I had him. He was in my arms. I had so much hope for us to be together again until I was ripped from him, again.
"Mrs. Napolitani." A rugged gasp comes from a cell across from mine.
"Marco!" I whisper yell. "Marco! Are you okay?" I question in a hurried tone.
He sighs deeply, and I notice he is holding his side where he is bleeding out. "Been better." He replies.
"Oh my gosh!" I cry out. I rip off my hoodie and am about to toss it over to him but he shakes his head. "Why?"
"Keep it. Nothing is really going to help me." He sighs, falling back against the cement wall.
I shake my head right back at him. "No, no. Take it."
"I'm not going to take it." He huffs seriously.
"Marco—"
"My wife always told me that she'd leave me if I got kidnapped." He chuckles, remembering a story. "I told her anything is possible with what I do... That didn't do anything, she still wanted me to leave and wanted me to always be there for my boys." He sighs again.
"We have to get out of here." I state, standing and shaking at the bars. The rough metal scrapes up my skin.
"I have twins, they are about to turn four." He states. "Milo was born second but he was always more mature. He put it together that my job wasn't safe, he always told me to be careful." His voice doesn't break, he stays strong.
"Why did you stay after they were born?" I ask him curiously, sitting against the wall.
He shrugs. "I devoted my life for the Napolitani's, Alonzo too. He and I had an arrangement where I could go home with enough time to build a relationship with my kids and wife." He explains to me. "I always have respected Alonzo because he never told anyone about my family. He kept them safe."
All Alonzo ever wants to do is keep family safe. He just wants to keep me safe. That's why he wanted me to stay in all the time, not because he was controlling me. He loves me and just didn't ever want to see me hurt. Yet here I am, had to go after Remy, I couldn't run fast enough, or fight Matteo hard enough. Alonzo looked like such a hot mess when I saw him for a brief time. It looked like he hadn't shaved the entire time I've been gone. I can't imagine how he must be feeling.
"He really cares about you." Marco speaks up again. "He has been a mess since your disappearance."
Guilty tears well up in my eyes. "Was he angry?"
"At the world." He chuckles.
A door suddenly opens with a harsh slam. Matteo greets us with a sick smile, clapping his hands together. "I've been waiting for this moment." He says it all giddily. The door to Marco's cell is opened and two men grip his shoulders, pulling him to his feet and out of the room. He fights it but a few more people have come to contain him. "Now... Reagan."
My cell door opens and Matteo grabs my shoulder, ripping me from the floor causing my shoulder to ache in pain. I yelp, trying to push him away but he doesn't budge as he pulls me out of the cell and out of the room. "Let go!" I cry out, trying to get his hand off my shoulder.
"Oh, your shoulder." He says sarcastically, pushing more pressure on my collarbone.
"Ah!" I grimace.
He pulls me along a hallway and shoves me inside a very dimly lit room. Where Marco is already tied to a chair with an empty one beside him, where I am pushed into and scraped down. My shoulders and chest burn with the harsh pressure.
"Stop!" I beg.
"The more you pull against the rope, the tighter it gets." Marco says quietly beside me. I freeze, not wanting it to be any tighter. "Just relax, and don't speak."
"That's probably not a good idea..." Matteo says nonchalantly, walking towards us into the light with a small knife, twirling it in his hand. "The more you speak, the less this will hurt. Or even better, scream and this will be all that more satisfying for me."
This guy is coo-coo.
"Who would like to go first?" Matteo asks us.
"Don't touch her." Marco says with an angry voice.
I snap to look at him. "No, no." I don't want Marco to get hurt, he can't get hurt, he can't die. He has to get home to his family.
"Oh? Reagan wants to save the day?" Matteo teases.
"No, she doesn't." Marco says through his teeth. He is still staying loyal to Alonzo, putting his life on the line for me.
"But I think I'd rather make her scream." Matteo smiles. "That was my original plan, to hurt her to torture Alonzo with." He snaps his fingers and the door suddenly bursts open, and a struggling Alonzo is carried in. He is bloody and weak but continues to fight the people that brought him in.
