“Was that thunder?”
Tara and I stop in our tracks, trying to gauge the rumble we just heard off in the distance. I raise my hand and feel for rain drops, but the air is dry.
“Maybe we should head back…” I mumble. The knots in my gut have tied so tight that I worry they might cut me in half. But I know this is the right decision. I’m not even just running for my own freedom now. Felix’s life is at stake. I was foolish to think that Aiden might spare him for me. My last hope lies with Father, and apparently, he’s waiting just ahead, under the pale tree that stands closer than ever.
It’s even bigger than I imagined it would be. From a distance, it stands out, but up close, you can hardly see anything but that white trunk. Of course, that might just be because the rest of the forest is pitch black. Tara has her phone out and we’re using the camera light as a flashlight, but that only provides us with a small pocket of light. The only reason we can see the tree is because it reflects even the smallest bit of light back out towards us. It’s stands out like a ghostly specter among the darkness.
Suddenly, the light on Tara’s phone goes out and we’re engulfed in darkness.
“Another call?” I whisper.
For a while Tara’s phone was ringing like crazy. We couldn’t answer. It was obviously Aiden calling to stop us. I gave him his chance. He blew it.
Still, he eventually stopped calling, and that somehow only made me all the more anxious.
“The battery’s running low,” Tara curses. “It’s a good thing we’re practically there.”
“How will you get back?” I’m under no illusions that Tara will be coming with me. There will be no happy endings here. The best I can hope for is that I’ve chosen the least monstrous path.
The phone light turns back on and I can see Tara again. She provides a tight-lipped smile. We both know that this is goodbye. “Don’t worry about me. I know these woods too well to get lost. I’ll be—”
I interrupt her with a hug. “Thank you,” I rasp, teary-eyed. I’m still not sure I’m making the right decision, but I know I wouldn’t even have the choice if it wasn’t for Tara.
“Easy there, girl. We’re not out of the woods yet. Literally. Do you even know who’s waiting for you in the tunnel?”
“No,” I sheepishly admit. The truth is, I’m terrified. When I’d first read the words scribbled on the envelope, I had figured that Felix would be the one waiting to whisk me away. It had made my decision all the easier. He’s the only person I can imagine being happy to see through all of this darkness.
But now that I know that it won’t be him, I dread to think of who will take his place. Who’s left under my father’s command?
In the past, Aiden has mentioned that Father might be working with Russians. I’ve never met any Russians before. If one is waiting for me beneath the pale tree, will I feel comfortable fleeing with a stranger? At that point, will I even have a choice?
Destiny is closer than ever now. We’re near enough to the pale tree that I could hit it with a stone.
It’s hard to imagine not leaving now. I can’t picture going back, sitting on my bed and waiting for Aiden to return. It’s nearly impossible to think that if I stay, there will be a wedding in a few days. My wedding.
I look down at my ring. It sparkles under the dying light of Tara’s phone. So beautiful. So deadly. It blurs under the tears welling up in my eyes. This morning, I thought that there might be something real under all of this fakeness. Now, I’m not so sure, but I’m still ready to leave it all behind.
Right?
My guide seems to pick up on my apprehension. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“No…” I whisper. “But I have to.” For Felix.
In a heartbeat, the silent night is interrupted by the noise of grating metal.
Tara and I both immediately whip around to the source of the sound. From under the pale tree, a dark shadow climbs out of the ground.
“Elisa D’Ignoti?” I can’t see his face, but the voice isn’t one I recognize. A chill takes my spine captive. Regret begins to build in my core. This is not a friendly voice.
“Who are you?” I ask.
The man steps out of the shadows and my blood runs cold.
His ghastly pale skin is almost as white as the trunk behind him. Two black eyes burn through the darkness. A ragged scar cuts across his mangled lower lip.
The apparition ignores my question. Instead, he looks down at my engagement ring.
“Do you work for my father?” I ask again.
“Something like that,” the man smiles. His teeth are sharp like a shark’s. “Who is this?” he asks, gesturing towards Tara.
“A friend.”
He shakes his head. “No. A witness.” Before I can even blink, the stranger pulls a gun out from under his belt and shoots Tara in the chest, point blank.
“NO!”
