“Valentina? Isn’t she with you?” She once again looks over my shoulder.
I exhale and close my eyes in disappointment. “No. I thought she was here.”
Footsteps sound from behind her. “Who is it?” The door swings open all the way. Mack’s bruised face greets me. “What are you doing here?”
“He’s looking for Valentina,” Chiara answers.
“What?” His face darkens. “What do you mean you're looking for her?”
“She left. She left me a stupid message without explaining. Maybe she's with Nico. I called him, but he isn’t answering.”
Mack and Chiara look at each other.
“Fuck!” Mack runs his hand over his buzz-cut. “You should come in. I need to call my brothers.”
“What’s going on?” I ask and follow him as he leads me into the office.
“Nico has been missing for three days now. We kept it quiet because there were no clues that something was wrong,” he murmurs, his voice controlled and tight. “We were just doing everyday shit. No threats, no problems other than usual.”
“Valentina couldn’t be with Nico, then,” I pace the room.
“I want you to tell me what exactly happened.”
I tell him everything that occurred in the last three days.
He pins me with a threatening look. “If I find out you got into another woman’s bed willingly, I swear, I will gut you alive.”
“Listen carefully, Mack. First, I understand your anger, so your threat doesn’t scare me. Second, I don’t cheat. I’m not like that, and I wouldneverbetray Valentina. Right now, there are far bigger problems than your ego. We need to find them. Both of them.”
thirty-six
Valentina
My head is pounding, and my eyelids feel so heavy. I try to open them, only for them to keep falling. I breathe in, and humidity mixed with the smell of urine and copper enters my nostrils.
Something doesn’t feel right. I try to reach for my eyes with my fingertips, but I can’t. My hands are behind my back. Why are my hands behind my back? I think I’m too tired to move. I move to the side, or so I think, and fall into darkness again.
Why am I dreaming that someone is crying? And who is it? I search for the source of the crying in my head, and I come up empty.
“Stop fighting.” The sound of slapping followed by whimpering pierces my ears. “This is going to happen if you like it or not.” Another slap. “Anton wants you broken, so the sooner you accept what’s happening to you, the better.” Another whimper followed by a menacing voice. “They never listen, Elvir. You need to make them. Don’t stand there. Come here and learn how it’s done.”
Who is Anton? Where the hell am I? I try not to move as I force steady breaths. I open my eyes, my eyelids still heavy, but this time, they open slowly. I’m met with darkness; only a small light somewhere in this room illuminates the space. I blink a few times to focus and slowly move my hands, which I realize are bound behind my back. My legs are bound too.
“Take it. That’s it.” More whimpers follow, followed by a slap. “Your tight ass is next. Maybe then you'll learn when I say to keep it quiet.”
“Or we should make use of that useless mouth of yours,” the second man says. The zipper opens, followed by a rustle of clothes. “Open wide. Watch the teeth.” The whimpers are replaced with the sound of choking and heavy breaths. The sound of gagging follows. “Don’t you dare vomit, you bitch.”
There’s a tune of skin slapping, gagging, and men groaning, and I let my eyes adapt to the dark. I move my head just an inch toward the sounds, and I see three figures.
I look around the room as much as I can, exploring my surroundings.
A groan pulls my attention back to the figures, followed by another, and more whimpers as one of them tosses a girl to the floor. “I’m done with you. You're useless. You're maybe not broken as much as he needs, but he can do the rest of himself.”
“What about the other girl?”
“That one is gold. She will bring us enough money to up our jobs, not just taking useless homeless people from the street.” A smirk is audible behind his words.
“Is she also for Anton?”
