Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 995 : Shield of Pride

*Leo*

I gritted my teeth hard before spitting some blood onto the hard floor in front of me. I lifted my head and glared hatefully at the man in front of me.

I didn’t even know his name but that didn’t stop him from pounding on me. I was starting to lose track of the days since there were no windows in this plain dark room.

The Angels have been torturing me for days. If I had to guess, I would have said three or four realistically but it was definitely long enough for me to miss Bianca.

Another hard punch to my gut had me coughing and lurching forward, causing the rope around my wrists to scratch painfully against my skin.

Thoughts of Bianca and our unborn child were the only things keeping me sane right now. I refused to break. I would be strong for them.

“You’re pathetic,” said my tormentor. He laughed right in my face. “We were taught to fear you, you know and now look at you. You’ve been reduced to nothing but a snake. I can’t believe it took our boss this long to capture you. It was because you were hiding behind your team like a coward.”

I clenched my hands into fists but only to give the young guy the impression that he was actually affecting me emotionally. It was easy to tell what happened. He didn’t look much older than Darion. It was likely that he was given this job to torture me just so he would be out of the way of his older, more seasoned members.

He was just a snot-nosed kid who thought he was hot stuff.

It would have been fun to tell him that and gauge his reaction but I was still tied to a chair and unable to move. It would have been foolish to egg him on, even if it would have offered me some much needed entertainment.

The first couple of days were rough. I was beaten with a stick and asked questions that I refused to answer. They cut into my skin, just enough for me to feel a high amount of pain but not to bleed out. They made sure to feed me just enough to where I wouldn’t pass out. They patched me up roughly to make sure I wouldn’t bleed to death.

They gave just a tad bit of water to ensure I wouldn’t pass out from dehydration. My throat burned and itched from how dry it was.

In other words, they kept me just barely alive.

I was left alone at night. I barely slept and spent these hours in the dark thinking about Bianca. My only solace was remembering her bright smile and the way her large round eyes glinted when she was teasing me. I shut my eyes tightly, remembering the way her body felt against mine, the way her soft velvety skin felt beneath my lips.

I lifted my head when I heard some voices above me. I was in some kind of basement but once in a while, I could hear the Angel members muttering their plans. I couldn’t hear much but it didn’t sound like they were planning to kill me.

They needed me for some reason.

My whole body was screaming in pain but I didn’t regret my decision to surrender myself. I had no choice in the matter really. It was either give myself up or give Darion up. If I had chosen to do neither and fight, there was no way we would have survived. We had been surrounded and we were lucky that Andre was willing to take either of us in the first place.

After what I had been through the last few days, I was more sure than ever that I made the right decision, which in reality had been the only decision. I tried to imagine Darion in my place. There was no way he would have survived as long as I had. He was on his way to becoming a half-decent leader but he was still young and impressionable.

I winced, this time not from the pain but from the thought of what could have happened if I had chosen to surrender Darion instead. I doubted that the kid would have lasted a full day. He was stubborn and might have held out for a few hours but I could easily imagine him cracking under any moderate level of pain.

I thought of the very real fear in his eyes when I pointed a gun at him back when we were training together and he had pissed me off, how easily he had shown his emotions to me.

I made the right choice and I was going to pay for it too.

Every fiber of my being seemed to be crying out in agony and I forced myself to think about Franky. If I didn’t give myself up, he would likely be dead.

I just hoped that he was still alive and that hadn’t been in vain.

I raised my head when footsteps came my way. Without a word, another young guy took their post by my makeshift cell. He had been in here several times before to supervise me and make sure I wouldn’t try anything, despite the fact that I could barely move.

I ignored him for several minutes, shutting my eyes and trying not to think about the aches and pains that were so severe that they were rattling my bones. After a while, I successfully forgot he was there until he coughed.

Something in the sound of this guy’s voice had my head shooting back up. I could just see enough of his profile to make out the shape of his jaw and the distinctive point of his nose.

My blood began to simmer when I realized that he was one of our men. At least, he had been just days before my capture.

