48. Luxtyn

48

LUXTYN

Y ou make a sound, and I kill every single person who matters to you. Including your mother.

Angelo's threat rings through my ears as I lie here in the dark. I can tell we're on a windy gravel road, as my body bounces up and down and jolts from side to side.

He kidnapped me.

He has my mom.

And he sent Matteo to that warehouse. But for what? To get to me? None of the pieces of the puzzle are fitting together in my mind, and the realization that this entire thing has been set-up by Angelo has me sick to my stomach.

The car comes to a stop, and I hear him get out and speak to someone. Their muffled voices make it too difficult to decipher what they're saying, but I know it's another man.

The trunk door clicks, indicating it's been unlocked, and my heart picks up speed even though my body freezes.

The door swings up, displaying Angelo and another older gentleman I don't recognize. He's wearing a gray suit, and his long dark hair, peppered with strands of silver, is slicked back into a low ponytail. When I make eye contact with him, he displays a grim smile, showcasing a fake gold tooth. My stomach hollows out at the sight.

"Fausto, why don't you help her inside," Angelo orders.

"Wait," I cry out, and scramble deeper into the trunk, wanting to get as far away from these men as possible.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You said you were going to cooperate, Lux."

"Don't call me that," I grumble.

"You're my daughter. I should be allowed to call you by your nickname, don't you think?"

"I'm not your daughter."

Angelo lets out an unenthused sigh. "I had a feeling you'd act this way. Fausto," he snaps, and keeps his eyes coolly on mine. "Get her inside now. With force if you must. It seems she hasn't learned her manners quite yet."

Turning on his heel, Angelo stalks off. I let out a scream when Fausto wraps his calloused hands around my wrists and tightens his grip as I try to pull away from him.

"Get your hands off me," I screech while sliding my legs in front of me to kick him in the stomach before he's able to pull me out. His grip loosens and he heels over, coughing from the sharp contact.

Yanking myself free from his grasp, I try to jump out of the trunk, but he takes up the majority of space and I trip over him, falling to the ground. The jagged rocks send a sharp pain through my palms, but I ignore it as I push myself up to a stand.

I'm about to take off running but quickly plummet to the ground once more, except this time with the weight of a grown man on top of me. The side of my face slams onto the rocks, and I let out a cry as I endure the weight of Fausto on top of me .

"Lux, sweetie!" I hear a frantic cry from somewhere behind me. "Get off her!"

Sliding my face across the gravel, I lift my head as best as I can to see my mom standing on a cabin porch not too far away. Angelo's standing behind her with a gun to her side. She's wearing a dark blouse and a pair of jeans, similar to what she was wearing in the picture I received of her yesterday. Her hair hangs down in their usual loose waves that end just below her shoulders. My stomach sinks as I take in the dark shadow around her right eye and the split in her upper lip.

"Mom," I cry out. Fausto lifts himself off me but drops his knee into my spine, putting enough pressure on it to know it's a threat and to stop moving.

"If you don't get inside the cabin right this second, Lux, I will make you watch me kill your mother in one clean shot," Angelo threatens as he holds my mom against his chest. A whimper falls from her lips when he shoves the gun deeper into her rib cage.

"Fine," I grind out.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" he calls out to me.

Huffing out a breath, I repeat louder this time. "Fine, I said."

"Good. Fausto, get her up and inside the damn cabin now." Angelo pushes my mom back inside, and I swear, even from this far away, I see tears form in her eyes. I do my best to keep it together as Fausto lifts me and clamps my hands behind my back.

"I'll make you pay for that kick to the stomach, cara mia ," Fausto threatens in my ear. I don't know what he called me, but the way the Italian words slipped off his tongue doesn't resonate well with me. It sends a disturbed shiver up my spine.

He pushes me to start walking, and I do so, making my way up the small steps, then entering the cabin. I quickly scan the room, locating my mom on the couch while Angelo stands off to the side a few feet away. Now that I can see her clearly in the light, I take in the dark circles under her eyes that have aged her since we last saw one another.

Her eyes widen as she takes me in, but before she can say anything, I throw myself down onto the couch and wrap her in a hug, squeezing her hard as if she's going to disappear again and this is the only way I can keep her here with me.

"I-I'm so s-sorry, sweetie," she chokes out between sobs.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Mom. This isn't your fault."

She rubs my back before pulling away to look at me. Wiping the tears that I hadn't realized shed from my eyes, she narrows in on the side of my face. "Look at what he did to you," she says softly.

I lift my hand to my face and wince at the burning sensation. I suck in a breath, realizing the gravel must've pierced my skin when Fausto had my head buried in it.

