I clawed my way to my feet and shoved my legs into a run. Rocks and twigs stabbed into the soles of my feet but I didn’t slow my steps. A rustle sounded to my right, sending my adrenaline soaring. I panted and tried to run faster up the hillside. Told myself not to look back. Told myself to keep going no matter wha—
A hand closed around my arm and yanked me off my feet. I screamed as I slammed into something hard. Another hand quickly slapped over my mouth, muffling the sound, and hauled me back against a large, hard body.
I was jerked off the path and into the trees. I thrashed and kicked, trying to break free. Tree limbs scraped my arms and legs as the man—I knew it was a man from his size and hold—pulled me deeper into the forest.
Something solid cracked against my elbow. Images of what I’d seen swirled in my brain, and I fought harder. I shrieked beneath the hand at my mouth and struggled away from the breath on my neck. Whoever held me was whispering, but I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I shook my head, trying to ignore his harsh words near my ear, trying not to listen to his voice because I didn’t want to hear his vile chants or—
Something inside me faltered because I recognized that voice. It was deep. It was familiar. It almost sounded like—
“It’s me, Natalie,” the voice hissed near my ear. “It’s Luc. Stop fighting me, dammit. They’re going to hear you.”
I went still as stone.
“That’s right,” Luc whispered behind me. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to help you.”
Disbelief formed a ball of pressure in my chest. I gripped the arm clamped tightly against my chest, afraid to believe what I was hearing.
“Luc?” I mumbled beneath the hand still covering my mouth. “My Luc?”
“Yes, your Luc.”
All the fear inside me broke. I sagged back into him as my adrenaline crashed.
His hold on me loosened, and I heard him whisper, “Angioletto,” but a relieved sob was already wedging its way up my throat, preventing me from responding.
Turning quickly, I pressed my face against his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding on as the shakes consumed me.
His arms closed around me like steel bands, and he held me to him, pressing his big hand to the back of my head, cradling me against him while he bathed me in his strength. I heard his voice at my ear telling me I was safe, telling me everything was going to be okay, but it didn’t help. Squeezing my eyes tighter, I burrowed in closer, needing his warmth, needing the goodness inside him to push away the darkness I’d just witnessed.
My hands shifted at his lower spine as I tried to get closer. Fabric brushed my fingers. Something hard bumped against my elbow. Sensations I didn’t understand drew me back from the edge of hysteria.
I tried to focus on what I’d felt and straightened my fingers where they rested against his lower back. Soft, silky fabric skimmed my hand. Fabric that sent a new sense of dread spiraling through me.
I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know. But I couldn’t stop myself from looking. Shifting my hands to his ribs, I pushed back.
His whispered words died on his lips, and his muscles flexed, preventing me from easing away. For a heartbeat, I thought he wouldn’t let me go, but then he released me.
My heart beat hard and fast as I moved a step back and looked at him in the dim light. A black cape, just like the ones I’d seen in that clearing, hung from his shoulders and fell down his back to his heels. My gaze drifted to his arm, where a white bauta mask was hooked over his elbow.
“No.” Bile pushed up my throat all over again, and I stumbled back, not wanting to believe what I was seeing was real. “No.” I covered my mouth with my hand and shook my head violently, trying not to gag. “No, no, no.”
“Natalie.” Luc moved toward me, his muscles coiled and tight, his eyes as hard as I’d ever seen them. “Don’t move.”
My heart thundered against my ribs as I stared at him in shock and disbelief, and my skin grew hot and tight with a hysteria that sent my horror into overdrive. I grappled for some kind of explanation for the cape and mask, for something to tell me what I was seeing wasn’t real. But it was real. It was right in front of me.
He was wearing the same outfit the men in that circle were wearing. He was one of them. He was one of those men who’d taken part in that…cultlike ceremony.
“Natalie,” he said in a low voice. “Just listen.”
Sickness shot up my throat. I couldn’t listen to any more of his lies. I wouldn’t.
