Illicit Love (BWWM)

Chapter 22

I am on a roll y'all💀😭

Valentina's POV

The sound of raucous laughter shook me out of my unconsciousness. A groan left my body as I tried to shake the sluggish feeling from my body, but my limbs were tied. 

"She's awake, good," an unfamiliar voice said. Where the fuck am I?

Trying to blink away the fogginess from my eyes, I looked up to see a tall man donning a viciously aloof smirk. The voice, I did not recognize, but the face I did.  A face with a huge scar running from his right eye to his chin. A face belonging to the one and only Angelo DeLuca. 

I laughed carelessly, greeting him in a sarcastic tone. "Ciao, Angelo. I see your scar is looking as lovely as ever." 

A growl rumbled from his throat, an angry scowl forming on his face as the scar creased. "You fucking bitch, you did this to me. But don't worry, I'll return the favour."  He referred to a few years back when we met for the first time, and things went south. 

"Try it. I dare you," I hissed pulling at my restraints, "try it and I'll rip you apart." 

He laughed ominously, bending down to my level. "You're not in any position to threaten anyone, Russo. So I would suggest--"

I cut him off in mid-sentence, spitting at the area right above his eyebrow. He took a deep breath before standing again, then without warning, I feel the back of his hand coming down on my cheek.  "Not only do you act like a bitch," I spat out the blood that had gathered in my mouth onto the white carpet, "you hit like one too."

And that went straight to his big, fat ego. Just as he brought a foot up to kick my abdomen, the door swung open. And in walked the man of the hour, Giovanni DeLuca. He glanced down at my form on the floor, and up to Angelo. 

"Dad? What the hell are you doing? You promised not to hurt her."

Anger bloomed on his face, "Are you pitying her, boy?"

Giovanni adverted his eyes, speaking through clenched teeth. "No, father. I just thought we shouldn't hurt her, her father might not give you what you want."

Angelo glanced between us, before storming out of the room. Now it was only us, and two other men who were guarding the door a few metres away. He bent down at the exact spot his father was at, using this t-shirt to wipe the blood from my face, "Are you okay?"

At least, he tried to, before I twisted my head in the other direction. "Don't touch me."

"Valentina I--"

"I said don't fucking touch me, DeLuca," I said through my clenched teeth, emphasizing his last name. He looked hurt; it was the first I've ever called him anything but Giovanni since we've gotten close. He wanted to treat me like his enemy?  Fine, two could play that game. 

He is eyes glistened with unshed tears as he swiftly got up, leaving through the same door his wretched father did. 

***
Hours had passed and I was in the same room, but I was alone this time. The restraints on my feet and hands were making it harder to move the chair I was restrained to. The door opened just as I tried again, and expecting it to be one of the DeLuca men, I held my head down. 

"Mommy? I--", a little voice said, then gasped as he saw me. And I looked up, gasping at well, surprised at who it was. Then it started to add up. 

"Lucy?"

"Valentina?"

We both spoke at the same time. "Your--your father is Angelo? Your brother is Giovanni?"
He nodded slowing, his little brain still processing what was happening as he clutched the pink teddy bear I had given him. Then he saw the bloodstains on my cheek and clothing. 

He gasped coming closer, "My dad hurt you, didn't he? I told you he was a bad man." His grey eyes, which I had somehow just realized, filled up with tears. My heart ached for him. "I'm okay, Lucy. Just a little hurt, is all." 

He dropped the teddy bear and went behind me, tugging at the ropes with no avail. "Lucy, come here," I whispered, sorry he had to see something like this. Sorry, he has a father as heartless as Anglo was. He stopped, coming round to sit on my lap. 

"It's okay, really. If you want to help you can get me some water from your kitchen, okay?"

He nodded, then froze, thinking about something. "Kitchen. Knife. I can use a knife to cut the ropes away." Getting up, he ran towards what I assumed was the kitchen and ran back with a very sharp looking knife.  

