XXIV

At some point, Bella had passed out in the midst of trying to block out her best friend's screams until there were none. It all became a routine for the week, of her ignoring the food before her, that came once a day, for she would not eat whilst Cassidy suffered to her side and to being forced to endure her screams through out hours or less if she were lucky.

Until she came to, one morning and as she eyed the tray of food, she couldn't resist and like she should, she ate with small bites, except when she was done this time, feeling no churning in her stomach, with the food settled, a voice spoke up

"Well, I have to say, I've never seen a person enjoy human liver that much before" all the memories from before came flashing before her eyes, and she buffed out, prompting the man to laugh and she heard the door shut.

By the time she opened her eyes again, she felt groggy, with a raging headache, she knew she had a cold judging by her blocked nose. Colds were the worst for her because they always breached into a feverish state when not taken care of earlier. The room filled with nothing but darkness, her heart picked up on instinct.

When her groggy eyes looked around in the nothingness of the dark, although her nose felt blocked, a foul smell still broke through somehow. Familiar, it was too familiar and her heart stopped. She wondered for just how long she had passed out. For when the lights turned on, her eyes burned for a few seconds before they adjusted and when she looked to her right, she all but heaved air, being that her stomach had nothing, she heaved until her stomach muscles hurt.

Her eyes flooded with tears and she let out a sob, for the innocent blood of someone she truly cared about was on her hands. The young woman's body that had always been flamboyant with life was now lifeless, blood having stopped dripping from her body, she was pale and a pool of blood was beneath her and starting to dry up.

Bella's eyes couldn't help but take in every detail. From her missing finger and toe nails, to the many slashes that marred her skin as if he had whipped her with a knife, the most prominent was the REMEMBER ME, and her mouth sowed shut.

Perhaps it was why life seemed to seep out of her, for she no longer had the strength to hate nor be angry, perhaps it was why she remained silent as tears leaked from her eyes, perhaps it was why she numbed her heart and shut herself off. The deed was done and there was no use crying over spilt milk, she couldn't rewind her past and wallowing in regret would do nothing, hating the man would do nothing, and so she would be nothing, for there was nothing she could do regardless.

"I've gotta say, if the stories are true, then I must admit I see the resemblance between killer sunshine and the butcher. Quite remarkable" referring to the torture methods both used with intent to kill.

Deacon said as he walked in only to take in everything in the basement and tried to ignore the smell that reeked in the air. Seeing her silence and broken spirit, he thought perhaps he had broken her enough to mold her into his doll, only, he would come to realise he did her more damage than he had meant to, for how can you fix something broken by breaking it some more?

Smiling, he looked at her as she sat gazing at the ground, and he placed the tray before her, however, rather than reaching for it, she remained leaning against the wall, eyes on her bruised hand that was healing painstakingly slow.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked only to add "I promise it isn't anything human this time, gosh no wonder you're as twisted" he said.

Except she still made no move to do anything, and had it not been for her moving chest, he would have suspected her dead. Thinking her on a hunger strike and that she was bound to stop again, he walked out, only to instruct another person to clean the room up. A week went by with her not eating again, and her health took a decline along with her body, she did nothing but sit where she sat and urinate where she sat.

She didn't touch the food trays no matter what threat Deacon 

promised

"You still have others you care about you know. Or should I bring in Kenneth for a reminder?" he had said, and she had done nothing, and he had named all of them and she had all but kept her eyes on her hand on her lap, the skin weirdly gluing itself back together.

Her dreams had turned more lucid that when he spoke to her, she would look at him as if seeing through him, stuck in a paralysing memory that seeped into reality and she could barely tell what was real and what was not. He heard her scream in her dreams, scream wide awake until the point 

he decided it was enough.

Therefore, he brought her foster father back, however, both of them were shocked to see her barely react even to him. Bella became nothing but a living corpse nearing her death and Deacon felt an ounce of regret for but a minute, only to realise that he had achieved a feat the Genovese had failed, killing killer sunshine along with the entirety of that Assassination headquarters.

And he decided she would be a token he would use to rub it in their faces, that he had been the one to succeed in breaking down the most renowned killer in their world, a woman even the toughest of men feared for her brutal, stealthy kills and lethal prowess, her body count chilling them to the bone. She had been untouchable, once upon a time, and now she was nothing but a pile of bones he would discard.

He smirked at the thought of what Luka Genovese would do upon seeing her in her state then, being that he had seemed just as enthralled by her as he had been himself, and now he realised she was really nothing special, for if she had been, she would have survived. However,  as he looked at her given up and sickly state,  he thought she would never recover, nor care to, therefore, he thought her demise inevitable.

