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“And I can’t tell you why, but I feel like I’m pregnant. It makes no sense, especially since I can’t remember the last…How long?” He didn’t bother responding. “It doesn’t even matter. I just need to know what’s going on here and why you’re looking at me like I’ve failed you.”
“Because you fuckingdid,” he spat, standing and approaching me. He grabbed my left arm and tugged me to my feet. My vision blurred, going dark and then bright as I screamed from the agony of the touch and forced myself to follow him. My knees felt like they could barely hold me upright, but I walked as quickly as possible to keep the strain from my arm.
Each step felt like he was sending scolding water through my entire being, and I couldn’t help the small cries of pain that escaped me as he jerked my arm in different directions.
Yes, it wasdefinitelybroken. I wondered if I would have to hunt the Guerras with broken armor if it would be smarter to use the time to stalk them more efficiently first.
Valentino brought me down a set of stairs and into the basement, where chains and metal chairs waited, all strapped to different points in the room. I hated this room, especially as I considered all the ways I’d been trapped in it and trained over the years.
To my surprise, though, a little girl sat in one of the chairs, unrestrained.
She looked familiar, and her eyes flared as she saw me. But I couldn’t put a name to her face. I couldn’t recognize her, even though my body reacted to seeing her. Was that sorrow I felt?
“Who are you?” I asked quietly.
“Sienna? I’m Bria,” she said with clear confusion.
Valentino walked to a chair and shoved me into it, leaning down in my face and taking in every crevice of it. I wondered if it was as bloody as the rest of me. He stared for a long moment, and I only looked back.
“I have the two things most important to him. I have his niece, and I have you. And if what you’re saying about being pregnant, I have something else much more valuable. I have his unborn child.”
“Who?” I asked, shaking my head.
A sharp slap stung my cheek, and my head careened to the side from the force of it. My headthrobbed. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to satiate the dizziness. The frustration of not knowing the whole situation had my chest rising and falling rapidly as Valentino, true to form, moved to an exposed cart of tools.
His torture tools.
My breath caught in my throat, and I shook my head. “Valentino, I don’t understand what’s going on here.”
He slammed a hand down on his cart, and the young girl released a sharp scream and whimper. “He took everything from me.” He ground his teeth and turned toward me with a sharp-looking scalpel. “I can’t grow my business into his territory. I can’t expand. I can’t do anything without stepping on his fucking toes and causing more problems for myself.”
“Dante Guerra?” I asked. “We’re going to take care of that.”
His chuckle turned dark. “Until you turned your back on me for him. You came into my office with grand accusations of abusing your mother and hiding shit from you. All for what? A handsome fucking face? I raised you after your parents died. But after a few weeks with my enemy, you’re ready to turn your back on me?”
I shook my head as he reared his arm back and struck me across the other cheek.
The scalpel scraped my skin, and I felt the hot welling of blood across my cheekbone.
“Sienna,” Bria shouted, standing and looking between Valentino and me.
“Don’t come any closer,” I told her, instantly feeling protective. I may not have known her, but she was a child. Why the hell was she even here?
“You are the last thing I had left of her,” he shouted down at me. “I had your mother for such a short time, but when she died, I knew I’d have you forever. I had something even better. Someone stronger and more stunning. I had a weapon to forge however I wanted it, and Dante ruined it.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I screamed back. The memories wereright there, but I couldn’t access them. Icouldn’t break them free from wherever they settled in the back of my mind. “I didn’t betray you.”
“Magnificent act you’re putting on,” he said, his tone taking a deeper, more intimidating drawl. “I would love to believe you, but I know how cunning you are. How long have you been planning my demise?”
“I—I haven’t.”
The scalpel plunged into my left wrist, and I couldn’t stop the scream that resounded through the room. My vision went dark, but the pain didn’t stop. Nothing stopped as he pulled both arms behind my back and cuffed them to the chair. He didn’t bother removing the blade as he came back around the front of the chair and looked into my eyes. Why was he doing this? He’d been angry before. He’d hit and punished me when I deserved it, but this was more than that.
This was an interrogation, and I couldn’t even remember what I’d done.
“Valentino,” I cried out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop crying,” he shouted, but the tears that streamed down my face were genuine. The pain consuming every part of me wasn’t feigned. If I knew what I’d done, maybe this would be easier to understand. It sounded like he believed I’d taken Dante Guerra’s side over his, but that was impossible. He was a monster, and I’d been working for years to end his whole family.