I turned and sprinted before he could stop me.
11
Natalie
Luc slammed into me before I ran more than twenty yards.
The air whooshed out of my lungs. My feet left the ground. I grunted as I flew forward and only barely had time to lift my hands before I smashed into the dirt.
Pain shot up my hands and into my arms, and I groaned. My pajama bottoms tore. Something sharp stabbed into my calf, sending a burn across my flesh. I struggled beneath him and rolled, trying to break free of his hold, but he was too big. Too strong. He flipped me to my back with ease and grasped both of my flailing arms, pinning me to the ground.
“Stop it,” he growled. “Natalie, Dio dannato, stop fucking fighting me.”
Panic and terror crashed into me, and I kicked and twisted and flailed my head as hard as I could, desperate for the moment he loosened his grip and I could break free. “Let me go,” I snarled. “Let me go, dammit.”
He slapped a hand over my mouth and lowered his full weight onto me, trapping me between the hard earth and his even harder body.
I gasped beneath his palm as his weight pushed the air out of my lungs.
He must have heard me wheeze for breath, because he eased up on my chest. I sucked in air, but before I could lash out again, he leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Don’t make a sound. Someone’s on the path. They must have heard us. If they find us, they’ll kill us both.”
His words sent a chill down my spine, and the ramifications of what I’d seen—what I wasn’t supposed to have seen—hit me full force.
I stilled my fight and strained to listen over the roar of blood in my ears. Above me, Luc held himself immobile, his head angled toward the path. My gaze lifted to him, and in the dim light, I saw the anxiety in his features as he waited. When the low murmur of voices reached my ears, my eyes flew wide, and a new sense of terror engulfed me.
Luc looked down at me and shook his head, telling me to stay still. Dread shot straight into my shattered heart. My shallow breaths echoed in my ears, and against me, I felt his heart speed up with a rush of adrenaline. I swallowed hard beneath his hand, and the urge to run again rushed through me, but I resisted, not wanting to do anything to draw attention.
After what seemed like an agonizing lifetime, footsteps receded on the path until the only sound I heard was my own pounding heart and the hoot of an owl high above.
Slowly, Luc lifted his hand from my mouth and eased off me, but he didn’t let me go. He wrapped his fingers around my wrist in a viselike grip and pulled me to my feet.
With one glance over his shoulder toward the path, he said, “Come on. We need to get you back to the villa before anyone sees you.”
I was too scared to do anything but let him lead me through the trees back up the hill. My arms and legs shook as we picked our way through the dark forest, careful to stay off the path. Rocks and twigs and tree roots stabbed into the soles of my feet, and I stumbled several times, but Luc was right there to catch me, pulling me up next to him and keeping me close.
I wanted to jerk away from his hold but didn’t trust myself not to trip and fall, and my head was spinning with confusion over his actions. Somewhere inside me, I recognized he was trying to keep me safe, but every time I looked at that cape hanging from his neck, sickness surged up my throat.
Shivering in the cool air, I blinked to keep the trees in focus, but images of that clearing, of those masks and capes, swirled in my head. And t
he sounds of the woman’s groans and drugged-out screams echoed in my ears as we walked, melding with those voices, chanting louder and louder with every step.
My body swayed, and in a daze, I realized my adrenaline was crashing. I was in some kind of shock, but I couldn’t stop it from happening. My head grew light, and the forest spun.
I must have stumbled, because Luc turned back to me, muttered, “Cazzo,” and swept me into his arms. I pressed a hand against his chest and tried not to lean into him, but my muscles weren’t working.
Darkness surrounded me like thick, cloistering smoke. I closed my eyes, breathing slowly through my nose so it couldn’t pull me under.
“Hold on, Natalie,” Luc whispered somewhere close. “I’ve got you. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I didn’t know how anything would ever be okay again. Everything I thought I knew was a lie. Wood scraped, and I felt soft fabric beneath me. Something brushed my lips.
