AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her gray eyes flash with hope as a false smile falls from my lips. I put pressure on the metal wheel, turning it, gaining the force to flick it down and make the flint ignite.
Just before I finish flicking it, the last male voice buzzes in my earpiece.
“S17, secure.” The deep timber, the way his tone is firm and unforgiving—I know that voice. I’ve heard it before, fierce and desperate.
It’s Sean.
CHAPTER 14
Sean’s in the house. He’s alive. No, he can’t be. I don’t know if this is another manipulation or if it’s real. I glance at my mother and then back towards the door. The wall shatters. Fragments of wood go flying through the air and burst into the main chamber of the room. Larger pieces travel with such force that they hit the wall and plunge into the plaster. Fragments of shiny black timber fall to the marble floor in a splintery rain. The room fills with large snarling men, their faces livid. Two grab me by the wrist and then secure their grip under my arm. The man to my left rips the lighter out of my hand while the rest of his squad opens the windows and examine the leaking gas fixture.
Vic strolls in behind them looking impish. His chest is puffed up, and there’s an amused smile toying at his lips. He lightly places his hands behind his back as he approaches me. “And I thought we were going to have a family reunion in Hell today. Me, you, dad, and the bitch.” He shrugs after tipping his head toward Mom.
The onslaught of incoherent rage is deadly. My field of vision fills with bursts of light that bleed red as I glare at my brother. I don’t move, scream, or cry. No sound could communicate what I feel.
Vic is utterly calm. “Guess it wasn’t meant to be. Or maybe you didn’t have the balls after all, did you, little sis? Did Mommy here throw you off your game?” He’s close, gloating in my face, preening like a deranged peacock. He grabs me by my neck, and squeezes hard, sneering in my face, “I win.”
The fury within me explodes. It doesn’t matter that he’s choking me. I still manage to jerk my knee up, hard. The sudden displacement of my weight makes his thugs tighten their grip on the tops of my arms. I swing between the thugs like a toddler, connecting my knees in rapid succession with Vic’s nuts.
Vic bellows as he folds in half, his hand swiftly flying and connecting with my cheek. The hit is hard enough to make tiny flashes of light twinkle like fireflies. It mingles with the red that was already there. Mom tries to move toward me, but as soon as she stands, she falls to the floor.
Gasping, I try to twist free. I thrash, kick, and then attempt to drop down, but they don’t let go. Vic rights himself and gingerly places a hand on my shoulder before he buries his fist in my stomach. All the air gets knocked from my lungs, and I rasp, unable to breathe.
That’s when he whispers, “You’ll pay for that a hundred times over by the time I’m done with you.”
I’m jerked to my feet. My brother grabs the hair at the base of my neck and pulls hard. I stumble forward. He snaps at his thugs, “Release her!”
They drop my arms and step back. Vic pulls my hair once more, forcing me to look up at him. His eyes narrow, and his lips twist with malice and lust. His mouth comes crashing down on mine as he paws at my breast and mashes our bodies together. My mother cries out from the floor, her hand outstretched toward me. The more I try to fight Vic off, the more he beats me down. His mouth crushes me, as his tongue slides into my mouth and his hand lifts my skirt, promising to terrorize me in ways I’ll never forget.
I fight against him, but I’m unable to get away or peel him off. There’s no leverage, no time. While shoving me to the stone wall, his tongue is in my mouth and his hand grips my ass. He pins me in place with one arm across my face while reaching for his zipper with the other. I do the only thing I can think of and bite down. Hard. The coppery taste of blood fills my mouth as Vic screams and jerks back. I can breathe, but the reprieve is short lived. I try to move away. Vic grabs me by the elbow, whirls me around, and tugs my hair, trapping me between his body and the wall. I go limp and drop to the floor and slither on the cold stone, almost crawling, as I try to get away from him.
Vic screeches, enraged, as he shifts his weight rapidly. Then his foot connects with my side. I’m hurled face-down on a pile of rubble. There’s a sharp pain in my side when I try to breathe. My body is trying to curl into a ball. My fingers are on the pile of crap—fragments of stone and wood—as I attempt to push up. My head falls to the rubble, and a long shard of the wood presses my cheek, cutting my face. It’s the size of a chisel and just as sharp. I try to lift myself off of it, but get slammed back down. Vic’s hand presses against the center of my back, so I can’t breathe. He holds me there like that, laughing. My lungs burn, and my arms flail as I’m prevented from inhaling. A sharp sting fills my chest as my face becomes hot and light. The corners of my vision go dark as blackness tries to overtake me.
