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Katya
“Gentlemen.” Tex leaned forward in his leather chair and pressed his hands together by his mouth. “Which of you would like to go first?”
“Me.” Chase stepped forward, cutting the rest of the tape from his knuckles with his teeth and tossing it onto the table. He slowly unbuttoned his stark white shirt and freaking folded it on the metal table, then cracked his neck.
Santino was a large guy, lethal, but Chase was jacked to the point that his muscles had muscles. His entire torso was a giant tattoo that wrapped around his neck and down his arms. It dipped into his trousers. His grin was more amusement than anything.
He would enjoy this.
“Set time.” Chase cracked his knuckles.
Santino released my hand and stepped under the one solitary light hanging in the middle of the cold metal room.
I finally realized what the drain in the middle was for and why the floor was concrete… easy cleanup.
I shuddered and stepped back into the shadows, folding my arms over my chest to keep from reaching for him. This wasn’t going to be good.
Tex grabbed his phone. “In three, two, one.”
Santino stood there, still cut up from before, still probably bloody beneath his shirt. He didn’t even raise his fists as Chase threw a punch directly into his stomach. Santino stumbled back, chest heaving, then stepped right back into the light and stood up straight.
Why wasn’t he fighting back or defending himself?
“He’s not allowed to,” Phoenix said next to me. Had I asked that out loud? “This isn’t sparring; this is a punishment. Every scar, every drop of blood, belongs to us and shows he’s willing to bleed for you, willing to die for you, for the Family. To fight back would bring dishonor upon the Sinacore name. The only way into the Family is through blood; the only way out is the same way. Trust me, I learned that lesson the hard way.”
I turned. “You tried to leave?”
Phoenix shook his head sadly and bit down on his lower lip. “No. I tried to destroy them from within.”
My jaw dropped. I heard another hit, then another, followed by cursing from Santino. “Twenty seconds left.”
There was no way!
“So…” I needed a distraction. “Did they—” The dull thud of another hit had me almost putting my hands over my ears. “Did they try to kill you?”
“They did.” Phoenix smirked, then crooked his finger toward me and cupped a hand to the side of his mouth. “Hell didn’t want me, Heaven rejected me, so here I am, the great Grim Reaper of the Nicolasi Family. I may as well be a ghost.”
“You’re too massively noticeable to be a ghost,” I pointed out.
He just shrugged.
“END TIME!” Tex yelled.
When I looked back, Santino was coughing up blood all over the ground. He still had two more people.
I instantly regretted choosing Nixon. He had the baseball bat, and after all the punches, the bat would just hit the bruises and make them deeper. It wasn’t just dangerous; it was cruel.
I took a step forward. Phoenix grabbed my shoulder and jerked me back. “It’s our way; Santino knows that better than anyone. You have to earn your reward.”
“He gets money?” I asked, confused.
Phoenix’s expression went from harsh to humorous. “He has enough money, trust me. No, I was talking about you. He’s done nothing to earn you other than do a job we paid him for. He’s from a powerful Family, but he’s impossible to control. And he wasn’t our choice; he stole a political opportunity the minute he touched you and betrayed Andrei’s trust and ours at the same time, regardless if you seduced him—Santino knows better. It’s funny, though.”
“What?”
Tex cleared his throat. “Nixon, you’re up in three, two, one.”
I looked away as Nixon lifted the bat high across Santino’s back. More cursing from Santino, then thethumpof him collapsing.
