fear anymore, though. It was like her brain had already died, abandoning her body at the last moment to avoid the reality of what was happening to her. She was going to be raped, and then she was going to be murdered. Her dad would never find her body. But now that Vince knew what happened, maybe they’d both get closure. Maybe this will be what gets Guido killed, she thought, letting herself feel a little comforted by that idea.

  They rolled to a stop in the middle of woods, surrounded by trees on all sides. “Get out,” Guido directed her, snapping his fingers when she hesitated to comply.

  “All right, I’m going, I’m going,” Fiona replied, undoing her seatbelt and then hopping out of the car as slowly as she could. She inhaled deeply, sucking in as much sweet natural air as she could, preparing herself for what lay ahead of her. Guido exited the vehicle, too, coming up behind her and grabbing her by her breasts.

  “You’re so fucking hot,” Guido grunted into her ear, biting the side of her neck. Fiona gritted her teeth and balled her hands up into fists again, just to prevent herself from screaming out in pain. She shut her eyes and made herself think of Vince—Vince’s beautiful mouth, his firm hands, his sweet body. She could do this. She could make her last moments on this Earth count by spending them thinking of the one miracle she’d been granted in her whole life: Vince.

  Guido shoved his hands under her shirt, clawing his way up her torso, but he didn’t have time to grab her bare breasts, as a loud crashing sound tore through the trees, giving Fiona a chance to tear her body away from Guido’s.

  She took off running, rushing through the woods until she found a particularly large trunk to hide beside, ducking her head low enough so that nobody walking in the area above the log could see her. Even still, she could make out a little bit of what was happening. Another car had followed Guido’s path into the forest around the compound, crashing into his car and pushing it into a tree. Fiona had no idea what was going on. Maybe someone wa
s carrying out a hit on Guido? Could she be that lucky?

  Then she heard something that made her breath go cold inside of her chest. “Guido! Fucker! Put the gun down!” It was Vince!

  “You get the fuck out of here, Vince! I mean it! You ever show your face in this town again and I’ll be sure it’s the last thing you ever see! Fucking move it!” Guido shouted back. Fiona leaned up to stare over the curve of the log, watching as Guido slowly approached Vince, who had two servants standing by his side, hunched behind their car for cover from Guido’s gun.

  “Guido. You can’t take all of us, okay? Just put the gun down, and we can talk. I have something you’ll want to barter for.”

  “Oh, yeah, and what’s that?” Guido asked mockingly, even though he froze on the spot, clenching his fist tighter around the gun in his hand.

  “I’ve got proof of what you and Mom did. Bobby and Sal and Harry and Tommy. And Dad. That’s enough shit to make the whole organization turn against you, even the guys you’ve got in your pocket right now. I’ve already sent it out to a friend and told them I was coming to see you. If I die, they release the info to everybody in the Romano family. But you can prevent that, by putting the gun down now.”

  “No fucking way!” Guido screamed, pointing his gun in the air and shooting off three shots in quick succession, making birds scream and scatter farther away into the sky.

  “Guido, be smart about this!” Vince yelled, fear evident in his voice even as he stuck his head out around the corner of the car to look at his brother.

  Guido didn’t answer, instead pointing his gun right at his brother and pulling the trigger.

  Fiona gasped, her pulse coming to a standstill. Vince! Vince, no!

  Her eyes squeezed shut reflexively, probably an instinctive response so as not to watch Vince die, but she pried them open, breathing hard in the silence that had fallen around her.

  There was no body lying on the ground. Only leaves.

  Fiona leaned up a little higher to look at the area behind Vince’s town car, revealing all three of them still standing there, bent over and breathing hard. Relief coursed through Fiona’s veins immediately, and she sagged against the log, adrenaline temporarily abandoning her body. But she quickly refocused her eyes on Guido, remembering the danger that still surrounded them.

  “Why are you hiding, big brother?” Guido said mockingly, stepping closer to the town car. “Aren’t you the big, tough man? Aren’t you the rightful boss, huh?”

  “Is that what this is about?” Vince asked, shouting loudly so that his voice would carry over to his brother. “You think I want the Romano family? You can have it! It’s yours! Just let me and Fiona go!”

  “So you and that whore can ride off into the sunset together? No fucking way!” Guido screamed, suddenly marching faster over to the town car. Vince and the others set off into a run, splitting up into three different directions. Guido was caught off-guard, firing his gun every which way and failing to hit any of them. “Motherfucker!” he screamed as he set off after Vince.

  Fiona’s limbs surged into action then, no longer content to remain hiding in safety while her man was threatened. She took off as fast as she could through the trees, pushing her limbs to their absolute limit until she crashed into Guido’s back, knocking the gun out of his hands by the sheer force of her momentum. “Stay down, fucker,” she whispered into his ear before biting hard onto his shoulder, making him scream out in pain.

