“Relax.” He waved me off. “No one touched her. Your sister just needed to be…contained since she wouldn’t stop assaulting my men.” Vadik pointed at Karina. “Did you know she bites?”
I looked down at her, and she growled while keeping her glare on Vadik. At that moment, my heart swelled with pride. My sister. A fighter. A Valenti.
“As a matter of fact,” I turned to face him again, “I happen to know firsthand that she bites.”
I struggled against the ropes again, feeling them cutting into the flesh of my wrists. Even though I was proud as hell over the fact that Karina didn’t stop fighting, I was growing restless. I wanted her out of there. Her and Doe both.
“Vadik, we had a deal. I’m here, so let my sister go.”
“A man is allowed to change his mind.”
“Fuck that! You let her go. We had a motherfucking deal.”
Vadik cocked a brow. “You of all people should know deals can be broken.”
“What?”
He kept swinging the keys around his finger. “The night you killed Stefano Mancuso, you made a deal with him, only to go back on your word. Didn’t you?”
Karina stilled, dark brows furrowed as she stared at me. I ignored her.
“How the fuck do you know?”
“I know everything, Valenti heir. I have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“The situation with Mancuso has nothing to do with you.”
“But it has to do with her,” he pointed over my shoulder towards Doe, “doesn’t it?”
My jaw clenched, and I bit my lip. “Don’t,” I warned.
“I think little Nessuno deserves to know the truth, don’t you?”
“Her name isn’t Nessuno!” I pulled at my restraints, the chair skidding across the wooden floor.
Vadik laughed. The fucker was so amused, his entire ugly motherfucking face lit up. Still swinging the keys around his finger, he walked around me, back to where Doe was. I glanced down at Karina beside me, her eyes filled with panic.
“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I won’t let him hurt you.” But judging by the big blue bruise beneath her jaw, someone already had.
I heard the turn of a lock, the creak of steel hinges. With my eyes closed, I tried to brace myself for what was to come. Jesus. This was all spiraling out of control. And we were running out of time.
The rattling of chains made me open my eyes, and I was suddenly sucked through a vortex of horror, spewed out in a fucking twilight zone of sheer and utter agony. Doe was on hands and knees, crawling behind Vadik while he held the chain in his hand like a goddamn leash.
My heart, my stomach, my entire fucking inside felt like it was being ripped apart by shards of glass, tearing at my soul. It hurt. It fucking hurt watching the woman I loved being treated like a fucking animal. Crawling on the floor, naked and humiliated—it was too much for me to witness.
“Vadik, I swear to God. If you hurt her—”
“What then?” He stilled his eyes, his face, his fucking smile mocking me. “What are you going to do about it, Valenti heir?”
My skin burned, the ropes eating away at my flesh. “I’ll fucking gut you from nose to navel.” For a moment, his blue eyes remained pinned on me before he started to laugh like a fucking maniac. Karina moaned through her gag, also desperately trying to free herself while she stared at Doe in horror.
Doe didn’t look up. It didn’t even seem like she noticed me or Karina. I had never experienced rage the way I did now. It consumed me. It felt like a giant volcano threatening to erupt and leave nothing but chaos in its wake. But the worst part. It hurt. It fucking hurt seeing Doe like this. The way her head remained downcast, all defeated, she seemed empty. Ruined. As if she had given up.
“Doe. Doe, listen to me. You fight. You hear me? You fucking fight. Don’t give up.”
“Save your breath.” Vadik sneered. “She really didn’t have a lot in her to fight with. Once I placed that collar around her neck, it was like a fucking switch.”
Karina started to cry, and the sound cut up my spine like glass.