7. Eli

ELI

The cold metal of the chair bites into my skin, the ropes binding my wrists chafing with every desperate twist and pull. I don"t know how long I"ve been here, trapped in this dank, musty darkness with only the skittering of rats and the drip-drip-drip of a leaky pipe for company.

Hours? Days? Time loses all meaning in the pitch black, my world narrowed down to the frantic pounding of my heart and the throbbing ache in my skull.

I try to stay calm, to cling to hope even as fear claws at my throat like a living thing. But it"s hard, so hard, when every breath tastes of mold and hopelessness, when every shift of my aching body reminds me of the horror of my situation.

Kidnapped. Beaten. Trussed up like a pig for slaughter, bait in a trap meant to ensnare the man I love more than my own life. It"s like something out of a nightmare, a twisted mockery of the fairytale I thought Nico and I were building together.

Nico. Just the thought of him sends a pang of longing through my chest, so fierce it steals my breath. I can still feel the heat of his skin against mine, the rasp of his stubble against my throat as he claimed me with lips and teeth and tongue. Can still hear the reverent rasp of his voice in my ear, whispering promises of forever in the heated darkness.

"I love you,"he breathed against my lips, his voice raw and aching with sincerity. "God, Eli, you have no idea how much I fucking love you. You"re my everything, baby. My heart, my home, my reason for breathing."

I cling to those words now, a talisman against the darkness threatening to swallow me whole. Nico loves me. He loves me, with a depth and ferocity that takes my breath away. Whatever his reasons for pushing me away, for shattering my heart with cold words and colder eyes...it wasn"t because he stopped caring.

It was to protect me, to keep me safe from the brutal world he was born into. The world that"s now dug its claws into me, determined to use me as a pawn in their bloody games.

The sound of footsteps echoing in the darkness jolts me out of my thoughts, my heart leaping into my throat. A key grates in a rusted lock, hinges screaming in protest as a heavy door swings open. Light floods the room, blinding after so long in the dark, and I flinch away, squinting against the sudden glare.

"Well, well. Looks like Sleeping Beauty"s finally awake."

The voice is cold, mocking, with a thick Italian accent. I force my eyes open, blinking rapidly to clear the spots from my vision. A man stands before me, tall and broad-shouldered, his expensive suit straining over his muscular frame. His hair is slicked back from a cruel, handsome face, his dark eyes glittering with malice.

I recognize him instantly from the whispered warnings traded like currency in Nico"s world. Stefano Bianchi, the vicious young upstart determined to carve out a bloody empire of his own. The man who ordered his thugs to trash my shop, who set this whole nightmare in motion.

"Fuck you," I rasp out, my voice raw and scratchy from dehydration. "What the hell do you want from me, you psycho?"

Stefano grins, the expression sending a chill down my spine. "Aw, come on now, bello. Is that any way to talk to your host?"

He prowls closer, the heady scent of his cologne making my nose itch. "As for what I want...well. I thought that would be obvious." He reaches out, trailing a finger down my cheek in a perverse mockery of a caress. I jerk away, my skin crawling at his touch.

"I want Nico Caruso to suffer," Stefano purrs, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "I want him to know the agony of having his heart ripped still-beating from his chest. And you, my pretty little pawn...you"re going to help me do it."

Nausea rolls in my gut, a cold sweat breaking out on my brow. "Go to hell," I spit, putting every ounce of disgust and defiance I can muster into the words. "Nico will never give you what you want. He"s too smart to fall for your sick little games."

Stefano laughs, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. "Oh, I think he will," he croons, trailing the cold edge of a knife down the side of my neck. I freeze, hardly daring to breathe as the wickedly sharp blade kisses my skin.

"See, I"ve been watching you two lovebirds for weeks now. Seen the way he looks at you, like you hung the fucking moon. The great Nico Caruso, brought to his knees by a pair of pretty blue eyes and a perky ass."