  “Fiona!” Vince yelled out, turning around to run back to Guido, kicking his little brother right in the face as he approached.

  But Guido didn’t stay down for long, knocking Fiona off his back and then leaping to his feet to punch his brother in the face.

  “Yeah, come on, asshole, show me what you got,” Vince taunted his brother, swinging several times but missing while Guido launched several ferocious punches into his stomach.

  “You will never fucking beat me,” Guido spat, swinging his arms this way and that to knock Fiona back to the ground when she tried to attack him again.

  “That’s the last time you ever fucking touch her!” Vince screamed, grabbing Guido by the shoulders and forcing him to the ground, kicking him in the face several times until blood spurted out from his brother’s mouth.

  “Oh, man, I can’t wait to tie you up and make you watch me while I screw her,” Guido said, spitting more blood out of his mouth before he staggered to his feet and surged forward to wrestle Vince back down to the ground.

  “You. Will. Never. Hurt. Her. Again,” Vince said in between punches, struggling under Guido’s weight but still managing to do his fair share of damage himself.

  Fiona took the opportunity to scan the area around them, searching for Vince’s servant and driver, but instead, her eyes landed on something much better. The gun, just off to one side, a mere foot away from the tangle of the two men fighting for her.

  Fiona took off running, going the long way around a tree so that Guido wouldn’t be able to stop her before she could get to the other side.

  Meanwhile, Guido got the upper hand over Vince, smashing him in the face again and again and again and again, but then Vince flipped them over and returned the favor.

  “Fucker, piece of shit,” Vince muttered as he landed blow after blow into Guido’s face.

  Fiona finally got to the gun, grabbing it and cocking it as she pointed it at Guido. “Vince. Stop it. I’ve got this.”

  But Vince didn’t stop, even after Guido went limp under him, apparently accepting his defeat. He just kept smacking his brother about the face again and again, turning him into a red-purple blur, covered in blood.

  “Vince!” Fiona screamed as loud as she could, finally making Vince pause in his violence and look up at her. “Don’t do it. He’s not worth it, okay? Don’t be like him.”

  Vince looked like he wanted to argue with her, wiping the blood off his own face and opening his mouth to reply, but when Fiona interjected, “Please. Don’t,” he just nodded and got up off of his brother.

  “It’s over,” Fiona said, sighing in relief even as Guido rolled over, his hands shaking as he raised them to wipe the blood away from his face.

  “Guido,” Vince called out when Guido began to crawl away, trying to escape in the general direction of the compound on the other side of the woods. “It’s finished. We’ve got the proof we need. It’s done.”

  “It’s not done,” Guido croaked out, his voice hoarse after the beating he’d received. “It’s never done. The Romano family will go on.”

  “Yes, but not with you at the helm,” Vince said, following his brother and stepping on his hand to keep him from moving forward any further. “We know, Guido. About the girls.”

  “What?” Guido said, having to spit out a little more blood to force the word out of his mouth.

  “The small Russian wrenches,” Fiona said, shaking her head in disgust. “You’re going to go to jail for a very long time.”

  All at once, Guido reared up from the ground, using the last bit of his strength to knock Vince off his feet before turning on his heel and rushing towards Fiona, who barely had time to start running before Guido crashed into her, making her fall to the ground while Guido wrenched the gun from her hands. “No! Vince! Vince!” she screamed, sure that it was her last moment on this planet.

  There was a single shot, right behind her, and for a moment, Fiona was certain that life had ended. There was only darkness around her, pressing it on all sides.

  “Fiona. Fiona, baby, I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here.” Vince’s voice pierced through the fuzzy darkness, the warmth of his hand tearing through the numbness around her and pulling her out of the shadow.

  She gasped for air as her eyes opened again. She must have passed out, but she looked around the woods now and saw only Vince, who was cupping her face and wiping the sweat from her forehead. “It’s okay. We’re alive, baby. We’re alive.”

  “What happened?” Fiona stuttered out, her breath coming hard and fast
as she tried to get her body to calm down.

  “Guido,” Vince said, gesturing over to the left, where his lifeless body was still on the ground. “He killed himself.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Fiona murmured, leaning forward and pressing her head onto Vince’s shoulder. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

  “I know, baby,” Vince said soothingly into her ear, rubbing the back of her neck and the top of her back until she stopped breathing so hard. “It’s going to be okay, though.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Fiona said softly, pulling back to look Vince in the eyes, which were red and irritated, like he was holding back tears. “I’m so fucking sorry, honey.”

  “It’s okay,” Vince said quietly.

  “No, it’s not. First your father, and now this,” Fiona said, gesturing to Guido’s empty, bloody body. “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”