“Where is Fabi?” I asked when I could breathe again. My ribs throbbed violently from her embrace, but I didn’t want her to know I was hurt. She looked as terrified as she was.
“Asleep. They gave him some kind of sleeping pill because he was having a breakdown.” She looked up at me.
“I was so scared, Gianna. I thought we were all going to die, but Romero protected me and Fabi.”
Her cheeks turned red. Her crush on Romero had grown rapidly in recent months. I didn’t have the courage to tell her what kind of man he must be if Luca chose him as Aria’s protector. Lily would realize soon enough that we were surrounded by villains, not knights in shining armor.
“What about Aria? Romero merely said she was fine before he left Fabi and me alone in that room and told me not to wander around the house because it was too dangerous.”
“She was shot in the shoulder, but the doctor is taking care of her. She will be fine.”
That’s what I hoped. My eyes moved back to the master bedroom . I should have tried to sneak in later, when Doc and Luca had left.
“Go back to your room, I’ll be back soon.” I turned to leave but Lily followed me like a lost puppy.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Lower floor. I want to see the damage.”
“I’m going with you.”
I sighed. Aria would have told our sister ‘no,’ but it was hypocritical of me to tell Lily to behave when I had rarely followed orders in my life. Lily was no longer a little girl.
“All right, but shut up and stay away from men.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m not interested in them.”
“I didn’t say you were, but they might be interested in you.”
I really didn’t want to have to explain to Luke that I had to kill one of his men because they had touched Lily. Of course, I would have to find a way to kill them first. We headed downstairs. The lobby was a mess. Blood and broken glass covered the floor. At least the bodies were gone, but a trail of blood led out to a pile of dead Russians. I really hoped they would not treat Umberto’s body this way. My chest tightened but I fought the sadness. Umberto had chosen this life. Death was part of the game.
I blocked Lily’s view of the bodies and dragged her toward the living room, which was in no better condition.
The white sofas would definitely have to be replaced. I didn’t think any bleach in the world could get the stains out.
Lily made a small distressed sound and I dragged her forward , already regretting allowing her to come with me. A couple of men were smoking a break on the terrace and watched us as we passed. They did not seem bothered by the blood. I walked faster.
“Hey,” Lily protested but I ignored her. If I had been alone , I wouldn’t have cared, but I didn’t want to put my sister in danger.
We headed to the back of the house, where the kitchen was, and almost ran into another man. “Watch where you’re going,” he said, then paused and actually checked us out . I didn’t know him and had no interest in learning more about him.
I pushed Lily past him. His eyes followed us all the way down the hall. When we turned the corner, we came face to face with a steel door, which had been left ajar. A cry of pain launched from below made me shudder.
Lily grabbed my arm, her blue eyes wide. “What was that?”
I swallowed. I had a pretty good idea what was going on, but I wasn’t about to tell her. “I don’t know.” I took a step toward the door, then hesitated. I couldn’t take Lily with me, but I couldn’t leave her alone in the hallway when there were so many creepy assholes running around. I opened the door and peeked down a long dark staircase. Light was spilling out from somewhere in the basement. Lily was almost pressed against my back, her breath warm against my neck.
“You don’t want to go down there, do you?” she whispered.
“Yes, but you will stay on the stairs.”
Lily followed me a few steps further down before I gave her a warning look. “Stay there. Promise me.”
Another cry rang out from below.
Lily gasped, “All right. I promise.”
I wasn’t sure if she meant it, but she sounded scared enough for me to accept the risk. I descended the remaining steps, but stopped on the last step, afraid of what I might see. Exhaling, I descended and found myself in a huge basement. Bile rose to my throat. I was not stupid. I knew what crowds did to their enemies, especially if they wanted to get information from them, but listening to stories and coming face to face with the horrific reality were two very different things.
I leaned my hand against the rough wall, tightening my fingers around the hard edge. Two men were tied to chairs. It looked like Matthew was a tall, muscular guy assigned to extort information from them, while Romero stood on the sidelines, but he must have had some part in the torture too because his hands were covered in blood, and so were his clothes. But that was nothing compared to the sight of Matthew. His white shirt was covered in blood, his rolled-up sleeves revealed blood-covered skin. There was red, red and red, so many different shades. But the worst thing, God the worst thing, was his face. There was no pity or mercy or anything. There wasn’t even excitement or enthusiasm, that was what I was trying to hold on to. At least he wasn’t enjoying what he was doing. He didn’t seem to feel anything judging by his expression.
I had always known that his accommodating, playful, flirtatious attitude was a mask to hide the ugly truth, but once again knowing and having that knowledge confirmed in such a brutal way were two very different pairs of shoes. Perhaps if I had been more naive I might have convinced myself that Matthew was doing this because he had to bury his father today, because he was grieving and needed an outlet for his grief, but I knew better. This was a common mob affair.
Grief had nothing to do with it.
One of the Russians tied up was the man who had hurt me, and I knew that was why Matteo had chosen him as his victim.
