I won’t live without him. I can’t.
Chapter 25
Gio
* * *
The world is just motion, light, and shadow. I’m not sure where I am, or when. I’m dizzy from the blow to my skull but I’m still alive, which is a relief.
Or maybe a curse. I try to move, but I can’t. My chin is in my chest and my body aches; it’s stiff and sore. It takes me a minute to figure out that I’m tied to a chair. My hands are bound behind my back, zip ties cutting into my skin.
I lean my head back and groan. My entire body hurts from the multiple kicks they gave me, and probably worse. Every tiny breath hurts. Fuck, I hope my ribs aren’t broken. The room slowly begins to materialize around me as I get more and more of my faculties back.
Above me there’s a bright spotlight shining directly down on me. It makes me squint as I open my eyes. I can hardly see out of my left. It must be swollen. I wipe my chin against my shoulder. It’s dirtied with blood.
I groan and look straight ahead as the room comes into focus. I’m in a small room, maybe ten feet by ten feet. There’s a drain beneath my feet, and the walls are bare white cinder blocks. The ground looks like it’s unfinished concrete.
The unbelievable nature of my reality comes back to me slowly. My fucking father sold me out. It couldn’t be anything else. They knew I would be on that roof with almost no way to escape. Trapping me like that was their only option. They had to set me up like that because if they came any other way, I would’ve killed them all. They sent a fucking helicopter because they were too afraid to face me, the cowards.
Why would he do that? What could the Rossis possibly offer him that would change his mind? We were so close to getting what we wanted. I would have gotten Grace, and he might have gotten a place in the Romano familia. Instead I’m fucking strapped to a chair, aching from a hundred bruises.
Oh fuck. Grace. My heart stills, and I struggle harder in my bonds. She’s still locked in the gun room without any food. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I come fully awake at the thought of Grace stuck in there, slowly starving to death, begging me to come help her. I flex against my restraints and struggle, anger flooding me, desperate to escape.
I need to go to her. My princess.
I have to save her. I can’t let her starve to death in that room. Fuck! My selfish need to keep her is going to cause her pain. I should have let her go. I know I should have. Things were going so fucking good. She loves it. And I fucking love her. I fucking know I do. I was too scared to risk her leaving me.
At least Duke is probably okay. He has his doggy door and an auto-feeding system. I know he’ll be smart enough to run if they attack my place, and he can get food and water from the feeding system. At least I didn’t get him fucked, too.
My darkness is there inside of me, raging in full force. It wants revenge against my father, while all I want is to run home and make sure Grace is safe.
“Hey!” I yell out. “Fuckers! Come in here, you fucking cunts!”
There’s silence as I continue to struggle. Eventually, I tip over the chair and crash to the ground, smashing my face against the concrete floor. Fuck! I stretch my bruised jaw, moving away from the cold unforgiving ground. I grunt and nearly lose consciousness, but manage to stay awake.
A minute later, the door opens. Someone comes inside. I can only see his feet as he walks over to me. My breaths come in quickly as adrenaline fuels my blood.
The man grabs me and lifts me back upright. I stare into his face, defiant and angry. I hope he fucking drops me. I hope he kicks the fucking chair. He needs to. I need this chair to break so I have a chance. I need to get to her. As the plan formulates in my mind, I realize who it is I’m staring at.
It’s him. The Don, Grace’s father. The man I want to kill more than anything in this world for what he did to his daughter. To my princess.
“So,” he says. “You’re the one that was holding my daughter.”
I stare at him, not saying a word.
“You’re in a pretty bad spot now, Gio,” he says. “We know all about you, you know. Have known for some time.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I practically spit at him.
I almost tell him where Grace is. I almost do, but I’m afraid of what he’ll do to her. And as sad as it sounds, my father knows she’s there. He knows what she means to me. If he ever loved me, he’d save her.
“Good. Defiant. Strong. I like that about you. I can see why my daughter is interested in you.”
I stare at him, but say nothing, even as fear strikes through my veins. “We found her locked away.” He tsks. He’s just fucking with me. He doesn’t know a fucking thing about me and Grace. I can’t give in to his games. There’s no way he has her.
“Tell me, Gio,” he says as he walks behind me. I can hear him doing something back there that sounds like clattering metal. Finally, he comes back around. He’s holding a wicked, large curved knife in his hand and he has a big smile on his face. “Tell me what you know about the Romanos.”
I stare at him and say nothing. The smile never leaves his face as he carves a cut into the meat of my thigh.
