Chapter 80 Surprise Scene
Lila POV
As we walked down the hall, I couldn’t help but wonder what Nico meant by saying he knew exactly what I needed. It wasn’t the first time he said it, but I’d been under the impression he meant it sexually. That he knew what I needed when it came to sex. But after he said it again this morning, I got the feeling I was wrong. He meant something else and I just couldn’t figure out what.
I glanced up at him. He had that tick in his jaw again, hard lines forming across his face. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was feeling nervous. “Where are we going?” I looked down, staring at the wooden floors.
He pulled his hand down his face, looking a little unsettled. “My father used to say it’s always better to pull the plaster right off.”
Now I was getting nervous. “Okay?”
He stopped in front of a door, and his intense gaze pinned me on the spot. “If you’re going to become a part of my world, I need to prepare you the best I can.”
“Prepare me for what?”
His eyes searched all around us, as if he was trying to find the right words. He sighed. “We do what we need to survive. And sometimes that requires us to be…monsters.”
I stepped closer. “Nico, what are you trying to say?”
“What I’m trying to say is that no matter what happens, you need to trust me. I need to know you trust me.” He looked at me pleadingly, his gaze etched on mine. Something bad was about to happen. I could feel it in every bone of my body. It was the same feeling I felt when Nico dragged me to that dreaded dining hall where I was put on display like a goddamn animal. Back then, I didn’t trust him. The question is even as it stands now did I trust him?
“Can you do that, Lila? Can you trust me?”
I searched his face, trying to make sense of the jumbled mess my mind had become. There wasn’t a coherent thought inside my head when it came to this man and when it came to how I felt about him and about us. But after everything that had happened, something clawed and scraped at the back of my mind, urging me to trust him.
“Yes,” I whispered, and it was like a veil of relief fell over him. “Good.”
He opened the door, and I stepped inside. When I saw the scene in front of me, I balked and could hear every beat of my heart echoing through my head. “What is going on?”
I stared with apprehension at a man tied to a chair and blood dripped from his nose, the tape covering his mouth stained with crimson. The fear in his eyes was something no one would have been able to miss. He was completely naked, his wrists and ankles tied to the chair. His hands and feet were stained with blood from trying to free himself.
There was a soft touch at the hollow of my back. “This is where we become monsters, Lila.”
I shot my gaze up to Nico, staring at him as a thousand questions ran through my mind.
He straightened the lapels of his jacket, and it was like he pulled on the mask of a man who had no fear, someone who exuded authority, demanding the respect of every one that stood in his presence. He wore the face of the man I met when I woke up in a cell, dressed in a rag.
Uncle Lucas was there along with four other men, guns at their sides, demonic looks on their faces. I recognized one other man. It was the same man who was there the first time I saw Nico. The man he referred to as “Doc,” the man who pushed a needle into my skin.
That same gnawing instinct that urged me to trust Nico now warned me I wasn’t going to like whatever was about to happen. Nico moved to stand in front of me, his back toward the rest of the crowd. “You will not say a word unless spoken to. I’m breaking a lot of rules by having you here. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I don’t want to be here,” I blurted out with panic. Every instinct I had told me I most definitely did not want to be there. He stepped closer. “I want you here.”
“Why?”
“It’s the only way.”
“The only way for what?” But he had already turned around, abruptly ending our conversation. I swallowed hard as I braved another look at the man tied to a goddamn chair. By the bruises and the blood on his face, he had already been beaten. He looked like he looked like my father did just before Damon killed him.
“Tell me, Doc, do you know why you’re here today?” Nico voice was hard, low, and intimidating as hell. No wonder the man was trembling. The man frantically shook his head, muffled moans coming from behind the tape covering his mouth.
Nico stopped in front of him, reached out, and ripped the tape off his mouth. The sound sent chills down my spine as I watched the skin around his lips turn a dark shade of red. Nico dropped the piece of tape to the floor. “Talk.”
“I…I…I don’t”
Nico slapped him through the face, his head jerking to the side. I yelped softly as the crack burst through the room with sickening force.
Nico then grabbed his chin and made the man look at him. “Now let’s try again and this time, don’t stutter. Do you know why you’re here?”
“No.” he leaned to the side and spat out a mouth of blood before turning back to Nico. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“So the stories I’ve heard of you helping my little brother aren’t true?”
Instantly, Doc paled as if he had seen a ghost. “Of course they’re not true.”
Nico started to pace around him again, his shoulders squared, confidence radiating from him like rays of sunlight. “Then it wasn’t you who arranged the little get-together between Damon and our supplier?”
“What? Of course not.”
“So you’re calling my uncle Lucas a liar then?” Nico stopped in front of him, his gaze never leaving Doc. “According to my uncle, you’re the snitch who has been paid very handsomely by my brother for setting up the meeting.”
Doc eyes darted toward where Uncle Lucas was standing. . “It wasn’t me. I swear to fucking God, it wasn’t me.”
But Nico held his arms out wide. “Well then, it seems we’re done here.” He turned around, and Doc seemed to sag in his chair with relief. Even I felt slightly relieved, but by the way Nico entire demeanor darkened, screaming of anger and malicious intent, I knew the relief would be short-lived.