I woke to a loud scream permeating the house. Jumping to my feet, I quickly donned my jeans, noticing that Catarina was no longer in bed beside me. Rushing from the room, I raced down the long hall as Giovanni, and his brothers all came out of their rooms.
“What the hell was that?” Antonio asked, pulling on a shirt.
As another loud scream reached our ears, all of us ran downstairs to find the house empty.
There was no one here.
The house was empty.
Seeing the light on in the kitchen, I headed there only to find a glass of juice sitting on the counter. Looking around, everything seemed the same, but I knew it wasn’t. I could feel something different. Something sinister lurked close.
“Gio,” Salvatore whispered, standing in front of the basement door. “It’s open.”
FUCK!
Rushing past Salvatore, I shouted at Gio,” I thought you said Giuseppe was moving him to the warehouse!”
“He is, at three in the morning. I wanted to make sure everyone was asleep before he did so.”
Shaking my head, I prayed that the screams I heard were not Catarina’s. I promised her that nothing would ever harm her again. If that mother fucker got lose and was hurting her, I would end him immediately. Fuck Gio and his need for information. I knew I should have killed him the moment we arrived.
The second we all entered the room at the end of the hall, we stopped dead in our tracks.
The image before me was brutal, as my woman repeatedly jabbed a knife into Hughes over and over again. Her body was covered in his blood. I could see the determination and satisfaction on her face as she inflicted more pain upon him.
She didn’t stop.
Her body heaved with exhaustion as she stabbed him again and again, as she eviscerated the life before her. I wanted to tell her the man before her was no longer breathing, but I couldn’t find the words.
She was lost in her own rage as she took hold of her demon and demolished him. Moving carefully into the room, I watched in rapture as she destroyed the last vestige of her demon. Her body shook as the knife finally dropped to the floor. Her adrenaline crashed as she took a shaky step back. I go to step closer when I watch as her eyes roll back in her head. I fly to her, catching her before she falls to the ground.
Her body limp in my arms, I brush her blood-soaked hair from her face. “Baby?”
My cousins come to view the carnage.
“Fuck,” Sal muttered, “She disemboweled him.”
“Get her out of here, Reggie,” Gio ordered. “We will take care of this.”
Gathering her in my arms, I carried her out of the basement and up the stairs to find my mother, Layla, and Illyria standing in the kitchen.
“She found him,” my Layla said, then added. “Good.”
“Is she alright?” Illyria asked.
“I think so. She’s never killed anyone before.”
“I’ll call Doctor Stevenson. He owes me a favor,” my mother said, reaching for her phone.
Saying nothing more, I headed upstairs and entered our room, closing the door behind me with my foot. Heading straight for the bathroom, I looked around, unsure what to do next, when my mother walked in and turned the water on in the tub. I said nothing as she walked over to me and said, “We need to get her clothes off her.”
It wasn’t easy, but together we eventually got her blood-soaked clothes off and put her in the tub.
“I need to change,” I muttered as my mother kneeled before the tub, grabbing a washcloth and soaking it.
Changing quickly, I removed my bloodied clothes and donned a pair of swim trunks. I returned to the bathroom and climbed into the tub behind her, pulling her against my chest.
For the next several minutes, neither my mother nor I said a word as we cleaned Catarina, her body still recovering from what she had just done.