Game(56)

40.


(Shayna)



I sat in a big office chair. It was comfortable leather with a high back to it. My hands held the arms tight. Two men - one on each side of me - stood there with guns on me. Fiore made it clear that if I tried anything, he’d hurt me. I asked about the baby, if he would really kill me, and he smiled. He didn’t respond, which scared me even more.

We were at the fight, waiting for it to begin.

Well, not begin, because Fiore assumed Finn to be dead. And a dead man can’t fight, right?

The door opened and Fiore walked in. He held the door and in came a short woman. She was a little round, but in a beautiful, curvy way. Everything she wore was expensive. Her black hair was curled and pieces of it looked fake. Her face was caked with makeup, obviously trying to make herself look ten years younger.

“Oh, my Marie,” Fiore said, “I have her right here for us.”

“Fiore…”

Fiore grabbed the woman, Marie, by the arm and squeezed. Marie winced and was dragged to the desk.

“Shayna, this is my wife, Marie. Say hello to her right now.”

“Hello,” I said.

Marie stared but didn’t say a word.

“I brought her for us,” Fiore whispered. “She’s almost sure she’s pregnant. By Finn. You remember Finn, right?”

“Of course,” Marie said.

“You see now? You see my work? I’m going to fix what was wrong. What was taken. What happened cruelly to our family.”

“Fiore…”

“No,” Fiore growled. “Mara has no sense. She thought she loved Finn… but how could my daughter love a dirty Irish fighter?”

Love? Finn? Mara?

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t speak,” Fiore said to me.

“It was a harmless crush,” Marie said. “It was a long time ago.”

“I saw the way he looked at her!” Fiore screamed. “I saw the look in his eyes! And her eyes! Your daughter would have become a whore! A f*cking whore!”

The windows in the room rumbled.

Then there was silence.

Fiore wiped his forehead and then put his hands out. They were shaking. He pointed at me. “Look what we’re getting, Marie. This is going to help us. So you and Mara won’t be sad anymore. We can move on. Move forward. We’ll have a new baby to take care of. The baby we should have never lost.”

Marie turned to Fiore and touched his cheek. “Okay, Fiore. Okay. Just stay calm. Why is she here right now? Why are you pointing weapons at her? She should be resting. Eating. Being cared for.”

“That’s what I’m doing next,” Fiore said. “I had to get rid of Finn, Marie.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did, my sweet Marie. There was no choice. He fell in love with Shayna. So now she’s ours. I have business to tend to. Where’s Mara? I want her to see my gift.”

“She’s not here.”

“Why?” Fiore growled.

“She’ll be here soon,” Marie said.

Her voice was soft and soothing. It seemed to calm Fiore down.

Marie looked at me but didn’t say a word. She then walked with Fiore out of the office. My stomach sank again.

Just how f*cking sick was this family?

Fiore’s wife just heard what he had done and what he planned on doing and she did nothing. She did absolutely nothing.

I lowered my head and wanted to cry.

The door opened again a few seconds later.

“She’s right here,” Fiore said.

I lifted my head, feeling desperate.

Who wanted to see me now?

The person then appeared in the doorway. He took up the entire doorway. The second he saw me, he chuckled. That chuckle had become something of a nightmare for me.

My breath was stolen, but I managed to say one word. His name.

“Zander.”



~



The door was shut. Fiore and Zander stood there, side by side. They were supposed to be hated enemies. Zander was the one who killed Fiore’s grandchild and son-in-law. They should not have been standing next to each other.

“There she is,” Zander said. “My little prize. My fiancee.”

I saw the flicker of light in Fiore’s eyes.

“Fuck yourself,” I said. “I was never your anything. I was just looking for my sister!”

Zander laughed. Maybe he knew what that meant, maybe he didn’t.

“See, this is what family can do,” Fiore said. “We can set aside some pesky annoyances for the better good.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Our families will forever be at war,” Zander said. “But you, Shayna, you are the prize that we both wish to obtain, for now.”

Zander rolled his r’s in a way that made me shiver. His eyes narrowed into two tiny slits. There was death in his eyes.

“I’m replacing what I lost,” Fiore said. “Because it’s the right thing to do. You have Italian heritage, Shayna. I see it in your eyes, your face, small little features. A blood sample can let me hopefully trace you all the way back to the old country. And that life inside you will repair my family.”

“He killed your family!” I cried out. “And you’re letting him stand there!”