Red

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y E I G H T

After our latest revelation about Petrov Ace had gone into full blown mafia mode. He brought men down to the basement regularly, ripping his own family apart to try and differentiate between who was loyal and who was double crossing him.

It stressed him out, probably more than it should. I could see it in the way he tussled back his hair or pondered over his decisions for too long. This whole sex trafficking ring had hit him hard and it was clear he felt like it was solely his responsibility to put an end to it.

He had laid down a fresh clear tarp so I expected another hostage to be brought in here by tonight. I watched clear liquid splash against the plastic, drip after drip after drip.

I stretched my foot out as far as it would go, fighting against my restraints with a painful force to make it go further. I managed to knock Darias tongue clamp closer to me, little by little rolling it against the floor until I could reach it.

Somehow that gave me a little more length to grab the tarp and pull it close enough to reach with my hands. I shook it until the water rolled down the plastic and onto my hand then I sucked the droplets into my mouth.

It didn’t taste of anything.

I expected it to be a leak from someone’s shower. It would have a soapy taste and maybe a fragrance.

Failing that I expected it to be tap water from one of the kitchens but it didn’t taste filtered.

I was relieved it wasn’t dirty bathroom water from the toilet. Fuck, I was relieved it tasted of nothing.

It only meant one thing, it was water from outside. Rain water.

I followed the splatters to the source with my eyes, the drips were coming from an air vent latch in the ceiling and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

Ace flung the doors open and dragged in a comatose version of my brother Carlo, strapping him down on the chair with thick hessian ropes. Carlo mumbled something incoherent and Ace punched him in the face. I winced and Ace raised a brow at me.

“Oh we care about this one, do we?” Damn it, I gave too much away. Carlo opened his swollen eyes and looked around, lingering his sight on me for half a second longer than anywhere else.

“Tell me what you know about Valentino and Petrov working together!” Ace demanded.

“può Ace capirci?” Carlo asked me.

(Can Ace understand us?)

“non credo” Ace flicked his furious vision between Carlo and I. He looked lost, like he was trying to pick out certain words of our conversation.

(I do not believe)

“puoi scappare?”

(can you escape?)

“Si.”

(Yes)

“papà verrà stasera.” I glanced nervously at Ace. He was watching me with complete interest from behind his mafia mask. His lips curled into a small smile and I frowned at him. “sii pronto a combattere la sorellina. Ace muore stanotte.”

(Father will come tonight) (be ready to fight little sister. Ace dies tonight.)

I watched Ace break all of Carlos fingers. I watched him slice through his skin with a blunt ended knife. I watched him get poked and prodded with hot rods and bleed until he was too weak to remain conscious. I watched Ace enjoy it, like dishing out pain relieved his stress. It’s what helped him sleep at night.

When he left again I started chipping away at the sand stone, using my unconscious brother as my motivational anchor. It worked. My hands got free and I could use them to wiggle my way out of the chest chains. Only my feet remained bolted down, a problem I didn’t yet think of a way to resolve.

I noticed Darias pinned up hair so I stomach crawled on the floor towards her, as far as I could go but it wasn’t good enough so I got the tongue clamp and poked her to wake her up. She was half dead but cowered away from the clamp in fear.

“Give me one of your hair clips.” I poked her again and again until finally, and very weakly she threw me her hair clip. I twirled it around in the padlock to my chains and bit back a smile when the lock popped open. Wiggling my feet out I relished in the feeling of freedom and then slipped Darias hair back in place with her hair clip.

“You look great.” I lied. “So pretty.” I patted the tip of her head awkwardly and shot her a thumbs up before investigating my way out further. The air vent led me straight to the outdoors, to some kind of backroad and my fathers vehicles were parked up, waiting for me just as Carlo had promised.

“Anyone got any food?”

“Willa!” Dante grabbed me and spun me around. “Oh my god, I’ve missed you so much! What did he do to you?”

My dad pulled me from his grasp and set his dark eyes upon me. “Are you well enough to fight, Willa?”

“Yes. Ace dies tonight.” My father smiled proudly and I mirrored it.

•••

“Why do I have to wear this cheap balaclava mask, it makes me feel like a criminal?” I complained in the back of my brothers black truck. Several heads turned to face me, their expression straight and dry.

“I know I’m already a criminal but this makes me feel like a teenage boy, holding up a convenient store, for pocket money in order to impress some girl.”

“Just put it on Willa and shut up. We can’t let Ace know who you really are.” Dante instructed.

Right, I hadn’t caught them up to speed yet.

The goal was to get my brother out of here and take down as many of Aces men as we could, leaving Ace to my father. I had a different plan though. I wanted Ace for myself.

We watched from the abandoned parking lot as a guy I recognised from the club lifted the barricade shutter and disappeared inside.

All this time being held against my will I always thought I was being held in the basement of the hotel but I wasn’t, I was in the warehouse. The place where they killed my mother.

