Page 144 of Healed

I shook my head, trying to tell him that I couldn’t answer his questions. But his response was to grab a fistful of my hair and bring his face close to mine.

“Here’s how this is going to go, Gabriella,” he muttered to me, pressing his body closer.

I closed my eyes against the onslaught of memories that erupted, feeling my body begin to shake in sheer terror.

“You are going to go home to your little fucker of a Devil and act like nothing happened. You will not tell him you saw me here, nor will you tell anyone else. Especially not that bitch old lady I saw you with. Understood?”

I nodded.

“You are going to smile at that fucker, hug him, and suck his dick like he’s the best thing you’ve ever known. And then, when everyone is nice and relaxed, you’re going to open the back fucking door and let me in.”

My eyes grew wild, my body somehow tensing even further.

“Shh, shh. Stop panicking. This will all be over soon, princess,” he cooed, stroking my hair. “You’ll be back with me soon if you just be a good girl.”

I shook my head again, tears springing to my eyes, my body shaking so hard I was surprised I didn’t collapse. I could practically hear my heart it was thumping so heavily.

“Are you shaking your head at me, princess?” he demanded, his disgusting, alcohol-infused breath hot against my cheek.

I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t going to agree to his ridiculous demands. I would never betray Vienna or the club like that. But if I made that clear, I wasn’t leaving this dressing room alive.

“I asked you a question,” he said, licking along my cheek.

I shook my head, squirming away from him.

“Did I make it seem like you had a fucking choice?” he snapped, grabbing a fistful of my hair and slamming my head back into the wall.

Stars burst in my eyes as pain flooded through me. I couldn’t focus on anything—not what Nico was saying or doing. All I could feel was terror and pain.

As my senses came back to me, I was aware of his hands pushing between my legs, cupping me over my clothes.

“God, I’ve missed this,” he breathed in my ear, his foul breath making me gag beneath his hands. “I fucking promise you, Gabriella, if you don’t do what I say I will make you pay for it. I will take my knife and fuck your sweet little pussy until it’s crying rivers of blood all over my goddamn hands. Do I make myself clear?”

I shook my head again.

“Have you forgotten, baby?” he rasped, biting down sharply on my ear, his hard dick rubbing against my stomach. “Have you forgotten how much fucking joy it brings me to see you in pain? How much I love to watch you colour my sheets red? I swear to you, Gabby, I will make you pay for every second of your disobedience. You’ll end up just like your mother.”

My heart clenched at his words, and a small sob escaped me.

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t know what happened after your darling boyfriend shot her between the eyes, do you? Here, here,” he said, his words rushed and frenzied as he reached into his pocket, somehow pressing himself even closer as he pulled out his phone.

“Look at this,” he said, his face practically rubbing all over mine. “Look at this, sweetheart. Look what I did to Auntie dearest. The love of my baby’s life. My mother-in-law.”

He was incoherent, his words barely making sense.

“Fucking look!” he barked, digging his fingers into my jaw. I tried to pull away, but he had me locked in place. Even if I closed my eyes, I could still hear it. And somehow hearing and not seeing made it worse.

I opened them to see him on top of my mother’s dead body, her eyes glassy and vacant. And Nico was naked. With a knife in his hand. He had my mother’s legs spread and was fucking her viciously.

I quickly snapped my eyes shut again, but it was too late. The images were burnt into my mind. He was so rough with her that it was clear he had snapped her neck from the awkward angle it was lolling on the bed. He was slashing her so deeply with the knife that her chest was unrecognisable.

And worst of all, throughout the entire thing he was manically chanting my name and laughing hysterically.

“You see, you see,” he breathed, rubbing his nose up my face so hard it was flattened against my skin. His hips were grinding into me, and as he put his phone back in his pocket, his hand was running all over me. “It’s you, Gabby. It’s always fucking you. Do you see how mad you make me? Do you see how crazy I am for you? Don’t make me hurt you. Don’t make me—”

A deafening shot had me screaming.

Nico pulled away from me, hissing in pain as the bullet shot through his shoulder. He stumbled back from me and twisted to look at Rachel, who was standing in the doorway of the curtains to the dressing room, holding the gun with both hands, her arms straight and her gaze fixed.