RUTHLESS KING

44 PAYBACK

Stella
A pounding headache forces my heavy lids open. I blink quickly, shoving
back the lingering haze as memories flit to the surface. The subway station.
Bo. Merda. Metal bites against my wrists as I try to move. My shoulder
blades burn from being forced behind my back. I sit in a hard metal chair,
my legs and arms bound.
Fear lances through my chest as I take in the murky surroundings. Once
my eyes adjust to the darkness, the sprawling warehouse takes shape.
Soaring metal rafters overhead and massive rusted containers surround me.
We must be near the water. Right? They have to load these containers
somewhere.
A strip of small windows lines the top of the vast space, but they’re too
small and too far to make out any details. I try to wriggle my hand through
the metal cuff but it’s too damned tight. My pepper spray sits in my pocket
taunting me.
All that time wasted with Luca. I should’ve spent it learning how to
fight like he did. Dark memories surge to the surface. Vinny, bullets in his torso, lying in a pool of his own blood. I squeeze my eyes shut to bury the
images, but in the dark of this godforsaken warehouse, it’s all I see.
Dad was wasted, too drunk to get out of bed when we’d gotten the call
from the cops. So I’d gone by myself at twelve years old. More memories
flood my mind. My small hands trembling. My heart racing so fast because
I’d taken too many puffs from my inhaler. I’d called Luca on my way, and
he’d never answered. Never returned my call.
He’d completely disappeared.
How had I not put it together back then?
Nonno died a few weeks after Vinny. A heart attack. Had it been guilt?
Had he known all along that it was because of him my brother was dead?
So many people to blame … and yet none of it mattered because nothing
would bring him back.
A door whips open and light spills into the obscure space, tearing me
from my twisted thoughts. I stiffen my lower lip and sit as straight as I can
with the cuffs digging into my wrists.
“Ah, there she is, Luca’s little whore.” Bo’s eyes gleam as they raze
over me.
I must look like total shit. “He’s going to gut you for this,” I spit. “And
then I’ll dance over your entrails.”
“Are you sure?” He stalks toward me and grips my chin, forcing my
eyes to his. “I thought you guys broke up?”
“Fuck you.”
“Soon.” A twisted sneer curves the ends of his thin lips. “I’ve been
waiting for weeks, Stella, waiting and waiting to catch you alone. Even
when you moved out of his place, one of his guys was constantly on you.”
My brows knit. He’d had me followed?
“For an entire week, I had your friend’s apartment surveilled.”
Of course, the one time I left Rose’s studio was to take that damned test.
I better have passed after all this. I glare up at him, steeling my nerves. “For just a whore, you sure seem pretty obsessed with me.”
His fingers release my chin and tangle in my hair. He rips it back, but I
bite my tongue to hold in the scream. I’ll never give him the satisfaction.
“It’s payback, babe. Luca Valentino is an arrogant guido, and it’s time
he’s put in his place.”
“It’s your funeral,” I scoff.
He steps closer still, that twisted grin growing wider. “Maybe, or
maybe, he’ll be so bent after I’m through with you he’ll kill himself and do
us all a favor.”
Icy fear races down my spine. I’d been banged up quite a few times as a
kid, hell even as an adult my dad had slapped me around more than I cared
to admit. I’d put up with a lot, but there is no way I’m letting this
motherfucker touch me.
He looms over me, and it takes everything I have to keep from shaking.
Throwing my shoulders back, I glare up at him. “I’ll never give you what
you want.”
“Oh yeah, and what do you think that is?”
“Me.” I shoot him a saccharine smile. “After all this time, that’s what
you wanted, right? That’s why you attacked me in the subway all those
months ago. You wanted me back and I refused to return to your tiny, limp
dick.”
The slap ricochets across the thick silence. I bite back another scream,
refusing to give him the pleasure of my pain.
“Shut your mouth, you little whore.”
I force my lips to slide into a smile despite the sting. “What’s wrong?
You don’t want your buddies to know what a terrible lay you are? That I
faked it every time? Or maybe that Luca fucked me so good he erased every
miserable time with you?”
A few of the guys chuckle, and rage flashes across Bo’s almond eyes
until they grow to full furious circles. “I’m going to fuck that smile right off your face.”
Bile oozes up, but I swallow it down forcing my expression to stay
calm. I just need him to untie me, and I can reach my pepper spray. From
there, I run. I’d rather be shot in the back than suffer his disgusting hands
on me. “I’d like to see you try,” I egg him on.
“Untie her,” he barks at his cousin.
“Are you sure?” Feng’s dark brows bunch together.
“I said fucking untie her.”
Feng walks around behind me, and I drag in a steadying breath. I have
to time it right, or I’ll have five guys on me. He uncoils the rope around my
waist but doesn’t unclasp the cuffs. Shit.
Bo points at the chains around my legs. “Take those off too so I can
spread her wide for me.”
Oh, hell, I’m going to vomit.
Feng eyes his cousin before he moves in front of me and unlocks the
manacles around my ankles.
At least I can run now.
“Get ready for the show, gentlemen.” Bo jerks his chin at the table
surrounded by chairs. The guys close in around it and fold into the seats. He
turns to me and barks, “Stand up.”
