Blackmailed to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family #2)

30. Chapter Thirty

CHAPTER THIRTY

D r. Mya

I fell in and out of consciousness. I think I started hallucinating at one point. I heard Sebastian calling me. His voice pulled me towards my grave. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to tell Sebastian that he tore me up inside. That I had no choice but to love him. He bargained all mine away.

Just one time, that’s all I needed, so I could tell him, but I couldn’t. Time had no meaning. I didn’t know if this guy had me for hours or days. I just knew the pain. My body was on fire. Everything hurt, but I knew I was still alive.

I opened my eyes, swinging to and fro, and staring at a different ceiling. At least, I thought it looked off. My kidnapper must’ve moved me.

“What bad mafia movie is this?” I muttered out loud.

This B-rated kidnapping was for sure a zero out of ten stars on hospitality, and I would tell the coward when he came to face me, as all bad guys tended to do. At least, they did in the movies. I didn’t care if he killed me. It wasn’t worth it. I’d rather die and be free, than live and be in pain, while he called the shots. I could control this much. I knew what happened to women who woke up after being kidnapped. Marrying Sebastian, and staying in Italy with him, was not the norm.

I moved my head and screeched, as I felt every single open wound pull on my body. There was a bandage over my eye. Someone had sewn my wounds up. My kidnapper probably didn’t want me dying too quickly.

“Don’t move too much,” a voice called from the corner. I tried to see who it belonged to, but with only one eye, I couldn’t make out much.

“Why did you take me?” I croaked out. The room smelled different. I couldn’t smell my blood that had seeped into the floorboards. I could talk my way out of any situation. I just needed to get him to answer a few questions. Once I knew what his mental state was, I could proceed with finding the root of the problem. I opened my mouth to ask another question, but before I could, I felt the sting of a whip.

I screamed out, swinging back and forth, trying to get out of the way.

“Why are you doing this?” I cried when he said nothing. The whip hit my skin repeatedly as I screamed and raged at him.

“What did I do to you?” More of the whip rained down on me.

“Why?” I croaked out, my voice hoarse from screaming. He whipped me again. I could feel drops of blood hitting the floor. When I barely made a sound, he opened his mouth.

“Oh, little slave. I took you because he didn’t deserve to have you. Not after he caused a death.” His grip tightened on the whip, and his face scrunched up in anger.

“Who are you talking about?” I swallowed the bile in the back of my throat, as black spots spun in my vision.

“Sebastian Caputo,” my captor spat.

I wanted to ask more questions, but he wasn’t willing to answer any more.

“Time for more punishment, my little slave,” he cooed. He walked towards me. I weakly raised my leg, trying to kick out, but I couldn’t get close to his body. He chuckled as the fight left my body. I was in too much pain to try to get him. He unhooked my arms, and the sudden rush of blood in my circulation made me collapse to the floor.

“Assume the position,” he barked. I didn’t understand what he was saying. So I laid there on the dirty floor, my blood pooling between me and the floorboards.

“I said, ASSUME THE POSITION,” he roared. When I still didn’t move, he seemed to calm down. It sent a trickle of unease down my spine.

“I guess you like to be punished, little slave. What a dirty fucking masochist I picked up.” He raised the whip and stroked it across my face. I wailed and tried to cover myself, while he hit me over and over. My mind was confused. While I understood what sadomasochism was, this wasn’t it. There was no consent. There was only pain. I certainly wasn’t a masochist. The only pain I liked was tiny spurts. Nothing like what he was doing to me right now. I didn’t even think he was wielding the whip correctly as he beat me.

After a while, he tired out, as the human body does. He also didn’t have the upper body mass to beat someone for hours without consequences. Instead of leaving me in peace, he finally broke like I wanted him to.

“Did you know that your husband killed my sister? She loved him fiercely, and he burned her alive.”

It was then I knew he was insane. His version of events were vastly different from Sebastian’s. I tried to blink the blood out of my eye, but it came pouring out. Head wounds always bleed the worst.