I always wanted to get out of the world I had been born into, this cursed and brutal world I knew, but at that moment I decided to really try to escape. No matter the cost, no matter what it would take and no matter what I would have to do, I would escape this hell. How could anyone want to stay when they saw all this?
I knew people got used to these things, but I didn’t want to get used to it. I could already tell that I had less trouble with blood every time I saw it. How long would the sight of someone being tortured do nothing for me? How much longer would it be before the voice in my head that said the Russian bastard deserved it and would do the same to me if he had the chance, was not a hushed whisper but a roaring scream?
Something brushed against my arm and I drew back, barely stifling a cry of surprise. Lily stood beside me and then everything went very quickly. I opened my mouth to send her back up but at the same time her eyes fell on the scene in the center of the room, and I knew things were going to get very bad. I would have heard Lily scream earlier, but it had been nothing compared to the sound that came from her lips when she had seen the blood and the men who had lost it. Have you ever wondered what sound soft lambs make when they are slaughtered? I imagined it was something like that.
I actually turned away from Lily. Her eyes opened wide, then widened frighteningly, her face took on an expression that scared me to death. All eyes turned toward us. Matthew let go of the Russian, squinted his dark eyes at me, as if I had done something wrong. Lily continued to scream , a high-pitched wail that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Romero!” Matteo growled, nodding toward my sister.
“Take care of Liliana.”
Romero advanced toward us. Tall and imposing.
Lily had always adulated him, but now even she could see nothing but the killer in him. His hands were red. Red from blood and Lily completely lost patience. I could only stare. I was unable to move. Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice was telling me to talk to my sister, to try to calm her down, to do something, anything, but that voice was drowned out by the static and terrified noise that filled my head.
The steel door slammed against the wall above our heads, and suddenly Luca was there. “What the fuck is going on here?”
No one answered.
Romero spoke to my sister in a soothing voice. “Calm down , Lily. Everything is fine.”
Really? The scene before us told a very different story . None of it was fine.
Obviously Lily was not to be calmed down. Romero grabbed her by the arm and Luke ran to help him, but she was fighting like an animal. How could such a skinny girl fight two men?
Romero passed his arms around her chest, trapping her arms against her sides, but that didn’t stop Lily from kicking at him and everything around her, and she still wouldn’t stop screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Shut up! Aria will hear,” Luca growled. He tried to grab her legs, but she lunged at him and kicked his chin. He stumbled back, more out of surprise than anything else. Of course they could have easily subdued her if they had not been so careful not to hurt her. I took a step in their direction, worried that they would soon give up the gentle approach , but the ground sloped beneath me and I had to cling to the wall again.
“Lily,” I said. “Lily, stop.”
He didn’t even hear me.
The tall, muscular boy took a few steps toward them as if he wanted to interfere, but Matthew pushed him away.
“NO. Stay out of it.”
I had forgotten about Matteo, but as I watched Lily, he had managed to wipe his hands. They were still pink but at least not smeared with blood. His eyes rested on me but I had to look away. I could not return his gaze at this moment. I had a feeling that I was not far from pulling a stunt like Lily and going crazy with them. The coppery smell of blood hovered like mist in the air, clogging my throat and nose, seeming to sink into my skin, burying itself deep in my body with those horrible images.
Lily managed to kick off the wall, causing Romero to stumble backward, losing his balance and landing on his back with Lily on top of him. He grunted and lost his grip on my sister.
He stood up, with the expression of a hunted animal on his face. His gaze crossed me.
“Lily, calm down,” I tried again.
She tried to get past Matthew but was too fast. He grabbed her wrist and passed an arm around her waist.
Then suddenly she was on her back and he knelt on her legs and kept his hands pinned above her head. Luca walked toward them with a syringe in his hand. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I stumbled toward them despite my wobbly legs. “Don’t you hurt her!” I hissed. “Don’t you fucking dare hurt her!”
“I’m trying my best not to hurt her, but she’s making it difficult. Luke now!” Matteo growled from his seat on top of my sister.
I blocked Luca’s way. “What is it?” I pointed to the syringe.
“Something that will calm her down,” Matteo said.
“Get the fuck out of there.” Luca walked past me, knelt down next to my sister, who was still struggling against Matteo’s grip, and stuck the needle in her arm. It didn’t take long for her to calm down and stop struggling. Matteo let go of her wrists and sat down. Lily whimpered before curling in on herself and beginning to cry silently.
“I hope you all burn in hell,” I whispered harshly as I knelt beside her and stroked her hair. Matthew looked at me with dark, unreadable eyes. There were a few spots of blood on her throat; they seemed to be all I could see.
One of the Russians began to laugh. For a second I thought about punching him in the face. I wasn’t even sure how he was still able to make any sound, given the way he looked.
Matteo stood up and got right in his face. “Shut the fuck up, or I swear I’ll tear your dick apart while you watch.”
“Romero take Liliana to her room and tell the doctor to check her,” Luca ordered, his voice already back to work.
Romero lifted Lily into his arms, and she pressed her face against his chest and sobbed. He was the last person she should have looked to for comfort. He was one of the fucking reasons she had gone off the deep end.
