Claimed by the Enforcer: A Venturi Mafia Spin-off novel, page 11
Chapter 16
Mira
Luca took me by the arm, gentler than whoever had first dragged me from the back of the car, down the stairs, and into that cage. He led me out of the back room to my cell. Giulietta was yelling at one of the other men, demanding that he release her, but he acted as if she wasn’t even there.
I didn’t struggle against Luca’s grasp as he gently pushed me back into the cell even though I knew I should have. My mind was reeling with too many things to act out the way I would have if I was truly in danger.
I hated telling Luca that I was pregnant, especially just blurting it out like that before I had even had a chance to process the information myself. I hadn’t even told Stefano. But what I hated the most was the change in Luca. He’d been so determined to find a way to be together. But after hearing that I was pregnant...I guess I couldn’t blame him. What man could love a woman who was carrying another man’s child?
I’d known telling him would hurt. It was one of the first things to cross my mind when I found out, after the initial shock settled. But I had no idea that he would react that way. He seemed completely done with me. And while that was my goal in telling him then, I hadn’t anticipated how bad it would hurt me.
Tears blurred my vision as Luca locked the cell door and walked away without a second glance. He went to one of his men and whispered something to him. I sat, leaning against the bars on one side of the cell as a stray tear escaped the corner of my eye. I swiped it away, hoping no one would see but Alessia stretched her arm through the bars to take my hand that rested on the ground near her and gave it a light squeeze.
“Hey, are you okay?” she whispered.
I nodded, but the caring sound of her tone brought more tears flooding down my face.
“What the hell did he do to you?” Her voice hardened but she kept it low.
I shook my head but couldn’t speak. If I tried to force words from my mouth, I was going to break. Luca was done with me. It was all over, and that realization was unbearable.
I fought back tears and the lump in my throat as my heart shattered into a million little, unrepairable pieces and squeezed the hand of one of the girls I’d seen as an enemy, holding on to the only bit of comfort I had left.
Giulietta shifted her yelling from the man I didn’t know to Luca, sounding increasingly like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum as she went. “You, you’re the one in charge of these men. Let us go, now. I demand that you release us this instant or when my father finds out—”
Luca moved quickly toward Giulietta’s cell, his arm shooting out like a striking snake, as he grabbed a fist full of hair before she could react. He pulled it firmly until her cheek was forced against the bars.
“Listen here, you spoiled little bitch, we are not letting you go. Your father will never find you because before he even realizes that you aren’t on your little vacation, I’m going to move you to another site where you will be properly trained.”
“Trained?” Her voice quivered and I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her, even after everything she’d done.
“This is the beginning of your new life. First, we will break you, then train you, then sell you. But for now, it’s been a long night, and you have an even longer day tomorrow, so I suggest that you shut your mouth, and do as you're told, or you will find this experience to become much more unpleasant.”
“More unpleasant? How could it get more unpleasant than it is now?” She snapped, her anger finding its way through her fear.
“You don’t want to find out. Now, shut up and go to sleep.” He redirected his words from her to address the whole room. “All of you. No more talking, sleep.”
That night I slept in a cage. After all the crazy things that had happened to my family, all the lessons on how to handle diplomacy with other families, I even had hostage training in case something like that happened to me, none of that prepared me for being kidnapped and held by the man that I love—that I love? Shit. I closed my eyes, flinching as the realization struck. I love Luca.
I lay on the cold floor of my cell, no blanket, no pillow, nothing that would offer even the slightest hint of comfort, but it wasn’t the lack of amenities keeping me awake, it was the realization that I loved Luca. I loved him, but I could never be with him. Whatever short-lived thing that we’d had was gone. I watched his feelings drain away the moment I told him that I was pregnant. Stefano was my future. I did care for him, even if it wasn’t the same way that I cared for Luca.
With Luca, it was an all-consuming, wildfire of passion and desire. A love that would burn wild and unruly. But it was a dangerous love. With Stefano, I would be safe, loved, cared for...and so would our baby.
I curled up on my side, absentmindedly resting my hand over my still-flat belly, remembering that no matter how alone I felt in that moment, I wasn’t. I had my little baby with me. By my calculations, I was just over five weeks along. With graduation and moving back home, I’d completely lost track of time. It wasn’t until I was on the plane, on the way to Milan for the trip with Giulietta and the girls, that I realized I’d missed my period.
