The bag around my head is torn off, and I suck in a much-needed breath of air. But it’s not fresh or cold to my lungs. The air here is filled with the scent of sweat, blood, and vomit, instantly making me retch.
My eyes only barely open, the light crippling me with headaches and stabbing pains as the world begins to spin. I can barely see my surroundings, let alone guess where I am. All I know is that these walls around me are splattered with all the colors of a human body’s fluids.
Where the fuck am I?
And how did I even get here?
Think, Marcello, think.
I ducked for cover with Harper when the Irish jumped over the fence to ambush us. And when they came close, I shot them one by one and told her to run for it. But they came closer and closer and then—
My hand flinches as I try to bring it to my face, but I can’t.
My wrists are bound on my back.
Fuck.
I try to get up from the floor without toppling over again, trying my best not to vomit all over myself. They must’ve drugged me. No way in hell I would’ve come quietly, and they knew. But fuck me, this stuff really makes you sick.
After I’ve managed to stand, I bend over and heave, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the floor. The stench is exactly the same as the scent that’s been lingering in the air. Did they drug someone else too?
I look around. My cell is only a few feet wide on all sides. Barely big enough for one person to sleep on the floor. Not that I want to get anywhere near the ground right now.
There are no windows and only a single metal door that’s covered in bloody scratch marks.
How many prisoners have they kept here?
“Hey!” I yell.
I wait for a couple of minutes, but no one comes in. Of course not. They want me to feel helpless, defenseless, hopeless. It’s how they turn me from a don into a pile of shit. But I won’t play that game.
I know I have someone out there waiting for me to get back unharmed, and I will do whatever it takes to get out.
“I know you can hear me!” I yell, looking for the cameras.
When I find one, I stare straight into it, not wavering even for one second. “I know you can fucking see me! Come here and face me, you cowards!”
It doesn’t take too long for the door to be ripped open violently. A man with a mask steps inside.
“You gonna hide from me now?” I spit on the ground. “Pathetic.”
When I attempt to charge him, he whips out a Taser and buzzes me with it. Pain shoots up and down my body, causing my muscles to spasm as I fall to the ground and roll around.
“Fuck you!” I growl. “Let me the fuck out, or I will kill each and every one of you!”
The man laughs. “I’d like to see you try.” He bends over and grabs a fistful of my hair, dragging me up from the floor. I attempt to bite him, but I can’t get close enough. If it wasn’t for these shackles around my wrists, I would’ve ripped his throat out by now.
“Only a pussy would hide behind a mask,” I hiss.
He lifts me into the air, choking the life out of me. “And only an arrogant don would dare to antagonize the Irish.” The stomp to the stomach that follows makes my insides coil.
“Can’t even handle one punch.” The man laughs and throws me down onto the floor. Then he stomps on my chest and shoulders until I’m covered in bruises.
“Had enough yet?” he growls.
I cough up some blood. “When my men find me, you’ll be the first to die.”
He laughs out loud. “I doubt that.” And he adds one more kick like he wants me to feel bad for every word I spit. But I will never, ever show weakness to these sons of bitches.
“Who’s making you do this, huh? Frank? Molly? What amount of money is worth your goddamn life?”
The man cocks his head. “Enough. More than you’ll ever see.”
He grabs my wrists and drags me to the wall, locking my arms in place in a contraption that keeps me from trying to fight him off. “Mark my words … I will slit your throat before the week is over,” I growl, and I spit on his mask.
He wipes it off slowly and swipes it on my face, clutching my chin. “Oh, trust me … you and I are going to have a lot of fun.”
Hours, days, I don’t know how much time passes. I have no way to keep track, and every inch of me hurts too much to focus. My skin is bruised, bloodied, spit and vomit on the floor from all the times I got punched and kicked in the gut. I’m sure he broke a bone or two. The fucker sliced into my skin with his knife until my blood poured out onto the floor and all over my body, making me feel woozy in the head from the blood loss.
But I never, ever answered his questions.
Where is Harper?
Where are they keeping her?
Give her up.
I refuse.
I will never betray her. Not even if it costs me my life.
My Kitten … and my baby … will be safe.
And every pint of blood I lose will be worth it if they get to survive.
The door opens up again, and I look up through my thick blue eye. A man is shoved inside and thrown onto the ground. He’s bound, gagged, and completely beaten up, just like me.
But only after he finally raises his eyes do I realize who it is underneath all those bruises and bloodied cuts.
“Claudio.”
He can’t even get up from the floor, that’s how broken he is, and it hurts to see.
“Marcello?” he murmurs, spluttering his words as if it costs him all his energy just to talk. “Is that you?”
