The Mafia King of Philadelphia: From witness to his doted wife

A second car pulled through the gate and stopped hard. The door flew open before the engine stopped. Viktor got out and did not look at the Don, or at the walls, or at the guards. He crossed the yard in long, fast steps and went straight to Sienna.

His hand found hers and closed around it.

He held on hard, like a man holding something he almost lost. His fingers were cold. She looked at him and saw a red mark on his jaw and a tear in his sleeve. I should not have let go the first time, his eyes said. I will not let go again.

She squeezed back. That was all. No words. She did not need them. Carina stepped out of the car behind him. She stood by the door with her arms wrapped around herself.

”Let’s go inside,” the Don said. He said it warmly, cheerfully, like a man inviting guests into his home. He glanced at Viktor, holding Sienna’s hand, and did not seem to mind at all.

Let him stay, the Don thought. As long as she comes in. That is all that matters. The steel door opened with a slow, heavy groan.

The steel door opened into a long, cold hallway.

There were no white walls here. The floor was bare concrete, and the light came from bulbs in metal cages. The air smelled like rust and old water. Somewhere far away, a drip fell again and again, and it was the only sound.

”This place has sections,” the Don said, as if he were showing a guest around a hotel. ”Each one has its own purpose.” Nobody answered him.

”This first one is for people I want to punish.” He walked ahead with his hands behind his back. ”Slowly. A quick death is a gift. I do not give that gift to everyone.”

Viktor’s grip on Sienna’s hand tightened. The hallway ended in a row of cells with iron bars. Most were empty. Some were not. Sienna saw shapes on the floor, and she looked away from them fast. She did not want to know.

The Don stopped at the last cell and nodded to a guard. The lock turned with a hard clack. ”Here,” he said softly. ”I saved this one for you.”

Sienna looked in.

A man hung from the wall by chains. His wrists were bound above his head, and his feet barely touched the ground. His shirt was gone. His skin was covered in cuts and dark bruises, some old and yellow, some new and wet. His head hung forward, and his gray hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat.

He was in a very bad state.

Sienna could not look at him. Her eyes slid to the floor, then to the wall, then to nothing. Her stomach turned over. She had studied bodies in a classroom, but this was not a classroom, and that was not a body. It was a man who was still breathing.

Then the man moved. His head lifted a little, and she saw the shape of his face under all the damage. Her breath stopped.

Capri. Don Capri.

Once, this man had commanded rooms full of men. He had worn fine suits and laughed loudly and never lowered his voice for anyone. Now he looked like a stranger she knew what he had done.

It all came back at once.

His daughter, Aliya. Capri had stood behind Aliya the whole time, and together they had hurt her over and over. And every name they called her, she remembered.

Nobody. Trash. Gutter rat. A girl who does not belong in our world.

She had not deserved a single one. She had not asked to be part of their dark world, or Viktor’s. She had only wanted to live.

But she was no pushover. She had fought back. She had found their weak spots and cut deep, and in the end she left them bankrupt, with nothing but empty accounts and angry faces.

That had not stopped them, though. It had only made them come at her harder. And now here he was. Chained to a wall.

”Look at him, princess,” the Don said. His voice was quiet. He stepped up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, and she felt every finger.

”This is the man who tried to hurt you.” He turned to the cell and raised his voice, clear and bright, so it echoed off the stone.

”Capri. Look up.” The chained man stirred. His head lifted a little more. His eyelids were swollen, and his vision swam.

”This is my real daughter,” the Don said. ”My Katalia. The one you wanted me to kill, while your girl sat in her chair and wore her name.”

Capri’s eyes found Sienna. They were red and cloudy, and it took him a long time to focus. Then they cleared, just a little, and they went wide. His cracked lips shook.

He could not believe it. All this time. The girl he had hated and hunted and laughed at was the Don’s missing daughter. The one thing he should have never touched.

His mouth opened. A rough sound came out.

”Y...” The Don raised his gun. Sienna had not even seen him take it out. It was suddenly there in his hand, dark and steady.

He fired once.

The sound was enormous. It slammed off the concrete, and it hit Sienna in the chest like a fist. Capri’s head snapped back. The chains rattled. His body hung for one second, and then it sagged and went still.

Silence came after it, deep and ringing. Sienna’s mouth opened.

She was going to scream. She could feel it climbing up her throat, hot and sharp, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her whole body shook. Her eyes were fixed on that dark, quiet shape on the wall.

Then something warm came over her face. It covered her mouth, firm but not rough, then a hand slid across her eyes. An arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back, and she felt Viktor’s chest against her back, hard and warm and breathing fast.

He held her tight, right in front of him, with his body between her and the Don.

”Shh,” he breathed against her hair, so low that no one else could hear. ”Do not make a sound. I have you.”