Emma was blindfolded and tied as Benny and the Lombardi henchmen pulled her into a dark, dank area. She knew who had captured her, so she didn’t really see the point of the blindfold. And despite her fear, she’d found new motivation … an escape. Anything to get back to Ace.
She was pulled deeper into the dark and thrown against a small, rickety chair. Her wrists were pulled behind her back and aggressively tied as she yelled out in pain.
“I know it's you, Benny,” she screamed. “You aren’t going to get away with this.”
The confidence surged through her body despite the fear. She wondered if that was how everyone else in the world functioned: feel the fear, do it anyway.
“Shut the fuck up, missy,” Benny said. “You’re nothing but a little mouse in the game, do you hear me? Nothing but a mouse waiting for the guillotine to fall.”
Emma heard people moving around her, and fear flooded upward from her feet. She began to panic, wondering if they were going to keep her around as some kind of lure or simply get rid of her. Hearing men grunting around her wasn’t a good sign.
She shook against the chair, forcing herself to at least appear somewhat unafraid.
“You’re skimming from the family, Benny,” Emma screeched. “Did you really think you were going to get away with it?”
The keen sting of a slap slammed into her cheek so hard that the chair pushed back into the wall, causing a splash of blood to spurt out from between her teeth.
“Did I not tell you to SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Benny bellowed.
Emma’s ears rang, and her head went limp against her shoulder. She’d never been hit so often in her entire life. She had never even been in a schoolyard scuffle.
Benny moved away, and everything beyond Emma faded into a faint murmur.
She sat there with her head folded over her shoulder for a long time. This was what fate had decided for her, to die in a dark, random place where she would probably be buried beneath the floorboards, and her parents would never know where her body ended up.
Eventually, her hearing came back, and she turned her head to adjust to the sounds. She was in a room on her own, sealed in by a locked door. She heard people fumbling around, talking and yelling, swearing in English and Italian. There was a panicked vibe to it that eased some of Emma’s anxiety.
Maybe Ace was okay. Maybe he was coming for her.
The last she had heard from him was when he blasted down the stairs on the hunt for Fritz. There was an angry, almost grieving energy to the slap Benny gave her, so perhaps hehadkilled Fritz.
Emma never wished anyone dead, but she would wish for anything in the current scenario.
She breathed in deeply to calm herself, the way she had learned as a young girl. Then, after the accident with the dead cop, it became a permanent coping strategy. If she could breathe, she could do anything. She could save herself if she had to.
She had no clue how long she had been there, the only judge of time was how sharp the pain was from her cheek to her ear from the devastating slap. It had dulled, so it must have been at least half an hour.
“Come on, Ace,” she whispered. “Come on, I need you.”
Saying it aloud warmed her heart and froze her mind at the same time. It was the truth, and that truth was scary.
She loved him. It had taken her a while to figure it out, but there it was. She had fallen for a shifter member of the enemy family.
With the sound of blazing gunfire following the splintering shatter of wood, men inside screamed orders in Italian, running and squealing in pain.
Her heart leaped in her chest as she heard the shrieking howl of a cat-like creature.
Ace!
And he was there with backup. That backup was likely her family, the Fontanas.
Emma twisted in the chair, checking how flimsy it was. She rocked back and forth, hoping that if it were to fall that it would break apart. She did this continuously until it finally tipped to the side, with her head crashing lightly against the ground.
“Fuck.”
She had fallen onto her side, and the blindfold had slipped slightly from her eyes. She could finally see where she was while listening to the sounds of the violent battle on the other side of the door.
Her prison was a small supply closet, likely in a warehouse owned by the Lombardi family. A small glossy window on the door allowed her to see flashes of color zipping by. The Lombardi family panicked as the Fontanas and Ace blasted through their bodies to get to her.