First Comes Blood by Lilith Vincent

11

Salvatore

“Ah, I wasn’t done having fun.” Lorenzo pushes his bloodied fingers through his hair and smiles at the mess that was the Geak piece of shit.

Chiara is doubled over, her hands pressed against her knees as she struggles to control her breathing.

I glance at the other three, who have drawn together opposite Chiara and me. Them and us. I put my hand on Chiara’s back. “Say thank you to my former friends. It’s because of them you’re untouched.”

Chiara slowly pulls herself upright. She’s deathly pale and her eyes are hollow, but she suddenly looks furious. “Untouched? Untouched? Are you kidding me?”

“What are you talking about? What did that piece of shit do to you?”

“I’m talking about the night of my birthday and what your friends did then.”

Lorenzo laughs. “Quit whining. It’s not like you had anything shoved between your legs, princess.”

Chiara glares at Lorenzo, who smirks back.

“Fuck you,” she whispers at the blond man. “You never told him, did you?”

I stride forward and grab Lorenzo by the collar. “Told me what? What did you do to her?”

Lorenzo snatches his knife from inside his jacket and holds the pointy end against my ribs, growling, “Back off, pretty boy.”

I let go of him slowly, teeth grit, and turn to my future bride. “What’s he talking about?”

She nods at Vinicius. “He wasn’t too bad. He just kissed me and slid his hand up my leg. He was worse,” she adds, turning to Cassius. “He pulled my dress up and spanked me. But him.” Chiara gazes at Lorenzo with an expression full of loathing. “He tied my hands behind my back, pushed me against a wall and said disgusting things to me. Then he ripped my underwear off and shoved the hilt of his knife between my legs like he was going to…you know what.”

I go back to Chiara and put my hand on her shoulder, but she angrily shrugs me off.

“And you were just as bad! You choked me with your bare hands because I dared to talk back to you. I’m grateful I didn’t get raped with broken bottles and killed because my father put some gangsters in prison, but expressing gratitude to these three assholes sticks in my throat. And you know what? So does saying thank you to you, Salvatore.”

Silence falls across the lot. There’s a pinch of regret in Cassius’ face, but Lorenzo just looks bored and Vinicius is preoccupied with his hair.

“I’m sorry,” I finally mutter.

Chiara looks up. “Sorry for what, exactly?”

Not for what we did. I’m sorry that I never explained why. “On your birthday, we did what we had to do. We walk into every unknown situation and establish ourselves fast as the most dangerous men in the room. That way no one challenges us. This is how we stay successful. This is how we stay alive.”

“But I wasn’t going to hurt you! I was just trying to celebrate my birthday. The four of you knew you were coming to meet a seventeen-year-old girl. There was no reason for you all to scare the living daylights out of me.”

“We were coming to arrange a business deal,” Vinicius says, from the other side of the bleeding corpse. “The deal involved the most powerful man in Coldlake and his daughter who’s been wrapped up in cotton wool her whole life. We needed to make it clear to your family who we are and what we’re about.”

I turn toward Chiara and put my hands on her shoulders. “Forget about them. This is between you and me. For my part in how we terrorized you that night, I’m sorry. I lost my temper. I assumed you were a spoiled brat and so I treated you like one, but I see now that you were just scared.”

I stare deep into her eyes. Come on, baby. We understand each other better now.

Chiara sniffs and doesn’t say anything. Then she pulls away from me and bends down over the Geak’s corpse. Gingerly, with her thumb and finger, she lifts his leather jacket and fishes out her phone.

The screen is shattered, and Chiara’s shoulders slump. “Will one of you please call me a taxi?”

“Sure, call a taxi to a murder scene,” Lorenzo mutters.

“Then I’ll walk,” she seethes at him.

I grasp her hand. “I’m taking you home. Come on.”

We head for my car but Cassius steps in front of us. His white shirt is spattered with blood and his eyes are only for Chiara. “Bambina, there’s danger at every turn in this city. Sometimes three is better than one. Have a think about that.”

“Fuck off Cassius,” I growl. “I can protect my woman on my own.”

The three of them could have finished the Geak off by themselves, but they called me because they wanted to rub my nose in the fact that they saved my bride from being raped while I had no idea where she was.

“Sure, you could have.” Cassius sneers. “Enjoy kissing your bride, who’s all in one piece and just as beautiful as she always was, thanks to us. You’re welcome, you cazzo di merda.”

Dick-faced piece of shit.

“Cazzo si.” I put my fingers under my chin and flick them at Cassius, telling him to get fucked. “Come on, Chiara.”

We walk out to the jumble of cars on the deserted street and get into my Maserati. By now, the sun has gone down and dusk has set in. Mayor Romano must be wondering where his daughter is. He’s going to take one look at Chiara’s ashen face and know that something went down.

When we reach her house I take her inside, hoping I can distract the mayor while she slips upstairs.

No such luck. He comes charging down the hall the moment we get inside. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for hours.”

“Apologies, Mayor Romano. I should have informed you that I was seeing Chiara today.”

“Don’t lie for her, Fiore. The school rang to say they saw Chiara getting into a black Escalade. Where was she?” He grabs Chiara by the arm and shakes her. “Where were you?”

I try and step between them. “Leave my fiancée alone.”

“She’s not your fiancée yet, and she never will be if you lie to my face.”

Chiara seems calm. Too calm. She regards her father with hollow eyes. “I was going home with a boy to get rid of my virginity. You’re all so obsessed with it and I didn’t want it anymore. It turned out he was in a gang and he and his friends all wanted to rape and murder me because of you. Goodnight.”

