For some men who lived on the wrong side of the law, there was a temptation to become addicted to the power. Ending a life was like that. A heady feeling, making you powerful in a way that could be addictive. I can safely say I’ve only felt like a god two times in my life. When I saw my father, my mother’s killer, choke on his own blood and slump down dead, and right now, with the woman I’d been obsessed with for five years, telling me she’d come with me. Captive no more, Sofia De Sanctis was mine by her own personal admission. I didn’t just feel like a god at that moment. I was one.
Then the universe, sensing that something unnaturally good had happened to me, swung hard in the other direction.
“Sofia!” Angelo’s harsh whisper had only just registered when the squeal of the door, metal against stone, echoed around the room.
“Well, what the fuck do we have here?”
Silvio swayed on the threshold, clearly drunk as hell. His state of inebriation, however, didn’t stop his eyes from widening as he took in the scene. Sofia tightly pressed against my chest, and my untied arms wrapped around her.
He lurched into the room, and I moved Sofia behind me. Men entered behind him. Great, he wasn’t alone. I flashed a look at Angelo, telling him not to interfere. I needed them to think he was following Sofia around, like always.
Ignoring a million hurts, I got ready to defend Sofia. I wasn’t tied up now, and I wouldn’t be letting this fucker take a piece from either of us. I’d fought worse odds before than five to one, and better yet, the De Sanctis men were drunk.
Silvio laughed, a sound that sent disgust and unease crawling along my spine. Then he pulled a gun from the back waistband of his slacks and pointed it at me, nearly point-blank range. I fucking hated guns. They evened the playing field far too much. Then Silvio swung it around and pointed it at Sofia, turning my blood to ice.
“Keep it on me, motherfucker. I’m the one planning how to kill you right now,” I said, sidestepping to put myself between Sofia and the end of the gun.
Silvio tutted and nodded to his men. They advanced on Sofia. I growled low in my throat and lunged in front of her.
“Nikolai, don’t!”
Her voice stilled my heart. She put a gentle hand on my arm and looked up at me, seeming more like an otherworldly being at that moment than mere flesh and bone. Then she stepped around me and gave herself over to Silvio’s men, unresisting.
She wasn’t fighting? Why wasn’t she fighting? I caught her eye and saw the fear in them. She was scared for me. She was afraid that one wrong move would have Silvio shooting me, like he so desperately wanted.
When she got close to him, Silvio hauled her into his arms and pressed the gun to her temple. Then he had the audacity to smile at me. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.
The house was quiet around us. It seemed the revelers who had gathered on a quiet Sunday afternoon, although their don was laid up in hospital, had dispersed. It was just Silvio and his men, a fact that only sent more tension brewing in my gut.
“Lock him up. I don’t want him interrupting us. And don’t use the cuffs. He’s clearly found a way around them,” Silvio said smugly. His feet were slightly unsteady as he hauled Sofia against him and pressed his face into the side of hers and inhaled deeply. “Don’t even think about it, Chernov,” he reminded me as my fists clenched with fury.
I wanted to rip the man’s head off.
His men pulled my arms back and bound them behind me. My muscles cramped with tension at being back in the same position they’d been in for too long. Despite the pain, I felt like I was floating somewhere far above it, outside my body. Nothing else mattered but Sofia’s eyes fixed on mine.
“Think this through, Silvio. Antonio De Sanctis could make a full recovery. You think he’d accept his daughter being hurt—”
“He doesn’t need to accept it. He’ll blame you.”
“And Kirill will start a war with your family that you won’t survive,” I pointed out.
Silvio swayed and considered that for a moment before his lip curled. “Who says Antonio wouldn’t kill you himself if he knew you’d fucked his little virgin daughter? How was she? Tight? Did she cry?” Silvio turned his attention to Sofia.
I pulled at the zip ties, testing their strength.
“Why? Is that what it takes to get you hard these days? Or maybe you need the sound to direct you to your dick under all that flab,” I tossed at him.
He tensed, still so very egotistical. “Be careful, Nikolai. You’re not leaving this room again, ever, so you might not want to piss me off if you don’t want it to hurt even more than it already will.” He swore at me and jerked his head to his men. “Wait outside. Seeing as this little bitch is already stretched out, another cock in her loose hole won’t make a difference.”
His words threatened to break the remaining composure I had. It was one thing to kill me. I’d had it coming with this man, but Sofia was another matter. If he raped her, there was no way he’d let her live.
I needed to piss Silvio off so he would make a mistake. I knew exactly how.
I laughed loudly, sending the heat in Silvio’s face climbing higher, staining his cheeks.
