Nico nodded in acknowledgment. “Maybe I’ll visit one day soon.”
“Promises, promises,mio fratello,” Mario waved off Nico as he headed in one direction.
Nico watched his brother walk down the pier, hands in his pockets. Mario was the brother Nico had never had. The rest of his adoptive family was the same. The Vedova family was a lot warmer than the Casale’s.
And they had their own fortress of sorts.
Perhaps he would go there sooner rather than later, Nico mused.
Chapter 9
“Please!Helpus!”
“You can let us escape! Please, he only listens to you!”
Autumn held the keys in her hands. Each door had an individual key. All she had to do was get closer and unlock the doors.
She turned and saw an open door. Lights from police cruisers were bright, the blue and red a beacon to freedom.
“You are responsible for them. You hold their freedom in your hands.” Fox stared at her. The whip hung from around his wrist.
Autumn wasn’t in front of the door but strapped face down, rubbing against a wooden table. She screamed at the first lash and then when the third and fourth hit her back. The metallic scent of blood filled her nostrils. She panted through the pain and refused to make another sound.
Fox pulled her up, his knife digging into the skin along her nose's side and moving up to her eye. “You were supposed to be different, Autumn,” Fox growled. “You want to be just like them, sightless?”
Autumn whimpered, more at the pain than his words.
“You’ll pay for this.” One woman stood in the doorway. Her face was beaten, tears streamed from the one good eye. “I’ll make sure you pay for what you’ve done.”
“You didn’t keep us safe.” A disembodied voice came from another corner. Catarina Casale looked at Autumn with sightless eyeholes, one of the blue Forget Me Nots behind her ear.
“It’s your fault,” came another distorted voice from the other corner. Anastasia Moretti’s lips twisted, the Forget Me Nots in her eye sockets with a finger pointing at Autumn. “You did this.”
“Autumn!”
She didn’t want to look. Autumn shook her head and closed her eyes tight with her hands fisted at her sides.
“Wake up!”
Someone shook her shoulder roughly.
“Get up!Subito!Now.”
The jarring of her shoulder woke Autumn with a gasp. She reached out and punched her tormentor. There was a grunt, and whoever touched her fell with a bang.
Autumn blinked her eyes open and looked down.
She was naked.
Pulling the sheet around her, Autumn wrapped it around herself. With a glance around, she realized this wasn’t her room. Her memories from last night came crashing around her.
The explosion at her apartment.
Coming to Scala’s condo.
Cat Tails.
And sex with Scala.
