Page 117 of Beautiful Revenge

“Hurt you how exactly?”

I don’t dare tell Elena how Sal murdered a woman and her baby. That is the last thing she needs to hear right now.

“He cut me. But I won’t let him do that to you. Now, just stay there.”

Footsteps bang on the upstairs floor. Sal is home. He’s confident that he can hurt us. That we’re his playthings. Maybe he’ll be underestimating us.

He walks around upstairs for a long time, or it just feels like a long time since I’m so nervous, before he approaches the basement door. It creaks open.

“My playthings?” he asks, coming down the stairs. “Why are you being so quiet?”

I motion to Elena to speak.

“Uh, we’re scared,” she says. The obvious quiver in her voice tells us that she really means what she says. I just hope I can keep her and her baby safe.

I was raised to be the center of attention. Spoiled and self-centered. But now I have to be selfless. I have to put myself in harm’s way to save Elena.

“You shouldn’t be scared,” he says, getting closer to the bottom step. Closer to where I’m hiding. “I’m only going to make you bleed a little.” He laughs at his own joke. Bastard.

He reaches the bottom step. Just one more and I’ll be able to pounce on him. I have no weapon but hopefully I can grab one of his.

“You are so… pregnant,” he says. There’s desire in his voice. It makes me want to vomit.

Elena runs her hand over her belly. “Please let us go. My husband will want to kill you. He’ll make you regret taking me.”

“I doubt your husband can do anything.”

“He’s Aiden Murphy.”

I can feel Sal’s surprise even though I can’t see him. Just one more step and I can attack.

“Aiden Murphy? Well, who would have thunk it? Two of my playthings married to the Murphy brothers. I met Aiden once. He wasn’t very intimidating, I’m afraid to say. Your threat doesn’t scare me, plaything. Now where is your other plaything? I want to get a good look at both of you.”

“She’s hurt,” Elena says, not looking in my direction once. Good. We went over this. If she looks my way, it will alert Sal to where I am.

“How did she get hurt?”

“By trying to break out through that window.” She points to the window in the opposite direction of me. “She fell down. She hurt her ankle.”

“She’s being awfully quiet.”

“She hit her head on the way down. I haven’t been able to wake her up. She’s over there.” Thank goodness the basement is dark. It will help conceal me.

Sal finally takes the last step into the room. “Well, that’s inconvenient. I want my playthings to be fine so I can hurt them myself.”

I take in a deep breath and jump right onto Sal’s back. Judging from the way he tenses, he wasn’t expecting me to do this.

“Oh, there’s my other plaything,” he says, trying to grab at me but I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He digs his fingernails into my legs but I ignore the pain. It’s nothing compared to how he made me feel when he strapped me to his table and cut me.

“Grab his gun,” I tell Elena, tightening my hold onto Sal.

Elena tries to grab the gun by his waist but Sal keeps spinning around, trying to shake me off.

“You’re a strong little plaything, aren’t you.” He chuckles. The sound sends shivers over my body. “I wasn’t expecting that. You’re so tiny.”

“Adrenaline,” I grit out, keeping my hold on him. Elena tries going for the gun again but she can’t reach him. “Just run! Elena, run!”

She hesitates before running towards the stairs.

---