shoulders shuddered and it took me a second to realise he was laughing as he stood upright again, his mouth dripping blood.
"I'm going to cut out every one of your organs and feed them to a pack of street dogs while you watch," Nicoli snarled as Ramon shook out his hand.
"After tonight, we will never see you again, Mr Romero," Ramon hissed. "So I highly doubt that."
He turned to me, pointing me into the Rolls Royce and I looked to Nicoli in alarm.
"Wait! You can't take him, you said-"
"I never said he would stay with us, Sasha," Ramon spat. "He will be freed once I have my diamonds. Now get in the fucking car." He pulled me from his guard's arms, shoving me towards the vehicle, but I fought him like a tiger, ripping and tearing as I reached for Nicoli.
He was being hauled away from me toward another car and I cried out as Ramon's hand slammed over my mouth and he forced me into the back of the Rolls Royce. He followed me inside and the doors locked the moment his ass hit the seat. But I wasn't done fighting. I leapt at him, slapping him around the face and he snarled, capturing my wrists and forcing me down onto the seat beneath him. He weighed a ton and I couldn't breathe as he crushed me into the leather, the scent of port on his breath making my stomach writhe. It was a smell that made my mind spark with memories I’d rather forget.
He caught hold of the seatbelt behind me, binding my hands with it so they were pulled above me.
"You don't win this fight, my darling. You belong to me. And it's time you remembered that." He planted his mouth against mine and I wriggled wildly beneath him as he forced his tongue between my lips. But that was his mistake as I bit down and he reared backwards with a yell of fury.
He pressed his shirt sleeve to his tongue and it came away red, making his eyes darken to nightshade.
"You will pay for making me bleed later," he said in a deadly voice, then took out his phone, ignoring me as I yanked at my binds, my arms twisted awkwardly behind my head.
“After all I’ve done for you,” he muttered. “You know it was me who told Duke and his men not to rape you?”
“How fucking grateful I should be,” I spat. “I suppose you’ll be running for the husband of the year award.”
“I’ll never let another man touch you like that and live, so maybe you should be a little more grateful. You’re mine Sasha.”
I glared at him and he tutted, tapping out some messages and I cursed him colourfully as he fought to block me out.
The driver headed deeper into the city and I gazed out the window as we sailed down thirteenth avenue and slowed in front of Squire's Bank. The lights were off inside and I knew it was past business hours, but with my memories seeping back to me, I recalled that Ramon had the bank owner, Lin, in his pocket.
The car engine idled as we waited for him and my mind rippled with memories, each of them giving me more and more clarity. My breath caught as I remembered the last time I was here in this very place. The day I'd been taken by The Five.
It was all fragmented, but slowly I could remember it. The week I'd decided to run from Ramon for good. I'd seen the pouch of diamonds he'd been counting in his office when I'd walked in one day. They were my freedom, the answer I’d been waiting for. I could find my way back to Mom and we'd disappear forever. He never let me withdraw more than five hundred dollars in cash from the bank, not nearly enough to help us vanish. And the credit cards could all be traced.
So I waited until he was out for drinks with his friends later that week, broke into his office and took the diamonds. His obsession with me meant he'd encoded his safe with my birth date. A date I now remembered as clear as day. The fifth of April.
I left the pouch in the safe, filling it with pebbles I'd collected from outside in case he opened the safe before I could get away. Then I hid the diamonds in a sock in my closet and the next day I went to him,