Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
It all seems to move in slow motion—the firing of my gun, the way the guard slumps forward, his hand inside his coat jacket because he saw me coming but was a little too slow in trying to get to his own weapon. I reach into the car from her side, using the interior handle to open it before swinging it wide and grabbing her.
She fights me, but her resistance doesn’t even begin to match my strength.
“I’ll shoot you in the fucking head if you move,” I growl, throwing her inside my truck from the driver’s side.
It takes less than a minute, but I know people saw what happened.
My tires squeal as I pull through the red light, narrowly missing a city bus as it was turning through the intersection. I feel her eyes burning through the side of my head as I drive.
After watching for several miles in my rearview mirror and being satisfied that no one is following me, I pull over and face her.
Unlike the other night, her chin is trembling. Her hands are shaking in her lap.
She pulls them up to protect her face when I shift closer to her.
I shove down the memories, refuse to think about the way her reaction to me makes me feel. She isn’t any less guilty for her role in what the Severinos have done. I don’t give a shit about excuses. Complacency is just as bad as if she would actively participate in the brutality the family has committed.
She looks terrified, but I can’t let it affect me. I’m sure she’s had years to perfect her reactions and lies.
She shrinks into the seat when I reach past her into the glove box, and I hate the thrill that zings through my body when she gasps at the sight of the rope, gag, and dark cloth bag I plan to put over her head.
She whimpers, her body shaking so hard as I tie her hands behind her back that I almost believe she’s as frightened as she’s pretending to be, but then I remember that I blew a man’s brains out right in front of her and all that she could do was issue a warning. The joke’s on her.
I know exactly what I’ve done.
I know the lengths that the Severinos will go through to seek justice for their dead.
It will be fun to get a little vengeance of my own while I wait.
Chapter 10
Madelene
Most people can’t say they’ve ever experienced a gag in their mouth, a hood over their head, while their hands were tied behind their backs. I don’t know of anyone who has had to experience it more than once, but this isn’t exactly a new situation for me.
The Severino boys are sick fucks. Sensory games are one of their favorite pastimes. The difference is, with experience, I know what to expect from them. I know the lengths they’ll go to, and I know what they won’t do, which honestly isn’t much, but it’s one thing I’m very afraid will happen now.
I don’t know when I become the girl that who considered at least it won’t be that, but it feels silly now as I imagine this man will do whatever the hell he pleases.
More so now than ever before, the situation makes me think back to the first time this happened, but Elio isn’t here to assure me everything will be okay with the warmth of his body against mine. I tilt my head to the side but it doesn’t prevent the memories slamming back into me.
Her screams.
The burn in my eyes.
The way Elio yelled and begged because he wasn’t blindfolded like I was.
Despite sitting in a truck as it drives me to God only knows where, it mimics the way Elio wiggled against his restraints as he begged the boy he thought was his best friend to stop hurting Maya. He learned quickly the more he pleaded, the worse it was for her. Eventually he calmed down, the shuddering way he was breathing making it clear he wasn’t happy about what he was being forced to witness.
Maya wasn’t able to stay quiet, but I don’t imagine anyone would be able to go through what Marcello was doing to her body.
Elio turned seventeen three months prior, and I know he spent his birthday the same way Marcello spent his that night. He never talked about it, never bragged about what was expected of him. He was never the same after that night, and maybe that’s why Marcello picked who he did. Maybe he noticed some sort of weakness in my brother. Maybe this was to punish both him and Maya for her obsession with my brother. He didn’t want Maya or the attention, but Marcello somehow saw it as a slap in the face for her not to feel that way about him.