AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mia, fuck, breathe” Mateo pulls me into his chest and wraps his arms tightly around me. I don’t fight the hold; his arms feel like heaven right now. I don’t know what to do here. I don’t want to hurt him, but I can’t give him the answer he wants, either. After another minute of being in his embrace, I pull away, taking a step away from him.
“There… Ummm. There is too much shit happening here…and honestly, I don’t know where my head is at, Mateo. Can we talk about this when you get back?”
The look he gives me is filled with hurt. He thinks I’m dismissing him, that I don’t have those feelings for him. But I’m not. I don’t know where my head is at. Part of me is still wrapped up in revenge, and the other part wants all four of them desperately. Both sides are at war with each other in my mind and heart.
He takes a step forward and kisses my forehead. The motion has tears welling in my eyes. Mateo is so gentle, so loving. He is never afraid to show me how he feels.
“Mami, I want you, and nothing you do will keep me away from you. You have my heart, Mia. Don’t break it.” He steps back and walks away from me, his head low and his shoulders rounded.
“Mateo…I.” It’s too late, though. He has already turned the corner and is out of my sight. Fuck I hurt him. Why did I do that?
Diego doesn’t finish his sentence. A loud pain-filled wail makes its way around the room. The sound is so desolate and broken…it takes me a moment to realize the sound is coming from me. It’s being torn from me and burning me inside to the darkest reaches of my soul. My heart is splintering inside the cavity of my chest.
He’s gone. He’s gone, and I never told him I cared about him. That his feelings were reciprocated, and I wanted to be with him too. When he tried to tell me before he left, I shut him down and told him we would talk when he returned. Fear had been riding me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I still hadn’t made a decision about whether to forgo my plan for vengeance. His last words to me are a blade slicing through the pieces of my heart.“I want you, and nothing you do will keep me away from you. You have my heart, Mia. Don’t break it.”
He’s gone…and he’s taken a part of my heart with him.
Chapter 23
Mateo
“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu
“Openyoureyes,boy.”A loud, harsh voice yells in my ears. I’m so disoriented; my head feels like I’ve been on a bender.Am I in a dream? Where am I?Rapid images fly behind my closed eyelids, causing my stomach to lurch.
I showed up at home for Thanksgiving lunch, but my mom wasn’t there when Diego and I arrived to eat.
My dad looked nervous and agitated, like the motherfucker was constipated and waiting for all hell to break loose. When I asked him about my mom’s whereabouts, he gave me an excuse about her traveling for business. Except my mom goes nowhere without him, he makes sure of it. He’s a possessive, controlling dick who can’t have her out of his sight.
I remember the unease on Diego’s face and how he motioned with his head to his men to look around my parent’s estate. Something was up there; Diego looked wary and on guard.
Then my dad invited us out to the back patio for a drink, which was weird as hell. That man can’t stand to be in the same room with me if he can help it. Why was he willingly in my presence and inviting me to drink with him?
A loud explosion had me falling to my knees and covering my ears, shards of window glass flying in every direction and impaling in my skin. Diego rolled away and positioned his body behind a pillar shouting, but I couldn’t hear him through the ringing in my ears.
Then there were hands grasping me from behind, an arm wrapping itself around my throat and putting me in a headlock. I tried to break free from the hold, using all of my strength to repeatedly bang whoever had me around the neck into the nearest wall until they loosened their grip. I glanced over and saw Diego fighting off two guys entirely dressed in black.
A fist flew out of nowhere and hit me right in the temple, momentarily stealing my vision and having me lose my footing. I almost took the guy still holding me down with me. When I managed to clear my head, another guy was already coming at me hard with punches to my face and stomach. I had to stop trying to dislodge one fucker to fight off the other.
A large succession of bangs finally made their way past the blaring in my ears. I lost sight of Diego and the few men we had brought with us as more men dressed in black rushed in and tried to grab me. I managed to get loose from the first guy and head-butted the second one, but before I could take more than a step or two, two more assholes were on me, kicking and punching me.
My right eye took a hit from someone’s fist, leaving it blurry and stinging. I looked past another guy dressed in black coming at me and spotted my dad standing there, hands in his pockets and eyes downcast at the ground. What. The. Fuck. Why is he just standing there? Why isn’t he trying to help Diego and me fight off these guys who broke into the house? A moment of clarity hits me just as another fist connects with my shoulder. He’s not fighting because they’re not here for him. He knew they were coming.
“YOU MOTHERFUCKER, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” I shouted at him while trying to break through the men holding me. I watched as he raised his head, stared right at me, and shrugged his shoulders, his face blank of emotion. It’s at that moment I realized how much he really didn’t love me. Whatever was happening, he allowed it to happen.
“I did what I had to. To protect your mother and me.” He shouted back and then turned his back on me and walked across our back lawn and out of eyesight. Rage filled my blood, and I fought back harder against those trying to restrain me, using everything at my disposal, even my goddamn teeth.
A large bang had me stumbling backward, my whole body impacted with a hit I didn’t see coming. A burning pain radiated from my chest, I stumbled, lost my footing, and went down hard. My hand reached out to grasp my chest, which was suddenly suffocating me. I pulled my hand away and saw nothing but red dripping down my palm and forearm. It was the last thing I saw before darkness took me.
“Stop pretending you’re not awake, boy.” A nasally angry voice slithers across my face, the smell of rank breath making its way to my nostrils. My whole body stills and stiffens up. I’m lying down somewhere hard and cold.Where am I? How long have I been out?A whimpering sound reaches my ears, but I can’t tell what direction it’s coming from.
I force my eyes open and stare into the eyes of the worst evil I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Vincent Saint-Lambert is staring down at me, dark blue pools of rage meeting my eyes. Panic fills my body, and I try to shift to the left, but something holds me still. I move in the other direction, but the same thing happens. I’m strapped down; both my hands are tied down to something. I try to force myself to sit up, but my chest is on fire and pain radiates through my abdomen.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The doctor had a hell of a time keeping your sorry ass alive, as it was.” Vincent chuckles and takes a step back. I get a good look at him; he’s in dark jeans and a pullover rather than one of his fancy, pretentious suits. His hair is a mess, his face haggard, and there’s a jagged ugly scar across his forehead starting at his eyebrow and disappearing into his hairline.His outside almost matches his insides now, dark and ugly.
“Where…am…I?” I struggle to get the words out, my mouth and lips dry, and the pain in my chest causes my breath to falter.
“Have you ever readDante’s Inferno, Mateo?“ His smirk widens, and a malicious and evil glint enters his eyes. “There were nine levels of hell, all with their special brands of torture. I would say Mateo that you are in the level called “Treachery.”