Maybe she hadn’t even noticed who was holding her back.
I got up, too, to follow them. I wouldn’t leave my sister alone with any of them. Luca grabbed my wrist. “First I want to have a word with you.” “Let me go!” I growled but he did not move.
Matthew grabbed Luca’s forearm. “Let her go.”
Luca and he stared at each other for a moment, then finally I was free but now Matteo was blocking the stairs. I still couldn’t look him in the face. Instead I cast a glance at Luca. “I have to go to Lily’s. You may not have noticed, but she had a nervous breakdown because of you sick assholes.
“She’ll get over it,” Luca said in a dismissive tone.
“Do you hear yourself? You disgust me. Lily will never get over what she saw today. She will probably have fucking nightmares for years just because of you.”
Luca smiled coldly. “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself, because I have a feeling she was only down here because she followed you.”
“Luca,” Matteo said in warning. “It wasn’t Gianna’s fault.”
It was my fault, at least in part, but I would never have admitted it in front of them. If it hadn’t been for their sick business, none of this would have happened. I decided to go into attack mode. “I wonder what Aria will say when she finds out what happened.”
Luca squinted his eyes. “You won’t tell her.”
“Oh, I won’t?” I asked. I had absolutely no intention of telling her. He didn’t need the extra baggage, but Luca didn’t need to know. Matteo stood between me and his brother and touched my arms. I pulled back as if he had burned me. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
“I really don’t understand what you see in her,” Luca said.
“Luca, stop provoking her,” Matteo hissed, then turned his dark eyes on me. “You can’t tell Aria. It won’t do any good, it will only make her unhappy.”
“Maybe she will decide to leave him.” I nodded toward Luca.
“Aria will never leave me,” Luca said quietly. ” She took a fucking bullet for me today. I almost lost her. I will never lose her again. And I won’t let you ruin things between us.”
The worst part was that I knew she was right when she said Aria would not leave him, even when I told her what I had seen today. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what kind of ‘man Luca was and what kind of things his men did under his orders. He had killed and tortured for her before, and she still loved him. Somehow she could forget the monster and only see the man when she was with Luca. I was pretty sure I couldn’t do it. I could barely meet Matteo’s gaze.
“I won’t tell him,” I finally said. “But not for you. I’m doing this for her. I want to see her happy.” And for some damn reason Luca was making her happy, happier than I had ever seen her. For her sake, I would pretend.
Luca turned to Matteo. “Take her to her room and make sure she stays there until Scuderi comes for them. I don’t want her to make another scene.”
I held back a sarcastic comment. “I want to see Aria. She needs me.”
I could tell Luca wanted to say “no,” but I was surprised when he said, “You can be with her when I’m gone.”
“It’s not like I’m anxious to be in a room with you.”
“Come on, Gianna,” Matteo grabbed my arm and did not let go even when I protested. He led me up the basement stairs, then down the long hallway and up the stairs. We did not speak until we reached my room and I broke free from his grip.
My eyes ran to his pink hands and blood-covered shirt . Matteo followed my gaze, grimacing. “I’ll go change.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll never forget what I saw.”
Matteo moved closer to me and I held my position, despite my body’s desire to escape. “You are smart Gianna. Don’t tell me you didn’t know what we were doing behind closed doors. Believe me, not even the Outfit faces enemies with gloves on.” “I know. That’s why I despise everything about the fucking mob. And you’re right, I wasn’t surprised by what I saw today. It just confirmed what I knew all along.
“And what is that?”
“That you are a sick fuck and that I would rather die than marry you.”
Matteo drew me to him, his dark eyes practically burning me with their intensity. “Maybe you think you could live in a normal world, maybe you think you could date a normal guy, but you’d be bored Gianna. Maybe you don’t want to admit it, but you get excited to be with someone like me. If a normal guy tells you he would kill and torture to protect you, he’s lying, exaggerating at best, but I’m making a promise I can keep.
“Let me go,” I said.
He did, then turned his fucking shark smile on me and headed for the door. “I’m going to close the door. Luca will unlock it when he takes you to Aria.”
“So you’re going back to torturing that boy?”
Matteo’s gaze darted with an emotion I couldn’t place. “Maybe. I’m a sick fuck, remember?” He slipped out. “But maybe I’ll let Luca have his fun with the Russians first .” His gaze lingered on me for another moment before he closed the door and locked it. I took a vase from the cupboard and threw it at the door where it shattered and fell to the floor.
I closed my eyes, making a promise I was determined to keep. I would run away before my marriage to Matthew. I would leave this life behind and never return. I would try to live a decent, honest and ordinary life.
Afterwards I felt calmer, even though I knew it would be almost impossible to escape the crowd. It would take a plan and help, but my wedding was still ten months away. A long time.
Later, when Luca picked me up and took me to Aria, I didn’t even provoke him. I ignored him, even when he warned me again not to tell Aria about the basement. He didn’t have to worry. I could not burden Aria with the truth, not when she still had to live in this world and with Luke.