“I didn’t follow them when they ordered me to.” My voice sounds weak.
He makes a noncommittal sound while scratching his stubble. “The people I bring here always seem to think they can keep things from me. But they never do.”
Because he tortures them?
A wave of his hand, and Vince touches the end of the cattle prod he’s holding to the side of the guy who groped me. His body starts to convulse and twist as he screams so loud his voicebounces off the walls. My eyes fall on the bloody stump where his hand should be, while the smell of burned flesh spreads in the room. I don’t feel bad for him. He hurt me and almost violated me. But that doesn’t mean I’m enjoying this.
“Please, please. I told you everything. Everything!” He’s sobbing.
“Shut up!” Vince slaps him.
“You talk too much,” Luca states. “Cut his tongue,” he orders Vince.
“Noooooo! No. Pl?—”
I try really hard to tune out the sounds and focus my eyes on Luca. He has taken off his jacket and is now rolling his sleeves with slow, controlled moves. His gaze is on the gurgling thug.
Fuck! This level of ruthlessness, I only now realize how much he restrained himself with me. I almost regret all the times I challenged him. He could have hurt me really badly. Still can. He can find ways to do it and still keep Fly in the dark, so why doesn’t he?
He turns toward me, holding a knife. I take a step back at the sight of it. His burning, piercing gaze makes me want to look away, but the intensity in his eyes is ordering me not to. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m part of this interrogation?
“You don’t like blades,” he states, before spinning around and tossing it at short guy’s leg. I can almost feel it piercing through his thigh, slicing and parting the skin before hitting bone. His moan of pain shakes me.
Luca turns back to me after grabbing another knife from the table. He’s waiting for me to talk.
“N-no. I don’t like knives.” I feel cold sweat covering my back and arms. I have to force myself to remember this is not Mario. It’s Luca. God, I’m so fucking damaged. “And I’ll never hurt someone the same way I’ve been hurt,” I manage to get out as I look at the scars on his face.
That’s just me. Everybody copes in different ways. Who am I to decide the right one? Especially when in front of an armed man?
The smirk that slowly appears on his face makes me shiver. It’s like I’m dealing with the mobster from the first day we met. The disgust in his eyes is back. Is he really that angry at me for buying donuts? He starts circling me, like a lion playing with a rabbit.
“You should ask them. How did they know where I was?” I say, trying to veer his attention to the two men again.
He tsks. “One of them saw us.” He stops next to me, flexes his arm, making his bicep pop, and tosses another knife. I jump as it spears short guy’s shoulder. “Him. He followed us from the club.”
Luca takes another knife from the table and then resumes his circling.
“Why did you stay?” He stops behind me. I can hear his voice loud and clear above the crying noises, but I still don’t understand.
“What?” Did he forget he kidnapped me?
“I showed you what I do to people that annoy me.”
The tongue cutting? My hands move automatically to my mouth to cover it.
“Spying on me for your father?” he hisses low in my ear. “For Mario? Are you a coward or a puppet for them?”
His words are destroying me bit by bit, forming space for the anger to rise. A steel arm wraps around my waist from behind, and his dick presses against my lower back. He’s not hard. I’m not either. Sex is the last thing on my mind. Anger is filling every nook and cranny.
“I told you—” I bark, but his growl cuts me off.
“Using your dog’s name as a password is not very smart, Enzino.”
He lifts his hand, and my phone is in his palm. Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck.
“So, Mario was in Boston.” If his voice was as sharp as his knife, I’d be at his feet in bloody pieces by now.
I keep looking ahead, at the tongue-less guy, hanging upside down from the ceiling, face covered in blood. Am I going to end up the same way? I bite my lower lip in fear. He leaves my back to stand in front of me, exuding malicious, destructive vibes. Fury and viciousness.