That’s when he removes his hand. “No way am I letting you pass out. You’ll be awake and fully aware of everything I do to you. There’s no escape. No way out, and best of all—you did this to yourself. You should have killed me when you had the chance, you stupid little fuck.”
His greedy hands are at my hips, tearing the fabric away when the sound of cement rolling across the stone floor catches his ear. He pauses just long enough to turn and see a grenade with purple and green beads tied to the neck.
Vic freezes. We both stare at the sphere that looks like a bomb without a pin and wait for the explosion. Vic swats at the grenade that looks like it partied at Mardi Gras before the thing hisses. The same sound echoes all around me, filling the entire room with a shroud of smoke.
Sean’s voice fills the air, but I can’t see him. “Avery! Where are you?” He screams out, but the smoke is too thick.
The cloud of white obscures my vision and makes my eyes water. I blink rapidly, but it just makes it worse. It’s like I Maced myself. My eyes burn and tear. Mucus fills my sinuses and drains out my nose.
I choke and try to get free, but Vic won’t let go. He’s still there with one hand on me, waiting for the smoke to disappear out the bay window. That’s when the glass doors close, and three more grenades roll by us. I can hear them scrape across the floor as they come to a stop. The smoke thickens. Voices cry out around me, but I’m blind.
I knew I heard Sean, but I can’t see him. I open my mouth to call his name, but Vic slams his hand over it. The bastard drags me further back into the room and away from the window. He hides in the slowly dissipating cloud. His men rush toward the smoke bombs when more familiar voices fill the air.
“Holy mother of hell!” Mel’s voice calls out in one of the lighter fog banks by the door. The sound of metal on metal rings out as she laughs.
“Let’s take these motherfuckers out!” Henry wails, and then promptly asks someone, “Did I say that correctly? It feels crass.” He shrieks in the smoke, a willowy man lost in the clouds.
Mel snaps, “You’re such a pansy. Are you sure you’re straight?”
Henry growls, “You’ll have to find out later, love. I’m busy at the moment.”
“Promises, promises,” Mel mutters. Sounds sweep around me of bones cracking and the floor becomes slick with blood. As Vic tries to move me, he slips on something and stops abruptly.
I’ve not heard Sean again, but that doesn’t mean anything. He’ll remain quiet and snake through the crowd. He’ll save me. I lift my head, trying to get off the floor, but Vic slams me down. When my temple connects with the marble, my vision blurs.
Through the rolling cloud of smoke, I see a single outstretched, mutilated hand. Mom. She’s on the floor, alive. I watch her slender fingers curl and claw at the ground. I look at the nails that are non-existent stumps, peeled away and covered in blood and scars. Someone breaks the glass window and the smoke escapes into the night air. White tendrils swirl through the space, revealing people standing, fighting, around the edges of the room. Mom is across from me, closer to the door, her eyes locked on mine.
/> Vic shoves my face down again, hard. My cheek scrapes against the wooden plank between me and the floor, cutting my face open further. There’s a sharp sting and warmth.
Vic hisses by my cheek, his intention very clear. He’ll rape me with everyone present to show them he can, to prove he won. They won’t be able to stop him. The smoke hasn’t cleared, it still lays thickly on the floor.
The bastard hisses in my ear, his tongue tracing my skin. He’s at my back, pressing me down. “It won’t be as much fun not seeing the fear in your eyes, but I’m willing to make sacrifices. The Ferro’s need to know their place and I intend to make it entirely clear, using you as an example of what happens to people when they fuck with Vic Campone.”
A gun fires and the sound pierces my eardrum, making it hard to tell what happened, who got shot. There are still noises, but it sounds like they’re talking from the bottom of a well.
Vic is still above me, his hands crushing my back to the floor with the promise of pain and torture. I can move my arm just enough to slip my hand beneath my face and grab the piece of wood that’s pressing against my skin. I feel for it, wrapping my fingers around it and hold it tight. It’s not long enough. It barely sticks out from my palm, but it’s all I have.
