Put Me In My Place | MxMxM

Chapter 03

One month after the fight between the Salvatore families.

Zane had suffered at his papa's hands an awful lot. The man's presence alone caused a stifling ache in Zane's body, and although he often paraded around with a pompous look on his face, he felt like a frail boy whenever his papa appeared with his judging eyes, his sharp slaps, and his demeaning tongue.

Zane promised himself that once he took control of the Second Family's business, no one could make him suffer anymore. No one—especially not his Papa, a man whom he fought to please no matter the degrading words or the constant beatings his Papa would inflict on him. When Lorenzo had put a bullet between his papa's eyes, for a split second, relief flooded his insides, and he thought, I'm free; I will no longer suffer. Despite knowing death was nearby for him too, he felt freedom for the first time in his life. He was wrong, though, dreadfully so. Lorenzo wasn't kind enough to end his life. Lorenzo wanted him to suffer so much more—apparently Darius too.

In the present, he was suffering; he was living in constant fear of something, anything, everything.

Today, Lorenzo dragged him from the prison cell while Darius watched with dark eyes, taking him into a room with a proper bed.

Zane soon found out it wasn't just any room; it was Lorenzo and Darius's room. This confused him greatly, leaving his thoughts jumbled with questions he couldn't answer.

Zane's breathing spiked when Lorenzo threw him on the floor the minute they entered the room. As quick as lightning, despite his bound wrists behind his back, he scrambled around to face them. "Why am I here?" he asked with a deep frown, staring wildly at Lorenzo and Darius, who hovered above him with unreadable expressions on their hardened faces. "What's with these games? Why can't you just kill me already?!"

Darius was the first to take a step forward, hovering above Zane, seemingly all high and mighty. Zane inwardly cringed back, his shoulders closing in on him. Only a couple of months ago, Darius was this naive bodyguard—a stupid alpha who Zane could've crushed between his fingers. Now look at him: looking pathetic in front of the man who was given everything Zane had worked his entire worthless life for!

"That's not what we want," Darius said after a moment of scrutinizing Zane's beaten-up body.

Zane gritted his teeth to the point of pain. "You still haven't told me what the fuck you want," he said, watching Darius with damning eyes.

Then Lorenzo came, standing beside Darius with straight shoulders and cunningness in his eyes.

Most people didn't know, but Lorenzo always seemed like the good Salvatore, the reasonable one—the sane one when compared to Zane. Zane knew though; his deceiving cousin was anything but those. Lorenzo could fool the world, but he could not fool Zane.

"We want to take care of you," Lorenzo said with folded arms, fringing innocence. "We aren't your enemies."

Zane would've laughed at Lorenzo's words if his throat wasn't as dry as sandpaper itself. Instead, he fixed himself, sitting down with his back braced against the room wall while still keeping eyes on the two men.

"Lorenzo is right; we're not your enemies." Darius took another step closer.

Zane rolled his eyes at that; he refused to listen to their lies. "Yeah, right—you're doing a pretty shitty job at taking care of me," he argued. "Let me go; I'll just disappear from your lives. Just —"

"We can't do that," Lorenzo interrupted with a deep frown.

"Why not!?" Zane slammed a foot against the floorboard.