I’m beyond pissed everyone tried to hide this from me. My men, my baby’s fathers we’re kidnapped, and everyone expected me to run and hide? Ha! Funny.
“Jeremy, got and get me every piece of information you have on the situation, bring it down here and put it in a spare cell.”
“You don’t want to just come see it in the office?”
“No, I won’t be leaving until this little weasel tells me everything he knows. Therefore, you can catch me up on what you already know as well, right here.”
I round the corner to the cells and let my eyes adjust to the dim lights.
“Hello, Hudson.” I say standing behind the bars and observing him. It’s clear he’s already gotten a few beatings from our men as his hair is speckled with blood, his suit is torn and dirty and his skin is sporting the early stages of many bruises.
“Oh hey, Donna, look…”
I raise my hand and cut him off.
“I don’t have time for lies and nonsense, Hudson. Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to ask you questions and you’re going to answer them. If you don’t answer them, or you lie to me, I’ll cut something off your body and burn the wound shut so you don’t die on me. Then we repeat. Got it? Great. Let me get some things.”
I don’t wait for his reply, I just turn on my heels and search the weapons room for what I need. I find a pair of pliers, gardening sheers and an old, rusty butchers knife. Perfect.
“Hey, Matteo?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you get some of the guys to bring in the fire pit from the back garden. Logs and lighter fluid too, thanks.” He gives me a wicked smile and heads off, returning a few minutes later with what I need.
“Can you guy’s secure him to a chair please?” I ask Jeremy, Matteo and Hays who all nod, unlock the cell door and walk in with a chair and rope. “Hey, hey wait, we can talk about this!” Hudson says, trying to avoid their grasp. He’s weak and pathetic, hopefully it doesn’t take long to break him. “I’ll tell you what you want to know!”
“Oh I know you will, but you see, we don’t take kindly to rats. My men are going to want some justice for what you’ve done.”
As the guy’s finish restraining him, Hays puts his hand on my shoulder.
“I can do this if you want. You shouldn’t have to, in your position.” He looks down at my flat stomach.
“I know…but I need to do this. For Luciano, Luca, and Tony.”
He takes a step back and Jeremy finishes lighting the fire pit. I place the blade of the butcher’s knife into the fire and pick up the pliers I brought in with me, turning to Hudson.
“Who are you?” I ask him slowly.
“My name is Hudson Ivanov. I am the fourth cousin to Alexander Ivanov.”
“Good.” I crouch in front of him, pull off his sock and shoe and swiftly cut off his pinky toe.
“ARGHHHHHHH! I told you; I told you the truth!”
“I know. That’s why I only took a little toe. That was for betraying my family. Hays?” I look behind me and point to the knife now bright red in the fire fit. Hays puts on a heat proof glove, takes the knife and comes beside me to cauterize the wound.
“FUCKKKKKKK! Hudson screams before he passes out. I sigh.
Chapter 80
“Matteo, go get a bucket of ice water. This is going to take a while with his pain tolerance.”
Luciano.
Luca and I have been strung up for hours watching videos of Alexander’s and Ariana’s history. I know Ariana was tortured long before these videos were taken but she still has this light in her eyes that we’ve never seen. A sparkle of hope that maybe this could have been her way out from her father. A guard came in not long ago and placed a chair under both our feet. Giving our bodies the slightest bit of ease. It was painful to feel my arms being able to lower, even just the slightest. The loss of circulation was excruciating, and I assume Alexander knew we were soon to have a heart attack and didn’t want us dying just yet. Now we have our arms lowered enough to be able to rest them just at our chest height but no more and then they leave us once again.
“Thank fuck for that.” Luca says wiggling his fingers.
“A small win…” I whisper out as I stare back at the screen, playing a video of Ariana waking up in a luxurious room.
“Good morning my sweet girl“, Alexanders voice says as Ariana’s eyes flitter open, and an innocent smile falls on her face.
“Good morning“.
“Have you ever seen her look at us like that?” Luca asks me quietly.
“No…I haven’t, but she was different back then. Less tortured from life…”
“What if…what if she picks him?”
“She won’t.”
BANG, BANG, BANG! The sound of gunfire rings out and we both look at each other.
“That must be our ride!” Luca says happily.
We listen for some time at the fighting around us, just as guards come rushing into the room. The kick the chairs from under our feet, causing sudden pain as the weight shifts back to our wrist and then gags are put around our mouths before the run back out. We both groan and mumble under the gags at the pain. Alexander strolis in and stand next to the screen in the darkness, saying nothing, just standing there as we watch him curiously. What the fuck is happening out there?
The door slams open again, and Tony’s eyes make contact with mine first before they flick to Luca’s. He rushes over to me, and I mumble out, trying to get him to turn around. I watch over his shoulder as Alexander slowly saunters up behind him. Just as Tony pulls down my gag I yell out, “BEHIND YOU!” but he turns too late and a needle is struck right into his neck, and his body sways before it hits the floor with a thud.
“Perfect! The gangs all here!” Alexander claps. The fighting seems to have stopped outside. I watch as Alexander’s men come in and hang Tony up on my other side, not before stripping his clothes and landing a few good hits to his stomach like he’s a human punching bag.
“He’ll be out for a while, now I need to go clean up this mess before Ari arrives.”
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