Page 79 of Under His Protection

“Pussies hardly fought back at all, even with Giovanni supposedly fighting alongside them,” the second man replied.

“Yeah, and now, Stefan’s trying to switch sides and two-time us,” the first man added.

“You think Reaper will string him along for too long?” someone else asked. “We got this Nina bitch, now, and that’s gonna be the trigger to make Dante come at us?—”

“Nah, nah, nah,” the second man said. “We ain’t gonna keep her. We’ll give her back once he pays up. Give her back in pieces.”

They all laughed and carried on, talking about how they’d use me as a pawn in their war. The Giovanni Family wasn’t trusted by anyone, not by Dante, and not by this motorcycle gang as they tried to convince him they were friends now. So much of what they boasted about made no sense. I hoped, again, that I was recording it because it seemed like these bikers were talking freely and honestly.

Come on, Dante. Please. Look for my phone. Storm down the gates of their club. He couldn’t be far, but I worried my time was running out. Stalling was all good and well, but the men in this storage room got impatient.

“You’re not too bad on the eyes,” one biker said as he crept closer, eyeing me like he wanted to rape me.

“Even if she was…” Another man walked up and tossed a burlap sack to his buddy. “She ain’t gotta look at us.”

“Fuck off,” I snapped, scrambling back toward the wall.

Please, Dante. Please, please, please hurry. If these assholes got it in their mind to rape me, to share me…

Bile shot up my throat again. The threat of a gang rape was too horrid, too unspeakable, and my body revolted.

“I want to see her as I fuck her.”

“Not before I do.”

“You get her ass. I’ll take her pussy.”

“Fuck that. She’s going to gag on my cock first.”

They bickered, all coming closer to surround me. Cornered like this, I had no chance to run. Outnumbered like this, I had no option to fight back.

Please, please, please. I wanted to save myself, but I was without a single resource or weapon.

“He’ll kill you,” I said, hoping that psychological warfare would make an impact.

It didn’t. They all cracked up, laughing and taunting me more with my threat. Dante would, though, and I had enough faith to know that he had to be on his way to me. All the Constella men would rally with their leader.

Fate couldn’t be so cruel. I couldn’t have found him only to lose him this soon.

“You’re going to be a good little bitch and?—”

The biker never finished his statement. As I cowered and shrank back from him standing over me, his head burst apart. Blood and gray matter splattered, forced toward the wall.

I turned my head and screamed, not wanting anything to rain into my open mouth. Gunfire filled the room, and I tucked into the tightest ball that I could. Smoke and screams came. Men shouted and yelled. Threats were shouted. The music stopped, and without risking to open my eyes and witness the utter violence taking over, I knew that my wishes had come true.

In dark, morbid detail, my rescue had happened. Or it would. I recognized the yells from the Constella men I was already becoming more familiar with. The guards and soldiers who swore loyalty to Dante. I felt the vibrations sending up from the wooden floor I lay on, wishing a hole could open up and swallow me down so I wouldn’t get hit by a body or a bullet.

Footsteps pounded every which way as the place was stormed and became crowded. Thuds reverberated from the walls as bodies were slammed and shoved. Wet streaks splattered constantly, and I sucked in a sob, keeping my mouth shut as I knew those were more globs of blood and other bodily fluids. Screaming with my lips clamped tight, I shook and tensed, balling up into the smallest form against the wall that I could.

Trying to block out all my senses, I fell into a numb status. I retreated into the darkness behind my squinted-closed lids, wishing so vainly that it would all be over soon.

I’d never ever imagined being trapped in the middle of a grisly bloodbath like this, but I knew it couldn’t last forever. All I could do was tuck in and wait it out the best I could while hoping Dante would be all right.

Guns continued to be fired, but over the din, I heard him call for me. “Nina! Nina!” The desperation in his shouts saddened me.

I couldn’t risk opening my mouth. I didn’t want to swallow a drop of blood or brains or?—

Oh, fuck. Just the thought of it had me retching. I turned, pivoting my head to the floor, and vomited.

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