Two of them grab my upper arms, preventing me from moving. I turn my head to the right side, ignoring the bastard who is grabbing my panties and tearing them, and I bite the hand holding me. That earns me a fist in my face, and I black out.
When I open my eyes, I can’t see clearly, but the pressure on my torso releases, and I hear them arguing. “There’s no time; we need to go.”
“It will take less than a minute.” I feel a nudge between my legs, but it’s gone in a second, and I hear the stomp of their feet as they run away.
“What the fuck?” The worried voice of Mack eases my body, and I let myself go and surrender to the darkness.
“Valentina, wake up.” Something cold is placed on my face, and I open my eyes. Mack’s worried gaze greets me. “I’m calling an ambulance,” he says and grabs his phone.
“No!” I hold his hand. “No ambulance.”
“I need to call Nico, then.”
“No! Don’t call anyone. No one is to know what happened.”
He huffs. “One look at you and everyone will know.”
“I’ll deal with that. And you’ll make sure to keep it between us.”
“But, Valentina, you need a hospital,” he urges.
I lift my eyes to his, pleading. “No! Help me to the showers and leave me.”
“Do you at least know who they are?”
“People who will regret the day they were born.”
With Mack’s help, I stand from the couch in my brother’s office, wrapping a cover over my body. Mack must have carried me here and taken care of me.
I walk into the shower with his help. “I’ll be outside if you need anything,” he says.
I stand under the cold shower, inspecting my body with my hands, questioning what they did to me. While I watch the blood washing off my body and down the drain, I make a promise to myself.
I will make them pay. Every one of them.
nine
Gabriel
There is something intriguing in how I feel about tonight. I haven’t seen Valentina since the day she showed up at my penthouse. But I did as I promised. I texted her. I barely talked on the phone, though. Not because I didn’t want to; there was just too much going on, and instead of working on exterminating the rats in the family, I’m in a tux I can barely stand and waiting for the woman I’m marrying in three weeks to accompany me to a fundraising black-tie event that Salvatore was supposed to attend.
I await the confirmation from the pilot that they’re on their way. I sent a pilot with a private jet to get Valentina, but she never showed.
I scroll through the texts I sent that she never answered, which should have been a red flag that something was off. I wanted to think she had no time, and that she was probably planning something to irritate me. The pilot is still waiting for her, but there is a nagging feeling telling me she isn’t coming.
I land at the small airport in Chicago after I stayed at the event for as long as I needed to. I can’t shake the feeling that something is going on. On my way to Valentina’s house, I try to call and text, but I still get no answer.
I park outside her house and ring the bell, almost expecting Valentina to open the door for me. To my luck, her sister, Chiara, who I met on the day of my engagement, opens the door with a confused look on her face.
“I’m here to see Valentina.”
Chiara furrows her eyebrows. “She’s not here.”
“When is she coming home?”
She opens her mouth and closes it before she speaks. “Actually, I don’t know. It’s been maybe a week since I saw her properly.”
“You haven’t seen her for a week?”
