Bound by Hatred (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles #3)(14)

I’d always known his easy-going, playful, flirty attitude was a mask to cover up the ugly truth, but again knowing and having that knowledge confirmed in such a brutal way were two very different pair of shoes. Maybe if I’d been more na?ve I could have convinced myself that Matteo was doing this because he’d had to bury his father today, because he was grief-stricken and needed an outlet for the pain, but I knew better. This was common mob business. Grief had nothing to do with it.

One of the tied up Russians was the man who’d hurt me and I knew that was why Matteo had chosen him as his victim.

I’d always wanted out of the world I’d been born in, this f*cked up brutal world I knew, but in this moment I made the decision to actually try to flee. No matter the cost, no matter what it took and what I had to do, I would escape this hell. How could anyone want to stay when they saw this?

I knew people got used to these things, but I didn’t want to get used to them. I could already tell that I had less trouble with blood every time I saw it. How much longer until the sight of someone being tortured would do nothing for me? How much longer until the voice in my head that said the Russian bastard deserved it and would have done the same to me if given the chance, wasn’t a quiet whisper but a roaring shout?

Something brushed my arm and I jerked back, barely stifling a cry of surprise. Lily stood beside me, and then everything went very quickly. I opened my mouth to send her back up but at the same time her eyes settled on the scene in the center of the room, and I knew things would get very ugly. I’d heart Lily scream before but that had been nothing in comparison to the sound breaking free from her lips when she saw the blood and the men who’d lost it. Have you ever wondered about the sound fluffy lambs make when they are slaughtered? I imagined it was something like this.

I actually flinched away from Lily. Her eyes went wide, then dilated scarily, her face taking on an expression that scared the shit out of me. All eyes jerked toward us. Matteo released the Russian, narrowed his dark eyes at me, as if I was the one doing something wrong. Lily kept up her screaming, a high-pitched wail that made the hairs on my neck rise.

“Romero!” Matteo snarled, nodding toward my sister. “Take care of Liliana.”

Romero advanced on us. Tall and imposing.

Lily had always fawned over him, but now even she couldn’t see anything but the killer in him. His hands were red. Red from blood, and Lily completely lost her shit. I could only stare. I was unable to move. Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice was telling me to talk to my sister, to try to calm her, to do something, anything, but that voice was drowned out by the terrified static filling my head.

The steel door slammed against the wall above our heads and then Luca was suddenly there. “What the f*ck is going on here?”

Nobody replied.

Romero spoke to my sister in a soothing voice. “Calm down, Lily. Everything is okay.”

Really? The scene in front of us told a very different story. Nothing about this was okay.

Of course, Lily wasn’t to be calmed. Romero gripped her arm and Luca went to help him, but she was fighting them like an animal. How could such a skinny girl fight off two men?

Romero slung his arms around her chest, trapping her arms against her sides, but that didn’t stop Lily from kicking out at him and everything around her, and she still didn’t stop screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Shut her up! Aria will hear,” Luca growled. He tried to catch her legs but she lashed out and kicked his chin. He stumbled back, more from surprise than anything else. Of course they could have subdued her easily if they hadn’t been so careful not to hurt her. I took a step in their direction, worried that they might give up the gentle approach soon, but the ground tilted under me and I had to grip the wall again.

“Lily,” I said. “Lily, stop.”

She didn’t even hear me.

The tall, muscled guy took a few steps toward them as if he was going to interfere, but Matteo pushed him back. “No. Stay out of it.”

I’d forgotten about Matteo, but while I had watched Lily, he’d managed to clean his hands. They were still pink but at least not smeared with blood. His eyes settled on me but I had to look away. I couldn’t return his gaze right now. I had a feeling I wasn’t far from pulling a stunt like Lily and going bat-shit crazy on them. The coppery scent of blood hung like fog in the air, clogged my throat and nose, seemed to sink into my skin, bury itself deep in my body with the horrible images.

Lily managed to kick off the wall, causing Romero to stumble back, lose his balance and land on his back with Lily on top of him. He grunted and lost his hold on my sister. She pushed to her feet, a look like a hunted animal on her face. Her gaze passed right through me.

“Lily, calm down,” I tried again.

She tried to storm past Matteo but he was too quick. He grabbed her wrist, and wrapped an arm around her waist. Then she was suddenly on her back and he was kneeling on her legs and had her hands pinned above her head. Luca headed toward them with a syringe in his hand. That was the final straw.

I stumbled toward them despite my wobbly legs. “Don’t hurt her!” I hissed. “Don’t you f*cking dare hurting her!”

“I’m trying very hard not to hurt her, but she’s making it difficult. Luca now!” Matteo growled from his spot on top of my sister.

I blocked Luca’s way. “What is that?” I pointed at the syringe.