Page 16 of Beautiful Enemy

The only thing that encompasses my mind is the worry that Anya could have been killed in that chapel. I know Dante wants to make her and Erik suffer, so it gives me hope that she really is alive. But I can’t take Dante at his word. He could very well be lying to me. Kidnapping me hasn’t won him any favors in the trust department.

The longer I stand, frozen, in the basement, the more I know I need to get out of here. Dante is already causing destruction and fear. I don’t want to know everything he’s capable of.

I try the door at the top of the basement stairs but unsurprisingly, it’s locked. I knock on it for good measure. “Hello? Can anybody hear me? Help me?”

No response. Not that I thought I would get one. I just had to try. If Anya was in my shoes, she would try everything at her disposal.

I look around the basement, taking in anything that might be able to help me. There’s a tiny window near the ceiling. I’m too short to reach it. Besides, there’s bars across the window. Even if I could reach, I doubt I’d be able to pull the bars off and I doubt evenless that I’d be able to make it through the small window. I may be petite but I’m still an adult. Only a small child could fit through it.

I check every corner of the basement. Since the walls are not insulated, it makes the room even colder, despite the fact that it’s summertime. I peer into every crevice in the walls, seeking a way out but there’s nothing. There’s no weapons I could use. It’s just a mattress and a bucket.

I shudder at the sight of the bucket. I know exactly why it’s here, which means Dante doesn’t plan on releasing me from this basement anytime soon. The thought of peeing into a bucket feels so undignified.

Dante is so concerned about whether I view him as trash but it’s obvious he thinks I’m gum under his shoe for him to treat me this way.

He has no reason to like me. It is true that we’re enemies, both in the Bratva versus Mafia sense but also in that Erik and Anya and my father all tried to kill him. It’s a messy thing.

But they only tried to kill him because he was trying to kill them. It’s like an ouroboros. A snake eating its tale. A never ending battle.

I just worry that the battle will only end after I die. Dante doesn’t seem to want me dead anytime soon but that could change. If I don’t find a way out of here, I’m not sure I’ll ever find a way out of here.

Footsteps above me make me tense. When I hear multiple sets of footsteps and the murmuring of voices, my fear takes over my entire body. When Anya is backed into a corner, she fights like a rabid dog. It’s why she took the brunt abuse of our father. She would hit him back.

But when I’m backed into a corner, all I can do is freeze. It’s like every fiber in my body constricts and tenses and I’m in unable to move a muscle.

The footsteps get closer to the basement door. It’s clear from the voices that they’re male. Why would I expect anything else?

I’m not sure if one of them is Dante. He frightens me but at least I know him. I know he doesn’t want me dead – yet anyway. But what if it’s someone I don’t know? Someone who doesn’t care if I live or die?

Someone who might delight in my torture?

When the basement door opens, it makes my body spring into motion. I grab the bucket and press my body against the wall off to the side of the stairs. Whoever this is won’t be able to see me right away.

But I also won’t be able to see them.

Two sets of footsteps descend the stairs. They don’t shut the basement door behind them. If I can get past whoever these people are, maybe I can escape. I have to make Anya proud. I have to try.

When the first man steps into the room, I grip the bucket handle tight and swing the bucket right at him. It makes him jerk back and I force my legs to move and run past him.

But another man is still on the stairs, blocking my path.

He tilts his head, smiling down at me like I’m an amusing kitten. “Did you really think you could get past us?”

I know this man. It’s Aiden Murphy, one of the hitmen who Dante works with. Which means…

I turn around and run right into Finn Murphy’s chest, Aiden’s brother.

I met these two before years ago when they attacked Erik’s house. We never spoke but their faces have been implanted in my head since then. Erik explained to me who they are at the time.

But after Dante disappeared, so did they, and I stopped being worried about hitmen coming to kill me in the night.

My worry slams right back into me. My nightmares have become real.

I’m stuck between two hitmen. Their job is to kill, unlike Dante’s. Dante wants power. He wants revenge. He doesn’t want me dead.

But these men… I shiver. They might just kill me for sport and I will not be able to stop them. A quick glance towards Finn’s waist tells me he has a gun.

When I meet his eyes, he smiles. “Just the woman we were looking for.”

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