“Never heard of it,” I said, drawing his attention back to me.
“You wouldn’t have. It’s isolated. Mountainous. Wild. You could live in one of the villages and never see another soul.”
“Are you sure that’s where he’s at?” I asked, not sure if he told me the truth.
“Positive,” Nikos replied. “Now could you get us out of here?”
I stared at Nikos, letting him feel every ounce of what was coming. There was no way he thought I’d let him go.
He flinched when I stepped closer, like he already knew I’d show him no mercy. I crouched in front of him, close enough to smell the fear wafting off his body.
“No can do, Nikos,” I said, voice low and taunting. “I need you to send a message to the Drakos.”
His eyes widened as panic bloomed fast in his eyes. “W…what kind of message?”
I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “The kind they’ll feel in their throats every time they speak my name.”
I pulled the knife and drove it up beneath his chin. His breath caught in a wet gasp, eyes bulging, body jerking like a fish on a hook. I ignored Petros’ screams as I held Nikos there, watching the terror come to life and the message take shape in blood.
Once Nikos went limp, I stood, then faced Petros. He had pissed himself, again.
Pathetic.
“You’re next.” I tilted the blade toward him, letting the light catch the blood still clinging to it. “Then I’m going to string you and Nikos up in the street by your guts. Let them watch your corpses sway in the salty breeze. How does that sound?”
He whimpered, shaking his head, mouthing something I couldn’t understand through his pleas and tears.
I stepped closer. “Think they’ll get the message then, Petros? Or should I carve it into your chest letter by letter?”
Chapter Twenty
Seraphina
With my knees drawn tight to my chest, I trembled against the headboard, every creak of the house set my nerves on edge. I couldn’t tell how long I’d been here. Days, maybe weeks. I didn’t know because I’d been out of it. The darkness he had me in I couldn’t distinguish night from day. But from what I remembered, Dorian hadn’t been back for a couple of days. The blood and dry cum on my thighs were the only evidence that he’d even been here. Although it was a relief he hadn’t been in for a few days, I couldn’t celebrate because I didn’t know how long it would last.
Of course, he blamed me for Sergio’s actions. I was blamed for everything he didn’t like. But how could I have stopped him? Sergio Puglisi didn’t listen to anyone. He didn’t bend for anyoneeven if others got destroyed in the process. I’d learned that the hard way, and the memory of it still made my stomach turn.
I replayed every part of my life with Sergio and Dorian, searching for something I missed or something I could’ve done differently. And the only thing I came up with was I should have stayed far away from both of them. They were both toxic and thrived on negativity. Would Sergio ever hurt me, like Dorian? Of course not. All I had to worry about with him was my heart and soul being shredded into pieces. Dorian, on the other hand, was a physical threat and eventually he’d kill me after he had his fun.
I shivered again, this time not from fear but the biting cold of the air conditioner. It blasted icy air into every corner of the room. I was naked, stripped of everything without the courtesy of even a blanket. No sheets. No clothes. Just my goose pimpled skin against a mattress, and the knowledge that this was another way for Dorian to torture me. This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced what he called cold therapy, at least this time he hadn’t thrown ice cold water on me.
Dorian was always calculated and very deliberate. Everything he did to me happened in the privacy of our home. He liked to watch me suffer in silence and liked the way pain made me small. I hated him for it. I hated the way he turned comfort into punishment, warmth into a weapon that he could withhold whenever he thought I deserved it. It wouldn’t shock me if he was somewhere watching my misery on camera.
I didn’t look around the room. What was the point? My eyes moved, but everything was swallowed by darkness. No light. Nosound. No hint of anything that might give me any clue on how to get out of here, just the thin mattress beneath me. Wherever I was, it wasn’t anywhere I’d ever been before.
Of course that was Dorian’s goal. I didn’t like his brother Vasilas one way or the other. We were cordial because I was married to his brother, but from what I knew of him, I didn’t believe he’d approve of the things his brother did to me.
The silence closed in around me like the world had forgotten I even existed. And maybe it had. Maybe it was better if I no longer existed, especially if I had to go back to being Dorian’s punching bag.
“You can’t think like that,” I chastised myself as I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind. “You have a family who loves you. They’re searching for you.”
He’s searching for you.
From somewhere in the house, a creak sliced through the silence. My head snapped toward the door. My heart thudded so hard against my chest I felt it in my teeth.
I stopped breathing, straining to hear. Was it just the bones of the house settling, or was someone coming?
The sound came again, clearer this time. Not a random squeak but footsteps. Slow and unhurried. My lungs locked up. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the pain build like a storm brewing inside my head.
