Page 42 of De Luca: The Saint

“Kat.”

Shaking my head, I say, “No. Stop talking to me. All you do is make everything worse.

He turns away from me, “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.”

The silence is absolutely deafening. I can’t take it. It’s worse than being screamed at, “Fine. Talk, just not about my religious beliefs.”

“What do you want me to talk about?”

I shrug my shoulders, “How long have you known these guys?”

He sighs. I look into his dark eyes, filled with so much regret, and glance away when it becomes too intense.

“My family and the Bianchi family go way back, but not in a good way. After my father died, I was a mess. I was close to him. Anyway, I started drinking heavily. One night I was at a club drinking my weight in bourbon. I went to take a leak and through the wall heard a woman crying and screaming. I went into the women’s bathroom and found two men trying to rape her. They had already beaten the hell out of her. The one had his dick in her mouth, the other was trying to fuck her. I ended it. I killed both men there in that bathroom. They were both Bianchi’s. It was then that they began calling me Saint.”

“Those two men are why I’m here?”

He shakes his head, “No. Not entirely. Enzo Bianchi entered into a business arrangement to marry Giada Barretti. Domenic stole her only minutes before her wedding to Enzo and married her himself. Of course, Bianchi was pissed. He set off bombs at my brother's house and kidnapped her. He kept her for a year, only allowing her to eat a diet of dog food, beat her, raped her and who knows what else. It’s not just one thing, this feud has been going for so long, I can’t even remember when it initially started.”

This is the problem with his family business. Innocent people pay with their lives. Still, there must be some good in him. After all, most mobsters don’t save innocent women, or at least I don’t think they do.

“I think it was kind of you to save that woman.”

He growls, “Don’t you get it, Kat? You wouldn’t be here right now if it weren't for me. You’d be at home, safe and warm. I am the very reason you are chained to a basement floor awaiting whatever the fuck they have planned. I ruin everything in my fucking path.”

He’s quiet for a few minutes and then speaks low, “I can’t save you, Kitty Kat. I am chained, the same as you are. They are going to rape you and then murder you, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Believe me, I would if I could.”

For some reason, I believe him. Of all times to laugh, I choose now in the most distressing situation. That’s me. Laughter at inappropriate times.

Damian flashes me an expression that says he’s questioning my sanity.

“You’re a glass-half-full kind of person, Sinner.”

He stares at me silently for several beats and then grins, the most dazzling smile I think I’ve ever seen. I missed that. The way he smiled like it was reserved only for me.

“So, Domenic is married now. Are you? I mean, did you get married in the last two years?”

He laughs a little too loud, “Not a chance. I haven’t had a girlfriend and I sure as fuck don’t have a wife. Two years ago, I vowed to never do more than fuck a woman. I kept that vow.”

I gasp at his harsh words, “Who hurt you?”

Pain flashes across his face as he answers bluntly, “You.”

The way he stares at me is unnerving, like he can see things I definitely don’t want him to. I don’t want Damian to know how I feel about him, how I’ve always felt.

I nod, “Makes sense. I think you’re more of a hit-and-quit-it guy anyway.”

He runs his fingers across his chin as if he’s in deep thought, causing the chains to rattle, “I wasn’t that way with you. I would have given you the world.”

I nod as the sadness seeps into my soul, “I know.”

“Do you want me to kill Wolf when I get out of here?”

I flash him a look that says, ‘have you lost your mind.’

“No, Sinner. No killing people for me. That’s the last thing I want. Besides, don’t you have enough blood on your hands?”

---