“Drink,” Luc said. “It’ll help.”
I opened my mouth. Cool water passed over my tongue, and I swallowed.
Grasping what I realized was a glass at my lips, I took it from him and tipped my head back, drawing in large gulps that didn’t come close to quenching my sudden thirst.
“Go easy,” Luc whispered, still close. “I don’t want you to get sick.”
I ignored him and sucked back the familiar liquid until my senses slowly returned and the darkness receded. When I couldn’t drink anymore, I lowered the glass.
I was back in my room in the villa. The red comforter lay beneath me on the massive bed. A gentle breeze blew through the open balcony doors, rustling the gauzy fabric at each of the four posts.
The room was dark, but across the space, I spotted the comfortable chair I’d lounged in earlier in the day, and the large stone fireplace I’d wanted to fill with wood and light just to see it blazing with warmth.
I shivered, unable to remember what it felt like to be warm. Everything inside me was cold. Ice cold.
I didn’t know how I’d gotten here. I didn’t remember climbing the trellis or Luc carrying me in through the door and up the stairs. All I remembered was seeing Luc in that black robe, holding that mask that made me want to vomit.
My gaze drifted to where he knelt in front of me, his hands resting on the thighs of my ripped and filthy pajama pants. He was still wearing that vile cape. I didn’t know where the mask was, but I didn’t care. Sickness swirled inside me again, and I closed my eyes, breathing deeply to fight it back.
“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly.
I struggled to find my voice as a searing pain stabbed at my foolish heart with the force of a thousand tiny daggers. “You’re wearing that cape. I saw your…mask.”
Occult images I’d seen on the Internet hit me full force, making my stomach pitch. Bracing my hands on the mattress at my sides, I rocked forward and back, fighting the pain, the nausea, fighting to keep both at bay.
“Natalie.” His fingers dug into my thighs. “Listen to me. That’s not me. I didn’t want to go tonight. I didn’t want to come here because I was afraid they’d call a meeting. I hate all this. I only went tonight to keep you safe. I went—”
My eyes shot open, and revulsion swirled inside me like a tornado. “You went to keep me safe?” I shoved at his hands, unable to bear his touch anymore. He fell back on his heels. “What about that woman? Does she even know what they’re doing to her? Even from where I was hiding, I could tell she was high.”
He rested his hands on his thighs and watched me carefully, but he didn’t try to touch me again. “If she was high, that was her choice.”
My stomach rolled all over again.
“Listen to me. I know you think you saw some kind of satanic ritual, but you didn’t. You saw a sex party, nothing more. It was consensual. She agreed to it. All the women agreed to it.” When I opened my mouth to protest, he added, “They were paid to be there, Natalie. They were paid very well.”
My mouth drifted closed, and I stared at him in utter disbelief.
“You saw the tattoo up her side, right?” Luc asked. “The leopard print? You’ve seen it before. When you were with Giovanni.”
My mind shot back to that party on Long Island. I swallowed hard at the memory of those two women with Gio removing their clothing. Both of their bodies had been marked with the same kind of leopard-print tattoo. One woman’s had run from her thigh up to her breast. The other’s had spread across her lower spine and between the cheeks of her ass.
“They’re sex kittens, Natalie. Women who get paid to participate in parties exactly like the one you saw in the woods. Exactly like that one on Long Island.”
My head swam. Was he telling the truth? I pushed to my feet, unable to sit still, and paced the dark room. Did it really matter? Bile pushed up my throat either way.
“No.” I shook my head. “If that’s what you’re into, then—”
“It’s not what I’m into.” He rose and faced me. “I told you, I hate this part of my family.”
I stopped and stared at him, waiting for more. Waiting for something that would explain all this.
“Cazzo.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time. They’re going to notice I’m gone soon, and if that happens, we’ll really be in trouble. So I’m going to explain this to you as simply as I can.”
