“No, we have to play it extra fastidiously than that,” I replied, shaking my head. “He had her at gunpoint when he took her from me. If he sees an entire group of them coming down on him directly, he’ll panic. And a man like that, panicking, with how he’s handled her previously … It’s not one thing I wish to threat.”

My coronary heart twisted in my chest. I couldn’t consider I needed to even speak about this, about one thing that darkish. It felt as if she had solely simply arrived right here, and now, we had been speaking about her being dragged again into her previous life.

“I’ll go stake out the place myself,” I replied. “See what we’re coping with. He may need safety there, males who’re going to guard him. I don’t wish to lose any extra of our guys, not after the night time of the hearth.”

A darkish shadow flickered throughout Alex’s face as he remembered that. He nodded.

“Proper,” he agreed. “You certain you’ll be able to deal with it? You’re not going to let the emotion get on high of you?”

I gritted my tooth and shook my head.

“I do know I can deal with it,” I replied. However, if I used to be being sincere, there was part of me that simply needed to go alone, as a result of it meant I’d have the ability to confront Stefano and make him pay, as soon as and for all, for every part he had achieved to her.

Chapter Seventeen – Selina

I pulled the covers up over my head as I heard his footsteps marching forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards up and down the hall outdoors. I knew what he was attempting to speak to me. I knew what he was attempting to inform me.

That I used to be working out of time, and he wasn’t going to attend for much longer to take what he felt as if he was owed.

The considered it despatched a sick, twisted shiver via my total physique. I didn’t even know the way lengthy I had been right here at that time—hours, days? I had laid on this mattress, left the traces intact on the bedside desk—I wasn’t able to do away with them but, simply in case Stefano made good on his promise to fuck me once more earlier than I might get out.

Rape me. That was the phrase, rape. I had compelled myself to see it via a unique lens for therefore lengthy, however right here, now, within the chilly gentle of my sobriety, I knew there was no denying it—he needed to assault me, and I used to be terrified to think about how I’d survive if he did.

The door was nonetheless locked, mercifully, and I prayed it could keep that means for a short while longer. Stefano’s footsteps served as a reminder that I didn’t have a means out of this; if I opened that door, he can be there, able to pounce on me, and I knew he would discover some solution to persuade himself that I needed it.

Perhaps I did. I hadn’t screamed or fought when he had touched me earlier than, my physique had simply shut down, each inch of me frozen as my thoughts went elsewhere completely. And, as I lay on this acquainted mattress, surrounded by this acquainted nightmare, I couldn’t consider that I used to be meant for anything.

Why would I be again right here if this wasn’t the place I belonged? Stefano had come for me, over any of the opposite women. He had come for me, as a result of he knew this was the place I belonged. This was the place I had spent nearly all of my grownup life, and it wasn’t as if I had something in the way in which of expertise that I might use to construct a brand new life outdoors of this one. Was I at all times doomed to come back again right here? Was that escape, that temporary break from this actuality, meant to indicate me nothing greater than that this was the place I belonged, this was the place I’d at all times be?

I pulled again the covers and stared on the traces on the bedside desk. It could have been really easy to only take them, name Stefano in, and get this over with. Give in to the acquainted. I may need hated it, however at the least I knew it. What lay forward of me if I left or resisted, that was terrifying. I had no concept what it appeared like. How might I put my religion in that? How might I belief in what was to come back?

Simply do it. I couldn’t conceal from it any longer. I wanted to only give in and let this occur. I obtained to my ft and knelt subsequent to the desk, like I used to be taking a sacrament—signing my life away to one thing. One thing I knew, at the least. I used to be about to lean down, shut my eyes, and take the hit, my physique already tingling in anticipation of the excessive, however suddenly, I heard a voice downstairs, and my eyes widened.

“Selina!”

There it was once more; I used to be certain of it. A voice I knew.

Paulo.

I sprang to my ft and rushed over to the door, urgent my ear towards it. I might hear somebody shifting via the constructing, footsteps hurrying up the steps. I parted my lips, desirous to name out to him, however nothing got here out, the sound choking in my throat. I didn’t know if I deserved it; if I deserved somebody like him coming to my rescue proper now.

“The place the fuck is she?” Paulo demanded, and I heard a thud—presumably of him collaring Stefano. The partitions shook, and a smattering of mud fell from the ceiling above me. I wrapped my arms round myself, the adrenaline pumping in my system, and managed to slam my hand towards the door beside me.

“Fuck,” Paulo muttered, and I heard him pushing the lock again. The door fell open, and I tumbled out of the room. Paulo caught me, pulling me in shut, and pressed his head into my neck.

“Are you okay?” he requested me. I didn’t even know easy methods to reply. I didn’t know if I used to be okay or not. I didn’t know what I needed.

Some a part of me was crying out to carry onto him, Paulo, to beg him to take me away from right here and get me to security, however there was one other a part of me that felt like I used to be simply going to pull him down with me if I did. I had already compelled him to take care of me drunk, and it might have put his personal sobriety at a lot threat.

“Get your palms off her,” Stefano instructed Paulo, his voice etched with fury. I turned to face him and located him leveling a gun at us.

I jumped again from Paulo, not prepared to threat his security on the finish of that barrel, however Stefano didn’t transfer his weapon, preserving it educated on the person by my aspect. Paulo lifted his palms slowly, glancing over at me, as if silently telling me that it was all going to be okay.

“Simply get out of right here, man,” Stefano instructed Paulo, and his voice virtually sounded … cheap. Calm. Like he already knew he had gotten what he needed.

“I’m not going wherever with out her,” Paulo growled again at him, his voice low. I might see the gun within the holster at his hip, he simply didn’t have time to achieve for it earlier than Stefano would have gotten the shot off.

“You’ll be able to take her, if you’d like,” Stefano instructed him, letting out a snort of amusement. “However she’s at all times going to come back again to me. Aren’t you, sweetheart?”

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