Page 27 of Romeo

The door flies open, hitting the wall with an ear-splitting bang. Or maybe I’m overly sensitive from whatever drug they gave me to knock me out. Either way, I lift my hands to cover my ears, only to realize my right wrist is cuffed and secured to a chain drilled into the cement floor. Wincing at the loud metal clanging, I curl in on myself, wanting to disappear.

My free hand grazes against something in my pocket, and I almost dismiss it before realizing what treasure I just found.

My trusty crochet hook.

Wrapping my fingers around the cool and comforting ergonomic grip, I bide my time for the perfect moment to employ my weapon.

Jerry tosses Antonio a ring of keys, motioning toward the chain I’m cuffed to.

“Ah, there’s our star witness,” Antonio exclaims, making his way over to me after slipping the keys into his pocket.

“You got things covered down here?” Jerry asks.

Antonio looks at him over his shoulder and nods. “Yeah, I ain’t afraid of this little thing. You two go on upstairs and powder your noses,” he says mockingly.

“It’s notherI’m afraid of,” Jerry mutters. The other man who was down here grunts, then I hear them shuffle upstairs, the footsteps fading away into silence.

Antonio turns to me, kneeling a few feet away. I scramble backward, scraping the heavy metal chain against the floor. My back hits the wall, which is uncomfortable, damp, and cold, but still a million times better than being near the man currently grinning at me.

Black eyes squint at me. “Now, now, love. Don’t be difficult. You remember our deal, right?”

I nod.“Y-you said you’d sp-sp-spare Romeo if I c-came here today.”

The man stares blankly, then his lips pull into a hideous smile, oozing with vile thoughts and intentions.“And do you know what that means for you, little girl?”

“I’m not stupid,” I say, my voice growing steadier by the second. “I’ve been on a hit list for a week now, which means someone didn’t finish the job.”

Antonio’s eyes widen in surprise, then narrow into slits. His nostrils flare and his upper lip curls, revealing yellow, jagged teeth more like a monster’s than a man’s.

It’s working.

“If anyone else from the Di Salvo family showed up to get you, I’d have put a bullet in their head before they ever got inside. But it was fucking Romeo himself. I couldn’t kill the Don without direct orders.”

“Or you were scared,” I toss out.

He snarls, rocking forward on his heels as spittle flies from his mouth. I stare him down, concentrating on not bursting into tears. My heart is hammering, my pulse racing in my ears as I struggle to breathe, but I don’t back down.

“What did you say?” Antonio’s face is bright red, and his eyes bulge in anger. Perfect.

“I said you were too afraid to face Romeo–”

I don’t even get the rest of the sentence out before he lunges for me. Gripping my crochet hook, I swing my arm out and stab Antonio in the eye, pushing the metal hook as far as it will go before yanking it out.

A sickening squelch fills the room, followed by a thud as Antonio falls to the ground, both hands covering his right eye socket, trying to stem the flow of crimson blood from his wound.

I can’t believe I did that, but I don’t have time to process anything right now. Not when I’m in survival mode. As if on autopilot, my body moves toward Antonio, who is thrashing around and trying to muffle his screams of pain.

The keys fell out of his pocket when he rolled over, and I inch toward them, snatching them up with my free hand. Antonio tries kicking at my hand, but I already have the keys and am working on my escape.

“Fucking bitch!” Antonio hollers. “What the fuck? I’m blind! You fucking blinded me!”

My hands are shaking so badly that I drop the keys twice while trying to find the right one. Luckily, there are only three keys on the ring, and it doesn’t take too long to get free. I make a spur-of-the-moment decision to secure the cuff around Antonio’s leg, feeling pretty damn proud of myself for taking out a mafia goon.

My journey is far from over, however. I need to get out of this basement and figure out where the hell I am and where the hell I’m going. Will Romeo want me back? Will he think I betrayed him?

Only one way to find out.

Taking a moment, I catch my breath and try to come up with some sort of plan. I’ve got nothing but adrenaline and fight-or-flight mode, so I do the only thing that makes sense. Fucking. Run.

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