Tara’s body crumples to the earth and I lunge for her, but the man gets to me first. He wraps a cold damp hand around my mouth and squeezes my jaw shut. I try to wrestle him off, but he has a wiry strength that’s impossible to overcome.
I kick and scream as he drags me from Tara’s body and down into the darkness of the tunnel. My heart is tearing itself apart by the time I get enough of his hand in my mouth to take a bite.
“Glupaya suka,” he growls tossing me aside. I try to scramble away but he’s quickly back on me. “This is no way to treat your new owner.” His fingers close in around a clump of my hair and he tugs me backwards. I fall into his cold sinewy body with a thump and he brings a sharp fingernail up to my throat. “One more wrong move and you bleed,” he hisses.
“I thought you said you work for my father?” I cry, heart shrinking as we back away from the open latch. Darkness engulfs me.
“He works for me,” the man says. His voice sounds like it’s been dragged through a sea of broken glass. “And you are the payment he’s given to ensure that I allow him to continue working for me.”
“He would never…” I stop myself before I can sound too foolish. Of course he would. Father has already sold me once, and to his worst enemy nonetheless. Now it sounds like he’s done it again. I’ve been betrayed.
“Sakroy lyuk,” the Russian barks. Behind us, I hear approaching footsteps. A flurry of shadows blur by as a group of men rush to close the hatch door. The harsh sound of the grating metal echoes through the dark damp tunnel, sealing my fate.
“Let me go!” I beg. A burst of primal energy erupts through me and I manage to break free from the monster’s grip. But he’s quicker than I am, and a second later, he’s grabbed me again. This time, he doesn’t bother pulling me close. I’m dragged through the darkness by the hair like a ragdoll.
A group of faceless men follow behind us, blocking off any possibility of escape. The stifling underground air closes in around my throat, squeezing the oxygen out of my lungs and any last bits of hope with it.
I want to strangle myself for being so foolish. This is my fault. Aiden might not be an angel, but even at the beginning, he never treated me with such reckless abandon. Some way or another, he always made me feel precious. Whether that was by treating me like a porcelain doll to befoul, or a partner to protect, his cruelty was never careless.
But this cruelty is entirely careless.
When I slip in a puddle, my captor still doesn’t stop our death march. He doesn’t even look back. I have to desperately scramble back onto my feet just to keep from being dragged along on my ass.
“Where are you taking me?” I cry. My scalp burns from the force. My muscles are starting to cramp.
I’m not given the courtesy of a response. We just turn corner after corner until I’m completely lost. I don’t know which way is out anymore. With a ruthless silence, I’m pulled through the dark labyrinth, and ever deeper into the underworld.
I’m on fire, and every frantic step threatens to be my last. Shame and sorrow burn through my skin. My heart is ash. My mind is gone. I’m so ashamed of myself and so fucking scared.
What the hell have I done?
All I can think about is Aiden. His fury. His wrath. His love. If only he had shown Felix mercy. If only he had listened to me.
… If only I had listened to him.
There’s little doubt in my mind now that the photos in that envelope were dishonest in one way or another. Whether they were from long ago or photoshopped or whatever, Aiden said he would never cheat, and I should have believed him. He never gave me a reason not to. But it’s too late now.
Someone must have tricked Felix just as I was tricked. Unless Felix is in on this whole thing. But I can’t believe that. I can’t believe that he would betray me. It’s just too painful.
Still, my heart feels like it might give out on me even before my feet can.
And then, suddenly, we stop.
“What is it?” my captor growls.
When I look up, I see a new group of shadows ahead. “There are enemy combatants above ground. We need to find another way out.” The voice is thick with a Russian accent.
“Fuck.” With a brutal tug, I’m set free. I gasp and try to gather myself through the pain, but as I stumble backwards, I’m confronted by another wall of unfriendly shadows. They push me back towards the man who shot Tara.
He talks in Russian. Someone calls him Dmitry. He answers. Then he turns to me, a cruel smile twisting his gaunt features. “Looks like there’s been a slight change of plans. You might even get to say goodbye to the man who was foolish enough to think he could keep you from me. That is, if I’m feeling kind enough to let you.”
Aiden. He’s talking about Aiden. Oh my god. Do they have him too? “Why are you doing this?” I rasp. But it’s already clear. I’ve been sold by my father, probably as payment for helping him escape Aiden’s grasp. It’s all a sick game to these men.
