Page 4 of Taking Over the Dark
FIVE
ZAMIR
I’ve been sitting on this bench in the locker room for way too long with my head cradled in my hands as I wait for Marcello to finally show up. Based on how he was seething on the phone, it won’t be long before he arrives, but all I can do is watch the footage of that big fucker carrying me into the storage closet on repeat. Marcello is wasting precious time we could be using to figure out where Ellie and Nash have been taken to by not believing me.
?*The door flies open and hits the cement wall behind it, which may have just cracked based on the sound of the impact. Shooting up from the bench and turning around, I lock eyes with averypissed-off Marcello as he comes barreling at me. Not putting up a fight whatsoever, I surrender to him. If I were to attempt to fight back, I know he would make the quick and easy decision to end my life right here. Plus it’ll make me look even guiltier than I already do.
“What the fuck have you done, Prifti?” He’s got me in a rear naked choke, on the ground, and is practically growling in my ear. Of course, Marcello’s not a punch-you-in-the-face kind of guy. He wants the control a choke has on someone. He wants to feel the fight leave your body and drain the soul from its vessel.He needs to hear you beg for your life, knowing he’s not going to relent. I would take a brutal beating rather than have my breath taken from me.
I plea with him, my voice strained, “Barone, let me explain…”
“It’s Barone now? You’re fucking guilty. I know it.” He pulls back even harder on his arm that’s under my chin.
I’m still gasping for oxygen as my vision starts to spot. “Whatever I say isn’t going to be enough for you.” I’ve been where he is… had to make the decision to take lives on numerous occasions—usually with only a moment's notice.But it was never due to a lover being taken… and as a pawn at that. I can only imagine the rage boiling over in him.
“You were supposed to be protecting them.”
Fuck.
Right then, it hits me. That’s why he left and felt comfortable enough to head back to his office, because he trusted me with them… to protect them. I should’ve never let Nash leave the locker room before me. It makes my heart soar at the praise but then cracks right back open when I, in fact, was not there to keep them safe. It was my job to defend them. Sure, Nash can shoot, but he doesn’t walk around alert like he should. Ellie’s a hundred times more alert than he is.
“Boss.” I hear Vin’s growly voice from the other side of the room, but my vision is tunneling in, and there’s no focusing on anything besides trying to suck air in. Luckily, Marcello’s grip is loosening slightly, and I use that as my reprieve to breathe a little easier. “You need to see the footage that their families hacker sent over.”
Marcello’s lips brush the shell of my ear, causing me to suck in a breath. He whispers, “You better be ready to explain and more than ready to earn my trust back.”
A shiver racks my body when I feel his teeth grab onto my ear for a split second, but he immediately releases it and throws meto the ground. Laying on my stomach, I suck in the much needed air and send a thank you down to the Devil for Vin looking at the footage.
I watch Marcello’s face fill with relief as he watches the footage of me being carried into the closet, but he quickly schools his expression. I continue lying on my stomach to avoid pissing off the bear even more.
Isn’t it play dead or be big? Something like that… right?!
He pulls his tie loose before working his sleeves up, rolling them in a meticulously slow, and oddly seductive, motion. The veins littering the perfectly olive skin of his arms need to be photographed and studied.
By no one else but me.
Those veins lead into the back of his hands… his big fucking hands. They’re flexing, with each roll of his sleeve. A groan escapes me before I can stop it.
Heat immediately rushes to my cheeks, but I wait. Maybe they didn’t hear it. “The two most important people are gone, missing, taken, captive… we can only hope not fucking dead. And what are you doing, Zamir? Moaning from the sight of what?” He cocks his head, raising his brows in question.
“Your veins,” barely above a whisper, I answer him. The words leave a sour taste in my mouth. But I can’t help the way my body reacts to him.
“Oh, you like veins, do you? Why don’t we hook you up with Ol’ Doc, then? He can drain all the blood from yours since you think this is some big fucking joke.” He casually strolls over to where I’m still lying, stomach down. “Put your hands behind your back.”
I do as I’m told. Marcello pulls his tie free and uses it to bind my wrists together behind my back. Because of how hard he has tied them together, my shoulders are pulled back into apermanently flexed position. Hopefully he doesn’t have plans to keep me like this long…
Vin pulls me by one of my arms from Marcello’s car’s trunk. This fucking car has three seats, but he felt the need to toss me around in the trunk… which I deserved after the shit I pulled in the locker room. My hands are still tied behind me, and Vin’s hand on my arm hasn’t wavered—as if I’m dumb enough to run from them.
?*We’re heading into Marcello’s warehouse, surgery/torture chamber, or office… whatever the hell you want to call this place.The room they lead me into is one we’ve been in before, but we didn’t spend much time in here the first time.It looks like an office, but I’m sure there are plenty of things he could torture me with in here… a stapler or even a pen.
I spot Noah’s computer setup and the evil genius hacker sitting behind the desk. If I can even call this thing a computer.It looks like the technology they might use to send the goddamn rockets into space, and I can tell Noah’s happier than a pig in shit getting to control it all.
Do I know what any of it is?
Fuck no.
Do I hope it somehow brings us closer to finding Ellie and Nash?
Of course.