His words didn’t matter to me. I was gulping in air like I’d never tasted it before. It was cold, and I was shivering so hard my teeth were high fiving, but the air…it tasted delicious to my lungs. Then Boris took me by what little hair I had left and a sound I never thought I could make escaped my mouth. It was horrible. Something a dying animal would make while fighting for the dignity of a clean death.
Whatever was going on with my head…it was almost indescribable. The pain was so bad, I puked.
A little stomach liquid didn’t bother Boris. He was whisper-snapping at me in Russian, like he blamed me for all his problems, and the next thing I knew, he started to beat me.
One hit, I screamed out in agony, and, have mercy, my light faded.
Chapter 12
Matteo
Proof of life constantly flickered in red, pulsing bursts on Saverio’s handheld contraption. So many, the thing seemed to glow in the darkness, a bunch of blood spots pulsating against the dark screen constantly. The device itself was used to find life in the darkness. Saverio figured that we were probably going to have go deep into the bowels of Paris to find Stella.
There was no fucking way, given how much the Nemours coveted their dancers, the Nemours or the Russians were going to give Stella up so easily. For the Nemours, it was all about the bottom dollar, and that they refused to lose another dancer to us. Even though mamma had never belonged to them in the first place.
After Saverio, Mia, and Evelina had made the trip to dig deeper into Stella’s past, her placement with the Nemours, and what happened to her after, all fell into place, and fell into what was normal for the Nemours. Take a dancer, make her theirs, and then control her entire world. Somehow, though, Stella’s fate with them was worse, because she could pull in more money than any of their other dancers. Even mamma.
Maybe in terms of today’s money value, it would have been the same, but all in all, the amounts were enormous. Andprobably shocking to people who couldn’t believe other people would pay a small fortune for a fantasy and believe it to be true. But I had no such delusions—there were a lot of people out there who were delusional, and to add to it, they had a lot of money to burn.
Stella was caught in the fucking fire, just like my mamma had been. Saverio had brought up a valid point on the ride over. Stella’s life would have been mamma’s if papà wouldn’t have stood between mamma and them.
All I could think was that, if papà wouldn’t have left mamma to begin with, mamma wouldn’t also have been around them in the first place. But history was history, and there was no changing it.
I was going to change the course of Stella’s fate. No one was ever going to hurt her again. I’d be the shield that stood between her and the rest of the world, whether she loved me or not. Though, thinking back on that night, I recognized her right away, and I knew she’d fucking found me too, in ways that went much deeper than skin. We knew each other. Knew right away that we were looking at our future. Our love was written in the stars, and we’d finally crashed into each other.
Mamma said that was why Stella had run from me. She was terrified of what she was feeling, because if it was wrong, she couldn’t survive such a disappointment of that magnitude. She’d been through so much already. I had no clue the depths of her despair, but I wanted to know it. To feel it. Then steal it the fuck away from her so I could carry it.
Saverio nudged me and we went in another direction.
Lev and his men had taken care of the top level of Sub Rosa, which was a restaurant and front for the underground club below it. Once we were able to move past the first stop, Saverio worked his magic and let us into the underworld. A dancer who was dressed like Stella (but had nothing on her) was doing herthing on the stage. The crowd was restless, already irritated because they knew better. A few of the men had been down to see her before and were calling out the club for trying to dupe them with a fake. A dancer who didn’t come close to what Stella could do. It was like watching a falling star and then comparing it to fireworks. Worlds apart.
Sub Rosa was a challenge because of the security, but it turned out to be lax. Not at all what it should have been, which told us what we’d expected. The Nemours and their Russian partners had taken Stella and hidden her, knowing this attack was coming. Since we’d been down here before, and Saverio and his family were geniuses, he had come prepared with everything we needed to find her.
The Paris underground was vast, branching off in many directions. I could remember the way Stella had led us, but we didn’t go nearly as far in as we could have. My brothers and I were able to get out without much need for direction. I highly doubted going in further would be easy to navigate, and no one wanted to get stuck down in the tombs.
I thought about the rats, and my blood ran cold.
I thought about them taking her some place far, far away, where it would take me years to find her, and my entire body trembled with rage.
I absolutely fucking refused to think about what Régine’s husband-on-paper wanted to do to Stella—no, just keep moving forward.
Saverio held a hand up when we entered the tomb section, and everyone flattened against the wall in case a hail of oncoming bullets met us. We all turned our headpieces down and could see in the darkness. A bunch of men shivered at the sight of rats sneaking back and forth. The vermin were the size of small dogs, and I doubted a regular household cat could take care of them. Lions would be needed.
A hand shot out, giving directions. Saverio again. He was the head of this mission, and we all followed his lead. He was giving silent orders with his hand. We’d already discussed our groups, and we were going to break off into units of four, the way the underground did, and each follow a trail. Each leader of the group had one of those pulse-finding devices to alert him of life—he was to run it along the walls in case they had her buried somewhere.
The thought made a rush of fire surge through my veins, scalding everything it touched and pushing my feet forward. Even though I felt there was a connection pulling me toward her, the entire group felt the urgency to move. To save her from them.
I’d been praying that it was me who found her, though. Just like papà prayed that when something happened to him, or mamma, they would go together. Besides keeping mamma safe, that was the only thing he’d ever asked for.
This would be one of the things I ever asked for.
I needed her to see my face, see that it was me who came after her and saved her from this nightmare, because she saved me the moment her eyes met mine. Maybe I didn’t have all the ways yet, but over the years, they would surface, and I’d collect them.
It had been hitting me nonstop ever since our eyes connected that mamma had been right all along. She’d told me not to settle for a woman I didn’t love. Love wasn’t going to make me weak. It was going to encourage me to be a better leader for my family, and in this moment, I’d never felt stronger. I could have been made of steel with muscles that could crush a car with one touch.
Saverio raised his hand—stop—and then motioned us forward. He did this in intervals. And the deeper we went in, the harder it was going to be for us to get out. Boris might lead us in to capture us on the way out.
In war, anything goes, if it secures a win.