"Fausto wouldn't have had to get physical had Lux cooperated," Angelo says as he takes a seat in the loveseat across from us.

I observe my surroundings to see if there's anything I can use to our advantage to get out of here.

The front door of the cabin opens up to the living room on the left and the kitchen on the right with a small circular dining room table placed directly in front of a large window that overlooks the front porch. The living room is small with only two loveseats positioned on both sides of a brown coffee table and the armchair at the head, facing the wood burning fireplace surrounded by stone. The cabin seems fully furnished, as if someone was living here.

Glancing straight ahead, my attention is pulled to picture frames hanging on the wall. There are a few of me growing up and a couple with my mom and me. The one in the center is what throws me off the most. It's a recent picture of my mom and me on a beach down in Florida, but we're not the only ones in the picture. Angelo's in the picture. It looks so real you'd have no idea it was photoshopped unless you were there.

What the hell is this place supposed to be?

Bringing my attention back to my mom, I ask, "Has he had you here this entire time?"

My mom nods.

"You said you weren't going to hurt her." She addresses Angelo who's sitting comfortably in the loveseat with one leg crossed over the other and an arm draped across the back cushion.

"It's fine, Mom."

"I need the first aid kit. Her face needs to be cleaned up. I can see specks of dirt in the cuts. It'll surely cause an infection if I don't get them out."

With a flick of his hand, Angelo directs Fausto with a silent command. He takes off down the short hallway, and it's not long before I hear him open a cabinet and ruffle through some things. We sit in silence for a few moments before Fausto returns with a first aid kit and hands it to my mom.

She opens it and sifts through the contents as I peer over, looking to see if there's anything in there of use.

"There's nothing in there that you can use against us, Lux."

Snapping my gaze to Angelo's, I give him a cold, dead look, to which he chuckles.

"I learned that lesson when your mother stabbed me with the small scissors that were in there." He lifts the sleeve of his suit jacket and points to a small mark on his forearm that looks like it's mostly healed now. "Seems like you two have that in common, huh?" His smirk delves deep into my skin and makes me want to wrap the gauze from the first aid kit around his throat and listen as he takes his last breaths.

"Why are you doing this? What was the point of kidnapping my mom and I? What is this place?"

My mom attempts to bring the alcohol wipe up to my face, but I shake her off. She sighs but retracts her hand.

"I did this for you, Lux. You and your mother, of course."

I scoff. "What the hell are you talking about, Angelo?"

"Don't you think it's about time you start calling me dad?"

I tilt my head and small lines form on my forehead as my brows shoot up while I come to the realization that this man is delusional. "You're a fucking psychopath," I spit out. His spine straightens and he squares his shoulders.

He brings himself to the edge of his seat as if he's ready to pounce. There's a cold, cunning glint in his eyes. The sinister look is a complete one-eighty from where he was. "Watch your damn language when you're speaking to me."

"Why did you do this?" I grind out, needing to have answers. "And Matteo. Why did you send him to that warehouse?"

"Matteo needs to be eliminated," Angelo says. His words are like a punch to the gut, taking away my breath. "Just as much as Giuseppe Silvestri."

"What did you do, Angelo?" My voice is barely a whisper.

"I'm tired of Giuseppe using my port. He thinks he has all of the power and control, but he needs to understand that the only reason he's been able to do all of his trafficking is because of my port. My port has given him the power and money he has now." He shakes his head. "But not for long."

Shifting his wrist, he glances down at his watch. "Right about now, Giuseppe shouldn't be a problem anymore. And neither should that husband of yours. Then guess who'll have full access to both ports in the city," he says, subtly glancing down to my ring finger. I subconsciously take the sleeve of my sweatshirt and cover my hand.

"Me. I'll be the one with all of the power here. The biggest player in the city."

I rack my brain as I begin to put the pieces of this fucked-up puzzle together. "So the whole point of sending Matteo to that warehouse was to have him and Giuseppe kill each other."

"Precisely. I knew Giuseppe was going to be at that warehouse because he had a weapons deal with the Russians tonight, so sending Matteo in there immediately on the offense, shooting up the place in an attempt to rescue your mother, would cause an all-out war between the two, resulting in them killing each other."

Matteo can't be dead. He's stronger than that. He's smarter than that. I refuse to believe it. He's not dead. He can't be.

"Why not just kill them yourself if you're so adamant about it? Why go through all of this hassle?"

Angelo simply sits back in his chair and crosses his leg over the other. And that's when realization dawns on me. This fucking bastard.