Alonzo is tied down by chains just out of my reach. Seeing him like this makes my heart burn. "I swear to God if you touch her!" Alonzo shouts, blood spraying out of his mouth with everything he says.
Out of spite, Matteo slaps me across the face before coming behind me and holds me by my hair, forcing my head back and a sharp blade is pressed to my neck. Alonzo screams, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Don't touch her!" He struggles and pulls against the chains, making them rattle.
"You've become so vulnerable, Aonzo." Matteo teases, tracing the blade across my neck in an uneven line.
"Hurt me all you want, don't lay a hand on her!" Alonzo shouts, his voice breaking. "Just don't hurt her." He says quietly, choking back tears.
Matteo straightens out, stepping around me and in front of Alonzo. "Although I'd really like you to just kill you right now, I want it to hurt first."
The small knife that was once in his hand is suddenly lodged into my stomach. I groan in pain as Alonzo screams again, cursing Matteo out. "Stop!" He screams.
"Don't look at me! Don't look!" I shout at Alonzo. I don't want him to see me like this, I know this is hurting him.
Matteo pushes the knife into my stomach making me scream. I'm trying not to be loud because that's what Matteo wants. Another pain in my leg shoots up. When I look down, it's another knife. He twists it slightly before ripping it right back out, along with the one in my stomach too.
"Ahh..." I groan weakly.
"God, I've wanted to ruin your happiness all along. I've been so sick of you, Alonzo." Matteo says.
What happiness? Alonzo has never been happy in this.
"The way you bossed us all around all the time, I mean, it's so annoying!" Matteo exclaimed. "You scared everyone into submission, it was difficult for me to find a team." He admits. "Everyone was too scared to betray you."
"Or too loyal." Marco speaks up.
Matteo snaps his head towards Marco. "Loyal?" He spits. "Loyal? No one is truly loyal. People care too much about themselves. Tsk." Matteo uses a larger blade to pull up Marco's jaw so he is looking at him.
"Or you just care too much about yourself." Marco taunts. Marco has some guts to be back talking to the kidnapper with a large knife.
The knife punctures his jaw, I see the blood running down his neck, but Marco doesn't even flinch. "I am not the selfish one here, Alonzo is." He points the big knife in Alonzo's direction. "He is selfish. Him." He is almost hysterical about it. Matteo goes around Alonzo, gripping his hair and puts the knife against his cheek. "Che bella donna che hai, Alonzo." He says into Alonzo's ear as they both stare at me.
"Non parlare di lei cosí." Alonzo responds.
Marco smiles devilishly. "Quanto saresti arrabbiato se la toccassi?"
Alonzo struggles against the restraints and tries to lunge at Marco. "What did he say?" I whisper to Marco.
He shakes his head. "You don't want to know." He replies.
"I do!" I argue back.
Matteo walks over and behind me, collecting all my long hair and pushes it to my side. "I just love all this hair." He coos, taking a large chunk. The next thing I know he runs the blade across it and cuts off half of it. "I asked Alonzo how angry he would be if I," He puts face close to my neck, I felt his disgusting breath on my neck, "if I touched you."
I wince, pulling myself away from him. "Don't touch me!" I demand with a loud voice. That mother cut my hair. Why my hair.
The ropes are suddenly cut away from me, and Matteo picks me up, walking me closer to Alonzo. I fight against him, trying to wrap my arms around his neck and comfort him. Matteo puts his hands on my waist, bringing his face closer to my neck. I pull away from him but he holds my arms behind my back, keeping me there.
"Don't!" Alonzo screams.
"Hmm." He puts his nose against my neck and brings his lips to the base of my neck. "This is a private thing, isn't it?" He smiles evilly and pulls me out of the room, shutting the door behind us.
I can hear Alonzo's screams as Matteo forces be down the hallway back to my cell. He throws me into the cell, locking the door. I let out a relieved sigh after he leaves. I was really terrified he'd touch me.
The pain in my head, stomach and leg all make me pass out onto the cold hard floor.
Thoughts?