Eddie Vasco was that villain.
Dylan looked up at me with saucer eyes. His mouth was gagged with a thick piece of fabric, his face was black and blue from an obvious beating, and Tommy still held my arm so there was nothing I could do to help him.
The floor against my bare feet was ice cold, as was the room temperature, but beads of sweat formed on my body regardless.
Jesus. They were going to kill both of us. This was far worse than I had imagined. There was an obvious reason why I was here now.
To die.
“Please,” I gasped. “Please, Tommy. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to listen to Eddie. It’s not too late. If you help Dylan and me escape, I promise you that we will protect you. We have resources that can guarantee—”
“Shut up,” Tommy stated firmly as he shoved me toward another chair like the one Dylan was tied to. “Keep quiet or I’ll gag you like I did Mr. Bush here.”
Dylan was terrified. This was obvious by the fact that he sat on his chair trembling. There was no bravado in his eyes, no struggle against his bonds. No. This was a broken man who had been beaten into complete horror.
Tommy sat me down in the chair and tied my arms behind it. I didn’t fight him, but I would. Scanning the room, I just had to figure out a way to aid in that plan. I knew I couldn’t take Tommy on with my own strength, and I also knew Eddie was upstairs. I had to outthink these fuckers in order for Dylan and me to flee with our lives. But there was nothing. No windows, no other doors other than the one we’d come through, and I couldn’t even see something that could be used as a weapon.
I had so many questions for Dylan, but I wouldn’t dare speak to him while Tommy was in the room. I worried more for Dylan and that they would continue to beat him than I worried for myself.
Sounds of heavy shoes on stairs pulled my wandering eyes toward the staircase that Eddie had just walked down. He glared at Dylan, then at me, and then at Tommy.
“What the fuck?” he shouted as he stormed to Dylan and yanked the tied gag in his mouth off his face with enough force that it flung Dylan’s head back as he did so. “I thought you had this motherfucker’s eyes covered!”
“Why bother?” Tommy said with little care. It surprised me actually since he was talking to the boss of the Vasco family. “It’s pitch black down here.”
“Not right now, fucker. We have a goddamn naked woman present.” Eddie used the fabric that had been in Dylan’s mouth and instead tied it around his eyes. “I don’t want this asshole to see her like this. He doesn’t deserve such pleasures.”
Odd that Eddie had no issue with his driver or Tommy seeing me naked, but Dylan seeing the same as all of them nearly sent Eddie into a rage. I also didn’t notice nor care that I had entered a room completely buck naked and was in plain sight of my boss’ wide eyes. I was focused on other things.
Like getting the fuck out of this mess alive!
Eddie looked at me tied to the chair, and I saw his jaw clench. “Tommy, come help me with something upstairs.” He walked toward the stairway with Tommy following close behind and never said another word.
As soon as I heard the door close, I said, “Dylan, are you okay? What have they done to you?”
“We’re fucked. We’re so fucking fucked,” Dylan said with a trembling voice.
“There’s got to be a way out of this. We just have to stay calm—”
“This is the goddamn mafia, Nayla! The mafia! There is no getting out of this.”
“Have they said anything to you? Asked you any questions? Do you know why we are here yet?”
“To die,” was his quick response. “They want to murder us and hopefully without much torture.”
I shook my head. “I think there is more to it than that. If they wanted us dead, then we would be. I think they want information or something. Did they ask you questions before they beat you? Were you refusing?”
I didn’t peg Dylan as being a foolishly courageous or stubborn man, and felt like he would be like me. That he too would tell these men whatever they wanted. Just ask. But maybe the beating was due to Dylan staying quiet. But what secrets were there? There was nothing worth a beating to protect. Unless they beat him simply because we were working the case against them, and they were proving that you don’t mess with the Vasco family.
“I pulled up at a stoplight near my house,” he began, “and I was yanked out of the driver’s seat with enough force and surprise that I couldn’t even shout for help before I was thrown into the back of a black town car. I ended up here where they beat me for no reason other than they are the fucking mafia and they can, and they will.”