Vendetta

“Sophie, I really can’t get into this now.” His voice was weary. “Just sit tight. I’ve sent someone.”

“I’m trying.” I slid through the ajar door into the living room and snapped the window shut. I was in the middle of pulling the curtains closed when I heard a voice behind me.

“Hello, Sophie.”

I dropped the phone. Gino and Dom Falcone stood up from the couch at the same time, moving toward me with matching gaits.

“How did you get into my house?” I tried to find where my phone had fallen, but the room was almost pitch-black. They both shrugged, their faces disguised by the darkness. Had they rehearsed this?

“You should go.” I folded my arms in what I hoped was an act of defiance. I raised my voice, too, hoping Jack was still listening. “I’m expecting visitors.”

Gino’s laugh was a rasping bark. Dom stopped two feet away from me, and his brother hovered behind him, his ponytail adding two solid inches to his height. They smirked the same menacing smile.

“What do you want, Dom?”

“Ideally, Jack,” he said. Behind him, Gino nodded animatedly in agreement. “But we can’t waste any more time trying to find him. We’re done chasing.”

“And following you has gotten us nowhere,” added Gino, his unibrow furrowed above fathomless eyes. “It’s been so boring.”

I stumbled backward, hitting the backs of my knees against the window ledge. “You’ve been following me?”

I prayed Jack was still listening from wherever my phone had landed.

“Yes,” said Dom matter-of-factly. “When we found out who you were, it was a stroke of luck. We thought you’d eventually lead us to your uncle …” The way he said it made it sound like he was disappointed in me for failing at a task I had no idea I was doing. “But you didn’t.”

Gino started snickering through his nose.

“You’ve been following me,” I said again. My voice sounded far away; it was buckling with incredulity. “For how long?”

“Too long,” they said together.

“Nic was against it, if that makes it any easier to stomach. He’s been fighting to leave you out of this,” Dom said with mock sympathy. “But it is what it is.”

“Out of what?”

“Fighting and losing,” Gino sneered, ignoring my question.

“But,” added Dom, “if we hadn’t been following you, you probably would have been raped that night after the world’s most boring party.”

“Oh my God.” Horror curled in my stomach. “That’s how Luca found me.”

“He wasn’t supposed to intervene,” said Dom, his voice suddenly disapproving. “We weren’t allowed to do anything that would disrupt your day unless your uncle made an appearance, but Luca broke the rules, like he always does. We didn’t even know about it until you came around shouting in our driveway.”

I blanched. Gino seemed to disengage from the conversation, and his attention started to wander around the darkened room. At a sound from outside, Dom glanced past me through a crack in the curtains. I seized the brothers’ momentary distraction and slid around the wall until I was nearer to the door.

They drifted with me like tracking drones.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” lisped Gino. “I don’t want to hit a girl. Even if it is you.”

“You’re going to have to come with us.” Dom sounded almost apologetic, but it did little to soothe my slow-burning hatred for him. Not only had he broken into my house and was trying to take me somewhere against my will, but he had obviously used Millie and then dumped her, and that made him a total, unredeemable asshole. I slid into the open doorway, but Gino blocked me in an instant. He shot his arm out, covering the sliver of space.

Dom curled around the other side of me, closing in. He glanced at his brother and gave him a controlled nod. Gino dropped to his hands and knees and slithered across the floor like a reptile, swiping his hand around as he crawled. It was completely, unnecessarily dramatic.

I tried to run, but Dom grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Don’t.”

Finally, Gino fished out my phone from underneath the armchair and sprang to his feet, dangling it in the air between us. “Gotcha,” he said triumphantly to Dom.

Dom took the phone and held it to his ear. “Jackie boy?” he sneered. The distant sound of shouting filled my ears. “I think it’s time we finished this.”

Laughing to himself, Gino shuffled to my side. “Time for Sophie to say bye-bye.” His smile revealed his two chipped teeth, and his tongue poked out beneath them. I was still straining to hear what Jack was saying when Gino’s hands disappeared from my view.

Dom covered the mouthpiece and redirected to his brother. “Hurry up,” he said.

The damp rag came out of nowhere.

“And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.”

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet

I could hear buzzing. It made the world vibrate, pulsing inside my eardrums until it felt like the bees were coming from inside my skull. I twitched awake. The sweetest cacophony of smells hung in the air, coaxing me from the darkness that had engulfed me so completely. I opened my eyes to a white ceiling and felt a horrible tightness in my chest.

I groaned.

“Ah, you’re awake, at last. I was wondering how long that would take to wear off.”