Page 48 of Inevitable

“He won’t be back till later,” Benjamin says behind me.

It doesn’t escape my notice that his arm is discreetly wrapped around Kiki’s waist and her body is tucked into his protectively.

“Will he be dealing with the guy that tried to take me?” I ask.

Benjamin gives me a sharp nod but doesn’t speak. Well, it was more than I was anticipating getting out of him.

“Okay. Benjamin, would you mind taking Kiki to one of our spare rooms? I think she needs some rest,” I ask nonchalantly.

Some of the normal fire in Kiki’s eyes light up and she seems to pick up on what I am doing. Not sure if Benjamin has got it yet but he nods and starts walking with Kiki, nonetheless. My best friend deserves a little fun. It was bound to happen anyways.

I head upstairs to my room and see that my dress and shoes are already there. It’s funny how today was supposed to be fun and laid back but ended up turning out like a nightmare. I don’t even want to indulge in the thought of what could have happened if Benjamin hadn’t been right there, I could have been gone without a trace.

Surprisingly, I am alright though. Nothing bad happened to me because of the men that Luca put on me. I know that as long as I have him nothing bad will happen to me, at least nothing permanent.

Hours pass and the night creeps in, yet Luca still isn’t home. Kiki told me Benjamin was driving her home a little while ago. She seemed completely back to normal. I am sure the just had sex hair had something to do with it. I check the clock again and unease creeps into me. I know that everything is probably fine, but I can’t help but worry.

Frustrated, I force myself to close my eyes and try to get some sleep. Everything is okay and when I wake up in the morning Luca will be right next to me. There are some things that I have to sacrifice to have a life with Luca, peace of mind before bed seems to be one of them.

Chapter Seventeen

Luca

His nose connects with my fist and blood gushes down his face and drips from my knuckles as he groans in pain. When Benjamin called me and told me that someone had tried to take Ashlynn, I freaked. Not just at the idea of her being kidnapped by the Farelli which is fucking terrifying, but because they were trying to take her not just kill her. This is more than just trying to hurt me, they want something. Taking Ashlynn would give them leverage over me, obviously they have figured out that I would do anything for her.

“Where are the others?” I roar.

He whimpers before he scowls. A glob of blood-soaked spit lands on my cheek. I slowly stand up and stick out my hand, Gio quickly gives me a cloth that I wipe my face with. As calmly as I can manage, I walk over to the table in the corner with an array of weapons displayed. I choose a rusty screwdriver before I turn around and slowly walk back to the man.

I give him a cruel smile before I bury the screwdriver deep into his right thigh. The scream that tears from him sounds like a dying woman and I can’t help but cringe.

“Quiet the fuck down you piece of shit. You knew this was coming the moment you tried to attack the Mariano family,” I bark.

His nostrils flare as he tries to breathe through the pain and glares at me. “I didn’t. I just tried to take your whore. The boys are bored,” he says with a dark chuckle.

Without hesitating for a moment, I punch him as hard as I can across the face. The crunch tells me that I just broke his jaw. He growls in pain as his head drops forward. I dig my hand into his hair and rip his head backwards to face me.

“Where. Are. The others?” I grit.

The guy is loyal, I’ll give him that. We have been torturing him endlessly for hours and he hasn’t said anything besides the occasional insult. The man is missing all of his toes and all but 2 fingers. He only has 1 ear and has an unknown amount of stab wounds from various objects. I am actually a little surprised that he is even conscious, the pain should have knocked him out by now.

All he does is smirk at my question. “We are everywhere, we see your every move and we know your every weakness. We are just biding our time.”

“Then what was today?” I snap.

“A test.”

I stand up straight and let go of his head. It lulls back and forth and he makes no effort to lift it again.

“Anything else you would like to share?” I ask casually.

He stays quiet, only the sound of blood dripping onto the concrete floor echoes around us. I look over to Gio and a few others that are down here with us and give them a nod. Gio walks over to the man and rips his head backwards while the other men lay a rag over his face and begin dumping a filled 5-gallon water bucket over his face. The look in his eyes when he realizes what we are doing is satisfying. It is pure fear and understanding that these are the last moments of his life.

I watch from a few feet away as his body wriggles wildly, desperately trying to break free. Eventually his movements slow until they stop all together. My men keep going until the water is completely gone. Gio releases his head roughly and his limp neck drops sideways.

“A test?” Gio questions as he looks at me.

I nod as I go over to the sink and start rinsing the blood from my hands. “Testing our strength. They wanted to know how hard it would be to take her. It was basically a suicide mission. No doubt he had a wire or something on him.”

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