He moved toward me and stopped inches away. His heat and familiar scent surrounded me, bringing a rush of emotion followed by a surge of disgust. I fought the urge to move back, because I sensed if I did, he wouldn’t tell me what I needed to hear.
And I did need it. I needed something true to hold on to, because I felt like I was on the verge of going insane.
“I told you before that my family is very powerful. They’re incredibly powerful. Not just here but around the globe. With that power comes a responsibility to contain and command. The early founders of my family’s House learned long ago that the important leaders they needed on their side could be manipulated through the most basic human urge: sex. They’ve used that. They set up these events—that scene you saw in the woods, that orgy Gio took you to in New York—and they give those leaders a taste of the forbidden. It’s not satanic. It’s just sex. And it’s blackmail. They record everything. Someone was out in those woods video recording that scene. They use it to keep those leaders in line. It’s a give and take. Those men get what they want, and in turn, they make the financial, political, or social decisions that benefit our House. That woman knew what was going on. She’s loyal to the Salvatici House. She’s being paid handsomely for her time.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He was laying it all out there as if it were no big deal. Sex rituals. Blackmail. Describing his family like some crazy world dynasty.
I pressed a hand to my head, unable to sift truth from lie. The only thing I knew for certain was that if there was any truth in his words, he was omitting an awful lot.
“Are...” I swallowed hard because I was almost afraid to ask what was suddenly spinning in my mind. “Are you talking about the Mafia?”
“No. The Mafia is made up of thugs and low-life criminals looking to make a quick buck.”
I breathed a little easier.
“My family’s roots run back thousands of years. To an entente whose alliances and conflicts have shaped more than just history, they’ve shaped entire maps. The Salvatici reach extends past that of any Mafia. And trust me when I say their vengeance is a hell of a lot more dangerous.”
I didn’t understand what he was saying. But the chilling way in which he said it made the blood drain from my face. I dropped my hand and stared at him as fear shot right back through my belly.
He took my cold hand and wrapped his strong fingers around mine. “You were not supposed to see what you did tonight. If they find out you were there…” He squeezed my hand. “If they find out, we’re both in danger. I didn’t want to bring you here. I didn’t want you to see any of this.
But I promise you, I will keep you safe. It’s just very, very important that you do exactly what I say from now on. I have to go back before someone realizes I’m missing. I need you to stay in this room with the doors and windows locked. Do not let anyone in. Do not turn on any lights. Let them think you’ve been sleeping all night. In the morning, we’re free to go. It’s extremely important that you act normal in front of my family before we leave. Can you do that?”
My tongue was so dry, I couldn’t form words. He kept using ominous terms like danger, safe, free… Words I didn’t understand. And as I stood in front of him, I had a sudden memory flash of him pinning me to the forest floor and whispering haunting words in my ears. Words that now sent a tremble of terror through my whole body. “If they find us, they’ll kill us both.”
“Natalie?”
He squeezed my hand, and the pressure jolted me out of the memory. Somehow, I found the strength to nod, but…oh God…
He breathed a sigh that sounded full of relief and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, tugging me into the warmth of his chest.
I didn’t try to stop him. I didn’t lift my hands and hug him back either. I couldn’t do anything but stand completely still as my brain skipped over everything he’d just told me.
“I’ll keep you safe, angioletto,” he whispered into my hair. “Trust me. I’d do anything for you. Anything at all.” His lips brushed my temple. “Lock the doors after me. I’ll come for you as soon as I can. I promise, in a matter of hours, all this will be a memory.”
He let go of me and crossed to the balcony doors. Still too dazed to speak, I watched his cape rustle behind him as he turned and smiled sadly at me in a way that did nothing to alleviate my fear.
He closed the doors at his back, and a scraping sound echoed outside. I knew he was climbing down the trellis, but I didn’t move to the window to watch. I didn’t feel anything but confused and numb.
As the sounds dissipated, I crossed back to the bed and lowered myself to the edge.
Sex kittens…
The Fall (House of Sin Book 2) Page 12