I do, throwing my shoulders back. I test out the range of my bound
hands behind my back. I can just reach my side pocket now that I’ve been
freed from the chair.
Bo drags the table into the center of the room, the sharp squeal of the
legs against the cement floor grating on my frayed nerves. With a hateful
grin, he moves toward me. Then he latches his finger in the first button of
my shirt and yanks. It pops off and clinks to the ground. Then he grabs two
fistfuls of my shirt and rips it open. All the remaining buttons clatter to the
floor, leaving me exposed. I grit my teeth together to keep from gasping. At least I’m not wearing a cute lacey bra. The full coverage beige cups hide
most of my breasts from the wandering pervy eyes.
I slip on that icy mask I’ve so often seen on Luca despite the riot of
nerves in my gut. I won’t break in front of these assholes.
Bo spins me around and wraps his hand around the back of my neck. He
shoves me toward the table. With my back to the rest of the men, he hisses,
“Take off your shorts.”
“No.” My pulse roars across my eardrums.
“Do it, or I’ll do it for you.”
Time’s up. I have to act now, or my pepper spray will end up on the
floor and out of reach. It’s my only chance. Pretending to wiggle out of my
shorts, I reach for the pepper spray and tuck it into my panties. My shorts
drop to the floor, and raw adrenaline pumps through my veins.
I feel him behind me, inching closer. When his dick is up against my
ass, I whirl around and spray. “Go fuck yourself!” I take off toward the door
in nothing but my bra and underwear, arms pumping like mad.
Bo screeches behind me. “Stop her! I don’t care if you fucking shoot
her! Don’t let her get away.”
The warehouse door whips open, and a murky shadow fills the
entryway. Every nerve-ending in my body stands at attention. Luca races
toward me, fury carved into his beautiful face. Shots ring out, and I freeze.
A dark blur shoves me to the ground, and I hit the floor with a smack.
All the air whooshes from my lungs against the concrete, and I struggle to
slurp in a breath.
“Stella, Stellina, are you okay?” Luca’s voice coaxes me from the
darkness.
I force my lids open despite the crushing pain on my back. Warmth
pools around me.
“I’m right here, baby.” Luca’s hand finds mine, fingers entwining like a
perfect puzzle. More shots ricochet across the warehouse. A cry, another scream. A
muffled curse. Bang. Bang. Bang. I cover my ear with my free hand.
“Save Bo for me!” Luca shouts through the chaos.
A faint groan alerts me of someone else’s presence, and I glance up over
my shoulder. There’s someone still on top of me.
“Cazzo, Dante.” Luca’s panicked voice has my heart thundering back up
again. He sits up and rolls his brother off me.
As soon as the massive weight is gone, I can breathe again. I search my
body for wounds, but despite the puddle of blood, I’m whole. I hazard a
glance at Dante, whose eyes have gone glossy. Three or four bullet wounds
riddle his torso, and a lake of crimson pools around us.
“Tony!” Luca cries. He rips off his shirt and presses it to his brother’s
abdomen.
My eyes land on the blood seeping from Luca’s stomach. “You’re
bleeding!”
He shakes his head. “It’s the wound from the other day.” He presses his
lips into a hard line. “I’m fine.”
It’s only then I notice the shots have stopped. I glance around the
warehouse and only Luca’s men are left standing. From across the
sprawling space, a familiar lanky form lays on the concrete, face first in a
river of his own blood. I can just make out the glint of his tacky silver
dragon ring on a bloodied finger. A part of me wants to see Bo up close,
needs to see the remains of that asshole, but the fear on Luca’s face as he
watches his brother grounds me to the spot.
“Doc’s on her way to your place.” Tony slides to the floor beside Dante
as Luca presses his bloodstained shirt to the wounds. “We have to get out of
here. The cops will arrive any minute.”
“He needs an ambulance.” I fix my eyes to Luca’s. I may not know
much about bullet wounds, but there are a shit ton of them, and Dante’s lost too much blood. Images of Vinny’s body swim to the surface once again. I
squeeze my eyes shut chasing them away before they pull me under.
“I—I can’t. No cops.”
“Go, then. I’ll stay with Dante; he saved my life. I’ll tell the police Bo
kidnapped me. I’ll tell them everything.”
“My damned brother saved both our lives.” Luca’s head whips back and
forth. “And no, I won’t leave you. Never again.”
“I’m not asking you.” The wail of sirens breaks through the tense
silence. “Go now, Luca. You can’t be here.”
“Come on, capo. We gotta go.” Tony yanks on his boss’s arm.
Luca’s hand finds my cheek, his rough thumb drawing a slow circle.
“Please, come back to me, amore.”
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I dip my head. Everything is too raw,
the wounds too fresh. I don’t trust myself to speak.
Tony jerks Luca off the floor, and he drags him across the warehouse to
the back door. The thick metal slams shut, and for an instant, there’s only
silence. I glance down at Dante’s pale face and wait for the anger, the
revulsion. But it never comes. Instead, I only see an older version of Luca.
A dark and broken man.
A second later, the police arrive with guns drawn. “Hold on, Dante,” I
whisper as they surround us.