Page 81 of PortCity Killers

??T W E N T Y S E V E N??

Don and Valentina shared a wing in their house apart from where their family stayed when they were in the country. Don stood in front of a small, narrow doorway that looked like a closet. He unlocked it, holding the door out before depositing me into the small princess-like room.

There was a bed, centered with dark mauve tulle around the golden frame. It wasn’t too girly but wasn’t dark enough to be considered gothic. A black bench sat directly past it with a dress laid out.

“Do you like it?” he asked, gesturing to the room.

I turned my attention to the soft lighting, the vanity and chair set in the corner and found another door that led to a small, but cute little bathroom.

“It’s pretty.”

“But not you?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “I’ve never really decorated my space.”

“Well, this is your space for as long as you’d like it to be. There are other rooms to choose from, of course, but,” he nodded, pointing to the doors on either side of the room, “Those lead directly to our closet areas.”

“Easy access, hmm?”

He blushed, whole ass, pink cheeks, dark under the color blushed. I burst out laughing, and he joined me with his own that sent deep flutters through my tummy. The sound was soothing to my aching soul.

He cleared his throat, his hand on one of the doors, “Yes, well, be that as it may, don’t feel pressured. Both doors lock.”

“I guess you’ll have to check later, huh?”

He winked, “Maybe I will.”

With that he left me to get ready for dinner. I laid out the crimson undergarments and found along with it a note from Valentina. I was introduced to the wonder of ruching and immediately fell in love with the way the dark red dress stretched and moved with me. It ruched around my hips and stomach, falling mid-calf.

I let my curls fall where they may, knowing I didn’t have anything to fix them even if I wanted to. I knocked on both doors, but when no one answered either of them, I poked my head out the door.

The hall was empty but for my favorite babysitter. He leaned against the opposite wall, phone in hand, probably mindlessly scrolling.

As per usual Lorenzo was a man of few words. He didn’t so much as look up from his task, simply pocketed the device and made his way down a side hall that led to a similar set of stairs as the ones Valentina had taken us up the last time I had been in her room.

It was strange to see the house from so many angles and still have absolutely no idea where I was at. I made a note to myself to explore the place, so I wouldn’t get lost.

Valentina and Don were laughing and smiling and sat across from each other in the same spots they had been the last time we had dinner in this room. I wondered if it was their only dining room or if they had others that they used for special occasions.

Dinner was much easier this time around. There was no pressure around my lungs to not say the wrong thing or to watch every movement from the twins. It felt...normal. To just be with them, laughing, drinking, and eating. They took turns feeding me from their plates, making a game of which of them could get me to eat more from them. In the end, I didn’t even eat from my own plate having nearly eaten half of each of theirs.

I was just about ready to call it a night when the two shared a glance. I watched it come and go so fast I wondered if I’d even seen anything, but the way that Valentina clasped her hands together, excitement bubbling around her told me I had in fact seen it.

“We have a surprise for you!”

“Okay,” I stood, smiling hesitantly.

I looked at Don, hoping for a hint of what she could be talking about, but he simply grinned much in the same way he had when he threw my panties on the table the other night.

He tried to hide it with his hand, but I saw it. Valentina pulled me to my feet, placing me in front of the short end of the table. I narrowed my eyes, looking behind me at Don, who nodded to the door in front of us. The heavy wood swung open to reveal Lorenzo dragged along a shuffling mass of a man.

He threw the man down at my feet like an offering, inducing his head and shoulders to me. I watched him back up a step, slowly, with a look to the twins. I did everything possible to keep my face as smooth and impassive as I could, all the while cursing and railing in my head about my new dislike for Valentina’s ‘surprises’. Next time she said she had a fucking surprise I was getting up and leaving the room.

The man was the very same from the other night. The one who had spit right in my face. His hair was disheveled, bruises blossomed across his skin and one eye was half swollen shut.

He looked just a little too pale to be healthy as he stumbled to his feet, dirty and haggard from God only knew what. All that seemed little in comparison to the open engravings across his face.

In a perverted imitation of a Glasgow smile a word had been carved into each of his cheeks. The skin lifted at the edges of the deep cuts that weaved into a jagged script. Giovenni Princess. If I had thought the man looked scary before, he looked downright evil now. I could see my death written clear across his irises.

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