by Deja Voss
They slap handcuffs on my wrist and shove me up against a car, searching me. “Dave DeCico, you’re under arrest for kidnapping, you have the right to remain silent…” My whole world comes crashing down as he reads me my miranda rights.
Mani is screaming, and the pitch of her voice is so shrill, it makes the hair on my arm stand up. “You’re making a huge mistake! He did not kidnap her! She’s in danger! Please!”
“Mani, relax,” I say, even though I have no fucking clue what’s about to happen. I feel so helpless. I never wanted her to see me like this, and there’s not a damn thing I can do to make it stop. “Go to the station with them. Get my lawyer. We’re going to be okay. Just do what I say. I promise Mani.”
They stuff me in the back of a car, and I try not to look at her because I know it’ll only make me rage. I might not have kidnapped anybody, but I did this to her. I did this to Ella. I put them in this fucking situation because I was too selfish to send her off with Slick like I planned all along. This is all on me, and for once in my life I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m gonna do to make it right.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“You’re free to go, brother,” the cop says, pulling open the door to the holding cell. I know I haven’t been in here long at all, but the minutes dragged so long, sitting in here with nothing to do but worry about Mani and Ella.
“I haven’t even talked to my lawyer,” I say.
He shrugs and motions for me to get the hell out. “Charges were dropped. I don’t know what to tell ya.”
Something isn’t right here. Nobody gets arrested for kidnapping and just sent on his merry way. Rowdy and my dad are waiting for me, and I sign a couple pieces of paper and walk out the door, looking over my shoulder the whole time, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Where’s Mani?” I ask.
Nobody says anything. My dad hangs his head and Rowdy just shoves his hands in his pockets. My stomach lurches. I know exactly where she is. The woman sacrificed herself for me. She made some sort of deal with those devils. I’m so fucking pissed, I smash my fist off the side of building.
“Why the fuck would you let her do that? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“It was already done before we even knew you got picked up, Lean,” my dad says. “We got here as fast as we could, but we didn’t see her. She was gone.”
“How could she be so fucking dumb?” I hiss. “I’m a piece of shit. I deserve to rot in prison. That girl, she could do whatever she wanted. She could have whatever she wanted. She has her whole fucking life ahead of her!”
“She’s not fucking dumb,” Rowdy says. “You really think she’s gonna take whatever they’re giving her lying down? You really think she’d throw herself to the wolves for the hell of it?”
“For her sister, she would,” I say. “And for me.”
She’s the only girl in the world willing to sacrifice herself time and time again for the people she loves, no matter what it takes. She’s the only girl who ever gave a shit about me beyond my money, beyond my connections, beyond who I am and what I can do to line their pockets. She’s willing to sacrifice it all just to make sure I don’t have to suffer and her sister is safe.
But I am fucking suffering. I feel like I’ve been shot through the heart. I feel like I’ve lost a limb, lost an organ, lost my mind. There’s rage in my heart, and one thing on my mind. I’m gonna kill every last one of those motherfuckers until she’s mine. I don’t care if I have to spend the rest of my life in jail. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she’s free.
“Let’s ride,” I say, getting in the back of my dad’s car. “Get everybody together. This shit ends tonight. I don’t care what it takes. She’s not spending one fucking night in that house.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mani:
“Hope you enjoyed your vacation,” Catarina says, fixing her lipstick in the rearview mirror. “Hope the accommodations were to your liking. We really missed you, Mani. A lot of people really missed you.”
Fuck you, you fucking bitch, I think. I chew at my fingernails on one hand, and squeeze Ella’s hand in my other, trying to think of a way to kick these car doors open and break free.
It won’t work, though. As long as Catarina and Stefano are alive, as long as Ella is alive, as long as I exist, they will come for him. She made me agree to come back to the house indefinitely and she would drop all the charges against Lean, and even though I knew it was shady and I knew I was biting off more than I could chew, I couldn’t let him go to jail again. With his record, a kidnapping charge would probably mean he spent the rest of his life behind bars.
I never wanted to be a burden on him.
Now, my life is in my own hands.
“You lay a hand on Ella ever again, and I promise it will be the last thing you ever do,” I growl.
“Now why would you say such a thing?” Catarina asks, smooshing her lips together in a pout. “Apparently those scum bags rubbed off on you. You know the deal. Nobody ever laid a hand on Ella.”
“She’s not sick,” I say.
“I don’t have cystic fibrosis, Cat,” Ella says. “The doctor said so. I didn’t cough at all and I feel fine. I didn’t need my nebulizer once.”
“You know, you’re very lucky, love. You really trust some backwoods bumblefuck biker doctor over Dr. Fletcher? What if you would’ve gotten sick? You could’ve died.”
“You’re not sick,” I say to Ella. “And she will not be treated as a dying child anymore. She needs to go to school, she needs to eat like a normal kid, and she does not need anymore medication.”
“Fair enough,” Cat says.
“And I’m not going to ‘dance school’ anymore. I will be around to oversee her education and well being.”
“You’re awful chatty today, Mani. You must be tired. You always get chatty when you’re tired. We’ll have to send you to the dark room for awhile to decompress. You’re probably exhausted from all the bullshit those beasts sold you.”
