Page 49 of Dark Masquerade
Aldo put his head to the side as if thinking. “You seem to think you’re in charge here, Elli, but I’ll give you a break. I’ll let the lovely Mrs. Bartoli and her child live …if you’ll play a little game with me.”
“Whatever you want …”
Aldo made a face. “Of course, I don’t want my little game to be interrupted by the people Mrs. Bartoli would surely warn.”
Oh, god, no.“Please, Aldo …”
Aldo looked at Mario. “Wound, but don’t kill Mrs. Bartoli, would you please?”
“No!” Elli screamed, but Aldo pulled her out of the way, and Ori, knowing what was going to happen, shoved her daughter into Elli’s arms. Mario shot Ori, the bullet slamming into her shoulder and knocking her back against the cold tile. As she fell, her head cracked against the hard marble of the sink. Ori slumped to the floor, bleeding. Elli whimpered, and Lucy began to cry. Mario checked Ori’s pulse.
“Alive.”
Aldo nodded. “Good. Take the child, Mario.”
The guard stepped forward to take Lucy, but Elli was ready for him. Stamping on Aldo’s instep, she kicked out of his hold and drove her knee into Mario’s groin. The bodyguard buckled, and she used her knee to smash his forehead.
Aldo grabbed her and Elli felt the sting of a hypodermic needle in her neck. No …he was drugging heragain. The effects were almost instantaneous. Aldo took Lucy from her arms and placed her next to her unconscious mother. Elli slumped to the ground, and Aldo picked her up just as Mario came around. Aldo bent down again and retrieved the bodyguard’s gun. He shot Mario without hesitation, putting a bullet into the man’s head. “Loose ends.”
As she finally gave into the drugs, Aldo smiled at her. “If only your death were going to be that merciful, Elli, my darling.”
Not knowing if she would ever wake up again, Elli’s last thought was of Lucy, Ori, and her darling Indio.
Indio excused himself from the host’s wife and went to find Elli. He found their table and saw Maceo talking to another friend. “Hey, where did Elli and Ori go?”
Maceo grinned. “Diaper duty.” He glanced at his watch and his smile faded. “Quite a while ago now.” He got up. Indio tamped down the feeling of panic. Elli’s bodyguard was gone, so he was with them, and they were okay, right?
Indio and Maceo walked quickly to the bathroom, and just as they drew close, Maceo heard his daughter screaming. He shared a panicked glance with Indio and both men started to run.
They burst into the bathroom as Ori, her head bleeding and her shoulder gushing blood, reached for her daughter with her good arm. “Ori!” Maceo dropped to her side and she leaned into him as he put his arms around her. She looked out of it, but she gazed up at Maceo, then Indio, who was checking Mario’s pulse and trying to quell the scream inside him. Where was Elli?
Indio knew even before Ori managed to choke out the words. “He took her, Indio. Aldo Constanza has Elli.”
Elli came around, her mind whirling and her breath shallow, just as Aldo had finished dressing her. They were in the back of a van with darkened windows and outside she could hear the sounds of revelers. The Masquerade Ball had spilled out onto the streets of her city. She looked down at her body—he had dressed her in a wedding dress, and Elli could see now, with a jolt of terror, that it was identical to the one Yvetta was murdered in.
This was it. She was going to die and she’d never see Indio again.
Aldo kissed her, and she spat in his face. “True colors,” he laughed. “You always were a little savage.”
He hauled her into a sitting position. “Now, Elli, we’re going to play a little game. A game of hunter and hunted. I’ll give you a fair head start, of course, but the moment I catch you, my dearest, sweet Elli, is the moment I will end this and kill you. And Iwillkill you, Elli. You know that. But I will give you a fair head start. Give you the slightest hope, just so I can snatch it away the second my knife slices into your beautiful body. So, go …”
The drugs in Elli’s system were making her senses whirl and she couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying. Her vision was doubled. Her chest felt tight with fear and terror …what was he saying?
“Go …go now, Elliana …and just remember this …you won’t see me coming.”
He pushed her from the back of the van into the crowd of people, who carried her along in their throng. Elli was in the midst of a full-blown panic now, terrified that Aldo would kill her; more terrified that she wouldn’t find her way back to Indio before he did. She had no way of knowing that at that same moment, Indio was frantically watching the CCTV from the security room of the hotel.
“There.” Indio pointed at a blacked-out van, watching in horror as he saw Aldo carrying an unconscious Elli to it and throwing her into the back.He isn’t even trying to hide now,Indio thought. And that’s what makes him lethal.They managed to track the van to the edge ofPiazza San Marco and Indio was staggered to watch Elli being released—wearing Yvetta’s wedding dress. In a few moments, he watched Aldo, wearing a grotesque cupid’s mask, get out of the van and follow her. In his hand, a glint of steel.
Cursing loudly, Indio and the security team at the hotel set off at a run, the host shouting that he would call the polizia for them.
Indio didn’t hear anything but the roaring of blood in his ears. Aldo was going to kill his Elli. He was hunting her down and would butcher her publicly, not caring if he was arrested or killed. All Aldo could see now, Indio knew, was Elli’s blood on his hands.
Indio could barely breathe as he raced through the night to save his love.
Elli grazed her arms as she stumbled down another alleyway. Her head was beginning to clear and she knew she would have a better chance of surviving if she hid back amongst the revelers. She staggered down the alleyway, almost sobbing as she saw a crowd at the end of it. But as she reached the end, Aldo stepped into the light. His mask was a grotesque, malevolent cupid’s face and his large body filled the entrance to the alley. Elli ran straight into him, and he grabbed her and pushed her again the wall.
Behind him, revelers danced and sang, leaving no one to hear her agonized gasp as Aldo, without hesitation, drove the knife into her belly. All the breath was knocked from her lungs as he ripped the knife from her and stabbed her again. Elli looked down in disbelief to see her blood pooling across her dress, gushing from the vicious wounds. As her killer stabbed her again, she cried out, and he put his free hand over her mouth.
