Wren

Part 29

Sophie was crying, again. She lay on the floor, her arms and legs splayed out. She slammed her heels into the ground. "I wanna see Daddy!"

Dace sat beside her, trying to distract her or comfort her, just whatever he could do. "Sophie, Daddy is out of the house right now. You just can't see him yet, but he'll be back." He pleaded.

He was the one who'd been with her for the majority of the time after Wren's capture; Matteo was busy, and Leo was consumed with guilt. He was in the shower right now, where he'd been for about half an hour. That was his comfort place.

Sophie continued to throw her tantrum. She understood perfectly well that sometimes Papa was gone for a night or two, but it had been way longer than ever before, and never Daddy. Daddy was always with her.

Dace continued to do his best to calm her. His own guilt was eating at him, but he pushed it away. He had bigger things to worry about right now.

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"We have to do something!" Matteo shouted at his father. They were in the middle of a heated argument.

"We can't just turn over our entire fortune, and now they're asking for the estate, too! What the hell would we do, Matteo?"

"I don't know. But we can't leave him there to get hurt like that, those bastards! The moment I find out who they are--"

"Focus, Matteo. What if. . . what if we try to negotiate? I don't think they know how much we have in the bank. If we pulled most out but leave a believable amount and hand it over, think they'd take it?" 

"I don't know. But we have to do something. Anything!"

"Alright, alright. Let's try that. I'll send them a message to tell them we'll give them the passcodes, but not the estate."

Matteo continued pacing around the study as Vincenzo sat down at his desk. He stated composing an email. Matteo came to stand behind him, reading it over his shoulder. 

"No, change that part. It's too harsh, and the last thing we want is to make them mad."

"I know that." Vincenzo muttered, but he wasn't mad. He couldn't imagine what Matteo was going through, having to watch his husband being tortured and not able to fix it.

They sent the email.

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Matteo sat hunched over, his face hovering mere inches from the computer screen. Vincenzo stood behind him, his firm grip on Matteo's shoulder. Matteo had chewed all his nails down to the quick over the past day since Wren's disappearance, so now he was biting into raw flesh. They were still trying to track down Wren's location, but were having no luck.

The screen flashed with a notification.

'Sorry, that won't be enough.' 

A video followed.

Matteo's hand shook as the mouse hovered over the play button on the video. He didn't want to watch. . . but he couldn't bear not to.

Wren was not in the chair. He was positioned in the center of the shelves. His arms were pulled upwards by chains that were attached somewhere to the ceiling. His head was bowed against his chest, almost like he was asleep while hanging there. He was shirtless, and the sear marks from the cattle prod looked nasty. There was no timestamp on the video, so they had no idea when this had been taken.

A man suddenly entered the frame, crouching down. He wore a black cap and a black mask. All that was visible were his eyes. They crinkled at the edges as he supposedly smiled at the camera. He held up his hand, and brandished a fresh bite mark. The holes were still bleeding. 

"Your kid's a fighter, apparently. Guess he doesn't like me," the Man chuckled and stood, stalking over to Wren. He grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head up.

Matteo and Vincenzo gasped.

There was a leather muzzle fitted over his face, bars lining the section over his mouth. His eyes were open slightly, swollen and red from crying. He looked exhausted.

The Man chuckled again,  shoving his head back down as he released his hair. He bent over playfully in the camera frame. "He bites like a dog, so I thought it was appropriate."

Matteo's fist tightened, and so did Vincenzo's grip on his shoulder. 

"But that isn't what I wanted to show you," the Man stood and whistled, and four or five more masked men slinked from around the shelves. They each held something in their hands, but Matteo couldn't see what it was due to the dim lighting.

The men started tormenting Wren; pinching him and tugging his hair, and whispering things in his ears that Matteo couldn't pick up. The Man's laugh echoed through the building. 

"Alright, let's begin!" His tone was cheery, like he was enjoying this.

Without warning one of the men unleashed the object in his hand. The whip cracked against Wren's back, making him  cry out and lurch forward. The men all laughed, and another stepped forward to take a turn. Wren's crying and screaming got louder and more desperate as the pace and force behind the strikes picked up. He thrashed in his chains.

Matte felt angry tears slip from his eyes as he watched some of the welts turn into deep cuts that oozed blood. He put his hand over his face when he heard Wren's voice clearly for the first time. 

"P-please! It hurts! S-stop!" Whimpers and cries followed, then more begging. 

The Man walked back to the camera, crouching down and filling the frame with himself, but the whips and crying could be heard from behind him as the others continued their abuse. His eyes crinkled as he smiled again. 

"Well, that's all for now!" he laughed and the video went dark.

               Part Thirty Coming Soon