Valentina
*The night of the attack*
I tried my best not to breathe.
Each shallow inhale made my ribs scream in protest, but I couldn’t afford to be caught.
Not now.
My mind was reeling, heart hammering in my chest as I pressed myself against the stone wall, my sense of touch the only thing keeping me going. The shadows were my only protection.
I gripped the rough surface, fingers digging into the stone to steady myself.
The man was close. Too close.
He had tried to get me to go with him, smuggle me out of the estate, under the cover of night, promising false safety.
But everything about his words was wrong, from the cold gleam in his eyes to the way his hands had lingered too long when he grabbed me.
Desperation to find Isabella had led me to this mess.
“Come now,” He had whispered harshly, pulling me down the hall, his grip like iron around my wrist. “If you make a sound…”
The hidden threat wasn’t lost to me. Not when he pressed the side of his waist that held his gun to my back.
I had hesistated for only a second, a wave of nausea churning in my stomach. But when I heard nothing in the silent estate, I knew I had no choice.
This man. He would take me, and no one would be wiser.
The further we moved from the estate, the darker it became until the only light guiding us was from the moon peeking through the trees.
When we reached the thick forest just outside the estate, everything changed.
Hisnhrip tightened painfully, and before I could react, he shoved me against a tree, my back slamming into the bark so hard the wind was knocked out of me.
I gasped for air, but he didn’t give me a moment to recover.
“Matteo must have thought he was so clever,” He laughed, though his voice had turned cold, laced with venom. “All those men. All those covered entries. Just because he wouldn’t agree to something so insignificant.”
So this was the reason he assaulted me so brutally. Because of Matteo….
The man who chose to stay away from me instead of answering my question.
The shock of my annoyance clung to me like ice, freezing me in place as his words registered.
This wasn’t a vendetta against me.
It was a trap for Matteo.
“You don’t know what you’re doing..” I managed to choke out, though the pain in my ribs made it hard to speak. My mind raced for a way out. Some way to escape before this situation swung further out of control. “Matteo doesn’t care about me.”
But the man was faster.
He grabbed me by the throat, slamming me again, this time harder, my skull cracking against the tree behind me.
Stars exploded in my vision, and I fought to stay conscious, my hands clawing as his arm as I struggled to breathe.
I had asked him.
Asked him to train me.
“I’ll kill you right here,” He hissed, his breath hot against my skin. “Matteo isn’t here to save you. No one is.”
His words sent a fresh wave of panic crashing over me.
Matteo.
Would he even care if I had died?
Or would he be glad to have gotten rid of another inconvenience.
With all the strength I could muster, I shoved at his chest, trying to break free from his grip.
But he was stronger.
His hand tightened around my throat, cutting off my air completely.
I couldn’t breathe.
My lungs screamed in protest, my vision swimming as blackness started to creep in at the edges.
I was going to die here.
Alone. In the dark.
And Isabella…. I couldn’t save her. I would never know if she was safe.
Just as the darkness threatened to consume me, I heard a shout in the distance.
The man’s grip loosened slightly in his distraction, and I took the opportunity to knee him in the groan as hard as I could.
He grunted, doubling over in pain, and I stumbled backwards, falling hard onto the cold, wet ground. Pain shot through my side, but I ignored it, crawling frantically toward the nearest tree for cover.
The shouts were getting closer. Help was coming.
I barely had time to register what was happening before the man was on me again, this time with a knife. The gleaming blade caught the moonlight as he lunged, and I threw my arms up in defence.
The knife slashed across my forearm.
“Stay still.” he growled, pinning me to the ground. His weight was unbearable, and I could feel the dirt pressing into my back as he straddled me, the knife poised to strike again.
This was it. He was going to kill me.
But then, a deafening crack echoed through the forest.
For a moment, everything stopped. The man’s body stiffened above me, his eyes wide in shock. And then, he collapsed, a dark stain spreading across his chest. His weight fell onto me, pinning me to the ground.
I gasped, the air rushing back into my lungs as I shoved his body off me, scrambling to sit up.
The sound of footsteps approached rapidly, and through my hazy vision, I saw someone. His face was twisted in fury, his gun still raised, and smoke trailing from the barrel.
He was breathing heavily, his eyes wild as they locked onto me.
“Miss Valentina,” he breathed, dropping to his knees beside me. He touched my cheek gently, his hand trembling. “Valentina, are you okay?”
But I couldn’t answer him. The adrenaline that had kept me going drained out of me all at once, leaving me weak, trembling.
My head spun, and the pain in my body roared to life all at once. The world tilted, and I barely registered the man shouting my name as I collapsed into his arms.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
*
Matteo.
*Present time*
“You’ve got blood on my shirt, Raphael,” I rolled up my sleeves, hiding the tiny bloodstain in question. “That’s the second strike.”
He glared at me, his expression deadly beneath the blood and bruises. He was tied to a chair, his arms and legs bound with rope so he couldn’t escape.
The accomplice of the other man Jackson had shot.
“You talk too much,” Raphael spat out a mouthful of blood and some teeth. “Just like your wife must have done. That’s why we couldn’t get the job done.”
Raphael Winters. Drug addict, petty thief, and a man with the brain the size of groundnuts.
I smiled, then hit him again.
He had been in their getaway car, a few yards from the estate waiting for his second. Ready to kidnap my wife away from me.
His head snapped back, and a pained groan filled the air.
My bruised knuckles stung.
When it came to things like an attack on one of my buildings, or in this case, the estate itself, I allowed my men like Jackson to handle it.
But he came after my wife. My wife.
“She made it quite easy, though. We saw her with that other man and knew the one thing she would always fall for. Her sister,” Raphael laughed again. “It was easy to place the note under her pillow when we had our own spies in your house…..”
I didn’t wait for him to finish. The snap of the belt on his back was the only sound that filled the air, followed by another pained grunt.
It didn’t stop him from laughing like a maniac, though.
“You should guard your estate better. We’ve been slipping in and out for months now.”
His grin was made of mockery and crimson, too stupid to realize his mistake.
I took the second whip from Jackson, walked over, and yanked his head back. “You better start talking about the people planted in my estate. And who sent you?”
A second later, a howl of agony filled the air.
It did nothing to stop the ache deep inside me. And I didn’t stop until the howls stopped altogether.