Red

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y S I X

A mercilessdrip pounded against the rusted floor, rats scurried past me, startled by the far away gunshots of a Beretta pistol. I blinked through the darkness, trapped in some dank basement, chained to a pipe.

I could taste chemicals on the back of my tongue, from whatever Ace had dosed me with.

My hearing grew accustomed to the sound of a man groaning in pain and I grunted myself as my vision focused back in - slowly exchanging the blur and distortion for a clearer view.

A female sat with her head tilted back opposite, her strawberry blonde hair dirty and sticking to a big bloody gash on her temple. She was bleeding and bruised in multiple places.

“Daria?” I croaked out, my whole mouth tasting like poison and feeling utterly dry.

She dropped her face to look at me but didn’t react to my presence. Unlike me, she was only chained to a pipe with a pair of handcuffs. I had big metal chains across my torso, hands and feet. It left me completely unable to move.

Daria let out a pained laugh and then spat away the blood from her mouth. Ace had beat her badly.

“Of course.” She muttered sarcastically. I tugged my chains trying to free myself with no avail. They were thick and heavy, my shoulders ached. “Your plan failed. Why does that come as no surprise?”

“It didn’t fail. I have him right where I want him.” I lied, tugging harder on the chains. He dressed me in the strangers hoodie from the Audi we stole. I tried to fish around in the pockets but my hand wouldn’t reach.

The guy behind me grumbled louder, I couldn’t turn to look at him I just knew he was consumed by pain.

“Funny how none of you mentioned a package during our merge. What’s in it and why is it so important to you?”

“Ze package is none of your business.” Daria snapped and then winced and brought her two chained hands up to touch her dislocated jaw.

I assessed the wall behind me, it was a terracotta sandstone brick and the bolts were loosening the rubble, whenever I moved my hands. I bet one swift kick to the bolt would break it clean from the wall and free my arms enough to strangle him with the chain.

I glanced at Daria, she was my fastest way out of here. “I can get you the package.” She laughed at me, again.

“You’re chained up to a wall, Ace will kill you first because clearly he zinks you’re ze bigger threat.”

Dying guy groaned again, he was really getting on my nerves.

“Daria, listen to me - you can get free. You need to channel all of your strength into breaking your handcuffs. C’mon, you can do it. The men don’t think we can do it but fuck them. Just think how proud Nikolai will be if we did this ourselves. We’ll get free, kill Ace, get the package.”

I used her emotional weakness against her, the desperation to please her father.

“You zink I haven’t tried zat?” She held her arm up to my line of sight, beneath her cuffs there was ring of bruised skin.

“It’s easy, c’mon Daria I promise you can do it if you just set your mind to it. Really focus on it. Think of something that makes you angry. Channel all the aggression and hatred into breaking the chain.”

She shook her head and looked back at the ceiling.

“I’m not like you. I’m ze daughter of a mafia leader.” That was exactly me. “My fathers plan for me was to marry ze son of a mafia leader. I didn’t train to fight like you, I exist to merge two families and I couldn’t even do zat right.”

Jesus, she’s one of those girls. I instantly knew who she was arranged to marry as well.

“You were meant to marry Ace, right?” I sighed at the sound of another pained groan coming from behind me. “Oh can you just hurry up and die, you’re getting on my nerves!”

“That’s not very nice now, is it?” Aces voice interrupted as he walked into the stagnant basement wearing a thick black mask. He had a sinister look in his eyes and it was beyond terrifying, especially given my stance.

“It’s not very nice picking favourites, how come she gets less chains than me?” He smiled, full of pure evil.

“Because Red, you’re all round superior. She’s weaker and less intelligent, it’s a precaution.”

“My father is going to come and rescue me, you piece of shit. You can’t keep it from me forever.” Daria bellowed.

“See?” Ace didn’t even look her way and continued speaking to me. “She needs her father to come save her while I’m sure you’re busy plotting your own escape.” Daria and I exchanged a look. “Good luck with that by the way.” He shot me a sexy as sin smirk and then turned to Daria.

Crouching down beside her, he gently brushed her strawberry blonde matted strands away from her face. Daria spat at him and he grabbed her face roughly, forcing her to look at him.

“You will never get the package, I will kill you before you even get close. I will kill everyone you love, anyone who tries to take from me. We had an agreement and you will stick to it.” My brows furrowed as I tried to listen to their conversation over the dying man behind me. Ace stood up and slipped his hand into his inner pocket, pulling out a silver appliance. “Oh and Daria?”

He grabbed her head and forced her mouth open, gripping her tongue between the handheld clamp. It only took a few seconds. A few seconds of Daria struggling. A few seconds of Ace slicing. A few seconds of absolute pain, misery, horror and blood. But Ace sliced right through her tongue and then burnt the blood vessels with a hot rod. He stood back and smiled like a monster, covered in his last kill. He appeared pleased with himself.

“There. You won’t be doing much talking now.” He glanced at me slyly and then turned back to her “can’t have you sharing my secrets, can I?” he caressed his hand down her hair softly as tears streamed down her face and noises sounded from her throat.

He turned back to me and bent down, eye level. The same eyes I stared into when he brought me countless orgasms. I tried to fight through the chains, desperately trying to keep my own tongue in tact.

“Is that fear I sense, Red?” He asked with a cocky tone. He held the blood stained tongue clamp up in front of my face and rolled his eyes from it to me.

“You’re another one with too much to say. In fact, you’re worse than her. Maybe I should rip your tongue out as well.” He tilted his head to Daria who I’m pretty sure had passed out. “Any last words?”

“Yeah, you’re a fucking pussy.” His eyebrows poked out from behind his mask, he raised them that high. My initial comment shocked him but then he laughed and shook his head.

“Always so fucking fearless.” He commented with a hint of appreciation.

“You have to tie me down to kill me, why don’t you untie me and fight me like a boss!”

“Nice try.” He yanked on my chains double checking their strength. “Petrov might be number one on my hit list but I’m not naive to the power the Valentino’s possess.

Alessio played a long game, it’s admirable but it would seem all those years ago my father failed on a mission and now I must right his wrong.” He stood up and dropped the tongue clamp to the floor.

“It’s been fun Red, you were a good fuck and added a little mystery to my life but all good things must come to an end eventually.”

He headed towards the door but turned back to face me in the doorway. He raised his two fingers to me and made a gun shooting sound with his lips just like he did the first real time we spoke. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t keep you waiting too long beautiful.”