Stefano"s grin widens, his eyes glinting with cruel amusement. "He"ll come for you, bello. And when he does...I"m going to flay the skin from his bones, inch by agonizing inch. I"m going to make him scream for mercy, beg for death...and you"re going to watch every second of it."

Horror clogs my throat, tears stinging my eyes as I imagine the brutal scene he"s describing. Nico, broken and bleeding, his beautiful face twisted in agony as this sadistic monster tears him apart. The thought is unbearable, a nightmare made flesh.

"You"re insane," I whisper, my voice cracking on a sob. "Nico will kill you for this, you sick fuck. He"ll rip you apart with his bare hands for daring to touch me."

Stefano"s smile is a blade, sharp and cruel. "We"ll see about that," he purrs, the flat of his blade pressing harder against my windpipe. "Personally, I can"t wait to watch the light die in his eyes when I slit your pretty throat. Maybe I"ll even fuck his corpse in the puddle of your blood, hmm? A final fuck you to the great Nico Caruso."

Bile surges up my throat, revulsion and terror twisting my stomach into knots. This can"t be happening. This can"t be real, this waking nightmare of blood and violence and sickening depravity.

Nico, my fierce, beautiful warrior...he can"t fall to this madman"s blade. He can"t. The world would be a colder, darker place without the fire of his smile, the tenderness of his touch. A place I don"t want to imagine, can"t imagine living in.

But before I can spit my defiance, before I can tell Stefano to go fuck himself with his own knife...the distant pop-pop-pop of gunfire shatters the tense silence. Shouts ring out, the thud of running feet, the unmistakable sounds of chaos and violence.

Stefano stiffens, his head whipping towards the door. "What the-"

He never gets to finish the thought. Because in the next heartbeat, the door explodes inward in a hail of splinters and shrapnel, a dark figure wreathed in smoke and fury filling the frame.

"Nico," I breathe, my heart stuttering in my chest. He"s here. He came for me, just like I knew he would. My beautiful, brave protector, my avenging angel in a tailored suit and blood-spattered skin.

Nico"s eyes find mine across the room, wild and desperate and blazing with a love so fierce it steals my breath. "Eli," he rasps, his voice cracking on my name. "Baby, are you-"

But before he can finish the question, Stefano is moving, a wordless snarl of rage tearing from his throat. He lunges for me, the knife flashing silver in the dim light, aiming for the vulnerable hollow of my throat.

I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing for the bite of the blade, the hot rush of my own blood. But the pain never comes. Instead, there"s a meaty thud, a strangled grunt...and the warm splatter of liquid across my face.

I wrench my eyes open, my heart in my throat...and the world tilts on its axis, a scream lodging in my chest.

Nico stands before me, his beautiful face pale and shocked. Stefano"s knife protrudes from his chest, buried to the hilt in the meat of his shoulder. Blood blooms across the white of his shirt, vivid and obscene, a crimson flower unfurling in terrible slow motion.

"No," I choke out, straining against my bonds. "No, no, nonono Nico, oh God-"

Nico sways on his feet, his eyes glazing over with pain and shock. But even as his knees buckle, even as he crumples to the dirty floor in a boneless heap...he"s raising his gun, the barrel trained on Stefano"s snarling face.

The shot cracks out like thunder, deafeningly loud in the close confines of the room. Stefano"s head snaps back, a spray of red mist and thicker things painting the wall behind him. He crumples like a puppet with its strings cut, his eyes wide and staring in death.

I barely spare him a glance, too focused on Nico. My Nico, my heart, my everything, bleeding out on the filthy concrete floor. I thrash and strain against the ropes binding me, heedless of the way they cut into my skin, the warm trickle of my own blood down my wrists.

"Nico," I sob, my vision blurring with desperate tears. "Nico, baby, hold on. Just hold on for me, okay? I"ve got you, I"ve got you, just stay with me."

