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“What are you doing?” I cried, as Este marched towards me. With one violent blow, he backhanded my face with so much blunt force, I fell back on the bed and stars danced behind my eyes. I groaned as the slicing pain flamed against my cheek and I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Here,” the tattooed man threw his phone at Este and then pried my legs open. As the dizziness faded and I realised what was about to happen, I started to scream and fight against him as he grabbed my panties and ripped them down my legs. He licked his lips, leaned his body over the top of me and slammed his mouth against mine in a hard kiss. I pushed at his chest with my one free hand, wriggling beneath his muscular frame as panic started to take over. He was going to rape me and Este was filming it. His wet tongue slid down my neck and I screamed, turning my head to bite his cheek with my teeth as hard as I could. He roared and then laughed, as he reached between us to undo his jeans.
“You fucking bitch. I’m going to enjoy this. And your brother is going to enjoy watching it,” he hissed. At that moment, my body and mind switched off. I stopped fighting as the tears started gliding down my cheeks and I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable.
But it never came.
A brutally barbaric roar and the loud sound of painful impact collided with the man’s body, knocking him off me completely. I opened my eyes and scrambled up the bed to see Alessio and the man rolling on the floor together. Alessio was on top of him, hammering his fist into the man’s face in vicious blow after vicious blow. He was enraged. I had never seen such inhumane violence and pure aggression from one man as he continued to smash his face in, roaring with every punch. The man was definitely unconscious now, his face was a mess of blood and torn skin. I whimpered and cried as I buried my head into the pillow. Fabi stormed in, pulling Alessio off of him, but he managed to shove Fabi off and started to kick the man’s side, the cracking of ribs filling the air.
“ALESSIO! STOP. YOU WILL KILL HIM!” Fabi roared, trying to pull him back again. I peered out from behind the pillow to see Alessio heaving violently, staring down at the man on the floor. He spat on him and turned to look at me. Those blue eyes were wild and stormy like a caged beast that had just been set free. His chest rose and fell with ragged breaths and his hands and knuckles were covered in blood.
“Boss. I’m sorry. Dante said that you had ordered it to happen. That it was-” Este stuttered, stepping back from him towards the door. In the blink of an eye, Alessio grabbed Fabi’s gun from his belt and shot Este between the eyes. His body slumped to the floor by the bed and I screamed, screwing my eyes shut.
I felt a hand on my bound wrist and I jumped in fright. His ocean eyes bore into mine still with that terrifying savagery, but they had softened as he unlocked the handcuff. He didn’t say a word, but looked at me as if he was about to break. I dived at him overwhelmed with relief, wrapping my arms around his neck and buried my face into his shirt. He lifted me up in his arms and marched me out of the room. He shouted at Fabi to get Zia as we stormed down the corridor.
I clung to the strength of his body, breathing in the vanilla and woody scent of him to calm me. For some reason, I felt completely safe in his arms. He sat down on a bed in a new room with me on his lap and I pulled my head back to look around. It was a larger room than mine and was designed in light grey and creams with large colourful paintings on the walls. It was stunning.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice choking with a mix of pain and fury. I looked up at his face and my bottom lip trembled as I shook my head. I burst into tears and dropped my head to his chest as he started stroking my hair and held me tight against him. “I’m so sorry, Elle. I was a fucking idiot leaving you like that. Did he—” he paused, unable to say the actual words and I shook my head.
“No. No, you got there just in time,” I mumbled and he exhaled in relief. “Who is he?”
“My sick and twisted cousin, Dante. He wasn’t meant to be here. I’m sorry, Elle. I will fucking kill him if I haven’t already,” he gritted through his teeth and I shook my head.
The door creaked open and Zia walked in but I didn’t look up. I clung to Alessio like my life depended on it, my whole body trembling. “Zia is here to look after you. I have to go and deal with that fucker.”
“No!” I cried, gripping his biceps tighter like a needy child. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“You’ll be safe in here, I swear. This is my room and Zia is going to stay with you. I’ll be back,” he whispered into my hair and I reluctantly let go of him. I moved off his lap and onto the bed as Zia sat beside me, lifting a blanket over my shoulders and pulling me into her arms. Without looking back, he stormed out the door with large strides.
I strolled into my papi’s meeting room to find him seated at the end of the table, his hands placed flat against the expensive oak and Elio, his brother and our family’s consigliere, sitting beside him.
“Boss. Elio,” I nodded to them both in greeting and went to pull out a chair. Papi held his hand up to stop me and I paused. I kept my face neutral, void of any emotion as I held his gaze. I knew what was coming. He was livid.
“Explain to me why it is that I have to hear from Dante that not only has a shipment been given to our enemies, but you have Elenora Buccini as a hostage in your house?” He spoke calmly, but with a sharpness that I knew far too well. It’s the same way I had learned to keep my rage bottled up inside until the perfect moment.
“I was about to ring you this morning to fill you in on Elenora when Dante called about the shipment,” I explained, knowing nothing I said would be enough.
“You were about to call? Nearly two days after the girl came into your possession. Why the fuck did I not know about this, two days ago?” he snapped, his brown eyes flaring with brutality.
I exhaled and straightened my back, shifting my weight onto my good leg. I knew what I was about to say would cause a beating.
“I didn’t know either. Lorenzo ordered the kidnapping of Olivia Buccini without my knowledge. Because he's about as useful as a nun in a brothel, it went wrong and he took Elenora instead. I decided to take her back to the South to keep Giovanni from finding her so easily and stopping retaliation in the North.”
“Well, it hasn’t stopped Giovanni, has it? Sergio has just run to him with millions worth of cocaine and weaponry. My fucking shipment,” he roared before coughing dramatically and Elio handed him a handkerchief from his suit. I stood waiting for the shame to eat away at me.
“You have disappointed me greatly, Alessio. Never have you fucked up so badly. I can’t even look at you,” he choked, waving his hand dismissively in front of him. Two of his soldiers walked into the room and surrounded me. I lifted my chin higher as I prepared for what would come next.
“I understand, Boss.”
I felt a brutal punch to the right of my back but barely moved. Another came to my side, followed by an identical one on the other. I clenched my fists at my sides to stop myself from retaliating. I couldn’t fight back unless Diego said I could. It was all about control. He felt out of control because of my actions and this was a reminder of who was the true Boss.
A kick to the back of the leg with the gunshot wound caused me to fall to my knees and that’s when they really started going for it. At one point, one of them stood directly on my wound with the heel of their shoe and I hissed at the burning pain, making a sound for the first time.
“Fight back,” Diego suddenly ordered and I jumped to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my leg as I instantly knocked one out with a blow to his temple and then sent lethal punches into the other soldier’s stomach.
“Enough,” Diego shouted and I immediately stopped, panting heavily. “Sit down, son. And let’s sort this mess out.”
Taking a seat at the table, I clasped my hands together and stared Diego in the eyes. It was one thing he was always so focused on. Eye contact. A form of true respect.
