Sera
Deena holds me against his hard, chubby body, his handgun pressed to my temple as we stand behind his large wood grain desk littered with papers and God knows what else. I’m dressed in only a gray t-shirt much too large for me. The neckline of the shirt sags over my shoulder, threatening to expose my left breast to my father and his minions.
In the group that huddles by the large, oak double doors with their guns pointed in our direction, I see a lot of familiar faces except for the only one I really want to see. I gasp. What if Dad hurt him? What if he’s…I don’t want to think about it.
“I’m going to skin you alive, Deena,” my father growls, inching closer.
“Come any closer and I’ll blow her brains out.”
I swallow hard.
“You dumb fuck,” my dad swears. “I was considering your offer in exchange for her hand. You couldn’t wait a few weeks? You had to swoop in while I was away?”
Deena laughs and it vibrates against my back. “I didn’t go to your house for her. I came for the fucker that insulted me, the one that put a gun to my head,” I hear him sneer, right by my ear. “But when I saw them in the pool, all over each other, I thought I was doing you a favor by taking this whore off your hands. Free of charge.”
Dad flinches, clenching his jaw harder than I’ve ever seen. Tears well in my eyes as he looks at me not only with fear and anger, but disappointment too. It pierces my heart.
My soul.
If only he knew that Ben is a good man. He’s not like Deena. He’s not like anyone else I’ve ever met.
“If you’ve got a problem with me, Deena, let the girl go and we can talk.”
The tears that well in my eyes dry up and my chest inflates with hope. I watch my father’s group slowly branch out, Ben coming into the room from behind them, a rifle pressed against his shoulder. I gasp at the sight of him. His mouth bleeds, his eye almost swollen shut. My chest aches, the tears coming back full force. What’d they do?
“The time for talking is over,” Deena snaps in my ear, startling me. “I kill her or I kill you.”
I glance down at the desk in front of me, spotting a gold envelope opener on the edge. I’d question why the hell anyone would still use one of these, but fuck it. Men like Deena thrive on nostalgia.
“Tell me, Ben. Is her pussy so good you’d give your life for it?”
Ben grimaces—or I think he does. It’s hard to tell under all that blood. “Stop talking.”
Glancing down, I slowly reach for the envelope opener. Grabbing it by its blade, I pull it back and hold it by its hilt. His chest vibrates as he talks, but I can’t hear him. All I can hear is my heart as it pounds in my ears. I moisten my lips and clench the envelope opener. I exhale, then inhale. All I gotta do is drive this into his thigh muscle and run. I lift the opener as high as I can without alerting Deena to what I’m doing. I close my eyes for the briefest moment and pray to God that he doesn’t squeeze the trigger on reflex.
Clenching my teeth together, I slam the envelope opener into Deena’s thigh and he howls in pain.
Bang! I dive out of the way, crying out as my hip slams into the hard wood when I crash to the floor. Bang.
There’s a ringing in my ears I can’t seem to shake. I stuff them with my fingers, and I remain still, squeezing my eyes shut. Hands grab at me—all different kinds of hands—and they pull me to my feet. I open my eyes as my father’s men drag me toward the door. I watch the scene before me unfold in slo-mo. Deena cradles his shoulder on the floor, his face red, dribbling spit out of his mouth while he unintelligibly yells at my father, who towers above him.
To his left, Roman, Luca, and Levi stand above Ben, stomping their feet all over him. Screaming, I thrash against the men that hold me and manage to slip free.
My father moves toward Ben before I’m close enough to stop him.
“Dad, no!” I cross the floor, rushing over to him. Pulling back his leg, he kicks Ben in the ribs. Ben curls up with a groan, clenching his body tightly.
“Daddy, please!”
I force my way between them and kneel at Ben’s side, exposing my palms to my father, tears burning hot trails down my cheeks.
“Get out of my way,” he demands, flicking his head at Luca, who grabs my arms and tugs me to my feet.
I dig my feet in, no longer able to see the sharp lines of my father’s angry face. I beg him over and over to leave Ben alone. In a panic, I promise to never speak to Ben again. I promise to never leave the house. I promise to marry whoever he wants me to marry so long as Ben is spared.
“It’s not his fault,” I shout, a few feet from the room’s exit. “He didn’t do anything! I did.” I hiccup, wincing as my lungs and my throat burn. “He saved my life! And you’re not going to spare him?”
I’m tugged out of the room and the door is slammed shut in my face. I sag in Luca’s grip as all my fight leaves my body. I knew this would happen. I fucking knew it would…
…and still I persisted.
Ben
Once the last of my adrenaline is kicked out of me, my body gives up. I hear them shout above me, but I don’t have the energy to fully process the words they speak. Only once voice stands out above the fray, hers.
I hear it, but it grows more and more distant, and the further it fades, the less I want to stay here.
“At least let me call him an ambulance.” Her cry echoes through my head, and I can’t muster the energy to tell her I’m okay.
I hear faint murmurs of Marco as he demands they take Deena to “the warehouse” for his punishment and I wonder if that’s where I’ll end up.
It’s funny. I went from complaining because the jobs I was doing weren’t exciting enough to working as a bodyguard for some mafia princess. And now I’m lying on the floor of a mob’s mansion, minutes away from death because of a fucking girl I met at a club I didn’t even want to be at. Sera and I were destined to fail from the beginning, really. The sex was just too good for us to see the bigger picture.
My eyelids grow heavy, so heavy I don’t think I can open them ever again…
…man, my brother is going to be pissed when he finds out I couldn’t even keep this job for longer than two days, but hey, at least I tried.