Don Vidal

14 - Never give up

****Warning, this chapter includes torture****

Marnie

The vast room Stefano is literally dragging me through is empty, apart from the dirt and dust beneath my feet. I’m terrified that I’m walking to my death. I don’t deserve this. I don’t understand what I’ve done wrong!

Stefano ignores my pleas to let me go, and he drags me into a small room at the back of the warehouse. He pushes me through the door, and I fall to my knees. I instantly clasp my stomach because pain rushes through my body. I don’t want to lose my baby; I just want to go back to Draven’s house and pack my stuff and leave. This may not be his doing - I really hope it isn’t, but I can’t go through this again.

I don’t even know what I’m thinking. I might not even make it out of here alive. Unless I’ve been brought here so they can kill my baby, threaten me with God only knows what, and then send me on my way. All I care about is this baby, and if my only way out of here with my baby alive is to run and never look back, then that’s what I’ll do.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Marnie.” I look up from my position on the floor. Two well-dressed men, I’d say fifty-something, stand above me. Everything about them screams power. Everything from their expensive suit and shoes to how their gray hair is slicked back, especially the smell of their cologne, makes me cringe.

Maybe they work for a rival family and have Stefano on the books. Draven told me how his enemies would do anything to get to him, to make him pay for the things he’s done, and how better to make him pay than to kill his baby. I doubt Draven would care about me or what happened to me. Then again, I belong to him, so he keeps telling me, and no one takes what belongs to Don Vidal.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?”

“Who we are is irrelevant. Who you’re sleeping with and the information you have is what we’re interested in.”

I narrow my eyes at him, a yelp ripping from my throat when Stefano drags me off the floor and to my feet. He pulls me to the corner of the room, and I’m trying not to scream and call these men for what they are. I don’t want to give them a reason to hurt me, but they are nothing more than cowards.

I close my eyes as Stefano sits me in front of the large pipe that I can't recall the name of and straps me to it, strapping my hands behind my back and a rope around my chest. I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying not to give in to the frightened tears.

“Draven will kill you for this.” I hiss at Stefano.

He looks at me and tells me quietly, “I know.”

I watch Stefano walk to the other side of the room. He leans back against the door, eyes looking anywhere but at me. I close my eyes for a second, breathing deep through my nose and out through my mouth. I’m terrified, but there’s nothing I can do to get out of this.

“Now,” The older-looking one of the two men says while he looks down on me. “Why don’t you tell us what you know about Vidal and don’t spare us the details, girl.”

“I don’t know anything. I hardly know the man.” My arms are already starting to ache in this position. I have a funny feeling they’re going to keep me here, but I have a worse feeling they’re going to kill me slowly.

“So, what’s this,” He points to my stomach. “Scotch mist?”

“None of your business. Let me out of here!” I yank on the cuff, trapping my wrists.

“The Don’s baby.” He smirks, and the other guy laughs. “What we could do with that.”

“You stay the fuc.k away from my baby!” I kick out at them as hard as I can and then instantly wish I hadn’t. My stomach is screaming in protest.

“Careful,” The younger-looking guy says. I wish I knew their damn names. I think I’ll call this idio.t Prick Two. The one who looks like he’s in charge will be Prick One. “That little bundle is going to make us a lot of money.”

“You will never get your hands on my baby!” I scream, only to be doused in ice water. I don’t know how or who did it, but the bucket must have been hanging over my head, and someone tipped it all over me. I can’t catch my breath for a moment, and the water is soaking through my clothes at a fast rate.

“Are you going to play nice?” Prick One asks. “Tell me what you know about Vidal’s business, and I’ll let you go. It’s not a lot to ask. Is it?”

“I don’t know anything about Draven’s business.” My fuckin.g teeth are chattering. I’m so cold.

“Oh, I think you do, and you’ve got five minutes to tell me what I want to know, or my friend here is going to show you the meaning of pain.”

“But I don’t know what the fuc.k you want me to tell you! You’ve told me nothing but “Vidal’s business,” Which could mean anything. Why the hell would you think I know anything anyway?”

God knows if I knew anything, I still wouldn’t tell them. But then, when I think about my baby’s life, I second-guess myself. Maybe I would tell them something to save my child. Draven would kill me as soon as my baby was born, but at least my child would live. However, I really don’t know anything of importance.

Prick One bends down in front of me, and a vile smirk plays on his lips. “Your boyfriend took something that belongs to us. We’d like it back. You have two choices, tell us what we want to know, or we’ll keep you here until that baby is born, then we’ll send your body parts back to your boyfriend after we’ve sold your baby on the black market.”

