I didn’t think it was possible to get angrier, but here I am raging and pulling at my restraints so hard I feel like the muscles in my arms are gonna snap.Dante and the goons are all laughing.Except Matteo.
“Just calm down, you’re not getting out of here,” Dante assures me.“In a few hours, our mutual friends the Hydra will be here.I’m gonna suggest that they cut you up and mail the pieces to your MC buddies one by one until you pay them back what you owe them.I think they’ll like that idea.”
The visual of that does give me a second’s pause.But I’d submit to that willingly if it meant he’d stop calling Bella his bride.She’s my bride, damn it.
“You really pissed them off bad, it seems,” Dante goes on.“And then you ignored all their friendly warnings to give back what you stole.So they’re taking more drastic measures and I don’t blame them.”
“You think I’m afraid, you sick fuck?”I yell at him.“All I’m hearing is that you’re a chickenshit, small man, obeying your masters.”
Dante laughs again, but not as happily as before.“I’m sure you’d know all about that kind of thing.”
“Not like you, small time,” I say.
One thing our surveillance of him in the past couple of weeks uncovered is that he has far less power than he wants to have.It’s why he’s in bed with Hydra.Because he wants more.And it’s clearly a soft spot, because his face turns a few shades redder as he clutches his tumbler so hard his knuckles turn white.
One alternative is to have him bash my brains in before Hydra can cut me up.It’s not a good alternative.None of the alternatives I can think of are good.I have absolutely no bargaining power here.But I gotta give it a shot.
“Ditch Hydra, they’ll fuck you over in the end anyway,” I say.“Join with us in getting rid of them and we’ll help you get what you want.”
He finds that funnier than anything I’ve said before.
“And I suppose you want me to let Bella go for that to happen?”he asks.
I nod, don’t bother saying it.
“But she already promised she’ll do whatever I want if I let you go,” he says and that hurts me deep in my chest.I feel pain from the first time since this shit went down.“And as sweet as that offer was, I had to decline.”
He takes a drag of his cigar and blows the smoke in my face.
“You see, I already have her and can do anything I want to her,” he says.
The goons laugh, Matteo cringes, but is grinning when Dante looks back at them, enjoying his attentive, supportive audience for his bullshit.I don’t know who’s sicker.Him or Dante.She’s his sister!
“And I don’t need your help with anything either,” Dante says, turning back to me.“Least of all dealing with Hydra.I know what they are.And right now, they’re exactly what I need.They’ll love this gift I got them.Meaning you.”
“Yeah, I got that, asshole,” I say.
Insults.That’s all I got to fight him with.I feel like I’m eighteen again, getting my ass kicked by a bunch of mafia assholes for loving the wrong girl.
“Good, good,” Dante says.“You think on that for a while.And I’ll be back when the Hydra get here.But I think I’ll have some fun with Bella before I tell them you’re here.”
He leaves and I continue screaming obscenities at him long after it’s only the hoarse echoes of my own voice I hear.
I’ve read and reread so many books by great thinkers, ancient, old and new.I’m hoping for some guidance from them right now.But only one quote comes to mind now.
All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.Out, out brief candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour on the stage and then is heard no more.It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It’s by Shakespeare, spoken by Macbeth after he learned that his queen was dead.I had to memorize it for school in the ninth grade, and I hate how eerily it aligns with my and Bella’s current situation.
But I can’t deny that my mind showed me the most fitting damn quote.What we’re heading for here is a tragedy of epic proportions.And we’ve been on this trajectory since the first time we kissed.That’s the truth, no matter how much I rage against it.
30
Bella
They put me in a bedroom on the third floor and locked the thick wooden doors when they left.The room smells musty like it hasn’t been used in a long time, but also like furniture cleaner as though it was recently scrubbed clean.The decor looks like something Dante’s great-grandmother might have bought new.Or brought over from the old country.There’s a canopy bed with yellowed, lace lined bedding covering it.The walnut-colored furniture is gleaming and looks like it’s never been used.There are also crystal vases everywhere, none filled with flowers.
There’s no tree hanging close to the windows and they’re much too high up for me to jump down.But I am considering it.
