AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’s never particularly been the motherly type, but this goes beyond anything I ever could’ve thought possible.
I never realized she hated us.
Until now.
“Vanessa, just play along and they won’t hurt you. Much. Cocktails help,” she says, twisting the door handle and glancing around before stepping outside.
Just like that, she’s gone, and I’m left staring at her in shock.
“Damn, what a bitch,” Giulio comments, adding a sarcastic whistle. “But now that that’s out of the way… Can we finally fucking leave, Damien?”
Damien pulls me closer to him, so that my back is pressed against his front, and wraps his arm around my waist. He nuzzles his nose against my neck, and I shudder in revulsion. My mind flashes back to how he’d once ordered me to bend over my own bed and expose my ass so he could take photos, and I flinch.
He takes a long, deep breath.
I squeeze my eyes shut and whimper.
“Yes,” Damien says quietly. “We can leave. But not through here. There’s another exit, closer to where I parked.”
Giulio nods. “Yeah. I think there’s a side hall. We can avoid all the shooting that way. If we’re lucky, we escape unnoticed.” He grins at me. “If we’re unlucky, somebody ends up dead.”
I shudder, my skin crawling where Damien touches me. I wish I wasn’t so helpless. I wish I could do something other than follow meekly as Damien pushes me ahead of him. We make our way down the hallway, and they push me outside first, like I’m the sacrificial lamb. I guess to them, I am, though I don’t understand how I could keep them from being shot if Victor Corvi has his sights on them.
We take a few steps out into the open, then I hear crunching on the gravel as the man in question crosses the distance between us.
He looks… distinguished up close, strangely, clad in an impeccable suit.
Damien and Giulio slow down, and Damien pulls me to his chest again so I’m essentially human armor.
“Back off, Corvi,” Damien says.
“Let her go, and I’ll allow you to leave alive,” Victor says calmly.
I don’t know why he wants me, but I don’t trust him. Lucia had spoken highly of him, but that had been because he’d held her for months. She’s been brainwashed, I’m sure of it, and this doesn’t make me think any better of him. But it does confuse me.
“You don’t need her anymore.” Victor sounds so sure of himself, and he’s not even brandishing a weapon. I can’t help but marvel at his sheer audacity, though I’m sure he’s covered by snipers and others to ensure that any attempt on his life is quickly stymied.
Giulio laughs, the sound ugly. “Yeah? As soon as we hand her over, there’s nothing preventing a bullet from going straight through our brains.” I follow his gaze to a dead body lying nearby, and I shudder before quickly looking away. “Like poor Miguel there. Man, you fucking suck, Corvi. Miguel still owed me a few drinks.”
Victor ignores him, focusing those intense eyes on me. “Vanessa, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Although I wish it were under better circumstances.”
I don’t know what to make of his words. I don’t trust him. “I’m not going to say it’s a pleasure to meet you, because it’s not,” I mumble through my tears, squirming as Damien’s touch becomes a little more intimate. Is he acting for Victor’s sake? It’s humiliating as it is, but knowing that Victor is seeing it makes it worse.
“I suppose it isn’t,” Victor replies.
Damien squeezes my breast, and I lose track of what they’re saying. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Giulio Pavone and Victor Corvi are cut from the same cloth—violent men who use violent means to get what they want, with no care about who they hurt in the process.
I’m a victim of their greed and pride. It’s not shameful if I don’t fight. I’m keeping myself safe.
That’s what the internet had said, anyway, when I’d read up about trauma and victim blaming. But now that I’m here, I do feel ashamed. Lucia’s still inside, grappling with Emilio Pavone, and I’m just letting Giulio and Damien cart me off.
Damien’s hand shifts again, this time circling my belly, and that pulls me out of my fugue. I squirm, hoping to dislodge his wandering hands, but although I’m nearly as tall as he is, he’s still got three times as much muscle and has no problem keeping me in place.
“Let me go!” I cry.
“Vanessa, cupcake,” Giulio says, “You really want to go with Victor fucking Corvi? I’m pretty sure he just shot up the entire church. His attack dog murdered your father. And look what he did to Miguel!”
I can’t help but look at the body again, and my stomach roils. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know who’s better or worse. Lucia had thought Victor was safer, but I don’t know what to think.
