Insatiable

Chapter 23

Sophia's POV

I could see the relief and fear in Demetrius' face, he recognised Casper, but both men clearly felt resentment towards one another.

"You know why she's here, now speak."

"I already told her everything she needs to know." Demetrius bit back, his eyes clouded with anger as he glared at Casper.

"I don't care what she needs to know, I want you tell her everything, from the start."

I watched both men nervously, Casper's grip had loosened, but not enough for me to break free. The knife was now lowered away from my eyesight and his harsh breaths travelled through my shoulder blades.

"You see Sophia, a very long time ago, this very scenario had occurred, only Demetrius and I were in opposite positions and in his hands, he held my wife." I stared at Demetrius shell shocked, he looked at me for a brief second before looking away.

"Demetrius, is this true?" I questioned warily, I took is silence as an answer.

"Finish off Demetrius." He ordered, bringing the knife closer to my throat, I whimpered as the cold metal touched my skin.

Demetrius swallowed, taking a long glance in my direction as if it was the last time he would ever see me. "We weren't a gang." He started. "We were a chain of business alliance, we helped each other secure important deals and get out of financial struggles. It was Fabio's grandfather who had begun the chain, it was small at first but began to slowly grow until it ran from all over the world."

"If you guys were a so called harmless business alliance, why the tattoos?" I interrupted.

"Shut your trap, you speak when he is finished!" I let out a cry as his fist connected with my gut, Demetrius moved to my aid, but stopped short when he sliced at my arm, the blood gradually trickled down, hitting the floor in a tiny pitter patter.

"The more you move, the more cuts she'll have. Now continue and don't stop." He ordered, it was frightening for me to see Demetrius so scared and powerless, it brought me less hope for the future.

"The tattoos we're introduced when Fabio's father took over, for identification, it was Italian because his mother had come from Italian descent. The chain of business alliances was getting bigger and stronger, everyone was becoming richer and that's when Fabio's father began to give the alliance a name, making it seem even more like a gang. My father urged me to join when he had left, so I did, around that time Fabio's father was still running things and Fabio had just reached his late teens. When his father had died, he took over and that's when everything went downhill." He paused for a moment, raking a hand through his hair like it pained him to explain the rest.

"Don't stop." Casper pressed on.

Demetrius sighed and reluctantly continued. "Fabio changed everything, he hired everybody his own choice of employees and had snoopers who would check in every once in a while to ensure that any business related activity was not extracted without his knowledge, he expected 10% of all major deals and if you refused, you were cut from the chain, like a scissor to thread. I did not question what he was doing since I had not completely taken over my father's business and thought nothing of it, that was until one of our weakest chains, Drake, could not pay back a loan."

Casper's grip tightened visibly around me and I did not need any confirmation that Demetrius was talking about him.

"Fabio, me and a few other of our strongest chains were very close at the time. Out of the blue Fabio set up a meeting and deviced a plan to kidnap Drake's wife, we all went along with it in fear we'd be cut off from the chain as well, he assured us it was only to scare him into paying back the money he owed, but we had no idea what Fabio really had in mind."