Page 14 of Until You Break
Let them watch. Let them whisper. I’d give them a show worth bleeding for.
Footsteps echoed in the hall. Metal keys turned somewhere below. The house exhaled like it knew what came next. Alessandro waited at the corner, phone gone, expression sharp. “You coming?” he asked. “Always,” I said, a grin twitching at my mouth. He rolled his eyes. The smile stayed as I followed, carrying Luca’s banter still warm on my lips.
CHAPTER 5
EMILIO
I woke with a start, restless sleep clinging to my skin. The blur of drugged dreams hadn’t lifted when terror hit clean and fast. Guards were filling the doorway.
“Don’t move.”
The cell door slammed, hinge groaning low, rattling down my spine.
His voice was steady, the same one I’d heard when they dragged me off the street. The same man who’d inspected me inside the van. Death. Broad shoulders, dark hair, face set like he’d been carved to endure. A scar split one eyebrow, the only flaw in a face built for cold. Under dim light, the resemblance clicked. That jaw, that sharp gaze. The same dangerous symmetry as Damiano Bellandi. My captor.
My head snapped toward him. “You.”
He didn’t look at me. “Me.” His mouth curled in amusement, not warmth. Like a cat watching something small bare its teeth.
Damiano followed, his cologne warming the air by a degree. “On your feet,piccolino. Alesso, here.”
Leather grazed my arm. I smacked it away. Another hand found the nerve. My knees gave.
They pushed me through corridors. Steps echoed too loud, the air sour with damp and metal. Panic surged; I lashed out, shoulder into Damiano’s side, teeth snapping at the air. He caught me again. My nails dragged his skin, enough to make him hiss.
“Where are you taking me?” My voice cracked. I fought his grip, thrashing toward a dark opening that gaped like a grave. “No!”
“Stop squirming,” he said, calm enough to mock. “You’ll only bruise easier.”
A door groaned. Cold climbed my spine. They shoved me into the van. Leather, gasoline, steel. Damiano slid in beside me, Alessandro at the wheel. The partition thudded shut like a verdict.
“Where are we going?” I demanded.
No answer.
I jerked against the seatbelt, wrists twisting against the cuffs. My boot slammed the partition. “Let me out!”
Alessandro didn’t turn. Damiano chuckled, low, pleased.
“Still fighting?” His knuckles skimmed my jaw. “You’re strapped in a box with me, kitten. Keep going, I like the view.”
I lunged as far as the belt allowed. He caught my chin, fingers unhurried, forcing my gaze.
“Fight harder,” he said softly, words slipping under my skin. “Show them how pathetic it looks from the outside.”
Heat burned my face. I shoved again. His grip didn’t shift.
“Alesso,” Damiano murmured, bored.
“On it.” A glance in the mirror, Bellandi eyes pinning me like a specimen.
“Our passenger needs to calm down.”
A sting hit my arm, cold spreading fast. The syringe withdrew. “What—” The word cracked and fell apart.
Damiano’s mouth curved. “Bedtime.”
The drug slid in like fog, slow and inescapable. It burned, wrapping muscle and thought until every breath felt thick. Vertigo surged; the seatbelt cut my ribs, each inhale shoving Damiano’s scent deeper into my lungs.
