With a sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to get into a comfortable position. About twenty minutes later my body finally relaxed into the mattress.
I inhaled deeply and then froze as the sound of something scratching the outside of my window paralyzed me with fear.
It was my imagination.
It had to be.
But the scratching continued.
Slowly, I reached down the side of my bed where the box was. My fingers searched for the bat, but kept coming up short every time.
Terror gripped me as the scratching stopped only to be replaced by something opening my window.
A gust of wind hit me full force.
I was going to die if I didn’t find that bat and make a run for it.
Finally, my fingers grabbed onto it, with a yell, I waved it in the air and ran for the door.
A figure dressed in all black chased after me.
A leather-gloved hand pressed over my mouth covering my scream.
I smacked the bat behind me, coming into contact with the intruder’s body, and kept hitting until the door burst open.
The intruder stumbled backward and dodged for the window.
“I don’t think so.” Sergio grabbed the guy by the back of his shirt and tossed him against the door. He stumbled backward.
A black mask covered his face and mouth, even his eyes were blacked out.
Sergio stretched his neck, and it cracked before he exhaled then took his time to approach the guy before kicking him in the side.
I could have sworn I heard the sound of bone cracking.
Terrified, I stumbled back to my bed, trying to get as far away from them as possible, but my legs tangled in the sheets, trapping me in place.
Crack.
Another sound came from the man’s body as Sergio kept kicking him.
And then he leaned down and pulled the mask off the guy’s face.
The man spat at Sergio.
Sergio uttered, “Bad choice,” before punching the guy across the jaw, blood spewed everywhere. It was nothing like I’d seen on TV.
It was messier.
And loud.
So loud.
I could hear the guy bruising, breaking, the metallic smell of blood filled the room as Frank burst through the door followed by my uncles and finally Dante.
“Recognize him?” Sergio asked in a detached voice.
“No,” Frank said. “You?”
Sergio shook his head.
Sal, Papi, and Gio exchanged concerned looks before the man grabbed a knife and surged toward Frank.
Sergio was on him in seconds, using the guy’s own knife against him and stabbing him in the throat, then with a quick movement of his hands, snapping his neck in half.
He fell to the floor in a bloody heap.
And that’s when I started screaming.
With a curse, Dante was at my side, pulling me into his arms, but I didn’t want Dante. He wasn’t my comforter anymore. I might as well have been hugging a wall instead of my twin.
I didn’t know who I wanted.
No one?
Maybe I just needed to be alone.
I was able to suck in a deep breath and stop screaming, which was good, because the only thing scarier than someone else’s scream — is hearing your own but not registering that it’s your voice until a few minutes later.
“Shh, Val it’s okay, you’re safe.” Dante whispered reaching for my body again.
“Clearly!” Who was that yelling? Not me. I never yelled. I wasn’t the type. But there I was, losing my mind! “Was I safe ten minutes ago?”
Nobody would look at me in the eyes.
“How did you guys even hear him come in?”
Again no eye contact.
“I was worried,” Sergio whispered. “There have been a few veiled threats so I was coming by to double check your window when—”
“—you saved my life,” I finished for him, unwilling to break the stare down we both had going on.
He didn’t nod or even acknowledge the fact that he’d just done something so heroic.
Not that snapping a man’s neck won him a medal or anything.
Which brought on a whole different issue.
I started to hyperventilate. “What about the police? We need to call the cops and—”
Frank laughed. My uncle actually laughed at me and then sobered. “Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve been around someone outside of the Family. We do not need cops.”
“But.” I frowned. “You have to report a crime.”
“There was no crime,” Frank said in a smooth voice. “Tomorrow they will find his burned body in a car along with several murder weapons that tie him into a drug dealer of our choice and, to add to the effect, I’ll toss in a few bags of cocaine.”
“C-cocaine,” I whispered. “You have drugs?”
Again silence.
“Right.” I nodded. “I um…” I was mumbling again, I moved past every man in the room on lead filled legs and kept on walking. I remember touching the stairs because my naked feet were cold against the hardwood.
I went to the kitchen but everything was… foreign.
So I walked from the kitchen into the living room and sat Indian style in front of the fire, pulling my knees up to my chest, as if that was going to make the fact that Sergio had just snapped someone’s neck in half okay.