I walked out of my room, then hesitated in the corridor. My eyes darted to the end of the hallway where the master bedroom was. Luca and the doc were probably still taking care of Aria. They’d send me away if I tried to walk in, or worse lock me into the guest bedroom so I couldn’t wander the house. I decided to go in search for Lily and Fabi instead. I yanked my phone out of my pocket and sent my sister a text.
Where R U?
Instead of replying, a door opened and Lily’s dark blonde head poked out. Her face was puffy from crying and her eyes were huge and fearful. When her gaze settled on me, she ran in my direction and threw her arms around me.
“Where’s Fabi?” I asked when I could breathe again. My ribs were throbbing fiercely from her hug but I didn’t want her to know I was hurt. She looked terrified as it was.
“Asleep. They gave him some kind of sleeping pill because he was having a meltdown.” She looked up at me. “I was so scared, Gianna. I thought we were all going to die, but Romero protected Fabi and me.”
Her cheeks turned red. Her crush on Romero had been growing rapidly over the last few months. I didn’t have it in me 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 the bad guys, not knights in shining armor.
“What about Aria? Romero only said she was fine before he left Fabi and me alone in that room and told me not to walk around the house because it was too dangerous.”
“She was shot in the shoulder, but the doc is taking care of her. She’ll be alright.”
That’s what I hoped. My eyes darted to the master bedroom again. I’d have to try to sneak in later when the doc and Luca were gone.
“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.
“Downstairs. I want to see the damage.”
“I’m coming with you.”
I sighed. Aria would have told our sister “no,” but it was hypocritical of me to tell Lily to behave when I’d rarely followed orders in my life. Lily wasn’t a small kid anymore. “Okay, but be quiet and stay away from the 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 Luca that I had to kill one of his men because they touched Lily. Of course, I’d first have to figure out a way to kill them. We headed downstairs. The entrance hall was a mess. Blood and broken glass littered the floor. At least the bodies were gone, but a trail of blood led outside to a pile of dead Russians. I really hoped they didn’t treat Umberto’s body like that. 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 corpses and dragged her toward the living room, which wasn’t in much better shape. The white couches would definitely have to be replaced. I didn’t think any bleach in the world could get out the stains. Lily made a small distressed sound and I pulled her further along, already regretting that I had allowed her to come with me. A couple of men were taking a smoking break on the terrace, and glanced our way as we passed. They didn’t seem bothered by the blood. I walked faster.
“Hey,” Lily protested but I ignored her. If I’d been on my own, 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 bumped into another man. “Watch where you’re going,” he said, then paused and actually checked us out. I didn’t know him and I had no interest of finding out more about him.
I pushed Lily past him. His eyes followed us all the way to the back of the corridor. When we turned the corner, we came face-to-face with a steel door, which was left ajar. A cry of pain carried out from below and made me shiver.
Lily clutched my arm, blue eyes wide. “What was that?”
I swallowed. I had a pretty good idea what was going on but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I don’t know.” I took a step closer to 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 fucks running around. I opened the door and peered down a long, dark staircase. Light spilled out from somewhere in the basement. Lily was almost pressed against my back, her breath hot against my neck.
“You don’t want to go down there, right?” she whispered.
“Yes, but you will stay on the stairs.”
Lily followed me a few steps down before I gave her a warning look. “Stay there. Promise me.”
Another cry sounded from below.
Lily flinched. “Okay. I promise.”
I wasn’t sure if she meant it but she looked freaked out enough that I was willing to take the risk. I crept down the remaining steps, but halted on the last step, scared of what I might see. Exhaling, I stepped down and found myself in a huge basement. Bile shot up my throat. I wasn’t stupid. I knew what the mob did to their enemies, especially if they wanted to get information out of them, but hearing stories and actually coming face-to-face with the horrendous reality of it were two very different things.
I braced my hand against the rough wall, my fingers curling around the hard edge. Two men were bound to chairs. Matteo and a tall, heavily muscled guy seemed to be in charge of pressing information out of them, while Romero stood back, but he must have had some part in their torture too because his hands were covered in blood, and so were his clothes. But it was nothing compared to the sight of Matteo. His white shirt was covered in blood, his rolled-up sleeves revealed blood-covered skin. There was red and red and red, so many different shades of it. But the worst, God the worst thing, was his face. There was no pity, no mercy, no nothing. There wasn’t excitement or eagerness either, that was what I tried to cling to. At least he didn’t get off on what he was doing. He didn’t seem to feel anything judging from his expression.
I’d always known his easygoing, playful, flirty attitude was a mask to cover up the ugly truth, but again knowing and having that knowledge confirmed in such a brutal way were two very different pair of shoes. Maybe if I’d been more naïve I could have convinced myself that Matteo was doing this because he’d had to bury his father today, because he was grief-stricken and needed an outlet for the pain, but I knew better. This was common mob business. Grief had nothing to do with it.
One of the tied-up Russians was the man who’d hurt me and I knew that was why Matteo had chosen him as his victim.
I’d always wanted out of the world I’d been born in, this fucked-up brutal world I knew, but in this moment I made the decision to actually try to flee. No matter the cost, no matter what it took and what I had to do, I would escape this hell. How could anyone want to stay when they saw this?
I knew people got used to these things, but I didn’t want to get used to them. I could already tell that I had less trouble with blood every time I saw it. How much longer until the sight of someone being tortured would do nothing to me? How much longer until the voice in my head that said the Russian bastard deserved it and would have done the same to me if given the chance wasn’t a quiet whisper but a roaring shout?