My chin wobbles as I try not to whimper. The thought of these men taking my baby away from me is painful.

“I’ve told you, I don’t know anything. Why would Draven tell me about his business?”

“Because there’s something about you that weakens him.” Prick Two informs me. My eyes dart from side to side. “He took it, didn’t he?”

I don’t know what the hell to say to him, so I say nothing. Maybe I could say yes, and they would let me go. But I’m not naïve, and I know they would let me go, even if I did say yes. Then again, maybe they would leave this place to look for whatever it is they want, and then Draven would find me before they came back.

But what if he doesn’t even know I’ve gone?

What if these men take me somewhere else?

What if they keep on moving me around until they have no more use for me?

What if they kill me and no one ever finds my body?

I am so scared that I don’t know what to do!

Prick One moves away from me in time for Prick Two to press a cattle prod to my right shoulder. I scream in agony as it shocks my body. I can’t stop screaming, I’m incapacitated, and I am so scared for my baby. I don’t understand why they’re doing this to me!

“Please, let me go. Don’t hurt my baby!” I beg, but it falls on deaf ears. These men don’t care how much I beg and plead for my child’s life; it means nothing to them.

They continue to question me about Draven’s business, any deals he may have made, and where he’s hidden whatever it was he took from these people. But I can’t answer them because I don’t know what to tell them!

Prick One tells me how Draven doesn’t care about me, and if he did, there is no way he’d have let this happen to me. There would have been no way for them to have gotten to me at all, but they did.

He’s trying to put doubts in my head about Draven. It’s working to a degree, but I think that has more to do with how much they’re torturing me. It’s getting so bad that I can no longer speak!

They pull cords on walls that empty huge buckets above my head, filled with some vile things. Insects, even ones that bite and slimy goo, that smell so bad I can’t help but vomit all over the place. Snakes crawl all over me, winding themselves around my legs, and the spiders have me screaming in fear. I hate spiders! More cold water, more insects, more shocks, and I feel like I’m dying; my body is getting weaker. I can’t even make up a lie, so they’ll stop because I can’t move to even try to speak.

Prick One remarks that I obviously don’t care about my unborn baby at all. But that’s not true; all I care about is my baby! He tells me I can go home right now if I just open my mouth and hand over the information.

I could do that if I were stupid, but they aren’t going to let me out of this place, no matter what I say or do. I’m angry with myself for not putting up more of a fight to get out of here. I’m angry with Draven for not fulfilling his promise to keep me safe. His enemies got to me so easily through one of his own men.

I feel my heartbeat pick up. Prick One has a gun to my head. So, this is how I die. Not by the hands of my racist father and the hundreds of beatings he gave me over the years. Not by the hands of my abusive husband. By the hands of Draven’s enemies.

I wonder if they’ll do what they promise and send my body parts to Draven to teach him a lesson. I wonder if my sister will ever be able to lay me to rest.

These monsters can tell me a thousand times that Draven doesn’t care about me, but I won’t believe it. Just as I didn’t believe Stefano when he said Draven wanted this. I can’t explain any of what I’m feeling for that man, but I know he’d never have ordered this.

“You have three seconds to tell me what I want to know. Just give up, Marnie. You think Draven wouldn’t have sold you out by now? You think he wouldn’t have given up the information we desire if he were in your position? Just tell us what we want to know, and you can go home. You want that, don’t you, Marnie? You want to go home?”

I’m going to die. My baby is going to die. These men will tell me anything, promise me anything to get me to rat Draven out. They won’t let me go home no matter what I say. I may die here. Draven may lose the child he’s come to love, but I won't be disloyal to him. He may not care about me, but I care about him. They’ll tell him what they’ve done to me, and he’ll kill them. No, he’ll destroy them, and I’ll be watching from the afterlife with a smile on my face.

But I wish more than anything I could save my baby. I wish I could think of something to tell these men, a lie that would buy me some time. But I can’t.

I swallow hard and finally find my voice.

“Go to hell!” I grit between my teeth.

I’ve been through so much in my life; I’ve been beaten within an inch of my life more than once. Sure, this is the worst thing I’ve ever had to endure, but I once told myself that if I were to go out, I’d go out strong, and I mean to. I’ll go to the other side with my baby, where we can be together forever.

“Do what you want to me, but I will never betray my man,”

I scream to the heavens, shock rippling through my body once more from the power of that cattle prod, and I honestly wish for death to come and take me.

Don’t give up, Marnie. Never give up.

The sound of a gunshot in my foggy state is the only thing that’s real. He shot me, and I’m dying.

What the hell did I do to deserve this?