Chapter One

Luciano.

My heart raced as pain surged through every limb in my body. I groaned loudly and attempted to sit up, only to curse and fall back against the cold, damp floor. My palms pressed against the concrete as I closed my eyes, grimacing in pain.

I wanted to cry, but I quickly pushed that thought aside. Crying would mean every single one of those bastards had won. Crying would mean I was weak, and weakness was not something I intended to show them.

"Brother." I craned my neck to the other side of the room, opening my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

You would think I would have gotten used to it after spending years here.

My brother.

He’s the only thing keeping me sane in these four cold, empty walls. He’s the only reason I look forward to the day and plan our escape.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly from the cold.

I gritted my teeth and let out a sigh. "I’m fine. Just a slight pain." I bit my tongue to avoid making another sound.

"You sure? The torture took longer today." He added, and I couldn't help but agree.

Those bastards believed that punishing me longer would make me talk—but what did they expect me to say when I had no idea what they were asking?

He let out a low grumble. "You should have let them take me…" I cut in, ignoring the pain in my ribs.

"Shut your mouth, Adriano," I snapped. Luckily for him, he understood the message and fell silent.

I would rather endure all the punishment than let them hurt my brother, Adriano. After all, this was all my fault.

"When are we leaving this place?" he asked, moving as close as his chains would allow.

We were both handcuffed and chained to opposite walls, but if I moved forward, we could touch in the middle of the room.

"Soon, Adriano, soon." And I meant it.

I couldn’t wait to leave this hellhole and take revenge on everyone who had a hand in our imprisonment.

I closed my eyes again, taking deep breaths as if I were in a war zone. Very soon, we would leave this place.

*****

The lights flickered in the room we were in. I refused to call it 'our prison' because it wasn’t ours. We weren't supposed to be in here. I thought I had done everything right; I believed all I needed was to get my hands on him, and everything would be okay. But I was wrong.

Even after living with people who treated us like trash yet ensured we saw the world for what it was—evil and cruel—we became strong and good at what we did. Still, I had messed up. But that was in the past; what had happened before wouldn’t happen again. This time, I was ready for him and everyone else.

"Brother."

It was time. I stared at my brother and slowly pulled the hidden knife from the back of my pants. I looked at the knife in my hand and then back at him as he got up. Outside our cell, I scowled at the guards standing by the door. They had been watching us since we were brought here. They changed shifts, but the result was the same. They stood outside our door as if we would try to ram our way through and escape.

The two of them were completely oblivious to our plan; they had no idea I was armed. I wondered what they would do when they found out—would they do as we said, or would they attack? I wouldn’t hesitate to use this knife on one of them if necessary. My blood boiled as I looked at my brother, who was struggling to get to his feet.

My brother. He was here with me because of my foolishness. Damn it! We wouldn’t be in this prison if I had only been smart enough to get rid of the rat in our lives. If I had taken the chance to eliminate him, we wouldn’t have ended up here; our father would have…

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts aside. This wasn’t the time or place to reminisce about that day. I had a plan, and I had to do everything I could to get us out of here.

I gritted my teeth and got to my feet. Adriano walked to the center of the room, shackled like an animal, just like me. The one who did this to us thought it would break us and make us back down from our plans, but he was wrong.

I wouldn’t hesitate to rain hell down on the man responsible for this—not just to me, but to us.

He should have kept my brother out of this. His involvement made it personal.

"It’s time," Adriano said, his eyes bloodshot with anger.

He had every right to be mad after being thrown in here without having done anything wrong.

I tightened my grip on the weapon in my hand; it was the only thing I could trust besides my brother. People tend to enter your life only to take everything from you and leave you when you're at your lowest.

I found more comfort in weapons than in people—they were nothing but backstabbing assholes.

Every single one of them.

We tried to make our movements as quick as possible as we met in the middle of the room. I used the knife to help him free his hands from the handcuffs. He stared at the knife weaving its way into the cuffs without blinking; these things didn’t scare him. He took the knife from me and did the same for my cuffs. I watched with a satisfied grin as the cuffs dropped from my hands to the ground, making a loud thud on impact, but that wasn’t our concern.

