Chapter Twenty

Madelyn

 

When the door at the other end of the room opened and Benny Scarvo walked back in, Madelyn assumed that meant morning had finally come. She had been tied to the cursed chair for ages. Her back hurt, her ass hurt, her legs hurt, and even her head hurt. The ropes they had tied around her wrists and ankles were digging into her skin, and no matter how hard she tried not to move, they continued to chafe. The men who had been set up to watch her had passed the night playing cards, drinking beer, and checking their phones, but they had treated her with an aloof distance that disturbed her. She had asked for food, for something drink, and even to go to the bathroom, but all they had done was ignore her.

 

“Good morning,” Scarvo said in a chipper voice. He paced back and forth in front of her, studying her. “I trust you were comfortable?”

 

He was teasing her, but Madelyn wasn’t about to rise to the bait. She just looked at him.

 

“No more talkative than you were last night, huh? That’s okay. I think I can fix that.”

 

“There’s nothing to say,” she replied quietly.

 

Scarvo laughed, a rasping sound that filled the room. “You don’t really think I’m stupid enough to believe that, do you? I’m a powerful man, but I’m not a stupid one. I wouldn’t go have my men kidnap someone who couldn’t do some sort of good for me. I don’t do anything without a reason. You have information, and I need it.”

 

“I don’t know anything,” she insisted.

 

He folded his arms in front of his chest. “Oh, but you do. You’re Lorenzo’s attorney, which means you know a good amount. I suggest you tell me now, and this will be your last warning.”

 

Madelyn didn’t know exactly what that meant, and she didn’t want to find out, but she knew she couldn’t squeal on Enzo. It would be deadly for both of them, but at least she could protect him. “No.”

 

Scarvo moved surprisingly fast for a big man. His fist smashed into the side of her face. Two legs of her chair came off the floor with the force of the impact, falling back to the concrete and rattling her teeth. Stars danced in front of her eyes, and she blinked and rolled her head.

 

I’m okay, she told herself. I can handle this. It’s just a few punches.

 

But Scarvo was bracing for another swing. “Why is he setting me up?”

 

“He’s not.”

 

The next slam made her vision go black, and it created a bubble of panic in her chest to know that her eyes were open and yet she couldn’t see. She wasn’t even sure if she was still upright for a moment. When her vision cleared, it was only so she could see that Scarvo was still right in her face.

 

He had two beads of sweat standing out on his forehead, but he was grinning. “I can keep going like this all day. I was quite a good boxer when I was younger, and my knuckles have some nice scars on them. This is just some nice exercise for me.”

 

“Fuck you,” Madelyn spat.

 

That earned her another punch, this one square to her jaw. Her skin was swelling and itching where she had been hit, but that was nothing compared to the pain. She had never been the kind to fight back in school. Even when she hadn’t gotten along with her brother, they had done little more than argue. She’d never been through something like this, but what would happen if she talked and then the Marinos got ahold of her? She was screwed either way.

 

“Either you’re very stubborn, or very stupid,” Scarvo remarked with a sneer. “If you think you’ll be saved by the fact that you’re a woman, then you’ve got another thing coming. I don’t much care who I’m torturing as long as I get what I want.”

 

Madelyn looked to the men arranged behind him, who were watching passively as this was nothing more than a soap opera they watched every day. They would be no help to her.

 

Her lack of response only angered the mob boss more. He took a step back and pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt. “I don’t mind switching things up a little, if you think it might help loosen that tongue of yours. Or should I just cut it out, since you’re not using it anyway?”

 

She let out a muffled scream as she pressed her back to the chair. “I don’t know anything. I’m just a junior lawyer, and the big guys gave me the case because they didn’t want to deal with it. I’m on the verge of getting fired anyway, and this was going to be the final straw on their case for letting me go.”

 

Benny sheathed the knife and laughed. He looked to his men, who joined in and laughed as well, even though they didn’t seem to get the joke. “You think you’re pretty smart, huh? No wonder Lorenzo hired you as his lawyer. You’re good at creating stories to make people stop thinking about the real issues. Maybe you should move up to become a judge, and then start your career in politics. They certainly need plenty of liars there.”

 

Madelyn’s lips were swelling, and she was fairly certain from the way her eye felt that it wasn’t the right size anymore, either. She was in too much pain to tell Scarvo to go fuck himself. There was nothing she could do. She was at his mercy, and Scarvo had no mercy.

 

As he hit her yet again, Madelyn brought up a picture of Enzo in her mind. She concentrated on his handsome face, the way he put his arms around her, the way his eyes were soft as night when he looked at her. She even thought about the way he felt when he was inside her, as though the two of them were made to fit together. Most of all, she thought about how she might have actually loved him. If the circumstances had been different, if he hadn’t been a mob boss, and if she hadn’t been such an up-and-coming lawyer, they might have had a chance to be together. It was funny how she could regret choices that had seemed right at the time, wishing they had each been less important if it meant they could have been together. Just before she passed out, she thought she felt her semi-numb lips smile.