“Because you’ve got a mouth perfect for my cock,” Dmitry taunts. His eyes wander over my baggy sweats. “It’s too bad that Irish savage had to go and fuck you first. Oh well, at least you’re not pregnant… yet. I wonder how many children I can stuff in that little body of yours?”
My gut churns with dread. I want to scream. I want to run. But there’s no one to hear me. There’s nowhere to go. I’m surrounded by darkness.
“Grab her,” Dmitry orders to his shadow crew behind me. Frigid hands clench my wrists and I’m pushed further into the tunnels. This time, they practically have to carry me. The thought of Aiden being captured almost has me too weak to even breathe. If he’s not going to save me, no one is.
A few twists and turns later, we come to another untimely stop. My neck is bent from exhaustion, but when I hear a familiar voice greet us, my attention snaps up towards the source of the sound.
“Ah, Dmitry Gazin. So good to see you again.” It’s Father’s voice.
Desperate anger gives me enough energy to squirm out of the shadows. Sure enough, I see my father ahead, shaking hands with the man who shot Tara.
“You bastard!” I scream.
His cruel eyes glaze over with indifference. “That’s no way to talk to your father,” Dmitry scolds. With the quickness of lightning, he lunges forward and back hands me across the cheek. I’m so numb I hardly feel it.
Through the building tears, I can only glare at my father—but he’s already turned away from me. “How could you?” I weep.
Dmitry catches one of my tears on a long sharp fingernail. With a slippery slurp, he sucks the drop up like it’s the sweetest nectar. “Delicious,” he croaks. “I’ll have to make sure I keep you crying.”
Rage continues to spring up through my sorrow, and without thinking, I pounce at Dmitry with all my might. He easily catches my wrist in mid-air and immediately crushes me against a hard cement wall. “I will fuck this defiance out of you, bitch,” he hisses, within full earshot of my father. “And here I thought the Irishman might have broken you already. Lucky for me, he was too weak even for a little girl.”
“He’s not weak,” I mumble.
“Wrong,” Dmitry spits. Suddenly, his hand is around my hair again. I’m pulled towards my father. When we reach his side, Dmitry pulls me up right and forces me to look at his other captive.
Aiden.
He’s unconscious and tied to a metal chair. Water drips from the moldy tunnel ceiling and onto his wild hair. Blood leaks from his half-covered face. “Aiden…” I whisper.
He stirs.
“Ah, yes. Wake him up. Let him see what has happened before I allow your father to end him once and for all.”
My eyes go wide with fear. “You can’t!”
Father stands beside us, staring quietly at Aiden. There’s a simmering fury just beneath his silent surface. I can tell he’s just waiting to explode. Waiting until Aiden wakes up so that he can feel every last bit of pain that he’s about to inflict upon him.
“Go on. Wake him up.” Dmitry shoves me forward. When I look back over my shoulder, I can see that he has a gun out already. It’s pointed directly at Aiden.
When I glance over at Dad, all I get is coldness. “Do as he says, Elisa.”
“Never,” I snarl.
Dmitry makes a big show of sighing. “This is getting tiresome. You’re making my cock soft, little girl. Wake him up and say your last goodbye or I’ll make his head explode right now.”
“No.” Father unexpectedly steps forward. “You promised that I could kill him.”
“You fool,” Dmitry snaps. “You’re lucky I’m even letting you live.”
Father immediately steps down. The coward. And to think I ever thought he cared for anyone but himself.
“… Elisa?” The whisper is so faint that I hardly even hear it. Aiden stirs again. Through his parted hair I see an emerald green eye open.
“Aiden,” I breathlessly gasp. Immediately, I’m on my knees and at his side.
“What’s happening?” He mumbles, his brows bending in pain and confusion as he struggles to climb back into the world of the living.
The second I place a hand on his bloody forearm, Dmitry has me by the hair again. I’m violently yanked backwards. But my yelp seems to speed up Aiden’s awakening.
He stares at the two men like he’s not sure exactly what he’s seeing. But that uncertainty doesn’t last for long. “You fuckers…” All of a sudden, the beast his back. He tugs at his restraints and the whole chair shakes. But he’s tied too tightly and all the struggle does is splatter some blood onto the ground. “Unhand her!” he commands.
