Doe
Ten minutes earlier
My legs were weak, my entire body electrified. With every step I took, I felt the remnants of my orgasm pooled between my legs. It was surreal, the way Antonio managed to own me so easily. One touch. One kiss. One breath. That was all it took for him to enrapture me, to make me want to surrender. I didn’t care that we were in public. I didn’t care who watched. All I cared about was feeling him, letting him do with me what he wanted. The more he touched me, the more he pushed my body over the edge, the more I craved it. Craved him. I was like a little girl, and he was the candy I could never get enough of. All these years, I hated every man’s touch, repulsed by the way their skin felt on mine. Locked in a cage or prison cell at night, I would fear the next time hands and mouths and teeth would bite into my flesh. Even now, just the thought of another man coming near me made my skin crawl. But not him. Not Antonio. In fact, I wanted to feel his touch every minute of every day.
“I still can’t believe how much my brother has changed since he found you.” Karina pushed the door open, and we walked into the ladies’ room. “But it’s weird, though. He’s changed, but he’s still him.” She frowned. “Does that make sense?”
I just smiled, my head fogged from the pleasure that still lingered throughout my body.
Karina narrowed her eyes and stared at me. “You look flushed.”
“Oh…um—”
She let out a laugh. “Oh, my God. Your face just went from pink to bright red.”
I placed my hand on my cheek, the warm skin burning against my palm.
Karina turned and placed her purse on the marble countertop, and I looked around. Above every black sink was an individual oval mirror decorated with black steel forming swirls and circles. The floor was black and white checkered tiles, bright silver steel lights hanging from the ceiling.
“I have to admit it’s awesome to have the bathroom to ourselves. One perk of having an overprotective brother with enough money to spend, and a girl to protect.” She winked at me in the mirror then applied more mascara, one eye closed to focus. “Are you at least having fun?”
I nodded. “I am. It’s strange, though,” I let my fingertip brush against the cold marble, “being this free. Being out in the world without…” My voice trailed off.
Karina stilled, watching my reflection in the mirror. “Without?”
I bit my bottom lip, hating the memory. “Without a collar and a chain.”
“Jesus.” She threw the mascara back in her purse and turned to face me. “I won’t pretend to know what you’ve been through. And frankly, I don’t want to know. Your whole story, Doe, it’s not a story I ever want to know.” Her dark eyes softened, saddened. “But what I do know is that you are the strongest woman I’ve ever met. If your past is half as bad as I imagine it was, the fact that you survived it tells me exactly how strong you are.”
I swallowed hard, tears starting to sting my eyes. “I’m not strong, Karina.”
“You are.”
“It wasn’t strength that kept me alive.” I fixed my gaze on hers. “It was my fear of dying.”
Two short sentences that carried an ocean of truth. Everyone mistook my survival for strength, but it was fear. “I knew what kind of hell I was in. I didn’t know what hell awaited me on the other side.”
Karina leaned against the countertop. “Rather the devil you know than the devil you don’t?”
“Something like that.” I nervously scratched at my cuticles then gently touched my necklace, somehow thankful for the tiny sliver of safety.
“Okay,” Karina straightened, “enough of the heavy. Let’s go out there and enjoy the rest of the time we have here tonight. Knowing my brother, he’s already itching to take you home.” She winked then took my hand. We turned, only to stare straight at a man standing by the door. For a second, there was utter silence, and it was just the beat of my heart echoing in my ears. Then the click of the lock sounded around us, and my spine turned to ice.
“Who are you?” Karina slowly urged me behind her. “Unlock that door, now.”
The man wore black pants and a white dress shirt. I recognized him. He was the waiter with the friendly smile who had been walking around with drinks all night.
With light brown hair and green eyes, he leaned his head to the side as he studied us, as if he was calculating exactly how big of a threat the two of us could pose to him. Immediately, I could see the cruel intent in his eyes. It was a look I had seen so many times before in my life. A look that never meant anything good.
“Listen, asshole,” Karina started, “you better open that fucking door right now, or you’ll end up with your balls in your brain.”
“Relax, bitch. I’m not here for you.” He sneered her way before looking at me. “I’m here for you…Nessuno.”
Bile made its way up my throat the second I heard that name. Barbed wire tightened around my stomach like a vise, and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to vomit or scream. Ice spread through my lungs, and all I could think was that he had finally come for me. Master V had finally made a move. How I knew, I wasn’t sure. Call it a basic instinct for a woman like me. I just knew.
Karina pushed me behind her even more. “You stay away from her,” she warned. All I could do was stand there. Cemented to the spot. Unable to fucking move.
The man launched forward and grabbed Karina by her face, a knife pushed against her throat. My back hit the countertop, but I didn’t make a sound while I watched the man push Karina against the wall. “I would suggest you stay out of this, Valenti bitch. It would be a shame for this pretty little face to get skinned off.”
“Please don’t,” I heard myself say. “Don’t hurt her.”
Green snake eyes peered my way, and I held my breath. “He said to bring you to him alive. But he said nothing about this little beauty.” With his eyes on mine, he pressed the knife harder against Karina’s skin. My heart was beating so loud, I could hardly hear the music coming from the club. The black and white checkered tiles were starting to make my head spin, adrenaline and fear tearing my mind in two.
Do I try to run to get help? Or do I stay?
“Here’s the deal,” he said. “There’s a fire escape just outside that window.” He gestured toward a large window at the other side of the room, the blackness of night making it seem like a hole in the wall. “You’re going to take the fire extinguisher and smash the glass. Then you’re going to jump onto the fire escape, and you’re going to run down those stairs like you have the devil himself on your heels. Once you’re out that window, I’ll let the little Valenti tramp go.”