Impossibly, blessedly, the ropes give way with a snap, the fibers fraying beneath my frantic struggles. I lunge forward, hitting my knees beside Nico"s crumpled form. My hands hover uselessly over the ruin of his chest, the horrible wound pulsing with each labored beat of his heart.

"Eli," he rasps, his voice wet and choked with blood. One trembling hand comes up to cup my cheek, painting my skin with the slick heat of his life"s blood. "Eli, I"m...I"m so sorry. For everything, for pushing you away, for being so fucking scared-"

"Shh," I choke out, pressing my forehead to his. Tears drip from my eyes to slide down his pale, clammy cheeks. "Don"t try to talk, baby. Save your strength. We"ll get you out of here, get you to a hospital-"

"No time," he grits out, his breath rattling in his chest. "Need...need you to know. Before I...before..."

"Don"t," I sob, my heart shattering in my chest. "Don"t you dare say goodbye, Nico Caruso. Don"t you fucking dare."

A ghost of a smile flits across his bloodless lips, his fingers spasming weakly against my cheek. "Not...not goodbye," he whispers. "Never goodbye, Eli. I love you, always love you, even...even if I don"t...don"t make it."

A broken sound tears from my throat, a wail of pure agony. "You will," I rasp, pressing desperate kisses to his face, his lips, his fluttering eyelids. "You"ll make it, Nico, because I won"t fucking let you die on me. Not now, not ever. We have a whole life to live together, baby. A future to build, a love to celebrate. You promised me forever, and I"m holding you to it."

Nico"s eyes flutter open, hazy and unfocused but so full of love it takes my breath away. "Forever," he echoes, his voice a thready whisper. "Sounds...sounds perfect, sunshine. Forever...with you..."

His voice trails off, his eyes slipping shut as his hand goes limp against my cheek. Panic surges through me, a tidal wave of icy terror.

"Nico?" I gasp, patting desperately at his pale, still face. "Nico, baby, open your eyes. Open your eyes for me, please, please don"t leave me-"

But he"s still and silent, his chest barely rising with each shallow, shuddering breath. The blood is everywhere, coating my hands and soaking into my jeans, the metallic reek of it clogging my nose and mouth.

Distantly, I hear shouting, the thunder of feet on stairs. Nico"s men, swarming the building like avenging angels. But it"s all background noise, a distant buzz drowned out by the roaring in my ears, the shattering of my heart.

All I can see is Nico, my beautiful, brave warrior, lying broken and bleeding in my arms. All I can feel is the icy grip of fear, the soul-deep knowledge that if I lose him...I lose everything.

"Stay with me," I plead, gathering him close and rocking him like a child. "Stay with me, Nico, please. I love you, I love you, I can"t do this without you. Please, baby...please don"t go where I can"t follow."

The words pour out of me like a prayer, a desperate plea to a God I"ve never believed in. I"ll do anything, be anything, if it means Nico will open his eyes. If it means I won"t have to face a bleak, colorless world without his light to guide me.

I press my tear-streaked face to his chest, listening to the thready flutter of his heartbeat. Each precious thump against my cheek is a tiny miracle, a fragile thread of hope in the darkness.

"Come back to me," I whisper, my lips brushing the bloody ruin of his shirt. "Come back to me, Nico. I"m here, I"m right here...and I"ll never let you go again. Never, never, never..."

I cling to him like a lifeline, like he"s the only thing keeping me tethered to sanity. The world fades away, narrowing down to the two of us, the precious beat of his heart against mine.

And as the shouts grow louder, as the thunder of running feet draws closer...I pray to every god and devil I know that it won"t be too late. That Nico will keep breathing, keep fighting, keep holding on to me and the love we"ve fought so hard for.

Because a life without him...is no life at all. And I"ll move heaven and hell, I"ll fight through blood and bullets and the very fires of damnation...to bring him back to me.

To bring him home, where he belongs. Forever, and always.