Chiara tries to walk away from her father but he yanks her back, and she stumbles. My blood pressure goes through the roof seeing him hurt her.

“You were doing what?” he roars. “How could you act like such a slut?”

The rape and murder part doesn’t interest Mayor Romano. Just the virginity part.

Chiara’s face transforms in disgust. “Do you think I’m scared of you? You’ve already taken everything from me that I love. Shout all you like. I won’t hear you.”

“Stay right there,” he growls, and pulls out his phone. He makes a call to someone and arranges something they seem to have already discussed.

“Yes, tonight. Now.” The mayor hangs up. “You can go, Fiore. Thank you for bringing my daughter home.”

“What was that call about?” Chiara asks.

“You’ve disobeyed me for the last time. I’m having a tracker put on you so you can’t run off again.”

“What do you mean, put a tracker on me?”

“A chip. Something implanted so you can’t take it off and run away again.”

A chip implanted. I grit my teeth against all the things I want to shout and the punch that I desperately want to land right in the middle of Mayor Romano’s face.

“That’s disgusting. I won’t let you,” Chiara tells her father.

“You don’t have a choice.”

Lost for words, Chiara turns to me.

I shake my head. There’s nothing I can do. “I warned you to obey your father, but you didn’t listen to me. Now, you’ll suffer the consequences.”

“You cold bastard,” she whispers.

I seal my heart off from her words. I’m cold. I feel nothing. I care about nothing but myself. What happens here tonight has nothing to do with me.

I lunge for the front door handle, stalk down the front path toward my car and get in. I go to start the engine, but I can’t do it. If she’s going to suffer, then I should sit here and suffer with her.

Ten minutes later, an SUV pulls up and a man in a white coat with two men escorting him get out, and they go inside Mayor Romano’s house.

Then the screaming starts.

She’s lucky. It could easily have been her life tonight if the others hadn’t found her.

But it doesn’t feel lucky as she screams and screams, and then the house falls ominously silent. Either they’ve bound and gagged her or drugged her.

A few more minutes pass, and then the doctor and his escort leave the house and drive away. I lean my head against the steering wheel, fantasizing about kicking the front door down and beating the mayor to death. Why did I stay? I was just opening myself up to the agony of sitting out here like a powerless moron while someone hurts her.

I grab my phone and make a call. “One day, I’ll fucking kill him.”

“Who?” asks the voice on the other end.

“Mayor Romano. Chiara disobeyed him, and he put a chip in her so he can track her wherever she goes. He wasn’t gentle about it, either.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line, and I know what they’re thinking. I’m the one who decided he wants to play house with the Mayor of Coldlake’s most prized possession. At least it was a chip and not a bullet in her head.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to dispel the memory of Chiara’s screams. “There’s the other plan.”

But maybe I’ve ruined the chances of that plan succeeding before it could even occur to me.

The voice on the other end hesitates. “Yes, I’ve been wondering if that’s crossed your mind. How could the two work at once? We can’t sacrifice one for the other.”

But what if there’s a way to have both? I try and try and force the two ideas together but can’t see a way to make them fit.

“The wedding’s soon. I’ll focus on that. Talk to you tomorrow.” I hang up and start the car. Ginevra’s wedding is in just three weeks and my sister is radiant with excitement and love.

And Chiara?

I envision her walking down the aisle of the church toward me, dressed in white, her beautiful face just glimpsed through her veil and her eyes full of pure hatred.

* * *

“You may now kiss the bride.”

At the front of the church, Antonio sweeps Ginevra into his arms and presses his mouth to hers. All around me, people break into applause and smiles for the happy couple.

Beside me, Chiara’s face is blank and she stares straight ahead. Her hands remain folded in her lap and she’s as closed off as she was the day of her mother’s funeral. When I kissed her cheek in greeting, she wouldn’t even look at me.

The deal is unfolding the way it needs to, but I couldn’t predict how the girl in the center of this was going to throw a whole toolbox worth of spanners into it. I could call the whole thing off and go back to the other three…

But this is the only way for me to get what I want. I’ve waited years. I can’t wait any longer.

At the reception, Chiara eats a little of her dinner and sips water. She doesn’t say a word to me until it’s time for the couple’s first dance. Antonio leads Ginevra around the dance floor, and Chiara finally speaks.

“What happened when Ginevra first met Antonio?”

“Ginevra always knew I’d arrange her marriage for her. There was a dinner at home and I told her the man who’d be her husband was coming. She was a little scared, but mostly she was excited. When she and Antonio saw each other, they were…” I recall the impulsive kiss I gave Chiara when we first met. “Instantly attracted to each other. That first kiss will tell you everything.”

Chiara is silent for a long time. “I’m happy for her. She’s found a kind man who’ll love and protect her.”

“He’s not kind. He’s violent and dangerous, but that doesn’t mean he won’t love and protect her.” I reach for Chiara’s hand and thread my fingers through hers. For a moment she lets me, her face softening.

Then she takes a shuddering breath and pulls away from me. “Then she’s wrong to accept the love and protection of a man like that. He could turn on her at any moment.”

“Chiara!”

Chiara turns around at the sound of her name, just as something comes hurtling toward her. She catches it automatically, and her face falls as she realizes what she’s done. She turns the object in her hands slowly until it’s the right way up.

The pale yellow and white blooms of Ginevra’s bridal bouquet.

Ginevra smiles broadly at my promised bride. “You’re next.”