Page 29 of Blood and Penance (The Puglisi Crime Family #1)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Phoenix

I groan, struggling to open my eyes as I try to gain my bearings. A searing pain pounds the inside my skull like a jackhammer, accompanied by a deafening, high-pitched whirring that feels like it’s drilling into my brain.

Fuck that hurts.

“There she is,” he says and for a moment my brain is not connecting with the voice I’m hearing.

“Lio? Bu…but you’re dead. I killed you.”

I try to grab my head when a wave of dizziness and nausea moves through me, but I can’t move my arm. I try to move the other one and I can’t move it either. My gaze rises to the ceiling, where thick, stiff black rope binds my wrists to an exposed beam above.

What the hell?

“What’s happening?” I try to move again but not only can I not move my arms, but I can’t move my legs either.

My eyes travel down my naked body, landing on the floor where thick black rope encircled my ankles, anchored to the solid hardwood floor through metal anchors.

Where are my clothes?

“It’s the drugs,” he says. “They’ll wear off but not until I'm finished with you.”

My gaze drifts back to my husband. He smirks as he stands only inches in front of me.

“Yo…you drugged me?”

My words are thick and sluggish like my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.

“You gave me no choice.” He brushes the barrel of a black handgun down my cheek, along my jaw, then over my breasts, and down my stomach, before running it up the slit of my pussy. “You almost clawed my fucking eyes out.”

I squirm trying to move his hands away from me, but he doesn’t do anything but chuckle. His other hand moves over his face causing me to squint at the angry, red welts that reach from his brow all the way down his jaw line.

“You…you fucking deserved it,” I mumble, my head lolling to the side.

He grips my chin bringing my face back to his.

His blunt nails dig into my skin causing me to wince.

“You should be showing some fucking gratitude, Phoenix. You’re lucky you’re still breathing.

But I love you and as long as you apologize and take your punishment for what you’ve done like a good girl then we can get on with our lives like this never happened. How’s that sound?

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. While this drug may have my head fucked up, I know I will never apologize to Lio. “Fuck…you.”

He can shove that apology he will never get from, me up his ass. I wish I had the strength to tell him.

“You stupid bitch!” His olive complexion turns red as he grips my throat. “Why do you mess everything up!”

I jerk my body trying to get him to loosen his grip from around my throat, but all that does is piss him off even more than he already is. He tightens his hold, cutting off my air flow.

“We had a good life!” He screams in my face. “All you had to do was know your fucking place! No, you couldn’t do that because I spoiled you too goddamn much!”

And that is something Lio in the beginning said he loved about me. My independence. My, I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. It was all a lie to gain my trust.

As the fight drains from me. I can hardly hear him, and my thoughts are becoming muddled.

Seems like an odd time to remember, but somewhere I read it only takes between sixty-one and hundred twenty seconds before death happens when being strangled.

My body stops moving and my eyes become heavy.

And as it becomes more difficult to breathe, I know my time is running out fast.

I try to speak but it’s impossible and when my eyes close, the pressure from around my neck lightens. I gasp and cough as I try to pull air into my lungs.

“Do you think I would let this end so quickly?” He brushes the column of his nose up my neck, inhaling as he goes. Nothing but repulsion moves through me. “No, my lovely wife. We have so much time to make up for.”

Fear overtook me. There have always been two sides to Lio D’Amico.

The one who showered me with love and affection in the very beginning.

It didn’t last long, but it had happened.

And then there is this Lio D’Amico. The devil in a bespoke suit.

The power-hungry asshole who has to control everything even me.

“Get away from me,” I manage to say through the pain in my throat and the drugs.

“Oh no, my sweet wife,” he chuckles, twisting my nipple hard. I don’t make a sound because that’s what he wants. He wants my reaction, and I refuse to give him anything else of me. “We are just beginning.”

I squirm but it does no good. I scream with as much power as I can muster even though I know no one is coming to save me. I’m at his mercy.

He starts to undo his pants, and that evil glint in his eyes lets me know I’m going to be in for the fight of my life.

“You are my wife,” he says as he pulls his dick from inside his slacks. “You are my property. I can do with you what I please.”

“Stay away from me!”

This motherfucker still has his dried cum and her dried juices from earlier still on him. I want to fucking throw up.

“You touch me, and I will kill you,” I sneer. “He’ll kill you!”

“Your, Priest?” He chuckles. “He’s saving your son right now. He has bigger things to worry about.”

His stands inches from me and his hardened length lays against my core, while he smirks at my threats. His callous fingertips brush against my thigh and I squirm trying to get him away from me as they move higher.

“Don’t touch me!” I scream. “Lio! I swear on everything I love, if you do this, I will kill you.”

