“I will pay you your money, clear her father’s debt, you can let her go. This isn’t her war Sorrento, this is between you and me,” Ethan speaks through his teeth.
Sorrento grabs my hair in his fist and crouches so his face is level with mine. Looking between me and Ethan with an overacted confusion.
“Sorry Ethan, but I think she has everything to do with this. Fucking look at her.”
He throws my head back so forcefully I think it will snap from my neck. Ethan steps forward like he’s going to launch himself at him. But then he stops, fear blanketing his eyes, at the same time that I feel cool metal press against my neck.
“This wasn’t about the money Ethan. You think I need her lousy couple of thousand? This was about taking from you. I was gonna send her back to you piece by piece, but I guess this has worked out a little better. You can watch the life drain out of her eyes for yourself now.”
A squeal of terror escapes my lips as the knife pushes tighter into my skin.
“Please,” Ethan calls out, I hear the panic in his voice as he raises a hand in defeat.
“Please. Please. You’re pathetic,” Sorrento spits out a laugh.
My eyes meet with Ethan’s seeking solace, but only finding fear.
“You’ve won,” he tells Sorrento “You’ve won.” He holds up his other hand now too and shocks me when he drops on to his knees.
“You can have it all. Everything I own. You can have the final breath from my body and the last beat of my heart. Just please, don’t hurt her,” he swallows heavily.
My heart breaks to see him weakened. I want to scream at him to get up, and fight. Not to give Sorrento what he needs.
“You see that sweetheart?” Sorrento whispers in my ear.
“That’s the mighty fucking falling.”
“Yep.” A familiar voice comes from the door, followed by a loud bang that echoes around the room. And everything suddenly turns to chaos. Distracted, maybe injured, Sorrento drops the knife and Ethan quickly gets up on his feet, launching on to him and wrestling him to the floor. Buddy drops the gun, racing toward me, and starting to untie my ankles, while Ethan’s fists slam over and over into Sorrento’s skull.
Ethan stands up from the ground his hand fisted around Sorrento's throat and dragging him on to his feet. He forces him against the wall, slamming him so hard that the brick crumbles at the back of his skull.
Sorrento laughs like he’s having some form of psychotic break.
“I should have known your fuckin’ wingman would have tagged along to the party.” His white teeth are rimmed with blood as he speaks. Buddy looks down at his feet as if he’s ashamed.
“Bud, I told you to stay at home,” Ethan curses him, over his shoulder.
“Yes, Buddy. You should always do as you’re fucking told,” Sorrento sneers, and Buddy flinches nervously.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” Ethan turns his attention back to Sorrento, speaking into his face through a tense mouth.
“You have taken from me for the last time.”
“I have taken from you…” Sorrento laughs before his eyes turned possessed.
“...You fucked my wife,” he screams out like a maniac.
“No Ivan. Your. Wife. Fucked. Me,” Ethan tells him harshly.
“She sought me out and she begged me to make love to her because you...” —he slams Sorrento's head into the wall again— “...weren’t quite scratching the itch.”
“Yeah, and look what happened when she came back,” Sorrento says spitefully.
“I was coming for her. I was gonna take her away from you.” Ethan’s jaw clenches as he speaks.
“I don’t lose, Ethan. You think I didn’t know where my wife was that night. I knew. I never let that bitch out of my sight. Which is exactly why I made sure she never had the opportunity to leave with you.”
Ethan looks taken off guard, like his head is battling to make sense of something.
