Page 81 of Waiting Game

“If you kill me, they’ll come for you. All of them. If you hurt me, you’ll-” I stuttered.

“Shh,” he said, taking my face in his calloused hands, “I’m not going to kill you yet, precious.”

King stood once again, and nodded towards his men.

They stalked towards me and lifted me off of the ground.

“You’re only bait, my sweet. I know that they’ll come for me, that was the plan,” he said.

“So what are you going to do?” I struggled against the hold of his men.

“Like I said, I’m going to give The Family a taste of their own medicine. Your friend killed my brother, and now I’m going to kill yours. But most importantly, I’m going to fucking end the life of your little boyfriend.”

“You’re no match for Antoni,” I snapped, fighting harder against the rough hands that held me still.

He chuckled, “of course I am. And you and I can have some fun while we wait for him,” he said against my lips before he pressed a kiss against them.

I tore away from his mouth and he laughed in my face, along with his friends who all joined in.

“What is it, angel?” he asked, fluttering his eyelashes in feigned innocence.

I shook my head, and spat in his face.

He pulled away, his eyes growing a shade darker once again, and brought his pinky to his cheek. With a slow swipe, he brushed off my spit and then licked it off his finger.

“Mmm,” he said.

“You’re fucking disgusting,” I snapped, “I can’t wait to watch my brother tear you limb from limb.”

I was surprised by the words that fell out of my mouth, and I was even more surprised by how much I meant what I said. I had always wondered if I truly was a Santino - and now I knew.

Therewas the darkness that I always knew was somewhere inside of me.

There was my father.

King nodded towards his men again and they dragged me away, back into a tiny room. I fought hard against their hold, thrashing and kicking every step of the way - but it achieved nothing. I was tiny compared to them, and as much as I was trying my best to pretend to be tough like Rome, I just wasn’t.

They pushed me down into a dirty and fraying rolling chair, and I pretended not to notice the splatters of blood on the cushion.

I knew deep down that Ren and Antoni would find me, before it was too late.

I only wished that I could warn them somehow. After all, it wasn’t me that they wanted, it was them. My stomach curled at the thought of Ren or my brother getting hurt, because of me. If I had just come back when Ren asked me to, none of this would have happened.

The walls of the tiny brick room felt as though they were closing in on me as the men started to wrap my wrists to the armrests, binding me to the blood-stained chair.

I stared at the cracks in the concrete to focus on anything but them.

There was no use in fighting, I wasn’t going anywhere.

For as long as I could remember, Ren always promised that he would never let anything bad happen to me - and I believed him.

All I could do was trust that he would come for me.

25

Chapter 25

Ren

---