King of the Cage: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Devil’s Own)
King of the Cage: Chapter 28

Somewhere between being thrown into a car onto my back and being kicked in the head for asking questions, I passed out.

Honestly, it was a relief. My back hurt like a motherfucker.

When I woke up, the pain was a million times worse. Being strung up to a metal hook wasn’t helping.

Water hit me in the face, freezing cold and shocking. I coughed, trying to clear my nose and eyes. Everything was blurry, but I had a good idea of where I was.

The kidnapping was slick and professional. There was currently only one man out there gunning for my head who was capable of such smooth elegance, and that was Elio Santori.

My wee selkie had been right… today was the day I might die.

“Ready to join us, O’Connor?”

Elio was in front of me… I thought, anyway; things were still a little blurry. He sat in a chair, elbows braced on his knees, flicking a lighter for entertainment. I watched the flame as it moved back and forth.

“Not really, can I get another half hour?” I grunted.

Elio nodded. “Funny. Just like always, you’re the funny one, O’Connor. This time, you can tell jokes to the Devil himself, when I send you to Hell. Alzati.”

A metallic cranking sound clicked, and the restraints tightened around my wrists. My arms were drawn upward, and my entire body lifted off the floor. Ouch. That was going to hurt tomorrow… if I was alive to feel it.

I looked around the place where the Italians had brought me. A meat locker. That explained the apparatus and the temperature. It was very, very cold.

I struggled to keep my toes on the floor to take the pressure off my shoulders and just about managed. My back screamed at me, stretched out as it was. My T-shirt clung wetly to my skin, soaked through with blood. I must have made quite the mess in Elio’s fancy ride.

“Come on, now. We’re family after all,” I managed to get out.

Elio stood and took a step forward, sinking a fist into my gut. I couldn’t double over, though my body still tried, and my shoulders howled at me.

“Family? I’ll show you family, when I send your head back to Hell’s Kitchen in a box!” Elio roared.

The usually unflappable ex-military sottocapo wasn’t himself today. It seemed that Giada was his tipping point. I was familiar with the feeling.

“You’d start a war, instead of accepting a new family member? That’s not very smart of you, Santori.” I groaned. “What does Renato say? I doubt he wants a full-out war with the Irish.”

“Renato doesn’t know what you’ve done yet. Once he does, he will support me.”

He hit me again in the other side. At least I would have balanced internal bleeding. That was thoughtful. I did like symmetry.

“Once he knows how you stole her, and forced her… and married her in the dead of night against her will — he’ll burn Hell’s Kitchen to the ground and every miserable O’Connor with it. No one crosses the De Sanctis family and lives.”

Another punch, and another.

“What if it wasn’t against her will? What if she likes me?” I bared my bloody teeth at Elio. “Stranger things have happened. They say there’s a lid for every pot.”

Elio shook his head slowly. “She doesn’t. She can’t. Giada doesn’t get attached to anyone, except her family. She never even wanted to marry, and you took that decision away from her. Now, you’ll pay for it.” He picked up a crowbar from the table beside him.

Handling it expertly, he moved around my back and was silent.

“I see you’ve already been your charming self today elsewhere,” he said flatly.

I chuckled through the pain. “What can I say? I can’t help myself.”

Elio appeared back in front of me and used the tip of the crowbar to tilt my head back so I could stare at him.

“Well, what do you have to say, O’Connor? I won’t start a war, if you admit what you’ve done and fix it. You will never speak to Giada again or be anywhere near her. She walks into a place, you leave. Got it?”

I took my time answering. My tongue was thick in my bloody mouth, and words were becoming an effort.

“You’re right. I deserve this… for taking her choice away. I admit it. I stole her skin,” I mumbled.

Elio frowned but waited for me to go on.

“But I won’t give her up. You’ll have to kill me.” As soon as the words left me, they were an absolute. I didn’t have to think about it. I wasn’t letting her go. She was mine. I’d forsake the world for her. I’d even forsake myself. In my half-conscious delirium, the truth was too obvious to ignore.

Elio looked incredulous for a second, shaking his head.

“So, you choose death?” he asked.

“Without her, I’m dead anyway,” I murmured, trying to keep awake. I should be awake for my last moments, shouldn’t I?

“So be it,” Elio murmured, and then, there was only darkness.