“No! Please, don’t shoot him. I’m right here,” I yell over the chaos that’s surrounding us.
“No! Run, Dove,” Zane yells, but I refuse to escape this place without him. Matteo will kill him in an instant.
“Please, please…” I beg as one of Matteo’s men points the gun at Zane while two others hold him to the ground.
I reach them at the same time my father does, the look of disappointment in his eyes would leave me feeling guilty as hell if I actually gave a shit about what he wanted or thought. Another man comes out of nowhere and circles my wrist with his hand like a shackle.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Zane grits out. Even with a gun pointed at his head, his biggest concern is me. “I swear to god if you don’t remove your fingers, I will cut off every fucking one of them and feed them to you.”
“I think that’s the least of your worries right now,” Matteo sneers, frustration overtaking his features. It’s hard to believe a man so cunning, so violent is my father.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, knowing and feeling that something bad is going to happen, deep down in my gut. We aren’t going to get away with trying to escape. There will be consequences, grave ones. I just don’t know how badly they will be yet.
“No, you’re not. But you will be shortly.” Matteo doesn’t even look at me as he speaks. “Take them downstairs,” he orders his men before turning around and walking back inside.
The men holding down Zane grab him and pull him up off the ground. While another comes and grabs me by the other arm, now I’m held on each side. They drag us back toward the house, and I’ve never felt more like a prisoner in my life. Fingers dig into my biceps, and I want to struggle—to kick and scream, but it would do me no good.
I’m a bird caught in a cage, my wings clipped, my spirit gone. Directing us around the side of the house, the men open a side door. They enter with Zane first and then me. Sweat beads against my forehead, and my body feels like a knot tied into a pretzel. They release both of us, and instantly, Zane is off the floor and rushing toward me. His hands move over my face, down my shoulders and arms like he’s searching for injuries.
“I’m okay,” I say when I see the panicky look in his chocolate brown eyes. His only fear is losing me, or someone hurting me, and my only fear is the same happening to him.
“Who will be taking the punishment for disobeying me?” My father’s deep unapologetic voice pierces my ears, and in a second, Zane turns from the comforting boyfriend into a vicious guard dog. Turning to face my father, he shields my body with his.
“Hurt her, and I will kill you in the most painful of ways you can imagine.” The rage and anger. It erupts out of Zane like a volcano exploding. The burning hot lava licking at my heels.
“You’re talking a lot of shit for someone that’s alive because I’m allowing him to be.”
“You aren’t allowing shit,” Zane spits.
The tension grows thicker with each word that’s spoken, and I have to try and diffuse the situation before Zane gets hurt or worse killed.
“Please,” I beg, stepping from behind my guard dog, and instead, to the spot beside him. Matteo turns his hardened gaze to me.
“The first thing you’ll learn about us Castro’s is that we don’t beg, not for mercy, and definitely not for forgiveness. Now, tell me, will it be you, my sweet daughter, or will it be your junkyard dog of a boyfriend that takes the punishment.”
“Me!” Zane and I both say in unison. I can feel his eyes shooting daggers into me.
“How cute, you’re trying to protect each other. Funny, neither of you know what you’re protecting the other from.”
“Whatever punishment it is, I’ll take it.” The words rush out of Zane’s mouth, and Matteo lets out a chuckle of amused laughter.
“Here is the deal…we aren’t going to play games all night as my patience for your bullshit is running thin.” One of the guards hands him a long stick, that looks to be made of bamboo. What is he going to do? Quivering with fear, I take a step back. “I’m going to cane one of you. If Dove decides to take the punishment, she will receive one strike. If you decide to take it, you will receive ten. What’s it going to be?”
“I’ll do it,” I say, my voice trembling. “Zane is still healing from the gunshot wounds. Let me do it. Please!”
“You will fucking not!” Zane’s voice booms through the space as he shoves me backward. The anger in his voice triumphs any sound I’ve ever heard. Before I can object or make a move, he’s tugging his shirt off and walking over to Matteo.
“Stand with your hands against the wall,” he orders Zane, whose movements are now robotic, almost as if he’s shut down. It feels like I’m watching this from outside my body. Lifting the cane, he continues, “This is your only warning. If you try and fight me, Dove will incur the same punishment. Do you understand?”
Zane merely nods, his head tipped forward, his chin tucked into his chest. All I see at that moment is William. Protecting me. Saving me.
“No! Please, don’t do this. Please, we won’t do it again, I swear.” The words tumble out of my mouth as I rush toward my father, but before I reach him, an arm circles my waist and pulls me backward.
Without even looking at me, the monster of a man called my father says, “This is your first lesson, sweetheart. Sometimes, mistakes are made, and sometimes, you make a bad choice, and others pay the consequence. Learn from your mistakes.”
Without warning, he brings the cane down on Zane’s back. The sound is heartbreaking, and I fight with all my might against the man holding me back, but it doesn’t do me any good. He just tightens his hold on me. Kicking and screaming, I watch through teary eyes as Zane takes each lash of the cane on his back as if it’s nothing. As if he doesn’t feel the pain at all.
His hands ball into tight fists but remain against the wall. How can he do this to him? How can he beat someone without blinking? At the fourth strike, his skin starts breaking and blood trickles down his back. My throat is raw, and my lungs burn by the time the beating is over.
As soon as the last lash is delivered, the guard releases me. Anger flows freely through my veins, overtaking the sadness that was just there. I want to hurt all of these men, destroy them, make them pay for what they’ve just done.
“I hate you! I hate you so much. You will never be my father. Never,” I scream at Matteo as I rush to Zane, who sags to the floor in defeat. His back a bruised and bloody mess.
“Hate me all you want, Daughter, but you will learn to follow my rules and learn to obey me, or more punishments like tonight will occur.”
I don’t bother responding to him, and he doesn’t wait for me either. Handing off the cane to one of his guards, he shoves his hands into the pockets of his sleep pants and walks up the stairs. At the top, he turns around, and his eyes are like knives driving into my still-beating heart.
“Try and escape again, and you won’t like what happens, Dove.”
I steal my spine and curl my lip. “You don’t own me.”
“Ha, but I do. I created you, which means I’m your god,” he says and disappears into the house. His men slowly filter out, and I remain sitting on the cold hard ground beside Zane, listening as his breaths turn from ragged to nothing but a wheeze.