Page 63 of Bianchi

“Thank you for joining us on such short notice, Mr. Bianchi. I believe I have something of yours.” She steps to the side, and I lift my head, looking into the camera as best I can through eyes that are swelling.

My tongue feels heavy in my mouth and the bruise forming on my jaw hurts when I speak. “It’s a trap. Please, Rome, don’t come.” My words come out small and unintelligible.

I drop my head, urging my body to garner the strength I need for him to hear me. When I raise it again, my mouth parts, the words on the tip of my tongue before they’re stolen by a fist connecting with my jaw. I cry out as nausea crashes over me.

Tsking, Anastasia admonishes, “No talking to our guests, Aurora, or I’ll cut out your tongue.”

She presses a knife onto my lower lip, tracing it over my chin and down the center of my chest. I can’t hold back the tears that tumble down my cheeks when I feel the pressure of the blade on my thigh. An agonizing scream is ripped from my lips as she presses the knife harder until it slices through my skin.

Tremors wrack my body when she pulls the bloodied blade away and holds it up to the camera. My eyes flutter closed and my head lulls forward as I try to breathe through the dizziness. Behind my eyelids, starbursts pepper my vision.

I sense Anastasia step forward, crowding into me. Squinting, I bare my teeth, my mind unable to focus on any one particular area of pain. Her hand fists my hair and she forces my head back. The harshness of her gesture doesn’t match her words when she keeps her voice low for only me to hear. “You shouldn’t bleed out, but when you get back to your room, wrap it up tightly.”

My brows tug together at her concern. It feels so out of place with what she’s done to me, but I don’t have time to digest it. She releases me and turns toward the camera, the knife covered in my blood still held up.

Romeo’s words cut through the quiet of the room. Even through the laptop speakers, they hold an air of authority. “What do you want?”

I don’t know how long I’ve been gone, but I miss him more than my freedom. My chest compresses as I exhale heavily, disappointment seeping into my bones. I’ve failed him. Because of me, he’s going to come here and they’ll kill him. I close my eyes, biting down hard on my tongue to keep from crying out for him.

Anastasia throws the knife onto the table, picking up a rag and wiping her hands as she moves to stand back in front of the camera. “The people that have hired me are asking for you to shut down your operation. In its entirety.”

Romeo huffs out a laugh and I can picture him lifting his chin and straightening the cuffs of his shirt. “My family has been in this business long enough for me to tell you that will not happen. Do whatever you want to her.” He pauses, my shock barely reaching the surface before he continues, “And Aurora…” He spits out my name like it revolts him. “I hope they make your death brutally painful.”

He fires off something in Italian that I don’t understand, my mind unable to even contemplate trying to translate it. Was he hoping I’d understand?

The guy on the laptop looks alarmed. “He left the call.” His words hang in the air, an eerie atmosphere settling over the room.

Panic swells within me, wrapping around my throat and choking me. This is just Romeo making sure they understand that I mean nothing to him, so that they let me go. So that they give up on the idea that I can be used to get to him. He doesn’t mean what he said.

He can’t mean it.

My uncle stands, his chair falling to the floor behind him. The shock on his face is quickly masked by a look of indifference as he rounds the table. There’s a venom in his tone, speaking volumes of the control he’s losing when he says, “It looks like you might have been telling the truth after all.” He inclines his head toward me. “Take her back to her room,” he demands.

Two men rush forward, unhooking me. My body crumples to the floor, every inch searing in pain. I flinch when a large hand wraps around my arm and I’m pulled up forcefully. The hood is thrown over my head again. I want to tell them that it’s pointless; I have no strength to leave and I can barely see, but I keep my mouth shut.

As we move, I hear Anastasia ask my uncle, “What will you do now?”

I don’t hear his response; a metal door clangs shut behind us, cutting off their conversation. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that I’m of no use to them now. Their plan has failed, and I doubt they’ll just let me go.

It feels like an eternity before we arrive back at my cell. I’m thrown inside, falling to the floor without the strength to keep myself upright. It’s only when I can be sure that I’m alone that I curl in on myself, allowing the tears to fall with abandon.

He’s leaving me here to die.

The more I think about it, the more it becomes reality. What purpose would he have for telling them that they can kill me? He doesn’t know where I am or who’s holding me, aside from what little information Anastasia gave away.

He’s taken the foundations we’ve built and set them on fire, content to watch them burn to the ground. Whatever I thought we shared, it didn’t mean a single thing to him and I’ve risked my life for someone willing to leave me here at the hands of depraved monsters.

How can I love a man that is willing to abandon me so easily? Especially after my dad did the exact same thing.

Should I, by some miracle of God, make it out of here alive, I’ll put the entirety of the Earth between us. No country will be far enough away.

I’m furious at myself for allowing him to encourage me to want to live. For being naïve enough to think that what we had might bloom into something more. But what I’m most angry at myself for is for fantasizing that we might be something and that it was worth existing for him.

There’s one thing I’m certain of, and that is that Romeo Bianchi is no longer worthy of having a piece of my heart. He doesn’t ever get to own any part of me.

Chapter 40

Romeo

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