Chapter 189

The other men at the table react in many ways. Some gasp and lurch back in their chairs, shocked, some sit steadfast, unfazed by this brutal scene, but it’s Santagato and Alexi who draw my eye as the fear and panic course through me, strangling me into frozen terror. My heart is self-combusting, it’s hammering so fast, but I hold firm as I told him I would. Unable to do anything else.

Keep your shit together, breathe.

They nod at each other, a clear signal of partnered planning as two men in front of my eyes suffocate to death slowly in the most terrifying and traumatising few minutes. Bodies are twitching and writhing while being held still by muscular men with zero expression. The wide-eyed terror and gasping, godawful sounds as the bags deflate, fog up and cling to their faces, sucking into the hollow space made by gaping mouths and the whole table shudders with the kicks of their feet trying to get them loose.

I swallow instant tears, choke on panic and cling t