I didn’t care if the noise attracted the guards standing outside the gate. I focused on removing the cuffs around our legs, even though my body protested with every movement.

The little shift in the room and the sound of footsteps outside told me that the two guards must have caught wind of what was happening.

They turned to glance at us over their shoulders. None of them spoke until the bigger one opened his mouth.

“Inmates, what are you doing? You shouldn’t be wandering about. Stay in your cell quietly,” he snapped, narrowing his eyes at me before shifting his gaze to my brother.

The bastard.

I squeezed the knife tightly as I stalked over to the door, almost rolling my eyes at the look of disbelief on his face. I gripped the iron gate with my hands while they both watched. It didn't take long for Adriano to appear behind me.

“Open this cell,” he ordered, causing the bigger guard to frown.

The smaller guard exchanged a glance with the bigger one, and that was all I needed to know.

“You aren’t supposed to be standing here,” the bigger one said, looking at our free hands. “And without your cuffs,” he added.

“You’re going to open this gate. Now!” I snarled.

“You aren’t allowed to….. I don’t think—”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you think. Open this damn gate or you’ll find out what we can do,” Adriano threatened.

“We… haven’t been given the orders to—”

“You are, and now I’m ordering you to open this cell.”

He shook his head and looked at his companion.

They were both scared but trying their best not to show it. But they couldn’t hide it from me.

“I…” His words were cut off as Adriano grabbed the smaller guard, who was closer to the door, by the collar and pulled him closer until his face was pressed against the iron gate.

“Are you going to fucking listen now?” My eyes remained fixed on the bigger guard, whose mind seemed to be racing through options.

They weren’t going to do as we say because they had been given an order, and they were meant to follow it—even when facing death.

“You can’t hurt him,” the smaller guard gasped, like he was choking.

My brother wasn’t applying too much pressure around his neck, so he was definitely overreacting.

“Oh, you don’t want to know what I can do,” Adriano hissed, tugging the guard closer and grinning at him.

“We aren’t—”

“You don’t want to know what I would do to you once I’m out of here, do you?” His eyes flicked between his friend and me, and I watched in excitement as sheer fear became visible on the bigger guard's face.

“You can’t hurt us. I’m not going to let you do that,” he said, reaching for his radio, like he was going to call for help. Before he could react, I interrupted him.

“Ah, ah, you don’t want to do that,” I warned, and he froze.

His wide eyes darted to me, waiting for my next words.

I said nothing, merely passing the knife to Adriano, who took it without asking any questions. He held the guard’s collar with one hand and pressed the knife to his neck with the other.

My gaze shifted back to the bigger guard, whose eyes were glued to the knife at his buddy’s throat.

“One wrong answer will end him,” I whispered.

This was taking longer than I had anticipated, but I wasn’t going to stop now.

“You... you can’t...” he stuttered, sweat starting to drip down his face.

I grinned. “I can’t what? Kill him?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out.

“Open this fucking gate!” The urgency in my voice seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in.

He hesitated initially, but the panicked pleas of his friend urged him to take a step forward. He was taking too long to get me out of here, and the more time he wasted, the more I craved the blood of the man who put my brother and me in this place.

His hands shook as he finally opened the door. In an instant, Adriano released the smaller guard, moved past me, and grabbed the bigger guard by the neck, squeezing tightly enough that his face turned red.

“You took too long to get us out,” Adriano growled in his ear, and I knew the consequences of this delay would be anything but pleasant.

“I’m—” The words barely left the guard's mouth before my brother spun him around and seized his hand.

“Since you aren’t going to use them properly, I thought I’d help you make them worthless,” he sneered as the guard stared at him, eyes wide with fear.

Fear. All men die because of fear.

A loud scream pierced the air as Adriano bent the guard's hand at an unnatural angle. The sound of bone breaking mingled with the guard's cries, filling the space around us. I couldn’t help but smile—fuck, it felt good to do this again.