She knows I’m not buying it. She’s just being cruel.
“They’re not beasts, Cat,” Ella shouts. “They actually let me hang out with Mani. They gave me pizza and helped me get into school.”
“Shh,” I say, hushing her. It’s a lost cause. There’s no sense in poking Catarina at this point. I already know I’m in for a night of hell when I get back to the mansion. At least if she throws me in the dark room, I’ll have a lot of time to plot my next move.
“You’re going to love what I have planned for tonight, Mani. We’re having a party. Everyone who’s everyone in the city is going to be at the house, and they all are so excited to see you.”
I can taste the bile in my throat. I know exactly what she means, and I’m certain that since I ran off willingly, tonight is going to be exceptionally rough. I try and choke back the disgust, knowing the only man who ever truly touched me and ever will again is Lean.
Maybe I will play their game for a little bit, as long as it takes to formulate my plan, but I eye the pistol on Stefano’s hip, and know in my heart if it comes down to it, I have the power to use it.
The dread sets in as the mansion gates swing open. It closes shut behind us, and I feel like all the air is draining out of me, like I’m stuck in a vacuum and I can’t breathe. Like all hope is lost.
Ella squeezes my hand, and my heart starts to beat again. I have more hope than I’ve ever had before. I might not make it out of here in one piece, but I’ll die trying.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mani:
Catarina unties my arms and hands me a couple pills and a glass of water.
“Trust me, you’re going to want to take these.”
I don’t want any parts of whatever she’s trying to dose me with. If I want to survive tonight, I know I’m going to need a clear mind.
“Take them, Mani. Now. I don’t have time for your little games.”
“Why are you suddenly so merciful, Cat? You never gave me pills before. Are you worri
ed I’m going to fight? Do you think I’m going to try and run off?”
I laugh, clanking the shackles on my ankles.
“I figured if you were going to finally off me it would be a lot more dramatic than drugging me.”
“Take the fucking pills,” she says, slapping me across the face. “We need to get you ready.”
I hide them in my cheek and hold them in place with my tongue as I take a sip of water.
“Where is Ella?” I ask.
“You really want her to see you like this?” Aside from the binds on my wrists and ankles, I am naked as the day I was born. She spent the last hour painting over my bruises with foundation, and I had to hold back my laughter when it took her extra long to cover Lean’s fingerprints on my ass. It’s the little things holding me together right now. As much as she wants to cover it all up, he will always be a part of me. I can feel him with me right now.
“I don’t think you have any idea how your actions really impacted so many poor people’s lives, Mani.” She has her hands on her hips and she’s talking down to me like I’m an idiot, or a child, like she’s scolding me for crossing the street without holding her hand. It’s always been that way with her. In the past I always thought she was just better than me. She had the money, she had the power, she had the clothes, she had all the control.
I realize now, the only power she ever had was that which she took without consent. No person in their right mind respects her. I sure don’t. Everything coming out of her mouth now sounds like a joke to me.
“Don’t pull that mute bullshit, we all know you can talk, Mani,” she says. “Do you honestly have any idea in the world how much money your little boyfriend almost cost us? Him and his gang got all our best clients riled up. Nobody wants to touch us with a ten foot pole.”
In that moment, I realize I could die right this second, and my higher purpose has already been fulfilled. Gone are the days where Catarina and Stefano can just grab women off the street and offer them up to the highest bidder.
“The good news, for us at least, is that I was able to get some of them back on the condition that we let them have a little fun with you. They’re not gonna kill you, Mani, but it’s a damn shame Dr. Fischer isn’t here anymore to patch you up. It’s probably going to be a rough couple weeks for you.”
I know she’s not lying.
She loves getting in my head and trying to get me upset about what’s to come.
I look at her with a smug smile on my face.
“Why don’t you just let them kill me? I’m sure the murder of the VP of the Royal Bastards old lady would probably earn you enough to make up for your lost revenue. Hell, you can let your clients videotape it and sell copies to all their sicko friends.”
She slaps me across the face, and it stings a little, but nothing like the pain of knowing what I had, and what she took away from me.
“What’s wrong, Cat? Not used to being called on your bullshit? You think I’m just gonna lay here and take your abuse?”
She pulls her fist back and swings for my stomach, but stops inches short.
“I promise, Mani, your days are numbered, but the only person who’s going put an end to your life is going to be me. You really think you’re that important that one of my dad’s associates put a hit on you? Nobody gave a fuck about you Mani, except for my dad. You and your mom were just some low life scum and Stefano and I realized the only way we were going to get the family business back on track was taking you out.”
I feel sick to my stomach with all the lies I’ve been fed since my mother and Guilian died. All of that guilt I experienced that made me feel like I had some debt to pay to these two, they were the ones who caused it.
I charge at her with all the force I can fathom, knocking her into the vanity with a loud thump. The mirror falls down on top of her body, and I grab it and begin smashing it off the floor until she’s surrounded by sharp shards of glass. I pick one up and think about the discussion Lean and I had last night.