Dmitry clicks his tongue. “You’re in no position to be making demands, Kilpatrick.” As if to demonstrate this, he thrashes me around a little bit. I try not to cry out, but it’s no use. A little whimper of pain escapes my lips and Aiden goes wild.
“I’ll fucking kill you, Gazin. And you too, Ciro. You fucking coward.”
Father doesn’t seem nearly as afraid of Aiden as he is of the Russian, but I know that’s only because my Irish beast is tied up.
“You’ll be doing no such thing, Brutus,” Father says, stepping forward. He pulls out a gun of his own and smacks Aiden across the temple with the heel of it.
“Stop!” I scream, but that just makes Dmitry toss me around some more.
“You’re making a big mistake,” Aiden growls.
“No. I’m not,” Father says, shaking his head. “My mistakes are in the past. The future has paved them over. Now, we’re building on the mistakes you’ve made. And you’ve made so many mistakes.”
Steam blows from Aiden’s flared nostrils. “My only mistake was not killing you when I had the chance.”
“True,” Father nods. “That was one of your mistakes. But not your biggest one.”
Aiden’s glare reaches past my father, falling on Dmitry. “What the fuck do you want with me?” he spits.
The Russian shakes me some more. “This.”
Aiden’s fists clench underneath the tight ropes. “Why?”
Dmitry laughs. “Because she was promised to me. Why don’t you tell him, Ciro?”
All eyes are back on my father. “It was nothing personal,” he shrugs, looking at me.
His callous words somehow still manage to shock me “… I’m your daughter,” I croak.
“Barely.”
A heavy pain cuts through my heart. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re a bastard, Elisa. Your mother was a whore. One of many at my disposal. We never married and you aren’t my only illegitimate child. The only reason I kept you around was to get back at Rian. To get back at Bree…”
At the mention of his parents, Aiden goes crazy again. He’s a man possessed, and for a second, I almost believe he’ll break free from his restraints. But then Dmitry shouts an order and a group of shadows smothers him again. By the time they’re done with him, Aiden is hovering back over the edge of unconsciousness.
My throat burns from pleading with them to stop. By the time it’s all over, we’re both spent and broken.
“You killed my father. He spared you so many times before and you still had him killed…” Aiden’s voice is like gravel.
Father shakes his head. “That wasn’t my doing. If I had been given a choice, I would have let him live. It was only you who needed to die. But someone else wanted him gone. Someone even more powerful than I.”
“Everyone is more powerful than you,” Aiden spits blood.
Father chuckles. “Not you. Not anymore, and it’s all thanks to your big mistake. You purchased Elisa. Idiot. If you had just taken her like a real man, then I might have been truly fucked. Instead, I was able to use that dirty money of yours to finally buy an audience with the Black Delphi.” Father taps his temple like he’s trying to fashion himself some great genius. “Rian may have always been good at making money, but he never gave me the credit I deserved for everything else. I’m a planner, Kilpatrick. And I’ve been planning this for a long time.”
“Planning what?” Aiden grunts. I can tell that he’s in a lot of pain. Suddenly, it hits me that he might be trying to buy time. Dmitry’s men had said there were some enemy combatants outside one of the tunnel exits. If they’re looking for Aiden, we might have some hope after all…
Father smiles, all too happy to explain his master plan. “You were always my contingency plan, dear,” he says, his empty eyes falling on me. “Your mother was the most gorgeous whore to ever grace god’s green earth. It would only stand to reason that her daughter would bear the same fruit. It’s why I chose to rear you over all of my other illegitimate children. Your hand would fetch a high price. People would prize you. Crave you. Need you. And I was right.”
Father’s eyes turn to slits as he remembers more.
“But by the time you came of age, the Kilpatricks had already taken control of everything, and no one dared cross them again. They feared the Irishmen more than they desired you. I was bled dry. Still, I held on. Because I had another plan. You see, since the day I was accepted into The Family, I saw their weakness. Too many Italians in one organization could never work. We’re too opinionated and hard-headed. It didn’t matter how long they’d already held out for, their downfall was inevitable. Eventually, there would be in-fighting, and I wanted to come out on top when that happened.”