“No!” Karina tried to shove the man off her, but he grabbed her throat and slammed her head against the wall, digging the knife deeper into her flesh.
“One more fucking sound out of you, and I’ll slice your face from ear to ear.”
“Please stop.” I took a hesitant step forward. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Yes, you will, if you want the Valenti bitch to keep her beautiful smile.”
I nodded frantically, the blade against Karina’s throat making me nervous. Scared. And I didn’t for one moment think about what would happen to me once I went down the fire escape. All I thought about was what would happen to Karina if I didn’t.
Karina tried to glance in my direction, but the knife against her throat kept her from moving. “Doe, don’t do it. He’s fucking bluffing.”
A shriek left her lips, and all I saw was a line of crimson pooling on her shoulder, the man’s knife stained with her blood.
He tilted his head, tightening his grip on her throat. “Does that feel like I’m fucking bluffing?”
“Stop. I’ll do it.” Tears stung my eyes, a single drop slipping down my cheek. “Just don’t hurt her.”
“Then get a fucking move on and do as I said.”
I was used to fear. But this was different—fearing for someone’s life other than your own. It was more intense. More extreme. There was no doubt in my mind that I would gladly give myself to the devil rather than see Karina get hurt because of me.
“I just…I just have one question. Is it him? Did he put you up to this?”
The guy shrugged. “If by him you mean Vadik, then, yes. Rich bastard sure as fuck wants you back badly. He’s put out a reward for whoever returns his pretty, broken girl to him.” The grin on his face was filled with greed. “There’s a fuck-load of people looking for you, which means you’ll be returned to him sooner or later. But that reward is mine, so I’ll prefer sooner.”
The man gestured toward the window. “Get a fucking move on. There’s a car waiting for you. Once you get to the bottom, you get your ass into that fucking car. Is that clear?”
“Crystal.”
I turned around, fear causing the blood to flow through my veins at a thousand beats per minute. I knew this would happen. I knew it was only a matter of time before he came for me. I knew it from the second I found out I had been stolen from him. And I had been a fool by letting myself believe I might have had a chance by escaping him. By being with Antonio.
Every step I took toward the window, my feet grew heavier, my body reluctant to move. From the shuffling behind me, I knew he was dragging Karina while he followed me.
“Doe, stop.” Karina’s voice was shaky, sounding desperate. “Don’t fucking do this. Don’t you dare do this.”
“Shut the fuck up before I shove my cock into that big fucking mouth of yours. Actually, don’t shut up. Say something else so I have a reason to force my dick down your throat.”
“Fuck you!” Karina sneered, then I heard a loud crack, what I assumed was him hitting her.
“For that, you’re getting it up the fucking ass, Valenti tramp.”
I stilled, my heart pounding like a jackhammer inside my chest. But his words. Those disgusting words that left his mouth, it morphed my fear into anger. The thought of him hurting Karina in a way I’d been hurt a hundred times, replaced the dread with rage. And while I stood there allowing the rage and anger to consume me, adrenaline rushing to every corner of my body, I closed my eyes and reached up, touching my necklace.
“Why the fuck are you stopping? Did I stutter? Or are you mentally fucked as well? I said get your fucking ass out that window and down that fire escape now, broken girl.”
My fingers wrapped around the necklace. “There’s only one problem,” I murmured.
“Yeah, the problem is you’re not fucking walking.”
I took a deep breath, steeled myself while I imagined Master V’s face, the victorious grin he would have once he managed to get his claws into me again.
“No,” I started. “The problem is, I’m no longer his pretty, broken girl.”
I turned, swung my arm, and then…blood. So much blood. A waterfall of crimson spilled from his throat, and in my hand was the blood-stained blade. He gurgled, choking on his own blood as he gasped for air. Falling to his knees, his hands reached up to the open wound around his throat, red seeping through between his fingers.
I watched. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Off the life that was draining from his dying body. My vision zeroed in on the wound, the blood. My hearing blocked out every sound except that of him gagging and choking, his body shutting down fast. I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. The fear was gone. The terror disappeared. Even the anger had dissipated. There was nothing except…power.
“Doe! Jesus!”
It was only when I heard Antonio’s voice, feeling his strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me away from the now dead corpse who lay face down on the ground, that reality started to seep back in.
“Doe, are you okay?” His hands touched everywhere—my hair, my face, my shoulders.
“I’m fine,” I answered softly, staring into the wild circles of his dark brown irises. “I’m fine, Antonio.”
“Jesus.” Lorik came storming in, Dante shortly on his heel. He looked at the body on the floor. “One of Mancuso’s guys?”
“Fuck me.” Dante pulled his hands through his hair, his gaze cutting from the dead body to the bloody blade I still held in my hand. “Antonio, what the fuck?”
Antonio snatched the blade from my hand, grabbed my arm, and dragged me across the bathroom. “Lorik, get them out of here, now!”
Dante shook his head. “This has Mancuso written all over it.”
“It’s him. It’s one of Vadik’s men.” Lorik pulled Karina and me toward the door, and I tried to speak, to be heard while glancing over my shoulder. “Antonio, it’s Vadik. He’s come for me.”
But we were out the door and rushed out of the club. There wasn’t time for me to say anything after that. There wasn’t time for me to ask why he wasn’t coming with us. Before I knew it, I was in the back of the SUV, tires screeching, Lorik swearing. It felt like the last few minutes passed with a big, black blur.
There was blood. And then lights. Yellow lights as Lorik sped through the streets of Boston. All while the same sentence repeated over and over inside my head.
I killed a man.