Page 21 of Born into Darkness

I smile and graze my thumb beneath her bottom lip. “I promise I’ll play it for you. I’ll always compose songs for you, Talia, and I’ll play them for you whenever you want.”

Her dark eyes glisten, and I’m just about to press my lips to hers when the door opens, forcing us to part so she can scoot away from me. I recognize Miguel’s cruel laugh, and my heart races at the sound of it. He hasn’t come in here to beat me in three days, but when I turn my face to look at him, I can tell by the crazed look in his eyes that he’s about to make up for lost time. His eyes turn to Talia. He gives her a wink as he cups the front of his pants.

I hear her sharp intake of breath, and I tell her in Russian, “It’s only been five days. He’s just trying to scare you.”

“It’s working,” she whispers back.

I want to sigh in relief when I see Mateo walk in. Miguel needs a short leash, and Mateo is the only one who seems to be able to keep him on one. Juan and Jose step up beside Miguel, and Lorenzo is the last to enter our suddenly cramped basement.

“I haven’t heard from your dad yet,” Lorenzo says, cutting right to the chase. He’s pissed, and the kind of anger radiating off of him has warning bells going off in my head.

“It hasn’t been a whole week, though,” Talia starts to say, but he’s already shaking his head. “I’m sure he’ll get in touch with you before the time limit is up. He won’t risk having you hurt me.”

The fear in her voice cuts me to the quick. My eyes dart around the room. Juan, Miguel, and Jose are to my left, armed and not letting their guards down, Mateo is to the right of Talia, face unreadable as he watches his dad, and Lorenzo is looking at the woman I love like he’s about to do something that’s going to break a part of me that won’t ever be fixed.

“Wait,” I say, trying to reason with him. “If you do this, it’ll start a war. Her dad will never let this go. You will have a target on your back for the rest of your life.”

“The Bratva is no threat to me. I’m going to destroy your Bratvas. I tried to do this the easy way, but neither one of them is willing to compromise, so now we do it the hard way.”

“What way is that?” Talia whispers, and I want to beg her to take the question back when Lorenzo gives her a cold smile and says, “The way that has you bleeding all over my cock, sweetheart, for all the world to see.”

“No,” she whispers as Miguel takes out his phone, getting ready to film what’s about to happen.

“And then my cartel is going to go hunting,” Lorenzo says.

I struggle against my chain when Juan comes up and punches me in the jaw. It’s a hard enough hit to stun me long enough for Miguel to unchain Talia and drag her to the center of the room. She struggles against him, but it’s useless. There’s no way she can fight her way out of this. Seeing her small, defenseless body surrounded by these monsters has rage flooding through every part of my body. I pull on the chain I’m connected to, ignoring the way the metal from the handcuffs digs into my wrists.

“Don’t hurt her,” I yell. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”

Lorenzo laughs and fists her hair, roughly pulling her head back as he looks at me. “Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?”

I pull on the cuffs, trying to wrench my hands free, but I know it’s useless. I’ve tortured enough men to know it’s impossible to get out of a tight pair of handcuffs. In the movies, men will break their thumbs and wiggle their hands free. It’s absolute bullshit. The body doesn’t work that way. There’s no scenario where I’m able to break my thumb and slide my hand free. The only way my arm is getting out of this is if I cut my hand off. If I had a knife sharp enough to do that, I’d be throwing it at Lorenzo’s head and putting an end to all of this.

“I’ll do anything you want,” I say, meaning every word of it. My loyalty is to my family, and I won’t ever betray them, but I can’t allow him to use Talia like this. “I can convince my family to work with you. I’m willing to bet that I can also convince her family to work with you as well. I can explain how serious you are.” I try my best to bullshit him, but a man like him has heard it all before. I keep trying, though, because letting this continue isn’t an option.

“Please,” I beg, willing to put my pride aside to save her. “I’ll do anything.”

“I’m not into men,” he tells me, “but it does seem a shame to waste such a perfect filming opportunity.”

Talia sobs and keeps her eyes on mine as Lorenzo says something to Miguel in Spanish. Miguel flips through his phone, finding whatever he’s looking for. He taps on the screen, and the song that echoes around the concrete room is like a smack to the face. I recognize it instantly. It was my final assignment for my music class in high school. I composed a song and played it for my teacher. I had no idea anyone recorded it, but someone must have because the unmistakeable sound of me playing is still filtering into the room.

“Beautiful,” Lorenzo says, lifting the corner of his mouth in a smirk. He reaches down and wraps his hand around Talia’s neck, roughly hauling her to her feet. With her back pressed against the front of his body, he keeps her pinned against him as his hand slides down her stomach to cup her between the legs. Talia sobs even louder, trying to break free from his grip as tears run down her face.

“How bad do you want to save her?” he asks, squeezing her even tighter.

“I said I’ll do anything,” I tell him.

“Hands are very important to a pianist, aren’t they?” He laughs at the way my eyes widen in horror. “Still want to be a hero?”

A hero is the last thing I am, but protecting her is important to me. The need to keep her safe is so strong that I raise my eyes to Lorenzo’s and say, “Yes.”

Talia sobs my name while the men in the room all give a soft laugh. Everyone except Mateo. He’s watching his dad with a stony expression and a tightness to his jaw. It makes me instantly dread what’s about to happen. Whatever it is, Mateo doesn’t approve.

“Your hand for protecting her virginity,” Lorenzo says, and I feel the world shift under my feet, nearly knocking me back on my ass. I’m so stunned and horrified by the proposition that it takes me a second to find my voice.

“What?” I whisper the question into the room, ignoring the cruel laugh Miguel gives at the horror that’s clearly still written all over my face.

Lorenzo keeps his hand between Talia’s legs, completely ignoring the fact that she’s crying and shaking so badly it’s only his firm hold on her that’s keeping her upright, and says, “Miguel will dislocate every finger in one hand, or me and my men will fuck your girl until she can’t walk.” He smiles and adds, “I’ll make it easy for you and we’ll take her out of the room to do it. You won’t even have to watch.”

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