Enthralled (The Enslaved Duet 1)

So, this hug was special and it nearly worked to unlock the massive deadbolt I had across the chamber to my mess of emotions and web of secrets.

Nearly, but not quite.

I was a stronger woman than I had been, so I knew when to take my pleasure when I could, even if it was tinged with pain.

My arms banded around her small waist and pulled her even closer against me so that I could smell her perfume. It was Chanel Number 5, a scent she had lusted over for years even though we could only afford the samples found in the odd magazine. I bought it for her every year for her birthday since my first modelling check came in and I loved smelling it on her.

“Ti amo,” I whispered into her ear, hoping that she would wear the words there like precious gems even when I couldn’t be with her.

She tightened her hold on me for a moment and then whispered the words back, her voice softer than I’d ever heard it before. “Ti amo, Cosima, e grazie.”

I love you, Cosima, and I thank you.

Tears pooled at the backs of my eyes and I opened my mouth to give her something, a gift only Elena could fully cherish, one of knowledge, when the door tour little house burst open with a bang.

We sprung apart to face the intruders, but it was one me who gasped when I recognized who it was.

Salvatore stood backlit by the flaming Italian sun, a great shadow of a beast with thick dark hair and beard that stained his strong, clenched jaw like ink.

“Why the drama?” Elena asked, fisting her hands on her hips as she interacted with a man she thought she knew well enough to be familiar with, a man who had been visiting us sporadically our entire lives. “You nearly broke down the door.”

“Do not speak to capo that way,” Rocco demanded as he stepped through the door at Salvatore’s back, his thugs behind him. “You Lombardi women never are respectful enough.”

Mama appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, her face ashen as she took in the crowd of Made Men in our doorway. Her eyes darted to me then back to Salvatore and she swallowed hard.

How had I never noticed her watchfulness and unease before when it seemed written in the air between us like subtitles.

“We are here for Cosima,” Salvatore told Mama in his gravel rich voice.

Mama’s hands fluttered through the air, touched on her heart and then took flight again like frightened birds. “No, Tore, please…”

He ignored her, lifting a hand that signaled the men behind him to push forward into the house.

My conditioned flight or fight response flooded my body with heady adrenaline. Carefully, I pushed Elena farther out of the way and then faced the Camorra foot soldiers with a cutting grin.

“Let’s see if you can catch me, boys,” I taunted them.

The stupider of the two lunged for me. I hopped onto the low coffee table, landing on one leg while the over swung through the air with the leverage from my leap and crashed into the descending face of the mafia man.

He fell to into the couch with a groan.

“Don’t be difficult,” Rocco called out from the doorway. I tried to keep my eyes on the approaching man, but then the tinkle of bells tickled my ears and pulled my gaze over.

Rocco let the string of tiny bells dance in from his fingers and he laughed at my look of horror. “I brought these for your Mama and sister, Cosima. Do you remember my promise to you if you fucked up that deal for us? I’m going to tie them up with bells stringed to their ankle so that they look like ornaments dangling from the cypress outside.”

A sob ballooned in my throat and turned my voice to helium as the other man grabbed for me and I screamed as hand caught my dress and pulled me into his arms.

“That is,” Salvatore drawled, as if we were discussing the weather and his ex-paramour wasn’t crying across the room while their bastard daughter was being assaulted. “Unless you come with us now.”

“Salvatore, no,” Mama sobbed as she moved forward across the room to grip him by the shirt and mumble pleas in a string of rapid Neapolitan.

Rocco ripped her off and threw her savagely to the ground.

Elena and I made twin sounds of distress in our throats and my sister immediately when to her.

I stopped struggling, hanging in my captor’s arms.

“Fine,” I said with my chin raised high. “I’ll go with you. Just leave the house and my family alone.”

Salvatore was already turning to leave when he said, “Bring her and make sure she does it screaming so the neighborhood knows what happens to those who go against the Camorra.”