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Pain. Heat. Flashing lights.
He was lost in a sea of excruciating pain. How long could he last? How long before his heart gave up?
“Matteo, please!” Levi cried out.
There was so much pain in his voice that Chase couldn’t stand it any longer. Hearing Levi in pain was his true torture.
Matteo pulled off the cables once again, whether to give Chase a chance to speak or because he, too, couldn’t bear to hear Levi in such pain.
Either way, Chase was done. He couldn’t take it any longer.
“Journal…” Chase whimpered, barely able to form a coherent word. The pain was excruciating, and he wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and die.
“Journal?” Matteo asked. “What journal?”
“I was… hired… to find out… who… wrote… a particular… journal.” Chase’s words came out all choppy as his breathing and vocal cords refused to work in tangent.
How long did electricity stay in the body? Were his insides being cooked as they spoke?
“What’s in this journal?”
“Bad men, doing bad things,” he grunted. The pain was still there but was slowly being replaced with anger over getting his ass caught and fried.
“What does that mean?” Matteo snarled, although his tone was losing some of its bite.
“Does the name Oldridge Peabody mean anything to you?”
Chase noticed Levi’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t say anything. Curious. Perhaps he should have asked Levi more about the book over dinner.
Matteo watched Chase with nothing but coldness in his eyes.
“I want to see this journal you’re talking about.”
Laughing, Chase shook his head. “Well, I don’t have the damn thing with me, jackass. My boss is holding it for safekeeping.”
“Then call your boss and tell him to bring it here.”
Chase shook his head again. “My boss is a very cautious man. He won’t step a foot inside this place.”
“We’ll see,” Matteo grunted, nodding to the ogre standing next to him. “Take him to his room for the night. Make sure there are two guards posted at the door.” Then Matteo took a step toward Chase and gripped his bloody face with his hand. “You better not be lying to me, boy. Call your master and arrange a meeting for tomorrow. If I find out that this is all some sort of scam, you and your master are dead. You don’t fuck with Matteo Sabarino and live to tell the tale.” Matteo’s frosty blue eyes bore into Chase.
It was hard to believe that the cold monster standing before him was also the generous man who saved Levi and his brothers. Perhaps it was true what they said about Italians and their tempers. They can be the kindest, warmest people, but don’t ever piss them off.
Hell, half of Montreal’s buildings and construction sites are littered with pieces of people who pissed off Italian mobsters and crime lords. Who knew what sort of crimes these walls had witnessed?
Chase groaned as the cold metal chains around his wrists opened, allowing his body to sink to the floor in pain.
Across the stable, Chase watched as Levi was led away by his own master. He didn’t want to see the boy go, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.
Before Levi reached the large entrance to the stable, he glanced over his shoulder at Chase. His once beautiful and hopeful eyes were now a mix of confusion and pain.
Chase needed to speak with Levi. Tell him the truth of what was really going on. Sadly, there was no way that Matteo was going to let Levi anywhere near him now… or ever again, for that matter. As long as Matteo held control over Levi’s heart, Chase would never be able to penetrate that shield and get Levi to trust him again.
His shoulders slumped forward as he watched Levi’s velvety-black hair disappear from the stables.
14
LEVI
