Page 126 of Ruining Vanessa

Traci wets her lips with her tongue, looking between Giulio and me. There’s so much fear, and anger, in her expression. I can’t even make sense of what she must be feeling. She has to be expecting me to sell her out to Giulio as the mole, and honestly… Honestly, I should. But no. I can’t.

Traci looks at the boxes, taking a moment to make her decision. “The bigger one.”

Giulio snorts and hands the box to Slayer. “Size does seem to matter, Paul. Damien, you can put the gun down. We aren’t animals around here.”

Damien waits a few seconds before he holsters the gun. When his hands are free, Giulio passes the remaining box to him.

“Inside each box, you will find…” Giulio starts in a serious voice, but he ends up laughing. “Nah, whatever. Just open them.”

I don’t want to. Whatever’s inside, it can’t be good.

Slayer and Damien don’t hesitate at all, though. Slayer opens his first, and he pulls out… a set of pliers from the unnecessarily large box.

I freeze, staring at the pliers. My mouth goes dry. I can’t even imagine the creative ways Slayer or Giulio could use them on someone.

Damien drops the box and holds up an electric hand-drill. He pulls the trigger once, and the tip whirrs loudly.

I can’t move. I can’t speak. I can’t do anything but dry heave, as what little I’ve eaten today threatens to come back up.

“Mama, you gotta open your box too,” Giulio prompts, bringing my hand to the flap on the box. “We’re doing a whole game show bit.”

Tears start rolling down my cheeks as I open the box, slowly coming out with a hammer. “Giulio,” I croak. “Please.”

Giulio ignores me and goes to sit next to Slayer on the couch. “Traci picked the pliers. What’re you thinking, Slayer? A tooth first? A fingernail?”

I’m going to be sick.

Even watching… and there are three boxes. Paul, Traci, and… Am I going to get into trouble, too? Is the hammer for me?

“No! Please, please, Giulio, I’m sorry, please, I didn’t mean for it to happen!” Traci sobs. “I swear, we were just talking.”

Giulio laughs again. “New story, huh. And we haven’t even gotten to the actual torture. Should we draw straws to see who goes first?”

“Well, Traci’s the reason Vanessa… tripped down the stairs,” Slayer says, his voice dark. “So I think we should start with her. Pry her teeth out. Not like she needs them to be a good whore. Hell, people would probably pay better for a toothless slut. Imagine the blowjobs she could give.”

I look at Slayer, unable to hide my horror. Everyone in this room has lost their fucking minds, and there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop this from happening.

Damien looks at his drill, almost with disappointment. “I don’t want to drill holes into Paul, Giulio.”

Paul looks at Damien like he’s an angel. “Yeah. Yeah, I don’t want that either.”

“You should!” Traci suddenly shouts. “He’s skimming money, and—and he’s selling info about you too. Spying. For. For the competition.”

No.

No.

I feel sick as she utters those words. With them, she really has sealed her own fate, because all three of these men have been keeping that part under wraps. There’s no reason for Traci to know someone’s selling secrets unless she’s involved. Even if I don’t speak up—and I’m not going to—the guys aren’t stupid. They’ll see right through that.

“Fucking whore liar!” Paul bellows. “You think I haven’t noticed you getting cozy with those regulars? Trying to pin this on me? Fuck you, bitch. I’m not going down for it.”

All three of them are silent for a moment. Then Giulio starts laughing and clapping. “Oh my fucking god. This is perfect. I get to empty my club of all the trash in one fucking go. Start with Paul’s hand, Damien, for all the pilfering. We’ll take Traci’s teeth out to make it harder for her to keep lying.”

“You want me to wait until after Damien gets a few holes in him before I start?” Slayer asks. He’s moved to stand beside Traci, the pliers gleaming menacingly in his hand as he holds them up.

“Yeah. Oh, no, wait a second.” Giulio gets up and approaches me. I cringe, but he wraps his arms around my waist from behind. “You fucking lied to me, Mama. First there was no one there. Then suddenly Traci is added to the story, but she did nothing. Now it turns out she did, but it was an accident. Still not adding up.”

I’m trembling so hard that my teeth are almost chattering. “She didn’t do anything. The fall was an accident. And we were just… We were scared if you knew she was there, you’d…”

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