Page 81 of Tethered Souls
She calls out his name between sobs as Maddox hauls her into the chair. He ties her down, applying pressure to her wound when she tries to fight him. She collapses back on tear-stained cheeks and broken screams.
He picks up the nutcracker. A bit of blood and flesh is still stuck to it.
Stepping up behind Alexis, he places one hand over her chin, aiming her face at Vinny. Our cousin glares at him, then drops his gaze to his girlfriend, his eyes misting but trying to give her strength despite his silence.
Waving the nutcracker in his other hand, Maddox then trails it across her left cheek. “You focusing on that pain, Vinny?” he asks.
“Please,” she begs. “Just let us go.”
“That depends on your lover here. Although…” He looks down at her as he lifts her chin up. “You’ve moved into his house, haven’t you? Stayed up waiting for him to come home. Do you know who his uncle is?”
Alexis nods, not smart enough to know she shouldn’t answer. Or perhaps she’s smart enough to know that she should. Our beef isn’t with her if she had no knowledge of it.
“Have you ever heard the two of them talking about killing anyone?”
Her eyes widen as they flick to Vinny. He shakes his head at her, and there is a moment where she struggles to believe in him. Where her love for him shines through.
But then comes that desire to survive. To believe she will be let go if she just answers some questions.
“Yes,” she whispers.
“Who?”
She starts to tremble. “I don’t know. Some guy who stole from him a few months ago.”
Vinny closes his eyes so briefly, it could’ve been a blink. But I saw his flicker of relief. He’d talked about killing me with her home and thought for a moment she’d heard.
“Anyone else?” Maddox asks, and she shakes her head.
“A pity,” he says as he trails his hand up to her eye. “I was really looking forward to letting you go.”
She screams as his fingers dig deep. Her head thrashes around as he curls his grip around her eye. Her legs kick as my brother raises the nutcracker to his other hand. “Vinny!” she screams. “Vinny!”
“Focus on the pain, Vinny,” Maddox says as he pops her eye out of the socket far enough to get the nutcracker over it. He starts to squeeze. Her screams turn raw, grow higher in pitch. Her hands fist, clawing at the arms of her chair. Blood vessels burst behind her eye, coloring it red. The eye starts to deform, squeezed –
“Stop!” Vinny screams. “Just let her go. Let her go, you piece of shit!”
Maddox drops his hands, and her screams turn into heart wrenching sobs. But there’s no relief in them, no belief that the pain won’t come back. She’s an associate of the Family, and she knows exactly what we are capable of.
“So have you been to a ballet?” Maddox asks our cousin, his words calm. Setting up the groundwork before he gets to the important stuff. Start low, make them comfortable with answering questions that don’t matter.
Vinny grits his teeth together, his eyes fastened on his girlfriend. When Maddox starts to raise his hands again, he sharply nods. “Yes.”
“Did you like it?”
“It was okay.”
“Okay?” Maddox asks in disbelief. “They’re the epitome of grace and power.” He shakes his head, his long dark hair swaying. “But we’re all allowed our differences in taste, I suppose. What about you, Alexis?” He trails his fingers down her cheek. “Do you like ballet?”
She cries as she keeps her head tilted back, her eye still popped out of her socket. “I’ve never been,” she sobs.
“No? A shame. I’d say you should get Vinny here to take you, but, really, you should see it with one who appreciates the hel ballerinas go through so you can fully appreciate the gift they give us as spectators.” He pauses a second, then grins. “I’m free on Valentine’s. Assuming, of course, you’re no longer dating my cousin. I’m not a fan of cheating.”
The constant reference of them still being alive, of them making it through this gives them a bit of comfort. Makes them believe that they can end this, that they can survive this as long as they just give us what we want.
She trembles as he caresses her cheek, her entire body shaking.
Vinny jerks forward in his chair. “My dad is going to kill every single one of you,” he spits, desperately trying to get Maddox’s attention off his girl. “None of you deserve to rule this Family. You’re a stain to the fucking Davenport name.Uncle Cadenis the one who built this empire into what it is, who turned it from the backwater trash it was under Sau’s father. It should bemewho is Boss. It should beourline that gets passed down! Varius is a fucking joke who can’t even use a fucking premade!”