“No one is going to save you, wife,” he says as his fingers move back and forth over my folds before moving to my clit. “You are mine like you were always meant to be. And once I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for me to kill you.”

When he leans in close to kiss me, I bite down hard on his lip.

He screams jerking away from me. His blood coats the inside of my mouth and I spit it in his face.

For a moment he just stares at me, his chest rapidly rising and falling, then his anger detonates like a massive bomb as his fist connects with my face.

My vision blurs, as sharp pressure builds behind my swollen eye.

His calloused fingers caress my jaw, and I turn my head away causing a wave a dizziness to move through me again.

With a grip on my chin, he forces me to look into his eyes.

“I love you, Phoenix D’Amico. And one day you’ll understand that everything I do, I do it for you.”

“Don’t do this Lio,” I plea. “I don’t want this.”

“You do want this,” he says, surging inside me causing me to scream.

Pain rushes through my entire body. It feels like he’s ripping me apart.

“You’re just confused at the moment. But you’re mine Phoenix,” he grunts in my ear.

Nausea mixes with pain as it consumes me.

“Now is the time to start remembering I’m your husband.

Not that fucking priest and I’m never letting you go.

Until death do us part, sweetheart. Fuck you feel good. ”

I buck and squirm as much as I can to get him away from me to no avail. He continues to thrust in and out of me.

“I’m going to kill you,” I say over and over again as he whispers his love for me in my ear.

While he continues to force himself on me, he places his gun under my chin. “Do your worst sweetheart because I'm never leaving you, Phoenix. And you are never leaving me. Maybe after I fill you with my cum a few times you'll fucking realize this is forever, baby. Fucking forever,” he groans.

His grunts fill the room, and I close my eyes, praying that I'm anywhere but here.

I've always known that Lio’s a monster, but I never believed he would do this to me.

As my mind drifts to some place other than here, he releases inside me with a deep groan and his body shudders.

"Have I ever told you how much I love this cunt?

" he asks as he continues to move in an out of me and all I feel is disgust and rage as tears fall down from my eyes causing him to chuckle.

"Don't worry sweetheart, there's more where that came from. "

I spit in his face but before he can respond or retaliate, gunshots ring out in the distance. Lio stills, before he frantically pulls out of me then pulls up his pants.

The sound of screams and gunshots is such sweet music to my ears, and I burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

“I’m going to kill you, Lio,” I say through my laughter. “I’m going to make sure you suffer.”

He narrows his eyes at me then he pulls a knife from an ankle sheath. I know I should be scared, but I’m not. This man has taken so much from me. I refuse to cower to him.

He leans in for a kiss, but I turn away. “I love you, Phoenix.” His breath brushes against my ear and nausea churns my stomach. “But if I can’t have you. No one will, especially your priest.”

Then unimaginable searing hot pain lashes through my stomach then radiates outward. My mouth drops open, but the pain has stolen my voice. Through the blurry vision from my tears and pain I watch as Lio disappears from my line of sight out a side door.

“Phoenix!”

When I hear Gianni scream my name, the amount of relief that moves through me is indescribable. Even though he sounds far away, I know he's coming for me. He'll always come for me.

“Phoenix!” he screams again.

This time he sounds closer.

“Gianni,” I say, the words catching in my throat. “Help, me.”

My head is throbbing, and pain is radiating throughout my entire body. Blood is not only coating the inside of my thighs from his assault but the front of my body. I’ve never been in so much pain.

Footsteps thunder outside the door of the building where Lio has me. The door flies open and once I see Gianni, my head drops.

“Fuck, Phoenix.” When he reaches me, he tears off his shirt and presses it against the wound in my stomach causing me to scream. “I’m sorry, baby. But I’ve got to stop the bleeding. Get her down Lorenzo!” he frantically shouts.

A few moments later my legs and ankles are free, then my naked, bloody body is gathered into Gianni’s arms. “Find him,” Gianni says, as we move outside the building. “And keep him alive.”

I bury my head into Gianni’s chest, every step he takes excruciating pain floods my system.

“Will do,” Lorenzo says. “I’ll call Vincenzo. She’ll need immediate care. She’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Do it. Tell him we’re on the way.”

“Gianni?” I call his name despite the amount of pain it causes me to form the words.

“Don’t talk sweetheart. Save your strength.”

“I want…to…kill him.”

“You know I can never say no to you.”

With everything Lio D’Amico has done to me, I want to be the one who ends his life. But not after making him pay. He deserves everything that’s coming to him. This time I’ll make sure he’s dead, and he’ll die knowing I’m the one who sent him straight to hell.