Page 59 of Eternally Bound

This man was apparently delusional too. My lungs tightened in my chest, praying Daniel wouldn’t take long. I would survive this, to see my son, my mother, to live the rest of my life with Daniel.

“Watch the video,” he barked as he lifted his hand with the remote, increasing the volume.

I turned my head and braced myself for whatever would come next. Daniel was part of the mafia; he’d done some bad stuff, but he wasn’t evil like his cousin and uncle. There was honor to him. Underneath all the hard exterior, and at the bottom of his heart, he was still a good man.

Locking my eyes on the screen, they burned as I watched Daniel in a closed room, blood splattered all over the floor. He stepped over to a side table, where a large selection of tools was laid out and he picked one thing. His face was a stoic mask and my heart hurt for Daniel. His jaw was clenched tight, his lips pressed in a thin line. I could see he hated it.

He picked out a tool, it looked to be a knife. He turned back to a man, already badly bruised, sitting strapped to a chair in the center of the room.

“Who is he?” I questioned his uncle.

“A member of a rival group that stole our shipment.”

My eyes returned to the screen.

The moment Daniel strode back holding the knife, the man whimpered, fear evident on his face. I couldn’t blame him; I wasn’t in the same room with him and I was scared. He stepped up to the man in the chair, tugging his head back until his eyes looked up to Daniel’s dark, threatening gaze.

“Where is the shipment?” he asked, his voice cold. I didn’t know what shipment he was asking about, but there was no doubt it was something illegal. It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.

My stomach churned watching the screen. Daniel Carrington on that monitor wasn’t the man I knew. Yes, I had sensed darkness lurking in his aura, but I couldn’t have ever even fathomed that he was capable of such cruelty.

It isn’t him, I reminded myself silently.

There was another man in the torture room along with Daniel. It was the man I ran into when I went looking for Daniel, his cousin Hugo Carrington. His features were similar but even watching him on the screen there was something about him that was off putting. It could have been that sick gleam in his eyes, almost a thrilling menacing smile on his face.

He was actually enjoying seeing Daniel torture the unfortunate soul. While Daniel’s face was closed off and his eyes untelling, his cousin leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and there was gleam in his eyes. I would stake my life that he actually enjoyed watching Daniel torture the poor soul tied up to the chair.

Daniel’s face was an unmoving, ruthless mask. It was like staring at a complete stranger with a familiar face. There was blood dripping off his knuckles onto the warehouse floor.

I swallowed hard, the food contents of my stomach threatening to come up as I watched Daniel cut the skin off of the man’s arm.

“Turn it off,” I gasped in a small voice. “Please, turn it off.”

Daniel’s uncle chuckled, like this whole event was a joke. This man was sick, twisted. There was something seriously wrong with him. Yes, Daniel seemed to be a monster, but he didn’t give me the vibes that his uncle gave me. I had never seen this man torture anyone, but I knew without a doubt that he had. Many times! And my gut feeling told me this man enjoyed it.

I swallowed hard, and it felt like shards of glass stuck in my throat.

“Daniel will come for me,” I told him. I sounded certain, but I was afraid of Daniel coming after me. I could only imagine the type of torture his uncle inflicted on people. Probably much, much worse. I didn’t want this lunatic to hurt Daniel like he’d hurt Callen. Though Daniel was stronger, this man didn’t play fair. I knew that instinctively.

If only I had a way of contacting the police, some way to warn Daniel.

“As I said, I’m counting on it.” He stood up, smoothing down his suit. “And he’ll die. The question is whether I keep you alive or not.”

I blanched. My legs felt shaky, and if I moved, I’d fall down onto my knees. This man was a monster. He was evil. Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I wanted to inflict pain on another human being. The thirst to make this man pay, to make him suffer was suffocating me. I had never wanted to hurt anyone in my entire life, never witnessed violence. Yet right now, there was nothing I wanted more than to kill this man.

It was an unfamiliar feeling. I had never felt anything like it, and it almost felt like poison spreading through my veins. I knew he deserved it, but the shocking need to see him suffer surprised me. But I was a survivor; it was in our DNA as humans to fight and survive. It was what Daniel has been doing his entire life.

Daniel’s uncle must have noticed the anger surging within me because he smirked triumphantly. He narrowed his eyes on me, as if debating whether he should punish me for having these thoughts.

The silence was deafening when gunshots sounded. They sounded too close and not close enough. He took a step towards me when the door burst open revealing Daniel entering the room like an avenging angel. Relief washed over me, and momentarily, I forgot about his sick uncle until his wrinkly arm came around me from behind.

Placing his disgusting hand on my right breast, I could feel his stale breath in my ear. “Stand down,” Hector growled to the other man in the room. “He’s mine.”

He kept my body as his shield, his eyes on Daniel. He knew if Daniel was to attack, I’d get hurt first. And Hector wouldn’t hesitate to use me as his body armor. He smirked as he continued to hold me in front of him.

“Well, hello Nephew,” he gloated in that smarmy voice of his.

He roughly caressed my breast, making me shudder in revulsion as he taunted Daniel with the display. Bile rose in my throat at the nearness of that creepy, evil man.

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