That never happened, so once we landed, I picked up a pregnancy test at the airport while the other girls waited for their bags and hurried to the bathroom. After seeing the positive test, a million things ran through my mind. I was terrified, excited, then terrified again. I thought about how having a baby would change my life, if I’d make a good mom, how I was going to tell my family...That night at the hotel, while I should have been sleeping, I wound up diving down the rabbit hole that was internet searches, reading up on everything that I could think to look up about early pregnancy. I read all the things I should do and not do. I also read about the baby’s development and was amazed to find out that at five weeks, he or she was already forming a heart, and was about the size of an apple seed.
My little apple-seed. I smiled to myself.
I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before and so even on the hard floor of my cage, I fell asleep.
Sleep didn’t last long. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been asleep, but I knew it couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours when Luca clapped his hands together loudly and bellowed from the doorway.
“Wake up. I hope you all slept well because today, your training begins.” He spoke in a French accent that was very impressive.
I sat up, stretched my aching muscles, and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“If you hoped for us to sleep well, you could try for some better accommodations. You know, like beds, pillows, blankets...” Francesca started but cut off her words when Luca threw her a challenging glare.
“Do you want comforts like pillows or blankets? How about an actual, real mattress to sleep on?”
“That would be nice,” Francesca said hesitantly.
“You can have all those things,” Luca said casually but I knew that tone. It was his too casual tone that meant he wasn’t saying what he really meant.
“We can?” Alessia sounded hopeful.
“Absolutely.”
“Thank you—”
“You just have to earn it.”
“Earn it?” She sounded less hopeful and more confused.
“Yes.”
“How?” Francesca asked.
“By doing well in your training and doing what you’re told. If you behave, you can earn comforts.”
“What do we have to do?” Francesca asked skeptically.
"Today is your first day of training. Whoever does well will be rewarded. Whoever doesn't, won't. And whoever is defiant will be punished. If you do everything you're told and do it well, by the end of the day, you could have a bucket in your cell, the next day...a mattress...the next, a blanket, and so on."
"What the hell do we need a bucket—" Francesca started but her eyes suddenly widened with realization.
"Each of you will be assigned a trainer who will work with you and report back to me."
This all felt too real and with the mask and fake accent, I could almost forget that it was Luca talking about all those horrible things.
My heart raced as the men separated from the group, retrieving their assigned girl to go into the private rooms for training.
Finally, it was my turn, but I was a bit surprised when Luca himself unlocked my cell and dragged me out.
"You're with me. Let's go."
He led me roughly into the same room from the night before and slammed the door behind us. The sound of the deadbolt locking sent fear racing unfounded through my body. It was Luca, but how far was he going to take the whole training thing?
He answered my question quickly when he whirled around on me, making me jump. But his voice came out soft and low. "Are you okay?"
I looked at him puzzled. "Am I—"
"I hated having to leave you in that cell all night, but I didn't know what else to do without blowing the whole thing. That's why I changed up the plan for training today to one on one, so you don't have to go through what the other girls are."
"What exactly are they going through?"
"Just some mild training to start. My men know the mission here and won't touch them. They are just going to knock them down a peg or two and scare them a bit."
"How?" I crossed my arms and glared at Luca.
"Making them strip, kneel, crawl—"
"Luca," I scolded.
"I researched this and picked the only things that wouldn't actually hurt them. Most training includes beatings, and worse."
"And what happens when one of the girls acts up?"
"Then she'll be punished."
"How? Are you going to hit her? Worse?"
Luca’s head jolted back in shock as if I’d struck him and his face scrunched in disgust. "Of course not. You act like you don't know me at all."
"I'm not sure I do. I never thought you'd be capable of this."
"I'm not trafficking girls,” he hissed. “This is a lesson they needed to learn after what they did to you."
"Luca, you can't..."
Luca lunged, pinning me against the wall, his face a mere inch from mine as he seethed with anger. "They fucking drugged you and left you with a group of guys who were actually going to take advantage of you.” He glanced bitterly at the door and pointed at it violently as if he could see the girls somewhere beyond it. “They knew what was going to happen and they didn't care."
"And what about me? Are you going to do the same to me, because if you don’t then they are going to suspect something."
"You're going to have to fake it."
"And you think you're going to spend all day training me?"
"Of course not." He pulled off his mask, looking hurt by the implications. "Mira, you know me." His voice softened. "We have six hours before we reconvene in the main room. I had my guys grab you some food if you're hungry and there's a cot over there if you want to rest. I know you couldn't have gotten much sleep on that floor all night."
"No kidding. My shoulder is killing me."