“Who said I don’t want it to hurt?” I goaded him. I kept an eye on the men disappearing out the door. It shut, staying only slightly ajar behind them. “Are you too embarrassed to get naked in front of your men? How pathetic.”
Silvio jerked toward me, forgetting Sofia for a moment. My eyes met hers, and a plan flashed between us at that very second.
As soon as anger loosened Silvio’s grip, Sofia moved. She wrenched herself from his hold, using her body weight to drop, and sending the gun pointing into the space above her head. She spun, quick as a flash, and kicked Silvio in the knee. He went down with a grunt. She’d gotten the upper hand for a second, and there was nothing I could do about it, tied up like I was.
“Get the gun,” I hissed, straining toward them, seriously considering if I could rip my arms off to get closer.
She reached across her cousin, heading for the gun just as the fucker recovered enough to twist aside, sending Sofia falling across him. She recovered faster and jumped up, almost clearing his touch. She paused mid-flight as Silvio dropped the gun and used his remaining hand to grab a hard handful of her long black hair. He wrenched her backward, and her feet slid on the basement stone, her body hitting the floor hard.
“You stupid bitch,” Silvio swore at her, and straddled her so that her arms were pinned at her sides.
I couldn’t look away, even as I pulled against the pipe. My shoulder popped, but it didn’t help me get off the pipe. Pain vibrated down my arm.
I hadn’t been able to get out in all the days I’d been here, but I’d never been so motivated.
Silvio banged Sofia’s head against the floor and caught her by the throat. His hand tightened on her neck, and she let out a soft cry.
Fuck, no. Every single cell in my body rebelled against the sight of her being hurt.
With a roar that came from the depths of my soul, I bore my entire weight forward and ripped half the pipe off the wall.
It crashed to the floor as I launched myself at Silvio. My hands were still tied behind me, and my right shoulder ached in a way that hinted at dislocation. Without my hands, I had no choice but to hit him with my body.
I flew at him, getting a good head-butt in when I reached him. He slumped to the side, and his foot hit the gun, sending it sliding across the floor toward the door. He rolled away, and Sofia coughed, dragging air back into her lungs. I advanced on Silvio, getting my feet under me with difficulty, given the numbness of my arms, which was quickly spreading across my chest. Breathing hard, I stood over him and kicked him quickly with cold precision. Kidney, liver, spleen. The man would piss blood for weeks and think of me.
As I pulled my foot back to deliver another kick, this one to the back of his head, the sound of a gun cocking stilled me. I turned slowly, praying I was about to see Sofia holding the gun.
Of course, that would have taken the kind of luck I’d never had.
Men crowded in the doorway, and Silvio’s father, Franco, stood on the threshold, an incredulous and furious expression on his aging face.
“What the fuck is going on here?” he thundered.
His gun was trained on me, and he wasn’t nearly as drunk as his son. It was obviously the first time he’d realized that his son had been fucking around with the prisoner in the bowels of Casa Nera, and his niece, too, for that matter.
Sofia stood, her bare skin smudged with dirt and blood. Her white dress was ripped, sagging open at the shoulder, and blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Franco took her in with horror.
“Zio, Silvio brought me down here. He-he threatened me,” she said in a hoarse whisper.
Franco frowned and turned an incredulous look at his son, who was out cold. He jerked his head over his shoulder. “Bring him upstairs,” he instructed his men. “We don’t have time for this. Sofia, tell me what happened.”
No, don’t. That man isn’t on your side, I wanted to shout at her, but there was nothing stopping Franco from shooting me, an escaped prisoner, dead like a dog right here, and then Sofia would be alone.
She swallowed. “He-he strangled me and threatened to…” She broke off, not finding the words to explain to her uncle that his son had threatened to rape and kill her. It was too horrifying.
Franco studied her for a long moment and then nodded. “Your father has taken a turn, Sofia. I have to go to the hospital.”
“He has?” Fear coated Sofia’s words. It sat unspoken between them that Antonio would be furious to hear about this.
Franco nodded, his expression ice-cold. “He shouldn’t be upset right now, and you’re clearly distraught. I don’t know what happened here, but I’ll hear Silvio’s side when he wakes up, then we’ll decide what to do.”
“Silvio’s side? You can see what happened,” Sofia ground out.
I wanted to clamp my hand over her mouth. There was nothing I could do but stand there like a statue before Franco’s gun, knowing both of our fates were being decided at this exact moment. Which way Franco would go would decide if we died today or lived to fight another.
“No, I can see that something happened, and I’ve heard your side, but it’s only that. Your side. I’ll hear my son out. Until then, I think it’s best that you recover somewhere secure. You’re clearly hysterical.”
He turned to his men again. “Bring her.”
