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Yuri answered my unspoken question. “Eric works at the bank and with only a little pressure, he handed us all the information we could ever want on a certain father-daughter duo.”
The fucking bank. God knows how many times I had to call up there or make a personal trip to stop one of his pity checks from going through. It was the only connection between us— the one I had severed only how many hours ago.
Instead of letting the realization crack through my features, I shrugged. He wanted me to sweat and scream and cry like my whole life was being flayed open. It was– but I had to stick to the plan. “It’s not a secret who my father is.”
“Oh, I beg to differ. It took months to find a crack in your father’s carefully crafted perfection. You, Darya, are that crack.”
Fury crackled through my veins and I squeezed my hands into fists, the ropes tightening against my raw wrists. I didn’t need this. I was already kidnapped— I didn’t need to be humiliated too.
“The way I see it, you have just as much a reason to hate your father as we do.”
So this was about him. It was all about my father. “What do you have to hate him for? I asked.
Matteo spoke up, slapping a hand down on Eric’s shoulder, eliciting a pained groan. “His filthy hands are fucking with our business. It’s time to cut them off.”
“That’s where you come in.” Yuri pressed himself against my back until we moved forward and my bare toes were inches from the growing puddle of blood. “We’d like you to make a call.”
Eric strained to look up at me with his uninjured eye. Bloodshot, with a busted blood vessel seeping red into the whites, his crystal blue iris locked with mine pleadingly. A phantom pain trickled through my limbs like a growing ache. His suffering was thick in the air, that metallic smell had been his blood. By the look of it, more of it had dripped onto the floor than coursed through his veins.
The plan. Stick to the plan.
“No.”
Matteo smiled. Yuri’s arms wrapped around me, one at my waist pulling me to him, and the other gripping my chin painfully. In a second, I was immobilized.
“Let me go!” I ripped in his arms, trying to break free from his firm hold. He didn’t move and kept my head facing forward while Matteo dragged his fingers along the tools spread out on the table. He chuckled and picked up a sledgehammer. “What are you going to do?” I asked.
Letting the weight fall, the butt of the hammer smacking into his hands, Matteo circled Eric and headed straight toward me. I sagged against Yuri and kicked at the ground, struggling against his arms as hard as I could when Matteo raised the hammer. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the blow when I heard a crunch and then a blood curdling scream.
My eyes popped open, the pained wails pouring out of Eric’s mouth rattling through the small room. I looked him up and down until I saw it, the crimson beginning to seep through his khaki pants at the knee. He sucked in a deep breath and screamed again before ripping against the metal shackles on his wrists.
My stomach rolled. Matteo circled Eric again and Yuri angled my head until his lips pressed against my ear. “Keep those eyes open, cariño.”
In front of Eric again, Matteo lifted the sledgehammer and swung his arms down, delivering another blow to the other knee. I flinched at the cracking until Eric’s howl reduced to a hoarse moaning.
“Stop!” I begged before a gag surged up my throat. I couldn’t stand to watch anymore. They were trying to break me and goddammit it was working. “Stop,” I pleaded.
Matteo turned. “Make the call.”
“What call?”
Yuri loosened his grip on my chin. “The call to your dad with our list of demands.”
I swallowed hard and shook my head, the gentle motion hurting the corners of my eyes. So much for the plan.
“I can’t,” I said, my voice barely over a whisper.
“Unless you want to watch Eric get dismembered, I’d say you can.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, anything to get them to stop torturing him. Anything to stop the brutality.
Yuri dropped his arms and stepped around me, nodding at Matteo who set the sledgehammer back onto the table. I let out a breath, my fingers relaxing. Thank God it was over.
With a surge, Yuri yanked a knife from the table and lunged forward, sinking the blade into Eric’s throat. I screamed, my legs giving out before I hit the floor as Yuri cranked the knife to the side and severed his spinal cord with a spurting sound.
Tears stung my eyes and poured down my cheeks as I watched Eric slump to the side. A screaming sound still echoed off the walls until I realized they were mine. I couldn’t stop the fire that flowed up my throat, all I could do was lean to the side and vomit, my whole body clenching from the force of it.
Yuri pulled the knife out and cleaned off the edges on the side of Eric’s pants before tossing it onto the table.