"Wow. Hiding away in this cabin while Giuseppe and Matteo take each other out so you can reap the benefits of both of their deaths? You're a damn coward."

Angelo's face hardens. "I'm not a coward, Luxtyn. I'm thinking smarter. Not harder. Why would I get my hands dirty if I can just let them take each other out?"

"Your hands are as dirty as they come."

"Lux, sweetie—" My mom's gentle voice comes from beside me as she places her hand on my arm.

I turn my attention to her. "No, Mom. He needs to hear what a sorry excuse of a man he is." I focus back on the slimy bastard sitting across from me. "I'll kill you if anything happens to Matteo." He waves me off as if he doesn't believe I'll do it, but that's where he's wrong. I'll end him for this. "Why did you need to create this elaborate plan? Why did you need to kidnap us both?" I have a feeling I know the answer to this question. The furnished house and the photoshopped picture are my answer, but I need this psychopath to tell me the truth.

His face softens. "I wanted to have a relationship with you, Lux. I wanted to have a relationship with you and your mother."

My mom gives my arm a light squeeze, reminding me she's right there with me.

"You claim you want a relationship with us, yet you put your hands on my mom and allow Fausto to put his on me. What the hell kind of relationship do you expect?" I spit out.

"Your mother was being disobedient. She took you away from me. She hid you from me. All because she thought the life I live is too dangerous. Don't you think that's unreasonable? A father should never be separated from his child, so she deserves the punishment she's received."

"That's enough, Angelo," my mom utters.

"You don't speak to me like that," he roars. He moves faster than my brain can process and stalks over to my mom, backhanding her across the face and splitting the cut on her lip open again.

I scream and throw myself on him, running off survival mode. After finding the slickness of his eyes with my thumbs, I press them in, and a roar tears out of him before I'm being ripped off and thrown to the floor like a rag doll.

My back slams into something sharp, and it takes me a moment to realize it's the edge of the stone fireplace hearth. I try to push myself up, but before I'm able to, there's a grip in my hair, angling my face up. My gaze is strained, but I see Angelo standing a few feet away, rubbing his eyes.

"Luxtyn," he warns. "That was not a very smart thing to do." He blinks a few times. I didn't do much damage because I barely got to push my fingers in before I was torn off him.

Fausto pulls me up to my feet by my hair, and I wince, not knowing at this point where most of the pain on my body is emanating from. Angelo does the same to my mom, pulling her up by the strands of her hair.

"Let go of her," I grit out.

He pulls his gun from behind his back and holds it up to her temple. "Tell her the truth, Char. Tell her how you took her away from me. How you never told me about her. How you took away my chance to be her father before I even knew about her."

I flail my arms and start kicking at anything I can get my feet on. It's not until I feel a gun jammed into my ribs that I stop moving. "Keep it up, cara mia , and you won't like what happens next," Fausto whispers into my ear.

"Tell her, Char. Go on," Angelo barks out.

My mom's shimmering eyes roam over to mine. "I'm so sorry, sweetie."

I shake my head. "No, I'm sorry." The vision of my mom becomes blurry as tears fill my eyes.

"Angelo's r-right." She takes a deep breath. "I found out I was pregnant with you after he got engaged to another woman. I didn't tell him because I knew what it would mean. Either he'd take you from me or he'd kill us both. So I ran. I ran and never looked back. I'm so sorry," she cries out.

"This isn't your fault, Mom. You were only doing what you had to do to protect us both."

"She wasn't protecting you, Luxtyn, she was being a thief!" Angelo yells as he presses the barrel of the gun harder into her temple. She winces and attempts to pull away, but his hold on her is too firm. "And now she's going to pay for taking away over two decades of your life from me. I was hoping time would get her on my side, but she's proving to be more difficult than she's worth. But don't worry, Lux, you and I are going to be a happy family together. You'll see."

Holding my breath, I watch as Angelo goes to pull the trigger. The loud sound of a gunshot goes off before my mom and Angelo fall to the floor in a heap. Nothing but her cries echo in my ears.

It's as if I've been caught in my own terrible version of the matrix, as everything slows to a near stop. I have no idea what's going on when Fausto pulls me in front of him and moves the barrel of the gun from my ribs up to the side of my head as he frantically tries to reposition himself behind me. And that's when another gunshot goes off, then we're both falling.

I'm lying facedown on the hardwood floor with the weight of Fausto on me when I see blood drip down my shoulder.

I've been shot.

I can't feel anything. My body is frozen. Muffled voices slowly come through before I hear another loud noise. I want to move. I want to get up. But I can't. I just lie here as the blood continues to drip down, pooling on the floor beneath us.