Page 64 of Doll's Eye

Chapter thirty-three

Alessia

“Alessia!” Massimo’s roar finally breaks through to me. “Alessia!” It grows closer, and I look down to see my knife still stabbing into flesh and blood. The face unrecognizable.

I’m covered from head to toe in blood, including my exposed breasts. Shit, he can’t see me like this. None of them can. I jump up to franticly find something to cover myself with. Racing over to the bed, I snatch the small throw blanket to wrap around myself just in time.

Jino, our cousin, is the first familiar face to appear behind the stacked-up bodies inside the doorway. “Up here!” He climbs over the dead men and rushes to me. “Alessia. Are you alright?” I nod my head. “Let me see.” He tries to reach for my face, and I rear back some on reaction.

“Gemma,” I croak.

His eyes widen in fear as he scours the room with his gaze. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She went for the panic room up here. Go.”

Just as he turns, Massimo literally comes barreling into the room, looking deranged and utterly mad. “Alessia!” he yells again, even though he can clearly see me standing here. I hug the blanket closer, feeling so ashamed. It’s unfair the way a man can so instantaneously make a woman feel violated.

His hands cradle my face as soon as he reaches me, making me wince in pain as he inspects me. His chest is rising and falling, and his eyes are wildly jerking all over the place.

“I’m okay.” My voice is hoarse coming out. “I swear I’m okay.” My face hurts like hell, but it could have been much worse.

He takes notice of the blanket I’m tightly grasping, and he tries tugging on it with flaring nostrils. “Drop the fucking blanket, Alessia,” he warns, his voice sounding like nothing I’ve heard from him before.

Not having much of a choice because I’m temporarily out of fight, I drop the blanket, and my hands jump up to hold my ripped dress over my breasts. “I’m okay, Massimo. Really.”

His breath is coming in ragged as he snarls at my torn clothing. Then he tries to yank my dress up my legs, and I smack at his hands. “Massimo! Stop!” I glance at all the men in the room as they inspect all the dead bodies. Without taking his eyes off me, he orders everyone to leave. He’s looking more wrathful by the second, like the growing cloud mushrooming from an atomic blast.

“Pull your dress up now, or I will rip the rest of it off you.” Spit comes flying out, and I feel like combusting into tears of embarrassment. Men never have to worry about anything like this.

Taking a breath, I bunch my dress up for him in humility, feeling like I’m being violated all over again. He drops down to his knees to examine me up close. My panties are still in one piece, and there aren’t any signs of struggle down there.

Jumping to his feet, he crushes my body against his. My face is killing me as it’s smushed into his chest, but I don’t dare tell him. I’m pretty sure he’s more fucked up about this than me right now. The adrenaline keeps the trauma at bay, and I’m sure the scene is more gruesome to any onlooker.

“Massimo. Please tell me everyone is okay. Please,” I whisper.

“We haven’t found Gemma yet, but your brothers and your mother are fine.”

“Gemma went to the panic room. I don’t think anyone got past to get to her.”

The tension in his body intensifies, and he gradually leans back. “And why didn’tyougo to the panic room?” His voice is like ice causing me to physically shiver.

“There wasn’t enough time. They were already coming up the stairs so I had to hold them back so Gemma could make a run for it,” I rush the words out.

“You didn’t have to doshit. You could’ve hidden and waited it out!”

“You weren’t there! You didn’t know the situation!”

He’s deathly silent and still for a moment, then his grip on my upper arms is now bone-crushing, and he trembles as his face turns a shade darker. “You’re also a smart woman, so act like it. It was you against an army.”

“Yeah, and I handled them,” I chop out each word.

“No. You got lucky.”

“Fuck you, Massimo. I did exactly what I had to do. If I hadn’t held them back, Gemma wouldn’t have been able to get to the panic room, and you and I both know she’d be completely helpless against those men. I’d be trying to protect both of us from getting gang raped and then murdered,” I vehemently seethe, then throw my arm out, gesturing to the small army of men dead around us. “I knew what I was doing. It was either risk my life, or riskbothof our lives.”

“No, you had to try and prove something. To show everyone you can play with the big boys. There’s a difference between being smart and being smug.”

“Oh, yeah? And what would you have done, Massimo?!” He doesn’t answer, and I nod my head. “Exactly. You would’ve done exactly what I did, but that’s okay, right? Because you’re a man and expected to fight, whereas I’m a woman, and I’m expected to cower under the fucking bed.”