Till Death Do Us Part |BOOK I|

Chapter 25

Enzo

The drive to the Romano estate was excruciating. Nicole has a look on her face that resembles the look on a pregnant woman's face, mid labour, when her husband experiences a minor injury and states "you have no idea how much this hurts". her knives look like toys between her fingers, Leo looks like he's plotting a murder, and i'm yearning to break the fuckers fingers joint by joint.

we barge into the house, Nicole seething with every loud step she takes. that is one thing we have in common. she values family over everything. especially her chosen family. but her and Valerie aren't just sisters they're best friends. they've been through shit together. her anger is more than justified.

the echo of our surrounding gets louder and louder as we rush down the flights of stairs to the basement, which is also where the cells are. her and Leo stomp through the hallways making lefts and rights as we head towards the sound of chains and feminine screaming. anger boils in my chest at the concept of someone else hurting causing her any form of mental agony.

physical trauma heals. mental trauma sticks with you, you carry it around with you ever goddamn minute of the rest of your life. if something happens to Valerie, Nicole has to live with it. and i know the pain of mental trauma. it's shitty. and entrapping.

we reach the cell and without wasting another second we barge in. the man is chained to a metal chair in the middle of the room. there's a table with all kinds of torture tools and weapons. exactly like we have at home, but messier. Nicole approaches the man first to make sure he's chained properly, he's immobilized. she snarls at him as he struggles in his seat trying to break the chain. his eyes meet hers, and the screaming quiets. she has no patience, this is un calculated and improvised. she's not here to put on a show, she's here for closure. she flicked her knives between her finger as she circles him. i lean against the wall shutting the cell door with my heel. Leo sits down backwards in another chair next to me.

she comes up behind him slowly stalking her way forward, "hey tough guy, i have a question" she stares sweetly "which sense of your five do you fancy the most valuable to you." she asks, dragging the tip of her blade against the skin of his back. slowly.

the man grunts, jerking away from the knife, cursing something in Russian.

Russian.

she pulls him back and presses her knife harder against his jaw this time, he continues to look away and ignore her. "you could tell me, or we could do it the other way and i can just cut to the chase and chop off your fingers, one by one. remind you of what they're not supposed to be used for. what do you think?" she mumbles dragging the knife down drawing blood.

it trickles down his throat leaving behind a maroon colored trace, without warning she slices a gash on his cheekbone making him hiss at the pain. "pussy" she spits walking over to the table with weaponry spread across its surface.

she reaches for a larger blade and walks back over with it. "look, this is either going to go one of two ways, one, you tell us what we need to know and we give you a quick and painless death. or two, you make this harder on yourself and we slowly slice your every body part and package them in boxes then ship them to your allies and loved ones. the choice is yours."

she quickly slashes his clothes off with the knife and lets them fall to the concrete below his seat. he whimpers thinking she was actually going to let him die that quickly.

"how many of Petrov's men are still alive?"she says containing her anger for a second before-

"Fuck off" he spits. i look over at Leo, he stares back at me with a smirk knowing what's about to happen.
she flicks her blade between her finger and digs it into his hand with no warning.

she seemed impatient at first, but now she takes her time.

she stabs him in the shoulder, then in the leg, then cuts through most of the thinner skinned areas. behind the ears, . she takes her time finding out his weaknesses. what makes him scream in agony.

when she's done, she had broken almost all of his fingers and cut off four. he had stab wounds and cuts everywhere but his neck, and she also cut off his right ankle when he tried to kick her.

it was alluring.

we watched for an hour as she slowly ripped apart the collection of flesh and blood that was once a man. but after what she did you couldn't recognize him.

he sobs. she cut off his ear. the sight is nothing new but still gory and does something to your stomach.

blood spews from multiple parts of his body, dripping onto the floor. Nicole is drenched in red, her face, her arms, her clothes.

if this is what i get to look at when she kills me, then i can't fucking wait.

the man is whimpering, dripping blood from countless cuts and wounds. his breathing is heavy and uneven,  sweat covers him from head to toe.

she finally retreats, taking a look at her work. she smirks and leans down to his ear

"this is the least of the shit you are about to cry through."

she presses the blade to his chest, adding pressure with every sentence that escaped her lips, but she holds back from killing him so Leo can let his anger out too.

she walks back over to Leo and hands him an iron bat from the table.

"have fun" she drops it in his hands and takes his seat when he gets up.

he stalks over to the man and swings the bat at his kneecaps, breaking them. the man yells doubling over, he swings the bat again at his left shattering the bone, he does the same to the other elbow, before dropping it to the grounds making a load thump echo through the room.

he reached for the knife again and walks up behind the man,  "you're made of flesh and bone, nothing more, which means the pain i can inflict on you can be much worse and agonizingly slower than the pain you caused my woman." an evil grin spreads on his face.

by the time Leo is done, the mans eyes are carved out, his other ear is sliced off, there's more blood on the floor and the man is dead.

we leave the basement while Nicole calls someone to come clean the cell. we get in the car and drive back to the hospital. i can tell both of them needed to let out their anger, now they seem panicked and nervous.

she plays with her fingers in her lap, biting her lip. there's tears welling up in her eyes, and her foot is tapping the ground violently.

i place my hand on her thigh staring forward. she tenses looks up at me, holding back tears. i tighten my grip on her thigh, rubbing the skin worth my thumb.

she takes in a breath, slowly relaxing under my touch. her leg stops bouncing, and her eyes start to close. she fights back the urge to sleep for a minute but she's too drained. her eyes shut as she leans her head back on the seat.

we hit a speed bump which makes her jerk forward, her head falls to the side, against my shoulder. her breathing evens out, and I fucking noticed.