Page 83 of Under Your Scars
As it descends, I reload my rifle. My blood is thrumming in my ears, and my head is still chanting Elena’s name.
I’m coming,angel.Just hold on a little longer.
When the door opens, I’m almost knocked back by the change in atmosphere. This place reeks of sex, cigars, and liquor. The music is a smooth jazz, and the lights are dimmed. There’s a stage on the far end of the room, bright panels of light making up the floor behind a thick glass pane.
Bidding will begin soon.
That’s what a bright red neon sign says on the other side of the room.
In the center of the stage, curled up in the fetal position, is my perfect little angel. She’s completely naked.
I do the same thing I did upstairs, shoot into the ceiling to get the attention of all the men sitting in plush leather chairs scattered around the room. Most of them dive for cover, while others try to run. There’s not many. Six or so.
All of them get a bullet in their brains, and I fucking relish in watching them bleed. When they’re all dead, I throw my gun over my shoulder by the sling and run to the front of the room, up onto the stage, and I fall to my knees in front of Elena, that glass the only thing separating us.
She’s so dissociated that she doesn’t even realize I’m here.
“Elena,” I say as I knock on the glass. It earns me no reaction. I lie with my masked cheek flat against the floor to try and get level with her eyes and line myself up with her blank stare. I put my hand against the glass. “Angel, come on, look up.” I pound my fist against the glass. “Elena look at me!” I shout, and her eyes finally snap to me. Her face twists into a look so full of hopelessness that it makes my own chest feel like it’s being ripped open. Big tears fall out of her eyes as she reaches for the glass, the very edges of her fingertips grazing the barrier between us. I shake my head in response. “Don’t cry, baby. I’m going to get you out. I’ll fucking get you out of there.” I use my hands to make a gesture for her to cover her face, so that when I break this glass separating us, none will get into her eyes. I don’t humor myself trying to ask her to move when she’s so clearly hanging on to her mental stability by a goddamn thread.
I step back a few feet and point my gun at the glass, sending several bullets in rapid succession into the thick panes. The glass webs slightly where the bullets collided with it, but otherwise, it’s still holding up. I shoot again. And again. And again, until my mag runs out of bullets on my M4. I pull out my pistol next, emptying it into the glass too.
It’s fucking bulletproof.
My chest heaves with worry when I kneel back down to meet Elena’s eyes. “Baby, how did you get in there? Show me.” I put my hand flat against the glass again to attempt a comforting gesture.
That’s when I hear Valenti laugh through the speakers, and he emerges from a velvet curtain behind Elena. He’s got his hands in his pockets as he takes slow steps towards her, and I know if looks could kill, Valenti would be six feet under. “Well if it isn’t the man of honor.” He nudges Elena with his dirty shoe until she’s lying flat on her stomach. She’s so limp and lifeless. If I couldn’t see the rise and fall of her bare chest, I might think she was dead. “Glad you could join us.”
“You’ll let her go, and you will do it now.”
Valenti cocks his head to the side as if he’s considering it, and then he flashes me a poisonous smile. “No, I don’t think I will. I got a question for you though, Silencer. Is her mouth as good as her cunt? She’s got a few holes I haven’t tested yet.”
My heart skips, and if I was angry before, the fury now coursing through my veins will burn down the world. “Don’t you fucking touch her again.” I bang my fist on the glass. “Let her go now, asshole, or I’m burning this place to the ground with you in it!”
Valenti laughs. “How does it feel to know you can’t get to me, while I can touch her all I want?”
Valenti bends down and begins to unbutton his pants. I bang on the glass with my fist, over and over again. I reload my pistol and shoot it. Throw a chair at it. Pull an emergency axe off the wall and began beating at the stupid glass thatwon’t fucking break. It won’t break and Elena’s in there with him, her hips lifted into the air as he fucking rapes her in front of me.
“Stop!” I scream, ready to resort to begging if that’s what it takes. “What the fuck do you want? I’ll give you fucking anything! Please!”
Valenti grabs Elena by her hair and lifts her up, still inside her with her back pressed to his chest. The look on her face is devastating. Fractured. Hopeless. “Here’s what I want,” he says, loud enough for both of us to hear, then leans down and whispers something into her ear that I can’t make out. She shakes her head as he pushes her face down onto the floor again as he continues to thrust himself inside her.
“Whatever he wants, just give it to him, angel. I’ll fix it. I promise.” I press my hand flat against the glass again. lining myself up with her defeated face—the glass now cracked but still a barrier between us.
Fuck.What do I do? What do I do? What the hell does he want,and how do I give it to him?
I pound my fist on the floor in frustration to desperately try and get her to listen to me. “Fuck! Elena, please!” Tears drip onto the bright white floors from both of our eyes. I can’t take mine off her terrified face as she shakes her head again. My hands shoot up to grip at the hair on the side of my scalp.
I grab that axe again and start wailing on that fucking glass over and over and over again, until it’s so broken that I can barely see through it. “Fuck! What the hell do you want, asshole? Tell me and it’s yours. Do you hear me? I will doanything.”
Valenti pauses his assault on Elena just long enough to meet my eyes and give me a wretched smile, and then presses himself into her three more times before he finishes inside her. He pulls himself out and tucks himself back into his pants and rolls Elena onto her back. Her eyes are open, but her body is limp. I think she’s gone into total shock at this point.
Valenti slaps her, and I pull out another gun to empty it into the glass, as if it will do any good. He punches her then, so hard she coughs out blood, and then he stands up and kicks her in the stomach. She’s in the fetal position again, crying out in pain, blood dripping out of her mouth forming a puddle on the floor.
It’s then that Neil emerges from behind the curtain, though instead of the suave, careless look Valenti has on his face, he looks enamored by me.
“Never thought I’d see the Meridian City Silencer up close.” Neil snorts. “Huh. The police sketches never quite capture the exact green of your eyes. What do you think Christian Reeves will pay to get his bitch back?” he asks, and it takes every ounce of self-control I have in my body not to respond. Neil laughs. “Or do you think he’ll even want her back?” He presses down on her stomach with his foot, causing her to wince and fold over herself. “I never understood why he was into her. I always thought it was because of her pussy, but I wasn’t sure until I tested it myself.” He kneels down next to her and then backhands her with his cast, and then he looks at me again. “Do you and Reeves have joint custody of her? You get her on weekends, he gets her during business hours?”
I shoot another round into the glass at his head, knowing full and well it won’t do anything. He jumps back and smiles with relief when the bullet gets stopped by the glass, perfectly lined up with his forehead. Neil unzips his pants and pulls them down, uncoordinated with his broken arm.
