Page 81 of My Sunfall

I let my head hang lower, so my bound hands shift higher behind me. The zip tie bites into my skin as I flex my fingers. I reach back blindly, slowly, steadily, and there it is—the outline of a blade beneath her dress, strapped against her inner thigh. I desperately grope for it, trying to remain as immobile as possible while she continues taunting me. She leans farther down, her hands still on my shoulders as if to gauge my reaction. I angle my fingers and the knife slides free into my hands.

As soon as the knife is in my grasp, Chiara straightens and walks toward Lorenzo in a seductive way that makes me want to gouge his eyes out with my fingers. My heart slams against my ribs as I curl my fingers inward, angling the blade up to slide it between my skin and the zip ties. The edge bites into my skin, but I don’t care.

“I’m sure I can distract you from your responsibilities. Just for a little while,” she tells him in a low husky voice, and I can hear the meaning behind this one word. My heart stops. Hope surges through me, acute and devastating, that maybe, just maybe, she didn’t mean the words that ripped my soul out seconds earlier.

The guard steps out while Chiara is talking to Lorenzo, giving me the time I need to saw at the ties without being found out. Then she kisses him and the world fucking stops. The air wooshes out of my lungs and a red haze threatens to drown me when he greedily kisses her back. I suspect, no…I know that she must be using my advice and is distracting him, but my body and mind are straining, protesting against what I see. However, before I can howl in rage and agony, she moves, fast as lightning.

She pivots, catches Lorenzo off balance, and throws him backward. My mind clears and the urgency of the situation makes me saw faster at the restraints. But the angle is awkward, and I cut myself more often than I damage the thick plastic ties.

They both hit the cold steel plating of the ship’s floor in a tangle of limbs, her momentum slamming him hard to the ground.

For a heartbeat, she has him. Then Lorenzo’s strength takes over. He snarls, grabs a fistful of her dress, and flips her beneath him in one brutal motion. Her back and head smack against the floor. She gasps but she’s still fighting, still punching and bucking. He pins her wrists with one hand. With the other, he grabs her throat, cutting off the air from her lungs.

“I should just kill you,” he spits, leaning in close, face distorted with hatred. “Like I killed your coward father.”

Chiara freezes, eyes turning huge.

Why the fuck won’t the ties break? I cut faster, sweat and blood running into my eyes and slicking my fingers.

Lorenzo sneers, cold and vicious. “Oh, you thought he fell? He begged for your life. Begged. And when he refused to give up your location…” He shrugs. “I snapped his neck myself.”

A breathless sob escapes her lips, and her chest starts to heave as his fingers dig into her throat. He leans closer with a vicious gleam in his eyes, his face hovering over hers. “But no. I won’t kill you. You’re far too valuable to waste,” he goes on. “Do you know what someone like you fetches? Well-bred, once you’re properly trained.”

She thrashes, but his hold on her doesn’t falter. He leans closer still, voice dropping to a murmur. “You’ll sign the papers, you’ll be my wife. And when I’m finished with you…” He chuckles. “You go to market. You’ll be the crown piece of my empire, my clients will pay a fortune for something like you.”

Chiara’s entire body goes still as understanding widens her eyes.

“Manti…core… It’s…you…” Her voice is hoarse and strained as the air pushes through her constricted throat.

Lorenzo smirks. “Smart girl, took you long enough.”

She remains frozen for a beat, but then something flashes in her eyes. Unfettered rage. She spits up into his face and he rears back, releasing her wrists to wipe at his face. She uses the diversion to buck against him and throws him off balance, then she dives a hand beneath her skirt to pull out a second blade strapped around her other leg.

Lorenzo realizes too late.

Everything unfolds in slow motion between the dull thuds of my heart. My vision tunnels and time stops.

Thump.

She drives the knife into his thigh with a loud cry.

He roars, collapsing sideways, clutching his leg where the bloodstain begins to spread.

Thump.

The door slams open and the two guards burst in at the sound, their hands reaching for their guns.

Exactly then, my zip tie snaps.

Thump.

I lunge across the room to skid over the table toward the gun.

Thump.

My hand closes around the grip and I fire.

Once. Twice. Two clean shots. Two collapsing bodies.