"Come. Sit and eat something while I rub your shoulders."
I raised my eyebrow skeptically at him.
"I'm serious. Part of your training can be learning massage techniques. We don't have to mention that it was by having me massage you. Now, come sit."
Chapter 17
Mira
On our fifth day as captives, Luca came to get me from my cell before the others had been retrieved. The keys rattled as he unlatched the padlock and opened the cell door. Before I had a chance to decide whether I should leave the cell willingly or put up a fight, he reached in and grabbed me by my hair. My hands defensively lifted to grip his hands, but he didn’t actually pull. He was putting on a show. He led me out of the cell as I pretended to struggle. I felt bad for the other girls, and I hated lying to them but even if my guilt was too much, I couldn’t risk letting them find out that it was my family that had taken us. It would have a rippling effect that would be catastrophic for our diplomacy between the other families.
Luca hurried me into the private room, shut and locked the door, before turning around to reveal a delicious assortment of pastries and juice.
He smiled and motioned for me to have a seat, but I hesitated as a pang of guilt struck me. Luca must have seen it in my expression because his smile dropped, and he took a step closer.
“What’s wrong?”
“This isn’t right.”
“What? The breakfast? I can get you something else if you don’t think you can eat this.”
“Not the breakfast. It looks great.”
“Then what is it?” Luca guided me to the table, and that time, I followed.
He scooted in my chair and rounded to sit across from me as I began to speak. “I can’t help but feel a little guilty that while the other girls are being terrified and humiliated, I sit here day after day eating, getting shoulder massages, and taking naps on that cot which is surprisingly comfortable.”
“Two of the three of them have earned a blanket and pillow.”
“Still, they think they are being trained to be trafficked off to God knows where once this nightmare is over. I can’t even imagine how horrified they must be.”
“Maybe as horrified as you were at that club before I could get to you? Definitely less scared than you would have been if I hadn’t gotten there in time.” His words were bitter with restrained anger.
“Luca...”
“Don’t you get it, Mira? I’m doing this for you. I’m trying to teach these girls a lesson because they don’t get it. They think they got away with what they did to you and it’s not right. What they did was fucked up.”
“I know. They shouldn’t have drugged my drink. They were really in the wrong for that. I get it. But they didn’t control what those men were going to do.”
“You really think they didn’t know? That the whole thing wasn’t part of their plan?”
“I don’t know exactly what they were planning, but neither do you.”
Luca stood up angrily, letting the chair screech across the concrete floor as he stormed over to his jacket and pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked curiously as he violently punched buttons on the screen before shoving the phone in my face.
“Here. Take it. Watch.”
I looked at a paused video, but it was too dark to make out anything. “What is this?”
“Footage from your night at the club. I’d hoped you would never need to see this but clearly you’re delusional about that night and need a real reality check.”
He hit play before I could, and I watched the night unfold before my eyes. At first, it was all the normal stuff I remembered. We drank, danced, and laughed, then I watched as Giulietta nodded to Francesca, who poured something into my drink, handing it to Alessia before she handed it to me. They’d all had a hand in drugging me.
My chest grew heavy as I watched myself on the screen. My posture slouched and my movements grew sloppy. I watched the video as I stumbled, as the three girls helped me up and led me over to a rowdy bunch of guys who were all clearly drunk.
I saw myself being handed off to them, trying to push away, but failing. My breath grew ragged, and I wanted to scream at the girl on the phone, to tell her to fight harder, to do something, say something.
I watched the screen in horror as it switched to footage in another location that was unfamiliar to me—even though I could clearly see myself stumbling into the room with the men.
By the time the one man pushed me on the bed and the other started to tug on my clothes, I couldn’t breathe. My eyes blurred with tears I hadn’t even realized were streaming down my face. I pushed the phone into Luca’s hands, desperate for it to stop.
“Turn it off. Turn it off. I don’t want to see any more.”
“No,” he said angrily through clenched teeth. “You need to see the rest.”
He held the phone in front of me and I closed my eyes, turning my head so as to not see as the nightmare unfolded in front of me. Luca firmly gripped my hair, not enough to hurt but enough to force me to face the phone.
I sobbed as one of the men unbuckled his belt. Then, suddenly, the door to the room flew open and I jumped in my chair at the sudden intrusion.
Luca stormed into the room on the screen and shoved one guy into another as they tried to stop him. He punched one and slammed the other’s head into a wall before charging to the bed, scooping my limp body into his arms, and carrying me from the room.
