"Good. Now get out."
They scramble out of the cell.
Ronan turns to me. I'm shaking, arms wrapped around myself, trying to maintain some dignity while Tony bleeds out two feet away.
He crouches in front of me, and I flinch back against the wall. He reaches down to Tony's body, the man still making obscene gargling noises as the life disappears from his body. I grimace and close my eyes as I watch him dip his fingers into his neck, coating his hand in blood. As he pulls it out, Tony doesn't make any more noise. I freeze as he brings his hand toward me.
"You're my property now, Miss Messina. Mine to do with as I please." He drags his bloodied fingers across my collarbone first, an obscene, intimate gesture that makes bile rise in my throat. He doesn’t stop at the collarbone. His fingers press and smear, leaving a dark, slick trail down to my breasts. The warm blood is nauseating. "When I want you. How I want you."
The knife appears in his other hand. He presses the flat of the blade against my throat—not cutting, just pressure. A promise. Then his fingers move, his thumb and finger pinching my nipple harshly. I yelp in pain and my hands are up before I can even stop myself, but he catches it with the sharp edge of his blade, leaving a deep cut into my wrist.
"You offered to work off your father's debt, didn't you? In our first meeting?" His voice is conversational. "I'm going to take you up on that offer. Just as you promised."
"That's not what I?—"
"Shh." The knife presses harder. "You don't get to decide what you meant. Not anymore."
Before I can do anything he's backhanded me across the temple. My vision blurs as stars burst behind my eyes and I tumble backwards. His body is on me in an instant. I can feel the weight of him pressing me down into the concrete of the floor even in my disoriented state.
"No..." I begin to plea.
I feel his bloody hand make its way down my body, rubbing me roughly over my panties. My thighs try and clench together to stop him but he's pushing them apart, cutting me deeply with the knife on one side.
I grit my teeth, refusing to let him see me cry. My panties rip and the sound does something to me.
No! I am not going to let him do this to me!
A wad of spit leaves my lips as I lob at it him. I struggle against the weight of him on top of me.
"Fucking bitch," he yells and then he pulls something from his pocket. A cloth.
"What—no—" I try to scramble away but there's nowhere to go.
He presses the cloth over my face. Chemical smell. Sweet and sickening.
"I don't like a challenge," he murmurs as my vision blurs. "Much easier when you're compliant."
I try to fight. Try to hold my breath. But my lungs burn and I gasp involuntarily.
The drug hits fast. My limbs go heavy. The world tilts.
Marco,I think desperately as the darkness pulls me under.Marco will come. He'll find me. He has to find me.
But Ronan's voice follows me into the black: "Sweet dreams, Miss Messina."
The last thing I feel is his hand in my hair before everything goes dark.
CHAPTER 34
Marco
"I'll be back,"I tell Vito, already heading for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To have a conversation with Elio. Make sure he understands what cooperation looks like."
Vito doesn't stop me.