I couldn’t remember his name for the life of me. We didn’t associate much because he spent most of his shifts in front of the computers, as a part of our surveillance team. Was it Elliot? Or Evan?

I didn’t know him that well and still, the betrayal had my fists clenching at my sides. The tense muscles in my arms caused some pain to shoot through them but I didn’t care, taking far too much pleasure by imagining grabbing this traitor’s head and ramming it into the cement brick wall beside me.

This guy was oblivious to my growing anger, which was probably a good thing. If he noticed it, he might have had to report it and while I would have loved to confront him, I wasn’t quite up for another torture session.

As if the universe heard my musings, another heavier set of footsteps started down the hall toward my cell. I recognized this one. There was a slight hesitation of one of their feet, signaling an injury from years earlier, possibly even childhood. This man didn’t let him deter him though and when I watched him walk, I wouldn’t have noticed it.

There was and old yellow light hanging from the ceiling just in front of my room and it was just enough to make out the sneer on Andre’s face when it appeared between the bars.

Andre was as silent as a shadow as he gestured at the traitor guard to open my cell so that he could enter. I met his gaze unflinchingly, knowing that that would probably anger him but it looked like he didn’t need any help in that department.

He was a man who prided himself in reigning in his emotions. He was ruthless and liked to keep the facade of calmness. He was good at it in most departments but anger was the exception. He kept his chin tilted up, pacing slowly in front of me.

Maybe others would be fooled but I definitely wasn’t. He was just slightly too stiff to be calm and there was a defined tick in his jaw. His eyes might have appeared collected as well but there was a fire simmering behind them.

I remained silent, just watching him as he stepped around me. He hasn’t met my gaze yet, seeming to be trying to collect himself before he spoke. When he did, it was through his teeth, just further emphasizing the rage building up inside of him.

I was under the impression that he was trying to intimidate me but it just wasn’t working. I fought with the impulse to say something and unfortunately, my impulse won.

“You seem to have something on your mind,” I said, my voice scratchy with thirst. “Did you come in here for a therapy session?”

The way the bastard tensed up was enough for me not to feel any regret, even when he threw his fist into the side of my face. My mouth immediately pooled with blood and I spit some onto the hard floor.

“Your little girlfriend has been causing us problems,” he said darkly. “She’s cost us quite a bit of territory and we were forced to vacate some valuable property because of it. And since she isn’t here for me to slap around, I’ll have to collect her debt from you.”

He then spent the next several minutes slapping me around. He shoved my chair over and landed several punches to my gut and to my arms, anywhere he could reach. He wasn’t as controlled as he normally was, which was probably lucky for me. He wasn’t causing me as much pain as he could have been.

My body was exploding with pain but I was insanely proud of Bianca. She wasn’t the type to fall apart because I was captured. She was fighting for me and wreaking havoc on our enemies. My chest was swelling with pride that it made bearing this pain much easier.

I had wondered if Bianca was alright and I was glad to get this confirmation that she was more than alright. She was fighting and it made me that much more in love with her. She was doing this for me.

My whole body ached and I could feel bruises forming on my abdomen when Andre finally stopped beating on me and straightened. He turned and stalked out without another word, ordering the guard curtly to make sure I didn’t die but that I wasn’t comfortable either.

All I could think about as Andre stalked out was how it was a shame that he had to land a few blows on my handsome face. Hopefully it healed up before I saw Bianca again. She loved my handsome face.

The guard slowly walked over to me before grabbing my chair and hauling it upright. I thought about saying something to him but decided against it. He probably would have loved to add to my wounds while his new boss was out of the room.

“Don’t think you’re getting away with anything you’ve done,” he said in a low voice.

Confusion filled me. What the hell had I done to this bastard? Before I could even begin to formulate a proper response, he pressed something into my palm before he too stalked out of the room, leaving me completely alone and bloodied.

I didn’t need to look down at the item to know what it was but I did anyway, squinting through my swollen eye to make out the dainty metal heart attached to a sparkling silver chain.

It was Bianca’s locket.