Ruined

Chapter 32

Aria…

Dante ran up the stairs, his face panic stricken. Emilio hurriedly gagged my mouth with a dirty old rag, then he grabbed his gun from the table and ran up the stairs. This was my chance at escaping. I struggled with the razor. It must have been really blunt, because I tried my best the grind the rope against the blade of the razor and the damned thing just wouldn’t cut. The house was relatively quiet. I assumed the men upstairs were getting themselves into position ready to attack whomever had arrived. I hoped it was the cops, God, I hoped it was the cops.

I looked around the basement for something sharp to stand against that would be able to slice the rope, but there wasn’t anything that would help. Again, I tried slicing the rope with the blades of the razor. If I could just see what I was doing it would make things easier. A stray lock of hair fell over the side of my face and irritated my eyes. I shook my head wildly to get it out of my sight as I tried prying over my shoulder to look at my hands. The company that Dante and his companions received must have entered the house, because gunshots and shouting rang in the air. Suddenly, the glass window behind me shattered, I shuddered at the sound and winced as a shard pierced my arm. I groaned out loud as I felt the muscles in my right shoulder pull stiff as I hurriedly tried to free myself. Then I heard a thump behind me with a slight whine.

“Need some help with that?” Someone asked me. I recognised the voice that was coming from behind me. But it couldn’t possibly be. Yet, my heart was certain it was him. I felt his presence beside me, felt warm fingers remove the razor from my grasp, felt a cold object against my tired fingers. Then the rope fell away from my wrists. Then he came in front of me and removed the gag from my mouth. I sobbed as I looked at Joaquin as he sat in front of me. He was alive. Alive. He had an odd cowboy hat dangling from its string around his neck. His beautiful long locks of hair were cropped short and stylish. It suited him. Hell, anything suited him. I smiled through my tears and held my hands up to his face.

“Joaquin…”. “You probably have questions, Ari, but now is not the time. I need to get you out of here” He said and then brought his knife to my ankles and sliced through the thick rope. “What a mess Dante has got you into, Ari” he muttered with a sigh. “I’m going to kill him”. “We’ll see about that”. I looked up and saw Dante standing with a gun facing us. Just then, whatever hope I had, died out. Dante had been beaten in the face. Blood ran from his nose, past his lip and dripped off his chin. His shirt was torn at the shoulder and his pants ripped at the knee. Joaquin stood up and so did I. “Leave Aria out of this, Dante” Joaquin said and stood in front of me, protecting me from Dante and his gun. “It’s too late for that. She’s the only leverage I have over Damien”. “Why are you even doing all this!”. “Because I deserve to be the king, the leader of the gang. Not Damien!”. “You traitorous bastard!” I heard Damien scream. I looked over at the staircase and saw Damien stomping down the wooden staircase. When he reached the room, he looked at me and then at Dante.

“You did all this just because you wanted to lead the gang? You fucking idiot!”. “Nonno gave you everything, even though you didn’t deserve it. Not once did he think of me and what I wanted”. “You were too young at the time” Tony said as he entered the room dragging Dimitry behind him. The older man was beaten to a pulp, he had a gunshot wound to the shoulder. I wasn’t even sure he was breathing. Dante looked at Tony and then at his father. “Dad!” He screamed and ran over to Dimitry. Damien and Tony looked at each other in confusion. “Dad?” Joaquin asked. “Vasily is your father? You were in cahoots with him since the beginning, weren’t you?” Tony asked him.

Dante didn’t say anything. He just searched his father’s body for a pulse. He sighed in contentment, so he must’ve felt Dimitry’s heart beats. “Did you help him bomb up Basiglio?” Damien asked him. “The people worshipped you and Tony as if they were Gods, without even regarding me! And I was there in the city, for so many years. We had to put a stop to that”. “You selfish bastard, you killed innocent people” Damien whispered. “Don’t speak as if you are a saint, Damien”. “Did you not sell Aria into prostitution?!”. Damien stepped back a bit. I lowered my eyes to the ground and Joaquin slipped his hand across the small of my back. Damien narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I made mistakes, but that too was caused thanks to you. You created the misunderstanding and I…I was too dumb to see through you”. I looked up at Damien and forced myself to keep my tears from falling. “I owe Aria my life. I know she will never forgive me but…”.

"Oh, for fucks sake, just stop it. Stop victimising yourself Damien. Do you want to know why I wedged a rift between you and Aria? Because it was easy. Women and love are your only weakness. You want a meaningful relationship, something that a man like you can never have. Your insecurities and distrust in women make you doubt yourself. That’s how I managed to do what I did” I felt nauseas even looking at Dante. He had a smug smile on his face, as if he accomplished the greatest height of success in the world. Damien looked at me, longing and desperation in his eyes. I looked away from him to the stairs instead as Maddox and Lars trotted their way down the staircase.

“Hey, boss, what should we do with the bodies?”. The colour drained from Dante’s face as he realised who Lars was talking about. “Did…”. “Yeah, both Sergio and Emilio are dead” Lars said with a smile. His smile broadened when his eyed caught onto mine. Maddox glanced at me and then quickly averted his eyes to the ground, a guilty expression on his usually stern face. “Unfortunately, as much as I would like to kill you, I cannot. I’m going to drag you all the way to Nonno and your mother and let them see the traitorous fuck you’ve become” Damien said and started walking closer to Dante. Dante started to panic now; the sweat was beaded against his worried forehead. He flung his gun from side to side as Damien, Tony and Joaquin cornered him.

“Don’t fucking test me, I will shoot you” Dante ranted and pointed his gun further out as they walked closer towards him. He aimed it towards them and the gun went off. The bullet hit the metal of the light fixture and then ricocheted off the surface, I was too slow and too tired to move, and the bullet hit me in the shoulder. I cried out as the pain seared through me and I stumbled to the ground. I heard Damien scream out my name and then saw him above me. He sat down next to me and ripped off his shirt using the material to soak up my blood, applying pressure to my wound. I groaned at the weight of his hand and shifted uncomfortably as I laid in his arms. Another gunshot went off and I strained my head to try and see what was happening. “Don’t move, you’re hurt and bleeding”. I did as I was told and looked up at him. I struggled to keep my heavy eye lids open and eventually let them flutter close.