Sofia exclaimed softly as she was pulled from the room, casting a last look at me. Men entered and picked up Silvio’s inert body. More men approached me slowly like I was a wild animal capable of ripping out throats. They were right. At this moment, I was more animal than man. I couldn’t stop a snarl from leaving me as they approached.
“Be careful, Chernov. I won’t hesitate,” Franco said calmly. I believed him. His brother was on death’s doorstep, and he’d made no promise to spare me. Even if it opened a rift with the Chernov bratva, it was unlikely he’d care. It would be a chance for him to show off a little power before Renato returned from Italy. Maybe he even hoped to dispute the younger man’s claim to being boss.
I swallowed my anger. I had to focus right now. I couldn’t get Sofia out of here if I was dead. I’d already dislocated a shoulder, and my hands were so cut up from the zip ties that blood was dripping freely onto the floor. They dragged me backward, swearing about the pipe where it had come loose from the wall and would no longer be effective to keep someone tied up.
“Tie his legs, too. He won’t get far.” Franco’s dismissive words reached me as his men hurried to follow his orders.
In the end, they left me lying on my blazingly painful arms, on my back on the floor, with my ankles tied with zip ties. The freezing floor prickled at my skin even through my filthy T-shirt. I was glad I could still feel something, considering the numbness spreading from my shoulders.
I lay there and listened with all my might to where they might have taken Sofia. Franco had made it sound like she couldn’t be trusted back in her room.
I strained my eyes as the sounds of talking and footsteps in the corridor faded. After a moment, I heard it. The soft sound of someone crying.
I rolled onto my side, and pain lit up every single nerve. I wriggled myself toward the sound. Most of the rooms on this hellhole level of Sofia’s childhood home had a grate running into a drain at the corner. They had to be connected beneath the floor, because now I could hear the soft sounds of someone in the next room.
Sofia. My little swallow.
“Sofia, lastochka, don’t cry,” I groaned into the grate, flopping onto my front over it, foul smells drifting into my face.
After a long moment, her incredulous voice reached me. “Nikolai?”
“It’s me. You’re not alone. I’m here,” I told her in as calm a tone as I could. “I’m here, and I’ve got you.”
“Franco’s going to kill you. I know it,” she said, and a fresh flood of tears seemed to hit her.
“He might plan to, but we’ll be long gone by then. Don’t worry.”
“Really?”
“Really. We’re already gone. One way or another.” I knew in my gut that if Franco killed me, he’d probably kill Sofia, too. She’d seen too much; she was a liability. The only hope was if Antonio De Sanctis died, and Silvio decided he wanted his cousin around to torment and abuse after. But Sofia wouldn’t be able to take that kind of existence for long.
If Angelo didn’t come through, we were both as good as dead. It was a sobering yet strangely comforting thought. Like my mother before me, knowing that there could be an end to the pain and darkness was a relief. One thing I knew for sure, Sofia and I would be together, in this life or the next. Two intertwined souls couldn’t be easily untangled.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Angelo’s panicked whisper reached me as he sneaked into the room. “They’ve gone to the hospital, but they’ve left guards everywhere. Fuck! I don’t think we can risk it right now.” He sagged and ran a hand through his thick hair. He looked stressed as shit.
I knew the feeling.
“Did you find the stuff I needed?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes, but I need to get it. There are still people here, just not Franco’s. Silvio’s inner circle is still hanging around, waiting for him to wake up.”
I blew out a breath. Leaving before Silvio woke would be preferable, but we didn’t have a lot of choices.
“Then we wait. Once Silvio is up, I’m sure he’ll need to go to the hospital to pay his respects as well, or at the very least get himself seen to. If this goes sideways, whatever happens, your job is to get Sofia out.”
Angelo jerked, his mouth working with a silent protest.
I spoke again before he could. “If I get out of here alive, and she doesn’t, I’ll kill you myself, Angelo, after I kill your little girlfriend. Do your fucking job and protect her with your life, or I’ll make it hurt when I kill you.”
He swallowed hard, otherwise giving no reaction to my vicious words.
“Do you understand the order of importance? Kirill will honor his agreement if you show up with Sofia at his door. I guarantee it.”
“He knows you love her.” Angelo’s words were matter-of-fact. “Or he thinks you’re obsessed with her. Those are different things.”
“Not to a man like me. Watch Sofia’s back, above all. Her freedom is your freedom. Now, we wait and get ready.”
Angelo nodded.
“Is Chiara already out?”
He nodded again.
“Good. Be ready to kill or die to join her.”
My advice only sent more tension through his burly body.
“If you go down fighting to get the girl… then it’s a good day to die. Now, do me a favor and pop my motherfucking shoulder back in.”