“Listen, little slave. You are mine now. I’m finally able to break his pet like he broke my sister. He forced her into this lifestyle. She told me all about it. I learned the ways. I realized I wanted to do my thing. The women who said they loved pain really didn’t like the pain I showed them. They were weak,” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

I cringed and tried to scramble away from him, but slipped on the blood below me.

“I found out about you from a snitch, little slave. I watched surveillance of you, and I know you are bad, just like the supposed Brotherhood you hang around. Just like Sebastian. Tell me, who did you hurt?”

I ignored his question. I wouldn’t answer that at all. He rubbed the blood into my skin. I ignored the bulge in his pants, and tried to imagine I was somewhere else.

“Losing your sister is what’s making you do this, but you can stop. Take me home and I won’t say anything to anyone,” I stammered. I knew all about keeping what I’ve seen and heard to myself.

“Your opinion is unwanted, little slave. Time for correction. No more talking.” That was the last time he spoke to me. It didn’t take long for me to pass out in my blood and piss. Not long at all.

The first thing I felt was the cold seeping into my bones, the kind that clung to my skin and sent shivers down my spine. My eyes fluttered open, heavy and stinging, but everything was a blur of darkness and shadow. The faint, flickering light from a dim bulb above, barely reached the edges of the room, casting grotesque shadows that danced on the stained concrete walls. My wrists ached, the raw, burning sensation from days of struggling against the restraints, reminding me I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t anywhere safe. I was still in this nightmare.

The scent of dampness, blood, and fear, hung thick in the air; a sickening miasma that made my stomach churn. My heart hammered in my chest, as I slowly took in the chains on the wall, the instruments scattered across the table that still bore the remnants of my own blood. This man’s playground of horrors.

I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision, but the room seemed to sway. My body was weak, every muscle sore and bruised. But then, I saw him.

“Mya? I’m here, and it’s going to be alright.” He walked forward, closer to the light, and I gasped. It was Sebastian.

“Seb,” I cried. “H-how? W-why? I don’t understand.” I didn’t. How had Sebastian found me? When did he get here?

He took a step closer, and I flinched. I’d seen him before like this; standing over me, too vivid, too alive to be a hallucination, but too impossible to be anything else. My mind was playing tricks on me again. It had to be. I’d imagined him so many times in this room, dreamed of his face, his touch, his voice telling me it would be okay. But it never was. It was always Arjun. Always the pain.

“You’re not real,” I muttered, shaking my head, my eyes blurring with tears. “You’re not?—”

“It’s me, Mya,” Sebastian’s voice cut through the fog, deep and edged with a desperation that clawed at me. He moved closer, crouching beside the bed, his eyes searching mine, wide and frantic. “I’m here. I’m real. I promise you, I’m real.”

I pulled back, pressing myself against the wall, my chains rattling. My whole body trembled as I stared at him, terrified to blink, terrified that if I looked away even for a second, he’d vanish, and I’d be alone again in this torture chamber.

“How did you—” I swallowed hard, trying to piece together what my foggy brain couldn’t understand. “You can’t be here. He never… How did you find me?”

He didn’t answer right away, just reached out, his hand hovering inches from my cheek, and I flinched again. I couldn’t let myself believe it was him. Not after everything. Not after I’d been tortured by false hope again and again, only for Arjun to rip it away, reminding me that no one was coming. No one cared enough to save me.

“Mya,” Sebastian said, his voice breaking, and he finally touched me, his scarred thumb brushing against my cheek, wiping away a tear I didn’t realize had fallen. The warmth of his touch was like a jolt, sending sparks of life through my numb body. I gasped, my eyes snapping to his.

He looked at me, and God, it was like he’d been searching for me for years. Like he was seeing me for the first time, and it tore something open inside of me. But I still couldn’t let myself believe it. Not fully.

“Please tell me this isn’t another trick,” I choked out, my voice cracking under the weight of everything I’d endured. “I can’t take it anymore, Sebastian. I can’t…” He gripped my face between his hands, firm but gentle, forcing me to look at him, really look at him. His eyes were filled with a pain that mirrored my own, his breaths ragged and uneven. “It’s not a trick,” he said fiercely, his voice breaking as he leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching mine. “I swear to you, Mya. I’m here. And I’m never letting you go again.”