“So, I started to secretly cozy up to the Cheryshev Bratva. They may have been destitute, but they still had avenues to the dark powers that remained in the old world. Powers that I could use to strike down every other mob boss. But I had to bide my time. Eventually, word got to me that the motherland Russians wanted to cross the ocean and expand their influence into the east coast. And not just any Russians, either. The Black Delphi. It was perfect. I had a plan for them. A way they could sneak into the underworld structure here and corrupt it from the inside out. Elisa.”
Dmitry spits onto the ground right next to my feet. Father continues.
“But it’s nearly impossible to gain an audience with these fuckers. It took me years of cozying up to the Russians before I even got a real hint of where to find them. And then, I had to offer up the big bucks just to show them that I was serious. But I didn’t have the money anymore… Until a certain Irishman came knocking.”
Father turns back to Aiden. The bound beast has already figured out the ending of this little story, and it burns through his eyes like a raging fire.
“Your thirty million got me in the door with the Black Delphi, and quickly too. The price you paid for Elisa was the price I paid for Dmitry here to burn down your warehouse. Then, without your security measures in place, I was able to sneak out and meet the man in person. He was all ears. And so was I. In exchange for Elisa I would be given priority in the new world order. A spot at the head of the table. That’s where I belong. But first, we had to steal her back from you.”
“Took you long enough,” Aiden growls.
“I’ll give you credit. You are a hard man to kill. The Black Delphi are assassins. They deal out death in the shadows. But your organization is more like an army. We couldn’t take you head on. All we could do was wait for an opening. We found that opening in Manuel Vignotto.”
“That traitorous bastard…”
“He saw the writing on the wall,” Father says. “Now he’s on his way to Russia to meet the man at the head of it all.”
“Sergey Barinov.”
“That’s right. But forget about him. What’s important now is that you know that I’ve won and that it’s your fault that I’ve won. Because of you, The Family is going to be reshaped under my control. I’ll be the king of the east coast and the Kilpatricks will be dead.”
“The Family is dead, you idiot!” Aiden’s roar echoes through the tunnels like thunder.
Father waits until its quiet again before he corrects him. “The syndicate is far from dead,” he says, shaking his head. “Since the day you purchased Elisa, we’ve been working on the sons of those killed today. Matteo Galli, Adriano Sabatino jr, Enzo Camporese. We telegraphed your treachery to those brats. They are the ones who are in line to take over what the syndicate built and now they’ll believe that you were the one responsible for the deaths of their fathers. I’m going to bring them your head on a silver platter, and they’ll fall onto their knees for me. Hook line and sinker.”
Father looks back over his shoulder at me. His cruel smile burns a hole through my chest. “And you, my daughter, will be right by my side. But not as a D’Ignoti. Not that you ever really were. No. You’ll be a Gazin. Mrs. Dmitry Gazin. The Black Delphi’s Italian figurehead.”
My heart trembles. “I won’t go along with this,” I somehow manage to whisper.
“You don’t have a choice,” Dmitry finally chimes in. “I’ll cut out your fucking tongue and send you to the meetings with a poster board stapled to your forehead if I have to.”
Aiden rumbles in his chair, but he’s getting weaker by the second. So am I. The strength to resist is being leaked out of me with every vicious verbal stab wound.
“You do realize that Brutus here purchased you for the exact same reason?” Father says. “It wasn’t out of love. It was out of convenience. The only difference is that he let lust get the better of him. Dmitry will have no such problem, will you?”
Dmitry’s evil laugh bounces off the dark walls. “I have many whores. They help keep me focused.” He traces the edge of a long fingernail around my lips. “But don’t worry, dove. I’ll make sure you still get your fill of my cock.”
Father doesn’t even flinch. Aiden growls, but he’s losing blood just as fast as I’m losing hope.
The two men who are supposed to protect me either don’t or can’t do anything as Dmitry wraps a fist around my hair again.
“What a touching farewell this has been,” he taunts, tucking his gun back away under his belt. “I guess I did promise that you could kill this asshole. He’s all yours.”
Father grunts and clicks the safety off on his gun.
“No, Daddy. Please…” But my voice is too weak to carry any weight. No one says any goodbyes. I’m just pulled away into the darkness.