"Don't worry, Valentina. I'll be your hero," he smiled, the missing tooth at the front of his mouth making him even more adorable. He got behind me to begin but was distracted by the door swinging open. Angelo walked in with fury in his eyes, spotting his smaller son.

Stalking in our direction, he pulled him up by his arm and slapped him around his face. My mouth hung open, and I turned to him, furious. "That is a child, your child. What the hell are you doing? How the hell can you--" 

A sweltering pain suddenly ripped through my thigh, and I looked down to see the knife Lucy had in his hand now jammed into my thigh. A satisfied laugh bubbled from Angelo's chest and a frightened one from Lucy's. Fuck, I didn't want him to see this. 

"I've had my men contact your father, and you better hope he answers. Or he won't have a daughter anymore," he smiled darkly, then pushed Lucy, "now go upstairs you brat, and don't try anything like that again." 

With one last look of helplessness, Lucy walked away with tears staining his cheek. Angelo stared at me, and then at my blouse that had somehow been cut open but the knife, exposing my sweaty chest. He crept towards me, then stopped, grabbing my chin tightly in his hands. "Maybe I can put you to use while I wait," he whispered pervertedly, undoing the buckle on his belt and pulling it out, "and if you know what's good for you, don't make a sound."

A ripple of fear went through me, "Angelo, you don't want to do this."

He scoffed as he reached down, harshly squeezing my breast. "I might want to kill you, but you're hot," he paused to unbutton his jeans, "and the fact that you're absolutely helpless to the situation? Makes it even hotter. I know my son must've had fun with you, I'm glad I forced him to do what he did." Forced?

"Forced? What do you mean forced?" I asked, confused.

He smiled deviously, then spoke. "Do you remember Richard? I hired him to be your boyfriend in exchange for a sum of money, but he obviously failed. You're a tough one, you know. So I enrolled Giovanni in the school, brought him in on the idea. He refused, so I threatened to hurt the things he holds dearest to his heart; Lucy and his grandmother."

"Your own son and your own mother? How could you?" I whispered hoarsely, baffled at his words.

 But he merely shrugged, "Lucy was a mistake and my mother has outstayed her time on Earth. So I told him I'd kill them, he thought I was bluffing," he paused, looking at me diabolically, as if he was deranged, "so I crippled my mother to prove how serious I was. He didn't have a choice."

What the hell was wrong with this man?

"Mark my words, DeLuca," I hissed, venom and hatred dripping from my tone, "I'll kill you, I will put you through so much pain you'll beg for me to kill you." 

"Whatever you say, bella. Now shut up so I can finish." He went to pull down his jeans, but at that exact moment, the door swung open to reveal one of his men. And I have never been more relieved in my life.  The man shifted his eyes from my shirtless form to his boss' state, furrowing his eyebrows, his lips forming in a tight line. "Boss, I don't think that you should do that--"

He coarsely let go of my chin, fixing himself up. "Do I pay you to give your fucking opinions, Henry?"

"No boss, but I have a daughter and female family members and I would never want something like that to happen to them--"

Angelo moved to stand before the man, towering over him. "Shut up and tell me what you came for before your daughter becomes fatherless."

He glanced at me before the words reluctantly left his mouth. "Mr Russo has arrived, he wishes to speak with you." 

Angelo turned to me, a scowl on his face and his lips turned up. "You lucky bitch," he chuckled, "I should've come sooner. Anyway, tell him I'll be down, bring him to my office. Search him and make sure he has no weapons," he glanced at me distastefully, "and make sure Giovanni isn't present, knock him out if you have to. He has feelings for the whore and he'll want to actually keep her alive. I have a feeling he will want to interfere somehow." 

"As for her," he continued, "bring her downstairs. Remove the knife, but don't tend to her wounds."

The man, Henry, visibly gulped, but agreed anyway. "Yes, boss."

I hope my father wasn't dumb enough to come unprepared. 

                                                                                        ~~~~~~
Yall good? Yall doing okay?😭