Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 136915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
I’d always loved the dark. I sought the nooks and crevices of our mansion to hide when the world around me became too much, when the sounds and smells crowded in my brain like an avalanche, threatening to bury me beneath. On countless nights I’d roamed the sprawling tunnels and rooms beneath our mansion and the two neighboring houses. One of them belonged to Fabiano and his family and the other was mostly vacant. Dad had bought it because he didn’t want direct neighbors. My uncle Adamo and his family lived there whenever they visited Las Vegas.
Tonight, something felt different about the basement. It took my eyes a moment to get accustomed to the dark, and that’s when I realized that light was coming from somewhere farther down the hall. I followed it until I reached the first corridor below the neighbor mansion. It was illuminated. My brows puckered when I heard low voices from behind one of the doors.
Shuffling, like shoes being dragged over stone, sounded further down the corridor and I slipped into the room beside the cell. It wasn’t dark either and when I turned, I saw why. The room had a floor length window looking into the neighboring cell. Dad and Nevio were inside but they didn’t seem to see me. This was like a one-way window. I moved closer, wondering what was happening. Nevio’s hair was still wet and he was barefoot. The door to the cell opened, and Nino and Fabiano entered, dragging along a very tall but skinny man.
They shoved him to a stretcher in the center of the room, then proceeded to cuff him to it.
“Enjoy your birthday present,” Fabiano said with a shake of his head, his smile a little wrong, and left.
Nevio glanced between Dad and Nino, licking his lips. “Present?”
I shivered at the eager note in his voice.
“He’s yours to deal with,” Dad said, motioning at the man who looked terrified as his wide eyes darted between my brother and father.
Nevio laughed darkly, bent down and pulled his knives. He always carried two in leather holsters at his calves. No shoes or socks, but weapons.
I took a step back, shaking my head. What was going on?
Nevio practically leaped at the man on the stretcher, like a cat pouncing on an injured mouse, and sliced the blades in a slashing motion across his cheek. A scream rang out and I whirled around, my heart pounding, my vision becoming blurry.
I didn’t stop running until I reached a dark corridor. My breathing was labored. I tried to process what I’d seen, to understand the meaning of it all. Dad had gifted Nevio a man to deal with…
I knew Dad was feared in Las Vegas. He was Capo of the Camorra after all, but he’d always made sure I didn’t know too much about his work. Since I didn’t go to school or had contact to people outside of our world, I’d never heard the details of the rumors.
But even with my limited knowledge, I could only assume Dad had given Nevio that man so he could hurt him badly.
I counted to seventy-five before I crept back to the cell, driven by curiosity and fear alike. Dad always said we needed to face our fears or they’d control us. I slipped into the adjoining room. Goose bumps flashed across my skin when I approached the glass. Beyond it, Nevio still knelt beside the man on the stretcher but everything else had changed drastically. Blood covered Nevio’s face, clothes and the floor around him—even his feet. The man was a gruesome mess, and at first glance I was sure he was dead but then his eyes peeled open in his bloody face with the flappy skin. He was whimpering. Nevio smiled cruelly and brought the knife down on the man’s face again. An earsplitting scream rang out. I whirled around breathing raggedly. Cold sweat broke on my skin and my heart raced so fast I was sure I might have a cardiac arrest soon. I needed to check in one of the medical books in our library if it was even possible to have a cardiac arrest as a young person if you didn’t have a heart defect.
“If you always give up control like that when you torture, then you won’t get any useful information out of them,” Dad said disapprovingly.
“And an onslaught of immense pain like this in such a short period of time isn’t as torturous as dosed amounts of agony over a longer period,” Nino drawled.
I shivered.
I needed to leave. I needed to stop this. I needed…I needed.
“What is going on here?” Mom’s shrill voice pierced my ear.
“Oh fuck,” Dad muttered.
I turned to find Mom in the other cell. She looked completely disgusted, furious and terrified. She stared at Nevio with horror-widened, blue eyes. Last time I’d seen her, she’d been happy and tipsy, nothing of that remained.