??T W E N T Y N I N E??
My eyes were heavy, sleep dusting them when I felt Valentina’s long fingers wrap around my bicep. She shook me gently from where we had all piled together in my tiny princess bed. She had a robe wrapped around her tall, thin frame that fell down to her red painted bare toes.
“Come,” Valentina grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet.
I stumbled, just a moment, straightening Don’s shirt on my shoulders. The buttons were haphazard, barely fashioned together to add an extra layer in the cold room. Not that I really needed it, not with Don’s furnace of a body under me.
He groaned, but Valentina hushed him, Italian falling from her lips in a cascade of magic that went right through my sore parts, perking them up in ways they should not be allowed to be. He opened his eyes, narrowing them at her like he didn’t believe whatever she had said, but she was already dragging me out of the door.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” she waved at me impatiently.
She moved us down a short set of stairs that led outside, hands clasped together. The mist dusted my skin as we walked past a pool house I hadn’t known was here. Behind it was the ground entrance to a cellar.
The ball of nerves that had begun building inside me as soon as we walked settled in my gut. She opened the doors, the metal hinges creaked slightly. Against the sound of the waves crashing against the rocky face off in the distance it should have been swallowed up, but I heard it loud and clear.
My skin prickled. A gust of cold, musty air had me backing away from the underground entrance.
Despite everything my nerves peaked. Anyone would be a fool to ever let their guard down around the Giovenni's, but here I was, about to follow one down into the dark in nothing but a man’s shirt.
“Valentina?”
She turned to me, already halfway down the steps, “Come, muñequita. God may have mercy on our enemies, but we do not.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Don?”
“I belong to no man,” she didn’t snap exactly, but her voice was hard. There was a dangerous edge to it that had me on my toes in a less than arousing way, “Do you?”
Pride goeth before the fall had never been a more appropriate saying. There was something about a mean girl who had something to prove that made you do crazy things.
No, Don certainly didn’t control me, but I also didn’t think it was a good idea to go where I thought she wanted to go and do what she wanted to do without someone bigger and stronger than me. Valentina certainly could fit that bill, maybe, but it would make me feel better to have them both there.
My feet moved of their own accord though. The lead inside my stomach turned to butterflies; a million monarchs chasing their way up and down my veins before settling around my heart. I walked down the narrow stairs carefully. My bare toes froze against the stone; it was slick and slightly damp with salt lines built up across their edges.
We walked a long hall. I could barely see in front of me, but I assumed Valentina had the place memorized by the way she floated through. I held my hands out, my fingertips brushing against the sharp rock to find my way behind her until I felt her fingers brush against mine.
She gripped my hand in hers, tucking me into her body. I hugged her elbow to me, following her lead. Light opened our view to a group of cells. The metal looked worn and rusted, like it had been roughed up over the years.
I jumped at the clanging of the bars. The man inside prowled around his cage, eyes on fire. His tunnel vision didn’t just extend to me this time, and I couldn’t tell if I was more grateful for that or if it was terrifying to not be the only one in his line of sight.
Instead, he was staring at Valentina whose face couldn’t be more angelic. Her smile was gentle, the light in her own eyes brightening up her entire face. The soft flush in her cheeks told me more than enough about her current state. She patted my hand and waited for me to let go before shamelessly cocking her leg out.
She slipped the ornate dagger she had me kill Collin with from its thin sheathing underneath her robe.
She handed it out to me. This time when I took it I allowed its weight to be the thing that grounded me to the here and now, really giving myself a chance to look at the detailing of the silver handle.
Vines were engraved into it, with tiny emeralds nestled in leaf patches. It was truly a creation of beauty: deadly sharp and with a weight to it that felt appropriate for the occasion.
Valentina unlocked the door, her eyes on the man. They were bright, glassy and just a little far off for my comfort, but I pushed it aside watching with my heart hammering in my chest. He yanked a leg across the ground, the sound grated against my already sensitive nerves.
“Good evening,” she chirped, walking right into the cell, shoulders back, head held high.
He spit at her, something she simply side stepped with her head high. She motioned me into the cell, her eyes cutting to my slow, shaking movements. My bare feet made no sound, but somehow it seemed so loud I cringed in the shadows as I made my way to her.
I clasped the dagger in my hands, hating the way my fingers clenched and unclenched the weapon. Valentina was so calm, so poised. Her back was straight, her hair flipped to the side. She looked every bit the avenging goddess while I was barely standing, trembling like a leaf.
“You remember our princess, don’t you?” She laughed, knowing full well he couldn’t respond back to her.