Chapter 3: Blood In The Alley

Another man was on his knees.

Slumped forward. His chest was rising in short, sharp bursts like every breath was borrowed. His skin was slick with blood, thick trails of it pouring from his split lip, down his chin, and onto the already soaked. One eye was swollen shut. The other barely held consciousness. His face..bruised, beaten, broken beyond recognition.

The other man stood above him, pointing a gun towards him.

His shirt clung to his frame, soaked from both rain and blood, the sleeves rolled up past his forearms, revealing knuckles skinned raw and red. He held the pistol like it was an extension of his own body. Effortless. Natural. Made to kill.

He stepped closer.

The man on his knees flinched, a pained grunt crawling up his throat.

He crouched.

One hand gripped the man’s chin, forcing his battered face upward. His own face stayed cold as he whispered into the man’s face.

“Tradire la famiglia è come pugnalare Dio. E tu, Diego, hai scelto l’inferno. Ora sentilo bruciare.”

[To betray the family is to stab God himself. And you, Diego, chose hell. Now feel it burn.]

Then he stood.

Without hesitation. Without drama.

He raised the gun.

BANG.

The first bullet entered his forehead and exited the back of his skull. His head snapped opened. Blood exploded against the brick wall behind him.

BANG.

The second shot silenced his body completely. He collapsed, face first, splashing into the puddle like a puppet cut from its strings.

BANG.

The third was personal. Final. Overkill.

And that’s when it happened.

From the far end of the alley…a scream. Sharp. Feminine. Raw with terror with what she had just witnessed.

Dominic froze.

His head turned toward the sound slowly, like a predator responding to the faintest tremble of prey.

Isadora Bell’s hand was still over her mouth.

Her body stood exposed now, halfway between panic and paralysis. Her legs were stiff, her breath sharp and wet in her throat. She hadn’t meant to scream. It tore out of her before her brain could catch up.

Her eyes locked with his.

She couldn’t look away.

She couldn’t breathe.

She didn’t see the gun. She didn’t see the body. She didn’t even register her own soaked clothes or the fact that her knees were shaking beneath her.

She saw him.

Dominic Valenzo.

The man who had just taken a life with the same expression most people used to order coffee.

He didn’t blink.

He didn’t move.

He just stared at her like she wasn’t a stranger. Like she was next.

Then she moved.

It wasn’t a decision. It was survival. Her body snapped into motion, stumbling backward before she turned and bolted, slipping in the puddles, her breath catching in her throat as she sprinted through the alley.

“HELP ME! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!”

She didn’t care where she was going anymore. She just ran. Faster. Harder. Like maybe, if she pushed her body enough, she could outrun what she saw.

“PLEASE!” she screamed again. “PLEASE! OH MY GOD…HELP ME!”

Her legs were shaking as her chest burned. Her breath came out in panicked sobs. Her arms were hugging herself as she ran like she could somehow hold her insides in place.

Tears streamed down her face, mixing with the rain that soaked her hair, her clothes.

“I DIDN’T MEAN TO SEE ANYTHING! I SWEAR I DIDN’T…I DIDN’T MEAN TO!”

She slipped.

Her foot caught ground and she stumbled forward, knees crashing against the pavement as her knees started to bleed.

She cried out. Loud. Guttural. Pain exploded in her legs but she didn’t stop.

She scrambled back to her feet, palms bleeding as she gripped her knees to stop it from bleeding. breath wheezing. Her whole body trembled.

“PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! I WAS JUST GOING HOME…I WAS JUST TRYING TO GET HOME!”

She screamed again. And again.

“IS ANYBODY THERE? PLEASE! PLEASE….

She sobbed as she turned another corner, the buildings spinning around her in a blur of rain and shadow as she felt dizzy. What was happening to her body? Was it the shock of it all or what?

“I CAN’T DO THIS…I CAN’T..OH GOD PLEASE..I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

Her legs buckled again but she pushed forward, one foot dragging in front of the other.

“ETHAN! SOMEONE…ANYONE…PLEASE…!”

“I didn’t ask for this,” she sobbed. “I didn’t…”

She gasped as her legs gave out for real this time.

She collapsed.

Face-first onto the cold, wet ground.

Her breath hitched. Her body refused to move.

She blinked up at the sky, soaked hair clinging to her cheeks.

And then she felt it.

The presence.

She didn’t need to lift her head.

She already knew.

He was there.

Standing over her.

She turned her head, trembling, crying, helpless.

And then his shadow devoured her as she could not stop shaking then he crouched. His black boots were just an inches far from her bleeding knee.

He crouched further slowly, one hand resting on his knee, the other holding the pistol she had just watched blow a man’s skull wide open.

The blood was still wet on his skin.

And he was smiling.

Not the smile of a man amused.

The smile of a predator who had cornered prey.

“Well, well,” he murmured.

“What do we have here?”

Her mouth opened but nothing came out. Her jaw trembled. Her teeth clacked.

“Hi there,” he whispered, leaning in, eyes dragging over her soaked body. “Pretty little doctor.”

Her breathing hitched, panicked sobs catching in her throat.

“You just witnessed something you weren’t supposed to see,” he continued, casually pressing the barrel of his gun against the center of her forehead.

She flinched so violently she nearly toppled over.

“Oh fuck,” he chuckled darkly. “What shall I do with you, huh?”

He tilted his head, eyes glinting with cruel curiosity.

“Maybe I should paint the pavement with your brains. Right here. Right now. Let the city wash away what’s left of you.”

“No…no…please,” she gasped, tears mixing with rain on her cheeks. “Don’t kill me. I didn’t…I wasn’t…I swear I won’t say anything…”

“I have a family..I have a job..I’m a doctor..”

Then it happened.

A sharp warmth. Piss.

Humiliation flooded her body before she could process it.

Her bladder gave out. Hot piss spilled down her thighs, soaking through her jeans, pooling under her knees and she felt it…every humiliating second of it…her body betraying her completely.

She let out a sob as she placed her face in her palms.

Dominic looked down.

Then back up at her.

And he smiled.

“Look at that,” he said softly, like he was complimenting her. “You pissed yourself.”

Her body shook with silent sobs as she could not hear to look up.

“And I haven’t even pulled the trigger yet.”

He dragged the barrel of the gun slowly across her jaw, over her lips, tracing her as if he were memorizing her fear.

“You’re shaking,” he whispered. “You smell like fear. Your pulse is pounding so hard I can hear it from here.”

He leaned in closer. Inches from her face.

His voice dropped to a growl.

“I could kill you, right now. And no one..no one..would ever know. Do you understand that?”

She nodded violently, sobbing. “Please…please don’t…I’ll do anything…”

He grinned as he placed his finger tips on her lips.

“Anything?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Please, I swear, anything..”

He leaned even closer, nose brushing her cheek, gun still pressed to her head.

His breath was fire against her skin.

“Then beg, puttana.”

[Beg, little whore.]