My ultimate fantasy is about to come true. I lunge towards her, ready to slit her throat, ready to see just how fast the blood actually will run out, but the bedroom door swings open, and everything goes dark.
Chapter Thirty
Lean:
We’re out in full force and we’re hungry for blood.
It’s time to do what we should’ve in the very first place - cut the snake off right at the fucking head. Lazarus pours a beer out into the gravel for Bags. Tires squeal in the night as the whole crew gets in formation for our ride to the mansion. There’s no articulate game plan. The only mission is to kill these motherfuckers and get Mani and Ella out of there in one piece, no matter what it takes.
The place is lit up and the front gate is hanging open. We pull right up to the front door, and I barely park my bike before I hop off and take off running. I have my pistol on my hip, knife in my back pocket, and I ain’t afraid to do whatever I have to do to get my woman back where she belongs.
The mansion is quiet inside, and I motion for Lazarus and Hunter to go find Ella. There’s a million rooms in this place, and I don’t know what to expect behind any of these doors or how many women they got locked up in here. If we can get em out safely, we will.
“Mani!” I shout, gripping my pistol, as I walk from door to door, kicking them open one by one. “If you can hear me, scream!”
I walk down the hallway to that closet where I first found her, bile rising in my throat, knowing she’s back in this hell hole, even if it’s just for a couple hours, and it’s all because of me.
“This way,” my dad says, grabbing me by the arm. “They’re out back.”
We crouch down right outside the giant set of sliding glass doors that leads to the back yard and I wipe the sweat from my face, trying to get a better view at what we’re walking into. Rage begins to take over when I realize the fuckers sitting around the fire pit drinking beers are the same fuckers we delivered papers to yesterday. It’s a slap in the goddamn face.
These assholes don’t know who they’re messing with, or that the kind of threats we deliver are never empty.
“Should’ve just wasted em all when we had the chance,” I growl to my dad.
Catarina walks through the group, her long black evening gown only accentuating the big black bruises on her arms and face, and I have a feeling it was Mani’s doing, and I’m so fucking proud of her. That bitch deserves whatever she got, and she’s about to get a whole lot more.
Stefano is dragging Mani by her leg over the cement slab, and she’s not fighting. She’s not moving at all. In one instant my entire world comes crashing down.
“We’re too late. Holy fuck, we’re too late.” I’m not even thinking about anything at this point besides the fact that if she’s dead, I want to be dead, too. The only woman I ever loved in my whole fucking life sacrificed herself for me, and I’m too fucking late to save her.
I spring up from the ground, not even caring if I’m greeted with a hail of bullets, and charge directly towards her.
“Son, no!” my dad shouts, chasing after me.
Everything moves in slow motion as I drop to the ground next to her, feeling her skin, kissing her lips, crying so hard, I can’t even see straight.
“Well it looks like the party finally arrived.” Stefano throws his head back and starts to laugh. “Quit crying you bitch, she’s not dead. Yet.”
I stare at all these men surrounding my woman, knowing exactly what they came here to do, all the horrors of the stories she shared with me replaying before my eyes.
“I’m going to fucking kill you all,” I growl.
Stefano grabs a syringe from his pocket and jams it into Mani’s chest and suddenly her eyes pop open and she sits bolt upright, coughing and sputtering like she just got done being drowned. Her eyes lock with mine, and the fear that was in them is replaced with rage. Pure rage. She’s ready to fight, and so am I.
“Now, that’s not a very nice thing to say,” Catarina says
as she walks over and tousles my hair. “You must be the reason why Mani thinks she can act like a common thug. You know, she tried to slit my throat earlier today.”
“I had to tranquilize her like a fucking animal,” Stefano says. “You really are a bad influence, Lean.”
My father is standing behind him, and he takes out his gun and puts it right to Stefano’s head, clicking off the safety. “I think that’s enough of that. Can we quit with the bullshitting and get to the part where you hand over the girl or get your brains blown out?”
“You really think you’re going to kill my brother in front of all these men and get away with it? You know the chief of police is here tonight, right?”
“Of course we fucking do,” Lazarus says, walking out of the darkness of the back yard and towards the circle. He points his gun directly at the chief of police, the same man he served papers to yesterday, and walks towards him until it’s pressed into his skull. “Didn’t I just pay you a visit yesterday, chief? What did I tell you about messing with these people.”
Brother after brother surrounds the circle of idiots, guns drawn and ready to light them up at my command.
“You better stop that right now. We have snipers on the balcony, you know,” Cat shouts.
“No ya don’t,” Rowdy says, dropping his bloody knife to the ground. “Don’t worry, they’re gonna be okay. They’re just sleeping it off.”
I help Mani up off the ground and pull off my cut and put it over her naked body. Out of nowhere, Fitz George, head of the school board dives towards us, tackling Mani to the ground. I grab him by the back of the shirt, but he pulls a pistol from his pocket and holds it directly to Mani’s forehead.
“Put the gun down, dude,” I growl. My arm starts to tremble, but I’m afraid if I toss him, he’ll shoot. “She didn’t do anything to you. This ain’t about her. Put the gun down and fight me like a man.”