“Now!” Enzo ordered as we climbed out of the truck and rolled under the shutter just before it lowered completely to the ground.

Instantly I felt myself getting choked up, tears formed behind my eyes that I needed to rapidly blink away. All my life of training taught me to never let emotions get in the way of a fight but here I was, still effected by the place of my nightmares.

Dante snaked his arm over my shoulder and pulled me in for silent support, the others walked ahead keeping their eyes peeled on every corner of our surroundings.

The warehouse was mostly in darkness, only with a few dim, white flashing lights guiding the way.

I held the gun in my hand, hovering my index finger over the trigger. It was locked and loaded, ready to go but realistically I knew that if I shot someone the sound would be amplified in this tin can and alert Ace to my presence.

My ears were the biggest weapon right now since my vision was impaired thanks to the lighting and the mesh of my mask.

Antonio signaled that someone was up ahead and as we turned the corner two guys fired shots our way. I pulled out two knives from my thigh hoist and launched them through the air, hitting the men like a dart to the bullseye.

Both men dropped to the floor with a pained groan but the damage was done, the whole building had been alerted to the break in.

“Nicely done.” He congratulated me.

As we got closer I recognised the men as Harry and Jack from the club, they were lower levels of Aces men and I never really liked them much anyway.

I took their riffles and slung them over my neck, stepping over their bodies to reach the door behind them.

We reached the basement where Ace held me hostage, my brother sat in the middle looking small and Daria hadn’t moved at all. Dante and Antonio quickly got to work untying him.

The sound of gunshots blasted through the room, I dropped to the floor, crouching behind a barrel, only poking out to fire my own bullets.

The twins signaled me to help Carlo and I handed over my weapons so my brothers could lure Aces men out of the room. I skid across the floor on my knees and continued untying my brother.

“Behind you!” Carlo groggily shouted and I kicked my legs around to trip up the culprit.

Ace dropped to the floor, still holding his firearm. I froze momentarily, unsure what to do in this moment but he didn’t give me much time to think, jumping back to his feet practically straight away.

I held my fists up lamely, he held a gun.

He smirked at our stance and I rolled my eyes, not that he could see. I spun around and landed a kick to his windpipe, he fell backwards but remained upright on his feet. As he stumbled I disarmed him, removing the bullets from his gun and gliding it across the room.

“What are we in high school? You want to fist fight?” He questioned, more than ready to take on the challenge. I nodded my head, careful not to make any sounds.

He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to expose his forearms and then he clenched his fists and took several swipes at me. I dodged each one and kicked him. He landed a hard punch to my jaw and I could taste blood clogging behind my mask, filling my mouth from between my teeth.

I banged my legs into the back of his knees and he dropped, so I straddled his waist and hit my palm into the bridge of his nose, breaking the cartilage inside it in one clean swipe. His nose started pouring with blood and in one rapid movement he rolled me over so that he was now straddling me.

“You’re really light.” He commented, sounding a little more nasal than usual. Yeah, you haven’t fed me in a while. Jackass. He was really strong, not using any effort to hold me in place, just his body weight. “Let’s see who is hiding beneath this mask.”

As his hands gripped the edge of my mask I pulled a really shit civilian move, kneeing him in the groin. He let out a pained cry and cradled himself. It weakened his hold on me enough to allow me to push him off and jump to my feet.

Our fight continued, each as skilled as one another. He trained hard, so did I. The only thing he had over me was strength but I was smaller and quicker at dodging his attacks. Somehow I got him to the floor again and grabbed the dirty tongue clamp, I stabbed it through his torso and although I could see it hurt like a bitch he didn’t make a single sound, he kept fighting.

My body felt broken everywhere. My shoulder no longer felt like part of me and I all I could taste was blood.

Bardo got free and threw the gun at me, I caught it and glanced down at a weaponless Ace.

I should’ve shot him.

Placed a bullet hole right between his eyes.

But I hesitated.

Ace smirked, sensing my reluctance.

So I bashed him hard in the temple. He dropped to the floor, falling unconscious.

“You were meant to shoot him not hit him.” Bardo told me as he got close.

“Untie Carlo and let’s get out of here.” I kicked Ace in the ribs a few times, just to make sure he felt the pain that I was feeling and then helped Bardo untie our brother and move towards the exit.

I pulled on a chain and the shutter started rising but not fast enough. We fired bullets in every direction Ace’s men approached and once the shutter had got high enough we stumbled away, getting into one of the cars.

Carlo lay in the back seat, clutching his injuries and I hit my foot on the gas making the vehicle burst to life.

Just as I turned out of the grounds I could see Ace standing in the door way looking mega pissed off and rubbing his bleeding head.

I pulled off my mask to reveal to him my smug face, his eyes glowed in complete annoyance, made all the more dangerous when I blew him a kiss.

I smiled to myself.

Sorry baby, all is fair in love and war.