Page 56 of King of War

Instinctively, I shrink back even if I cannot move. “What the hell are you doing, Ethan?”

He’s silent, but his eyes are raking over me greedily, as though he likes what he sees and he’s about to take it.

“I’ll scream,” I warn him. “Giovanni is here.”

He tips his head to the side. “Nobody will hear you back here.” He’s right. Our annex is self contained and private, which we’ve always liked.

Adrenaline is thundering through my body now, and it propels me forward. I charge at him, barreling into him, but he barely budges an inch. Grabbing me by my wrists, he shakes me until the money falls to the floor. “Ethan! W-what are you doing?”

He doesn’t answer, herding me toward the bed. The one Enzo and I made love in a few hours ago. I scream, and he puts his hand over my mouth to stop me, squeezing my cheeks so hard that they hurt. I try to knee him in the balls, but he expertly dodges me, like he’s had that move used on him before. Sick bastard!

He pushes me onto the bed, and I kick out at him, screech at him to get out of here, but he manages to hold my ankles still, pressing down on them with his forearm while he yanks my panties down my legs.

Enzo! Where are you? Please come home and stop this.

Ethan opens my mouth and I struggle, bite down on his fingers when I realize what he’s about to do. Holding me still, he forces my balled-up panties into my mouth, pushing them so deep that I gag. I still scream, the sound so muffled nobody will hear.

I lash out again, kicking and scratching.

“Fucking bitch!” he snarls. “Such a shame I’m not supposed to leave any marks on you.”

Then he pins my wrists again, leans close to my face until his sour breath is all over me, making me retch. “And just so you know, the more you fight, the rougher I’ll fuck you. It makes me hard when you fight back.”

I stare at him, my body trembling from head to toe, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes. Ethan is twice my size, stronger and faster. I remember a piece of advice Mama Medici once gave me after a girl at our high school was raped. “If a man wants to force himself on a woman, la mia ragazza, he will do so. It is okay to lock a part of yourself away until he is done. Then we take our vengeance afterward.”

So I do that. I freeze. Trying to shut off my mind while he uses my body. I still call for Enzo inside my head, praying he will come home soon, or that Giovanni will come searching for me. Neither of those things happen.

I concentrate on the clock on the wall, the hands ticking around torturously slowly, while Ethan rapes me, spewing disgusting filth in my ear and putting his dirty hands all over me. He takes pictures too. Taps away at his phone, and I pray he’s going to leave. But he’s not done. He flips me over and I lie helpless like a rag-doll. When he’s about to finish, he pulls out of me and jerks off all over the sheets.

I watch him, numb, as he collects the twenty-dollar bills from the floor and then leaves.

I haul myself up from the bed, fix my dress with trembling fingers. My throat is hoarse from screaming behind my makeshift gag. I pull it out of my mouth, covered in spit and bile. The persistent ache between my thighs and in my abdomen burns with every movement I make. I need to find my cell. I need to call Enzo. I need Enzo here, telling me everything will be okay.

“Rayne!” a familiar voice calls out. But it’s not Enzo, not his brothers or his father either. Before today I would have felt nothing but the relief at the sound of Tommy’s voice, but after what Ethan just did, I’m not so sure.

I’m still trembling when he rushes into the room. Still broken into a million fragments that I’m not sure will ever be put back together again. Tears are burning behind my eyes, but they won’t fall. I feel my body shutting down cell by cell.

“Rayne? I got a message. Ethan…” He swallows. “What the hell did he do to you?”

His eyes dart to the bed and the disgusting stains his brother left behind on the sheets. He takes a few steps toward me. My knees buckle, but Tommy catches me, wrapping me up in his arms.

“I will fucking kill him, Rayne. Fucking kill him.” He strokes my hair, whispers soothing words, and all I can do is cling to him. Speechless. Motionless. Entirely numb. I have no idea how long I stay like that, slowly dying inside.

“You piece of shit!” Enzo’s feral roar pierces the room, jolting me back to life like an electric shock.

Tommy is wrenched from my arms.

“Enzo, no!” I scream.

“Enzo, this isn’t—” Tommy’s words are cut off by Enzo’s fist and the most sickening sound of crunching bone. It all happens in slow motion, but also so fast that it’s a blur. Tommy’s strangled protests. My screams.

Tommy is on the floor, Enzo on top of him, raining down blow after blow. He’s in a rage like I’ve never seen before. I have to stop this. Tommy did nothing wrong. I dive for Enzo, clutching at his arm, but he throws me off with ease, like I’m made up of nothing. Perhaps I am.

“Will you please just listen to me,” I cry, begging him to give me a second. Or even make eye contact. Then he does, and my heart shatters into pieces at his feet. The disgust and revulsion on his face is more painful than what Ethan just did. “I can see what you did, you fucking slut.” He glances to the crumpled bedsheets. “We can all fucking see.”

That’s when I notice his father, Micah, and Rafael are also in the room, also looking at me with hatred and disgust—witnessing my shame with harsh judgment. The tears that wouldn’t fall a moment ago now won’t stop. They rush out like a river bursting its dam.

“Enzo!” I try one last plea, my voice cracking open like my heart. But he’s already gone back to beating Tommy’s unconscious body. He doesn’t care what I have to say, too blinded by his anger to see me. I’m that invisible little girl again, who nobody ever noticed.