Bella shivered on the cement ground, she heard the door open and heard heels clicking on the ground. She simply listened to the woman as she laughed from where she lay

"You've got to be kidding me, so you're who was meant to replace me huh?" Bella paid no mind to the foot that jostled her arm

"So pathetic, you aren't even pretty at all, I mean you're skin and bones and tell like a decomposed body" she heard her disgust in her tone but felt nothing as the woman took her in like one does a piece at an exhibition.

"Mhmm, I guess it's good that you gave up. Else you would have had me to deal with." she said, only to crouch down, and she whispered

"Rest in peace, doll" with that, the woman gave her a hard kick to the head, knocking her out. And she walked tall as if she had taken down the lioness of the jungle. Deacon chuckled then, in amusement and muttered out

"Women" in an amused scoff, before he signalled one of his men to pick the unconscious Bella up.

In his arm stood the woman with flaming red hair and pretty green eyes, taller than Bella and in a black skin tight dress, it was just so that some of his men wondered why he would have wanted to swap her out for the brown haired now deathly woman.

They found themselves glad then, for their Don deserved someone much stronger, being that Bella had simply lasted but few weeks and now she seemed like a goner, mafia queens were meant to be stronger than that, and in their eyes, 

Annette Drekanov was much better.

Both Deacon and Annette sat on the back seat as they drove to the Genovese residence, Bella locked behind in the boot. It was when they parked in front of the gate, that only his man walked out to retrieve Bella, only to place her before the Genovese gates, Deacon watched as the Genovese guards walked toward the gate, guns in hand only to be met with a body of a shivering woman dropped before their gates.

Deacon rolled down the window only to inform the perplexed men and said

"A gift for Luka"

One of the men eyed Bella's body again, wondering if this was a way the Torres Don planned to infiltrate their residence, all of them wondered if whether it was a ploy to lure Luka Genovese out, however, seeing that the Don only had one car and he had his wife on the side of him, they thought otherwise and one of them made a call.

When Luka received a peculiar call, he walked out, gun in the back of the waist of his jeans, he approached the scene after instructing that all of the men be alert around the perimeter. It was when he was close enough to see the shut eyes brown haired woman in nothing but a flimsy bloodied shirt on the ground in the dead of night, that his heart skipped a beat.

He would recognise her from miles away and years from now, for the two had always been linked deeper than their fiery first impression. Deacon thought it had all been worth it from what he could see on Luka's face, and it was with that that they disappeared into the dark when Luka hurried through the gates to the shivering woman that didn't even dare to open her eyes.

She was light as a feather in his arms and he realised why, minute they were back in the light and he entered the rowdy mention that turned silent at the look of the man they respected more than their Don.

For when Luka entered the foyer and the warmth calmed the body in his arms, he took her in then and the striking resemblance to a little girl he once held dear to his heart, made his heart clench, from her bony body to her chapped lips and bloody shirt, to the marred hand she was cradling to her chest, he couldn't help the misting over of his eyes, his sunshine had been ruined and he had done nothing, yet again.

The Genovese family wondered then just who the woman was, and what connection she had to Luka, until Emily got close enough to get a clear look of the woman that could make the man after her heart teary, something they had never seen on Luka Genovese, and she gasped out. Mike neared her then and he understood why.

"Bella?" she muttered out in disbelief and her whisper seemed to wake Luka up and he blinked in her direction,

"Get Doc up to my room, immediately." he instructed before he shot for the wide stairs with intent to take her to his room. Mike followed behind and questioned

"What happened man, how did you find her?" Mike's own heart broke then at the hurt in his brother's eyes. And one word made him understand

"Deacon Torres" and mike could only cuss under his breath.

"Shit, you mean to say he did this to her?" he whispered out so as to not disturb the body that laid peacefully in his brother's hands.

Luka gave a simple curt nod, entering his room, he placed her onto his silky black sheets, except when he tried to put her down completely, she whimpered and her unmarred hand clutched onto his shirt, and he picked her back up again, only to place her on his lap as he sat onto his bed. Pacifying her as a mother would a child, her trembling seized again.

"This doesn't make sense" Mike said with a shake of his head as he paced up and down. Luka found that he agreed, for why would Deacon go to such lengths, the notion of that he was responsible for this, made Luka's heart seize in both guilt and hurt, for he had meant her not harm at all

"Yea, your guess is as good as mine" Luka all but muttered out.

Emily remained outside of Luka's bedroom door and told the doctor to go in, for no one was ever allowed inside his room aside from his brother, and Greta. She wondered of what could have possibly happened to the young woman and she decided it was stupid to wait outside the man's door as if she had been best friends with the girl. Reaching downstairs, her gang asked questions she couldn't answer, and they too could only wonder of how bizarre the whole situation was.