I nod. Look up at her binds. I need a key. “Close your eyes,” I say, cupping the back of her head and tucking it against my belly before shooting at the rung of the headboard through which her cuffs were woven. I hold her hands, cradle her.

“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” I turn to one of the soldiers. “Get the car.” He nods and runs out the door. “Find me the goddamned keys for these,” I tell the other one, gripping the cuffs that bind Natalie.

A few minutes later, one of the men hands me the key.

Natalie turns her gaze up to Salvatore, who’s standing nearby, watching. “You’re safe now,” he says to her.

She turns her attention to my hands which are undoing her cuffs and when they’re off, I rub her wrists.

“Sergio,” Salvatore says, eyeing the big guy on the floor.

I don’t want her to see what’s about to happen. “Give me a minute.”

The soldier I sent for the car returns.

“Put her in the backseat,” I say, standing, bringing Natalie with me. She’s shivering. In shock maybe. “And stay with her.”

“No,” she says clinging to me. “No. I just want to go home. I want you to take me home. You.”

“I need you to wait in the car for me. I need to take care of this before I can take you home.”

She shakes her head, her nails dig into the back of my neck. Her eyes are saucers, her terror palpable.

“Nat.” I know she hates being called that, but she doesn’t even acknowledge it. Her gaze keeps bouncing to the man I’m going to hurt and each time, more tears well inside her eyes. “I need to take care of this. I need you to wait for me out in—”

“Do it,” she says. She locks her eyes on the man and there’s a darkness inside them that wasn’t there before.

“You don’t want—”

She shifts her gaze to mine. “I want you to do it.”

I study her. She doesn’t even blink, but returns her gaze to the man. She knows what I’m going to do.

“Look away,” I say.

“No.”

“Natalie, there are things you can’t unsee.”

“Don’t you understand?” she asks, looking up at me. “I want to see. I need to.”

Her eyes are stone.

I nod. Salvatore’s watching us. I read what he’s thinking on his face. This is fucked up.

When I walk to the brute on the floor, I take out my pistol and cock it and, without a word, I shoot his other knee. As loud as his scream is, I still hear Natalie’s over it.

She wants to see.

She wants to see what I’m capable of.

What a monster I can be.