She turned and strutted toward me, her determined gaze fixed on mine. I ignored the searing pain in my body and the blood that was running down my back, making my shirt stick to my skin when she all but crawled into my lap.
What the actual fuck was she doing?
She leaned in, the handcuffs around her wrists rattling as she grasped my chin. Was... she going to kiss me?
It threw me into total chaos when she set her mouth on mine and dropped her hands to the lapels of my jacket, pulling me closer. The kiss was tame by our standards, but it still sent me spinning. Maybe she thought this was it, the end for her, and she wanted a final moment for us.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Gio yelled.
Her hands slipped inside my jacket, and then I understood what this kiss was really about—distraction. While the men watched the kiss, dumbfounded, they didn’t see how she searched for the tiny bottle she knew I kept with me. The guard who’d searched me had written off the vial as inconsequential when I’d allowed myself to be taken.
Goddamn, I fucking loved the fight in this woman, and Ikissed her back, trying to communicate it.
“Don’t worry, I can take it,” she whispered in Spanish, and I felt her hand retract from my pocket. The vial was safely concealed in a fist. She thought she could endure the punishment, but I wasn’t entirely sure I could. Watching her?—
It wasn’t like I’d never taken a punch before, but when Gio’s fist hit the side of my head, the jarring action shot straight to the stab wound in my back. It wasn’t all bad. My mother had told me for years that I had a thick head, and his stream of curse words proved that. The punch must have hurt the bastard’s delicate hands, and he’d been dumb enough to not aim for a soft spot like the nose or throat. His inexperience was showing again.
“Knee,” Gio snapped.
Shit.I took a deep breath, my gaze glued to the wand. The tendons in Carlo’s hand tightened his grip and the rod drew back.
“No,” I pleaded.
The rod whipped through the air, smacking her knee with a horrific crack.
Olivia barely made a noise this time. Her mouth fell open to scream, but the pain stole all her breath so she made a gasping, choking sound, followed by a quiet hiss.
“Stop,” she whispered on a pain-soaked voice.
I jolted, straining against the ropes once more, desperate to do something. Anything. I could handle whatever they wanted to do to me, but not this. I couldn’t watch another woman suffer, most certainly notthiswoman.
She was barely standing, hunched over with a hand on the counter, and I watched as she slowly reached over to grab the bottle of wine, her hand shaking violently.You can do this,I silently urged because I was concerned Carlo might know some Spanish.I will help you.
The dark red wine sloshed inside the waiting glass, and beneath the hand on the counter, her thumb moved,untwisting the cap on the vial. The moment she seemed ready, I set my sights on Gio.
“You’re going to regret that,” I said in Italian.
There was a whoosh as Carlo’s wand came down and slapped against my kneecap.
“Motherfucker,” I swore, this time in English.
Holy mother of God, that hurt. The muscles in my jaw ached as I clenched my teeth, trying to stay above the pain and focus on Olivia. Her face was blank. Numb with pain, or... pretending to be. For once, it was impossible to know what was a lie and what was real.
She shuffled along, keeping her head up as she went past me and offered the glass to Gio, and her face took on a dark cast.“Salute.”
It was said with so much contempt, it was like she’d only just stopped herself from saying another word. Like she’d really meant to say,to your health, cocksucker.
I had no idea how much of the vial she’d dosed the glass with, but as the wine disappeared behind his lips, I hoped it had been the whole goddamn bottle. If so, his body would progressively slow down until his heart went too long between beats and his brain starved of oxygen.
Olivia would get her suffocation of Gio after all.
And I was plenty okay with that this time.
“Take off your clothes,” Gio commanded.
My mouth went dry and a chill ran down my spine, moving faster than the blood weeping from my stab wound. The hatred in her eyes dwindled and a cold, hard look replaced it. “If I don’t?”
“They’ll come off no matter what, and what we’ll do to Nathan if you refuse, it won’t be enjoyable to watch.”
