CHAPTER 93: GUN PLAY

The room thickened with tension, as Valentina went ahead in her description.

"There’s the occipital bone. That’s where the bullet would pierce through first. Then it would shred through your visual cortex. Apparently, I mean going by the books, you stop seeing before you stop breathing. Interesting right?"

"You’re wasting time. Shoot if you’re going to," Luciano broke through her narration to say.

In response, she pressed the gun harder and continued anyway.

"There’s your cerebellum next. You know the one that handles your coordination? What happens when your coordination and balance is gone? Your body collapses before the pain fully hits."

Luciano inhaled sharply and she caught it.

"Now we’re visualizing, right? The bullet continues to trail through pons, medulla, causing your heart beat to falter. Your tongue slacks. Then comes the finality of things. And they say science is not interesting. Should I have become a scientist instead of picking up a camera?" She tilted her head in thought.

"Do it Valentina. Kill me, then you are free to go into space if you please," he goarded her.

She pressed the gun harder, and Luciano closed his eyes in wait of the moment.

The moment that would prove to him just how deeply her hatred for him ran, even though he would be dead by that time.

"I’m not a fool Luciano." She pulled the gun away, and dropped it on his lap.

His eyes flew open, as he heard her heels clicking.

Luciano saw her return to the chair across him.

"What is this?" He questioned.

"Like I said, I’m not foolish. The moment that gun shoots through your head, the doors will open. Your boys, even dear Elio that cares a lot about me will clamor for me to be put down. No questions asked. I’d never taste freedom. If anything, I’d be condemned to an eternity with you on the other side. Doesn’t sound appealing." She shrugged.

He almost smiled. You could say anything you want about Valentina, but she wasn’t stupid.

Far from it.

He rose to his feet, picking up the gun himself.

"You do understand that this is you relinquishing your freedom right? That you had the opportunity to choose, and you chose Neravalle?" He walked over to her, his eyes never leaving her.

"There was never an option to begin with. Kill you, and die. Don’t kill you, and remain under your mercy. I don’t fear death. I just want to dictate how I die," she said as he stopped in front of her.

She didn’t see his next move coming. One moment, she was standing freely, and the next, her back was against the table, the chair flung to the other end of the room, and his gun pressed against her forehead.

"Who gave you the phone you used in calling Ross Voltron to tell him you’re in Neravalle, and that he needed to come get you?"

Valentina’s eyes flickered. "What are you talking about?"

"Don’t play the pretense game with me, Valentina. I hate it."

"No, not about the phone thing. Who told you I told Richard about my whereabouts?"

He snickered. "If you think I’d believe a word that comes out of your mouth, then you’re crazy."

"So how would you know it’s true, if I tell you who gave me the phone? Not like I’m going to anyway."

The smile on his face that followed her words, was the deadliest she had ever seen.

She shuddered visibly, and it clearly pleased him as his sick smile widened.

"All I need to do is check the footage. It’ll take me less than ten seconds to figure out who it was. But I’m giving you the opportunity to fess up. I kill betrayers with a snap of my finger. You won’t be any different."

"Then do it," she challenged. "Because I’d rather die than tell you."

"What stops me from killing them after killing you, because I’ll find out."

She shrugged. "At least my conscience will be clear."

"Conscience?" He chuckled, moving the gun to the bridge of her nose.

Her breath hitched, and his smile widened.

"I wouldn’t have taken you for a woman with a conscience, seeing how you invited the enemy to my home."

The gun continued to her mouth where her lips parted reflexively to let out a breath.

It didn’t stop there as it moved down her throat, past her collarbone.

"You’re perhaps the biggest hypocrite, Valentina. You pretend not to know anything, when you know the most. You play both sides, weaponizing your faux kindness. I’ll bet anything that in your attempt to get that phone, you acted the damsel in distress. Who did you convince? Elio? What did you promise him in return?"

The gun reached the top of her breasts, right at the cleft that divided the left from right, the same moment he made those heavy accusations.

Valentina’s eyes turned icy. "What do you take me for?"

"A manipulative liar for starters. You claim sex is a man’s gain, but you don’t mind using your beauty to get what you want, do you? What did you promise Elio?" He alleged again, rubbing the muzzle in a circular motion at the cleft of her breasts.

Valentina trembled, as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I let you have access to my body, and you throw it in my face?" She questioned through a broken voice.

It touched his heart, but the darkness and anger in him had consumed him too much for him to stop.

"Did you also let him have access to your body? Is that why he betrayed me?" He continued without remorse.

"You bastard! If you’re going to kill me, just shoot already " She screamed, her voice echoing round the room.

He smiled, enjoying every bit of torture he was putting her through.

"Don’t look at me that way. This is the side of me I chose not to show you. Even when I found out you are the daughter of that bastard, Allen Wallace. Well until you betrayed me in the worst way possible. Turned my own against me by manipulating them into giving you a phone, which you used to call an enemy into my camp." He shook his head bitterly.

"You’re so blind to the people you surround yourself with and their true intentions. So it’s easier to blame me for things I didn’t even do."

He laughed. "Speaking of anatomy, Valentina—" he lowered the gun past her sternum, further down.

Her breath shook, and he smiled. "You’re afraid," he said as a statement.

"No. I just pity you," she replied through a thin, shaky voice.

"Liar," he whispered.

The gun went further down past her stomach, and then parted the fabric covering her thighs.

In between her thighs, he pressed the muzzle of the gun.

Her voice broke, and her knees wobbled.

"Do you know what will happen if I fire right here?" He questioned, his darkened eyes glued to her moistened eyes.

She couldn’t answer. Now she was afraid. Looking into his eyes, she could only see darkness, and death.

But it wasn’t just fear that gripped her. There was something else. Something sicker. Damn near shameful to admit.

Luciano leaned in carefully, his mouth going to her ears.

"I’ll show you mercy if you beg, and renounce your ties to Ross Voltron. And then tell me who the fuck gave you a phone," he whispered.

A tear rolled down Valentina’s face. "I can’t," she replied, her voice, a broken mess.