“Goodbye.” Valentin turned and strode out into the cold before she could speak, refusing to glance back even though it killed him. How could he feel so strongly for a human? For a woman he had fallen for in the brief moments she served him coffee?
VALENTINE’S DAY – EARLIER THAT DAY
Aviolent crash exploded through the early morning air, and Amorette woke with a startled yelp.
“What the fu—” her boyfriend Doug leaped from the bed, but the door flew open, cutting off his outburst. The wood splintered as four armed men invaded the bedroom, and before Amorette could register what was happening, two intruders forced Doug to his knees while the other two charged for her.
White-hot panic raced through her chest, and on agile legs, she lunged for the on-suite bathroom. The sheets tangledaround her ankles, and she cursed as she stumbled, but she didn’t stop moving. She didn’t know what she would do in the bathroom. Only that her survival instincts begged her to move. But just as her fingers gripped the doorknob, the men seized her, pulling her back from safety.
Amorette screamed as she fought with all her strength, but her captors overpowered her and unceremoniously forced her to her knees beside Doug. One of them punched her in the mouth, splitting her lip, and an ugly terror slid against her bones, freezing her from the inside out. She had spent the night at her boyfriend’s, crashing after an uneventful and slightly uncomfortable date, and now she was kneeling in only a tee shirt before four armed men. Tears involuntarily slipped from her eyes as she stared down the barrel of a gun. She didn’t understand what was happening, but the gravity of their situation hit her like that punch when a fifth man entered the room.
“Good morning, Doug,” he said as he settled before them. Unlike his companions, the newcomer wore an expensive suit, the immaculate tailoring mocking her oversized and worn tee shirt hanging loosely over her braless chest. He carried no weapon, but there was no mistaking the power shift the moment he entered the bedroom. This unarmed man was the one to fear, and the fact that they weren’t wearing masks wasn’t lost on her. Amorette started to hyperventilate despite her desperate attempts to remain calm. These men had allowed her to see their faces. She wasn’t getting out of this room alive.
“Where’s my money, Doug?” the man in the suit asked calmly, and Amorette's gaze flickered wildly between him and her boyfriend.Money? What Money?
“I…” Doug sputtered. “I don’t have it.”
The suit nodded, and his armed companion punched Doug in the mouth without warning. Amorette screamed as he spatcrimson onto the carpet, and the guard restraining her yanked her by the hair with an excruciating tug.
“Where is my fucking money, Doug?” the suit repeated.
“I don’t know, I don’t have it,” Doug said as blood dripped from his mouth.
“And why is that?”
“Please, Mr. Cattivo,” Doug plead, ignoring the armed men aiming their weapons at him and his girlfriend.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Cattivo asked, leaning forward with disgust as he surveyed Doug’s boxer-clad body. “Did you really think you could steal from me and not get caught?”
“I… I.” Amorette watched her boyfriend blubber as a resounding alarm blared in her brain. She felt manic, out of control with terror. No one broke into someone’s house and held them at gunpoint for some missing cash. No, she was on her knees in her underwear because Doug had stolen a sizable sum from a man who was comfortable aiming a gun at an innocent woman’s face. Bile burned her throat, but she fought it down, desperate not to vomit as tears poured from her eyes.
“I. I. I,” Cavitto mocked before nodding his head. The guard punched Doug again, and the savage blow knocked him to the carpet. “Where is my fucking money?”
“I don’t have it.” Doug started crying. “Please, I don’t.”
“That’s a shame.” Cavitto extended his hand to the man holding Amorette and took the gun from him. With a twist of his wrist, Cavitto aimed it between her eyes, and she pitched back with a yelp. Paralyzing fear flooded her bloodstream, but the unyielding hands pinned her in place.
“It would be an even greater shame if I were to shoot your girlfriend, Doug.” Cavitto continued as the guards gripped her biceps with bruising force, shoving her closer to the weapon. Amorette’s chest heaved wildly as her heart thundered. Thiswas how she would die. On her boyfriend’s dirty carpet in her underwear. She didn’t want to sob like a child. She wanted to be brave, but the swirling panic was a storm determined to shatter her into tiny shards.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Cavitto continued, shoving the gun closer to her forehead, and Amorette gagged on the fear clogging her throat. “Tell me where my money is, or I paint this room with your pretty girl’s brains.”
She threw Doug a desperate look. They were having problems. Fighting had become an almost daily occurrence, but he wouldn’t let this monster murder her. He had to care enough to save her life.
But Doug merely stared at her with fear in his eyes, and with a sinking in her gut, she realized it wasn’t a concern for her life. It was for his and only his.
“No?” Cavitto said in surprise. “Don’t care if I shoot her right between the eyes? You’re a sick fuck, you know that. Oh well, I gave you the chance to save her.” His finger shifted to the trigger, and Amorette screamed.
“Wait!”
Cavitto paused, staring down at her.
“Wait, please. I can get you the money.” She’d been saving to expand the café. It killed her to lose years of hard labor and sacrifice to save a man who clearly didn’t care whether she lived or died, but Amorette desperately wanted to keep her brains inside her skull. “How much does he owe? I’ll pay it.”
Cavitto grinned wickedly, and then with slow and deliberate words, told her the number. Amorette’s skin went icy as her jaw dropped. She didn’t have that kind of cash. No one she knew did, and she looked at Doug with disgust. Hatred coiled in her chest. Hatred of his selfishness and stupidity. Hatred of herself that she was dating him. How had she been so blind? Why had she stayed three weeks ago after that fight? She wasn’t desperatefor love. She wasn’t a woman fooled by good looks. Doug dripped sex appeal, but that wasn’t why she hung on. Something inside her had shifted over the past few months, leaving her confused and unsure. Her emotions were clouded, and she couldn’t decipher her true feelings. When she was with him, she worried they were wrong for each other, but when they were apart, confusion tugged her back. Not even her dreams offered peace, for her nights were filled with a strange longing for a man with ice-blond hair and an otherworldly presence. The only times she’d felt normal were when he came into her café, but he had disappeared. Between her argument with Doug, and the blond’s sudden absence, her heart had morphed into a war zone, all shrapnel and explosions and chaos. She’d never experienced this kind of emotional turmoil, so she stayed with Doug. She stayed, and it had gotten her killed. She didn’t have enough money. She was never making it off this filthy carpet.
“Do you still wish to repay his debt?” Cavitto asked, shifting the gun to remind her of her execution.
“Yes,” she lied. “But the money isn’t here.”