“Yes, Claudio. I’m here,” I say, jerking the chains, but I’m still stuck as ever, unable to help him. “I’m sorry, my friend. I would help you if I could.”
“How are you here?” he asks, still half out of it.
He rolls around and manages to crawl to the wall.
“They ambushed us at the house and overwhelmed me.”
“I’m sorry, boss,” he says. “If I was there, I would’ve protected you.”
I shake my head. “No. I failed you. I should’ve trusted your instincts. You knew the Polish couldn’t be trusted, and I ignored your advice. And for that, I apologize.”
He smiles, but his face is so bruised it’s barely noticeable.
“I understand, Marcello. Do not apologize. You are the don.”
“A lousy don,” I respond. “You’re in this position because of me.”
With my foot, I wiggle my way over to the chair that’s in the corner and drag it toward me so I can plop it down and sit on it. Even though my arms are still tied to the wall, at least now I can let my back rest a little.
“You will see Harper again, Marcello,” Claudio says after a while.
“Yes. It’s the only thing that keeps me going.” I take a deep breath. “I must see my baby grow up.”
His eyes widen. “Baby?”
I nod. “She’s pregnant.”
His jaw tightens. “Then you must get back.”
“We,” I add, looking straight into his eyes. “We will get back to our families. Alive. I promise you I will find us a way out of this mess.”
Claudio nods a few times, sighing out loud as he releases the pent-up tension in his body from all the torture he’s endured since he was taken captive.
Suddenly, the door opens again, but no guard has come to torture us.
The one standing in the door opening is none other than Molly herself.
The mere sight of her makes me lunge forward until the chains that keep me secured jerk on my bones.
“I see you’re still chirpy,” she muses.
I spit on the floor in front of her. “You dare to chain a fellow don? When I get out, I’ll fucking murder you myself.”
She laughs maniacally. “Spoken like a true gentleman in chains.” A guard comes in and shackles Claudio to the wall before he can even think of stepping in to fight our captors. Then he leaves us alone with that fiend of a woman again.
“Hmm …” she hums with too much arrogance, and it pisses me off. “Seems like you got yourself in a tight spot, Marcello.” She walks over to me with a swagger in her steps, clicking her heels like she owns the place even though her husband pulls the strings.
“All tangled up in our affairs.” She’s right up in my face now, sliding her slimy fingers down my cheeks to taunt me. The look on her face darkens as she grabs my cheeks. “Tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I respond.
Her lips twitch, and she releases me again. Suddenly, she punches me right in my gut, where that damn guard has had a field day.
“Leave him alone!” Claudio yelps.
“Shut up, you maggot!” she throws back, and then she turns her attention back to me. “We can play this game as long as you want. I’ll let that guy out there have his way with you whenever he likes.” She pulls my hair and shoves my head into the wall. “You think giving pain is the only thing he can do?” She smirks.
“Let him try,” I hiss back.
“He’ll rip your guts out and make you eat them,” she says. “Now tell me where she is, and I’ll spare you the pain.”
“Why do you think I would ever do that?” I quip.
She whips out a knife and holds it down against my throat. “You hurt the only man I love.”
“Your daughter did that,” I retort.
“She’s my fucking daughter, Marcello. You stole her away from me. Filled her head with lies.”
“She never wanted to be yours,” I spit back.
“SHE BELONGS WITH ME!”
I guess I’ve struck a nerve.
“Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” She gives me another punch to the gut, so I lean over to heave, my skin hovering dangerously close to the knife.
“You think you can hurt me?” I scoff and chuckle even though it hurts. “Your punches are as limp as your husband.”
“You think you’re so funny with your sad comments. But you’re dumber than I thought you were,” she retorts. “So dumb you thought we wouldn’t be able to hear what you said to your cellmate over here.”
“What?” Claudio mutters.
“Harper … pregnant.”
The words are followed by a gleam in her eyes as she witnesses the unraveling on my face.
Of course, she was listening in.
I thought they were only cameras, but this whole cell is bugged.
And now she knows.
“My little girl … pregnant from the filth I wipe off my boots.” She pushes the knife deeper into my skin until the blood begins to ooze out. “You think I can’t hurt you the way you hurt me?” A vicious smile forms on her lips. “Wrong.”
She takes the knife off in an instant and marches back to the door.
“What are you going to do?” I ask, my pulse racing.
She pauses while clutching the door handle, throwing Claudio a look before she glances at me over her shoulder. “I will find her … and when I do … I will rip that baby from her womb and cut it to shreds.”
She waves her knife around before exiting the door, leaving me with nothing but the unshakable need to roar.
