Is This Happiness

90

CARMEN'S POV

I felt motion sickness the entirety of the day, or night. It might have been days. My chest had been tight since I left the cabin. The further I got from Stefano the more unhinged I truly felt.

One of the men handcuffed me then blindfolded me. I knew we had moved from the car, and the loud sound that met my ears told me we'd moved to a plane.

I sat in silence. The men around me carried on their conversations in Italian. I couldn't understand much of anything, nor could I focus on it. My mind was a clump of nerves.

I was alone. I don't have anything to protect me. Not Stefano, not a gun. Not even Jason, much to my dismay. I had nothing but the weapon of my mind. I needed to plan and execute, fast. I knew I could do it. I had to push through my feelings. They didn't matter. I was here, and Stefano was someplace else. Safe.

My mind kept going back to the obvious. A single part of me knew that I had to accept that fate that i've given myself. It's simple. 
Either Giovanni would pridefully force a gun to my head and pull the trigger. Which left me or Stefano with no upper hand.

Or, he would put his deep internal issues aside and find some other way to torture me, or worse. Stefano. It can't be Stefano.

Either way, my decision was final. I'd end this for him. I'd give him the freedom he so desperately desires. Even if it's not me standing by his side in the end of all of this.

I'll get him out.

The same motion continued as I strayed lost in my thoughts. I was force to leave the plane, shoved into a car. My head nearly snapped by the heavy hand forcing me to duck down into the vehicle. The misty air on my skin gave me no answers to where I was. My assumption was New York.

It always lead back to New York.

I felt the temperature change when I stepped inside of a building. What came next was expected. They shoved me down in a chair. My hands remained restrained while my ankles were tied together by forceful hands. The voice of the devil entered my ears. It kick started something in me. A dark cloud of fury rose.

"What do we have here?" The sickest man i'd ever met speaks. His voice smug. I wished desperately that the handcuffs would rot. The riot i'd lay onto Giovanni would be foul. I would ring his neck first.

Unspeakable things take a turn in my mind.

"I didn't gag your mouth for a reason, Carmen. Speak." His voice was repulsive enough to cause my ears to bleed. I tilt my neck to the side. A chamber of words desperate to escape my lips. I have to play this smart. Play it slow.

"Why?" My tone questioning.

I wonder if he would pick up on the suspicion in my tone. It felt like small spiders were crawling over my skin and down the slope of my neck, crawling inside of me for shelter, to eat me alive with no mercy.

The instinctual feeling of a body breaching my personal bubble plummets into me. The knowing surrounds me with unease. I couldn't protect myself, I had no way to. I wouldn't be able to do anything if he got any closer. My legs twitch with knowing.

I'm being approached by a feral panther.

His fingers tug down the blindfold, letting it fall down to my neck. I squirm in my chair. Desperately wanting him to take his hand away, needing him to take a step back. I felt unhinged, like a caged bull. I'm rioting.

He's the color red, my target. He'll go down.

When my vision appears before me. I meet the gaze of Giovanni. He stands directly in front of me. His eyes settled on my face. Hands down by his sides, clenched tightly. I remove my eyes from him to look around, the room is dark. There's a single light that hangs above my head. Dramatics expected.

"You ran towards my men. Not away from them. Do you remember the last time that we spoke, Carmen. I do believe that I called you stupid. Have you learned nothing?"

"Some would call what I did brave, not stupid. This situation had to end at some point." My tone is laced with irritation because I felt it.

My life has been on hold because of this man. I hold his gaze, no matter the tremor in my legs. I squeeze my muscles tightly. My body becomes stiff.

His gaze lifts above my head. I can't turn my body, being strapped down. But even then, I wouldn't give into the temptation of looking away. I keep my gaze steady on his face watching as a grin forms on his lips.

"Don't disrespect me. You see this blade. Do you know what I could do with it?" He lifts a blade that I didn't see he was holding. He tosses it around between his fingers. A daunting laugh escaping past his lips. The sound is chilling. It resembles the sound of sick intentions.

"If you wanted to. You would have." I tempt. His finger pressed to the sharpest end of the blade. He nods his head, eyes on the floor. He looks as if he's contemplating something.

"I'm sure you know why you're here. You will bring Stefano to me and I will kill him. Tonight at the Gala. Everyone will be there. Everyone will see the moment I slit his fucking neck from his body." He decides, his eyes wide with thought.

I hold in the grimace on my face. My eyes strain, holding his gaze. I don't back down from it, nodding. I mirror his movements.

"Why?" I ask, hesitantly.

"Questioning me, again. I don't like questions."

"I just don't understand. You know how it is. Stefano doesn't tell me anything. No one does. I'm left in the dark. All I know is that you're set out on some warpath of revenge. Why do you hate him so badly?" I demand.

"I don't own you an answer." He growls.

"Then don't expect my help. If you tell me, maybe I could sympathize with you but until then..."

"Don't give me a fucking ultimatum. He isn't the man you think he is."

I roll my eyes into the back of my head. Hanging it low. How many times was I going to get the same response. I've heard in twenty times or more.

"You are as fucked up as he is." He speaks with a tone of disapproval. Walking backwards into the dark with a shake of his head. I can't see him anymore, but I can hear the sound of his shoes tapping against the concrete floor. He's circling around me.

Whatever Stefano is consider myself the other half, we meet in between.

"I don't know why it took me so long to see it. Does he eat your pussy from the front or back. It's gotta' be one of them. It's the only reason you follow that fucked son of a bitch like a meal ticket. Or is it the adrenaline?"

He whispers into my ear from behind. I feel the sharp tip of the blade poke into the side of my neck. I swallow, feeling it come around to the base of my throat. Pricking into my skin. The cold air seeps into my wound, and a burning crawls up in my skin.

"What exactly did you need from me?" I grit though my teeth. How do you decipher the feeling of anger and fear, they feel the same. I bite my tongue as it wants to spit fire.

"I knew you'd try to save the day. You lack a fucking brain. This is beyond you. I've planned this for years. A way to ruin him and then you came along. I want him to suffer." He groans, tilting his head up to the ceiling.

"You're disgusting!" I shout, my voice echoing the room. It bounces off the walls. It tells me the room is empty. At first I heard his voice from behind. Towards the left. Now he stands in front of my again. His tall form looming over me. The closer his face gets the more I want to spit in it.

"You'll come with me to the Gala. Stefano will follow and i'll make an example of him." He repeats, speaking to himself.

"You've already said that." I grit through my teeth, following him as he paced the space.

"He will think you betrayed him before his brain grows numb." He repeats again.

"I want to know why, what is beyond me. Why is he so bad, what are you not telling me?" I want to know his side.

"It doesn't matter. You'll be dead too."