Mason.
The sight on the screen in front of us is sickening. While many of us try to scramble around the laptop to get a better view, Matteo quickly ushers us into the loungeroom with it while he starts yelling at Luca to hand him certain cables, plugging the laptop screen into the TV. It now shows on the 60 inch screen, Isla. She punches brutally in the face while Pedro says something to her we can’t hear.
“Why can’t we hear it?!” I ask annoyed.
“There’s no audio with it.” He glances up from the screen for a moment and the back to it as he splits the screen into two sections and starts some sort of decoding system on the side. The next minute Isla is dragged out of the room and the video stops. We all wait, too afraid to even breathe until a few minutes pass and the scene changes. The room is different; there’s a chair in the middle that she’s strapped to. Her face is deathly calm as she opens her mouth for someone to put a wooden gag across it. Nico grabs my hand; his eyes never leave the screen as he grips it tightly and I squeeze it back. Someone else enters the screen, dressed all in black with their face covered. They pick up two metal looking things, walking over to Isla. Her eyes connect with the camera, like she’s looking straight into my soul as those things are brought down to her temples, and her body begins convulsing uncontrollably. There’s a collective gasp around the room.
“They’re electrocuting her.” Donna says on an exhale as we watch the man step away and her body continues to spasm. Her eyes roll into the back of her head and drool drips from her chin before her body slumps, her chest rising and falling rapidly as her eyes close. They wait for her to become conscious before they do it again, and again. My grip on Nico’s hand is painful, but it’s nothing compared to what Isla must be feeling. No one says a word. All that is heard is the furious typing on the keyboard as Matteo tries to work out where the feed is coming from. When the screen goes black again, I
look to Matteo.
“Anything?”
“No. They must have a very experience tech.” He says while still typing away.
I grab the coffee table in the middle of the room and throw it against the wall. No one flinches. Nico simply embraces me, smoothing the back of my hair.
“We will find her.”
Isla
I’m thrown back into the nasty room I first woke up in. My body is weak, my mind is numb, but I still have more control over myself than what I did when I first woke up here. I just need to bid my time. I need the right opportunity. I need to learn my surroundings and utilize what I can to get myself out of here. By now I assume my family is already searching for me, but I also know that they would have no clue where to start, so I need to think of a way to get myself out of here. I can’t count on being a damsel in distress, ready to be saved. No, I need to be a warrior, ready to rain down hell on these mother fuckers.
Someone brings in a plastic bowl of cold porridge, no spoon, and a bottle of water and once they leave, I scoff down both. I’m smart enough to know they might have put something in the food, but also, they weren’t shy about drugging me the first time, so I feel like it’s safe enough to eat. Once I’m done with that, I flip the mattress over, and it’s just as disgusting on both sides, but I prop it up against two of the walls to make myself a little corner where the camera can’t see and I curl in on my side as I force myself to try and sleep. Sustenance and rest. Calm mind and planning. Observe everything. I keep these thoughts running through my mind as I go through everything my Mom has ever taught me. I don’t focus on my men, on my family, on how they would be feeling right now. No, the real fight is in here with me, and I’m the one that’s going to need to win.
Nico
As much as I also want to rage out and break some shit, I don’t. Once, because Luciano’s last slap hurt like a mother fucker and two, because Isla needs me to be focused on finding her right now. The video has been left on a black screen for about ten minutes now when a change of lighting draws my attention back to it. It’s not a video this time, but words written across the screen.
43
“I have the famous Donatello family Princess. Which means I have the power. Don’t do anything stupid, or she will receive the punishment. I’ll contact you with the next instructions in exactly 12 hours, until then do nothing.”
Twelve hours?! Twelve fucking hours. He wants us to sit around and wait?! He’s fucking delusional! He’s already hurt her. What the fuck would he consider punishment?
A location is sent and pinned to the screen.
Mason claps his hands. “Let’s fucking go!” It’s Ariana that stands up in front of him.
“No. The message said no to do anything. It’s a test. If we do anything with that“, she points to the screen, “Isla wil feel the wrath of it. We do nothing that will catch his attention. We wait for Matteo to work through the tech side of things, we rest, we recover, and we get ourselves ready for exactly twelve hours from now. For whatever may
come.
I can see the rage burning in his eyes. The need to move, to know, to get Isla back. I must wait.
feel too,
but Ariana is right. We
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