I stared at him, my chest heaving, torn between the urge to scream, and the desperate need to believe. The rational part of me screamed that it wasn’t possible, that Arjun had broken me too deeply for me to trust what was in front of me. But the way Sebastian held me, the way his hands shook as he touched me… It was real. He was real.

I let out a sob, my fingers clutching at his sleeves, holding on like he was the only solid thing in this nightmare. I didn’t care if this was just another hallucination. I needed this moment, needed him, even if it was only for a fleeting second.

“Don’t leave me,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I buried my face against his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of him; cologne, and something distinctly Sebastian. The tears flowed freely now, and I couldn’t hold back the sobs wracking my body. “Please… don’t ever leave me again.”

“I won’t,” he murmured, pulling me closer, his grip unyielding as though he was afraid I’d slip away. “I’m here, Mya. I’m here.”

“I have to say this before I lose my mind entirely,” I whispered.

Sebastian leaned forward and whispered, “What?”

“I’m pregnant,” I drew in a bigger breath, praying for courage. “And the only thing that got me through this entire ordeal is that I wanted to tell you I love you.” I grasped his hand in mine, shakily. “Both of you. All of you.”

Sebastian searched my eyes for a long moment, almost as if he was searching for the truth. He placed a light kiss on my lips, and leaned his forehead against mine, breathing the same air with me for several moments. “I love you too, little mouse. I fucking love you too.” He kissed me passionately, holding me tight like he didn’t want to let me go ever again.

I gasped, pushing him away only slightly when I remembered where we were. “Sebastian, we have to leave before he comes back. We have to go, right now.” I groaned as I felt my stitches pull, but I wanted out of this bed.

“No, Mya. I got you away from Arjun. You’re safe. Everything is fine,” Sebastian soothed. He pushed me back down on the bed, easing the covers back over my naked body.

Trusting Sebastian, I laid back and allowed him to fuss over the pillows. “Who’s Arjun?”

“Amelia Keiser’s brother,” Sebastian said.

“Amelia, your dead fiancée?”

“Ex,” Sebastian barked out. He cleared his throat, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry. It’s just, you’ve been out for almost a week, and I’m on edge. I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up again. Seeing you hurt…” he trailed off. I knew what he meant, though.

“Sebastian, I thought I’d never see you again. I didn’t get to tell you sorry.” My eyes filled with tears.

“I know,” he said simply. “What happened?”

I took a deep breath. It takes a big man to give you time to explain yourself. Something Sebastian didn’t have to do. I opened my mouth to tell him everything.

“This Arjun guy took me right out of your yard. I didn’t know where I was for the longest time. But you somehow found me. How did you find me?” I finished up.

After a long pause, Sebastian changed the topic. “Did I ever tell you about my sister?” he said out of the blue.

I shook my head no. “I didn’t know you even had a sister.”

He looked at me, chagrined. “I never spoke about her. It’s a big point of contention with my family. She tried to take her own life after being violated by a man in college.”

I gasped. My hand reached for Sebastian’s before I could stop it.

“Now you understand why I couldn’t allow Arjun to get away with what he’s done to you.” Sebastian’s eyes flashed, and his entire demeanor changed. Standing before me was Riccardo, and he was piping mad.

“That Albanian fuck is going to pay for what he did to you, and I want you to watch as you receive your justice.” Riccardo swung me, ever so carefully into his arms and held me close. He breathed me in with a sigh. “It’s good to have you awake in my arms again.”

He carried me through the villa, muttering to himself about how much weight I’d lost during my recovery. I couldn’t help the secret smile that was on my face. He was adorable at the moment.

We headed outside to where our wedding ceremony had taken place, and there was a cross with a naked Arjun nailed to it. He looked like a macabre version of Jesus. His body was littered with whip marks, burns, bullet holes, and so much more.

“Oh my god,” I gasped, but I didn’t look away. Some part of me enjoyed seeing Arjun strung up like this. I wanted him to hurt more.

“Ruin him,” I ordered Riccardo.

His eyes flashed with surprise, and then heat, as he said something to his men in Italian. They grabbed canisters of gasoline, and poured them on the now-screaming Arjun, who was pleading for his life.