Written in Ink

Fifty-eight | Reagan

 I had him. He was in my arms. I had so much hope for us to be together again until I was ripped from him, again.

"Mrs. Napolitani." A rugged gasp comes from a cell across from mine.

"Marco!" I whisper yell. "Marco! Are you okay?" I question in a hurried tone.

He sighs deeply, and I notice he is holding his side where he is bleeding out. "Been better." He replies.

"Oh my gosh!" I cry out. I rip off my hoodie and am about to toss it over to him but he shakes his head. "Why?"

"Keep it. Nothing is really going to help me." He sighs, falling back against the cement wall.

I shake my head right back at him. "No, no. Take it."

"I'm not going to take it." He huffs seriously.

"Marco—"

"My wife always told me that she'd leave me if I got kidnapped." He chuckles, remembering a story. "I told her anything is possible with what I do... That didn't do anything, she still wanted me to leave and wanted me to always be there for my boys." He sighs again.

"We have to get out of here." I state, standing and shaking at the bars. The rough metal scrapes up my skin.

"I have twins, they are about to turn four." He states. "Milo was born second but he was always more mature. He put it together that my job wasn't safe, he always told me to be careful." His voice doesn't break, he stays strong.

"Why did you stay after they were born?" I ask him curiously, sitting against the wall.

He shrugs. "I devoted my life for the Napolitani's, Alonzo too. He and I had an arrangement where I could go home with enough time to build a relationship with my kids and wife." He explains to me. "I always have respected Alonzo because he never told anyone about my family. He kept them safe."

All Alonzo ever wants to do is keep family safe. He just wants to keep me safe. That's why he wanted me to stay in all the time, not because he was controlling me. He loves me and just didn't ever want to see me hurt. Yet here I am, had to go after Remy, I couldn't run fast enough, or fight Matteo hard enough. Alonzo looked like such a hot mess when I saw him for a brief time. It looked like he hadn't shaved the entire time I've been gone. I can't imagine how he must be feeling.

"He really cares about you." Marco speaks up again. "He has been a mess since your disappearance."

Guilty tears well up in my eyes. "Was he angry?"

"At the world." He chuckles.

A door suddenly opens with a harsh slam. Matteo greets us with a sick smile, clapping his hands together. "I've been waiting for this moment." He says it all giddily. The door to Marco's cell is opened and two men grip his shoulders, pulling him to his feet and out of the room. He fights it but a few more people have come to contain him. "Now... Reagan."

My cell door opens and Matteo grabs my shoulder, ripping me from the floor causing my shoulder to ache in pain. I yelp, trying to push him away but he doesn't budge as he pulls me out of the cell and out of the room. "Let go!" I cry out, trying to get his hand off my shoulder.

"Oh, your shoulder." He says sarcastically, pushing more pressure on my collarbone.

"Ah!" I grimace.

He pulls me along a hallway and shoves me inside a very dimly lit room. Where Marco is already tied to a chair with an empty one beside him, where I am pushed into and scraped down. My shoulders and chest burn with the harsh pressure.