Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
It’s irrational, considering how short our relationship has been, but he depends on me being alive. If we don’t get married, he loses the position in my family, the money, the power, everything. Maybe it would be enough to prompt him to come to my rescue.
One can only hope, right?
I know his guys run more in money laundering than guns, but no doubt they needed them to secure said money. Yes, Marco would come to save me from this nightmare, and once that happens, I can forget I ever saw that hulking brute covered in blood. Some of my panic abates, allowing me to think a little clearer. My head is pounding, a lump at the back of my neck aches, and I can’t remember anything since I walked Marco to the door after dinner.
How did they even get into my house to kidnap me?
God, this is a fucking nightmare.
I cup my face in my hands and catch sight of the blood splattered on my clavicle. Staring down at it like a spider waiting to strike, I try not to panic. Quickly, I cup the edge of my slip and wipe at the red mark. Most of it comes off, but a stain remains along with the pink of my abraded skin.
The door opens with a creek, and I scurry to the far edge of the mattress, placing my back in the corner of the room. My eyes land on a water bottle that’s tossed into the cell. It rolls across the floor and stops at the edge of the mattress. I look just in time to find the door closing again.
“Wait!” I leap up and rush to the door, intent on talking to whoever kindly gave me the water. “Please, let me out of here.”
The door stops a few inches from closing. “Sit down and shut your mouth, or we’ll find some better use for it,” a gruff voice booms through the small room. Followed by the door slamming shut.
Frustration mounts, and all I can do is lash out. I bang on the door, pounding until my fists ache, but no one comes back, no one opens it again.
The water, wrapped in a blue label, looks sealed up. I scoop it off the gray concrete and inspect the cap as much as I can in the very dim light. Did they drug it? The man’s words filter back to me.
If I want you to call me Daddy while I fuck that sweet little cunt, you’ll do so with abject delight.
Is that why I’m here? So they, whoever they are, can rape me? It seems highly unlikely, given the work it took to kidnap me. I don’t know this world like my father, like Marco, like any of the men in the five families. Women in our world are ornamental, not functional. Hell, I couldn’t even talk my dad into letting me go to college. It had been one reason I agreed to marry Marco. Hoping, once we married, he’d let me take some classes and get my degree. If I can’t get the hell out of here, none of that will ever happen.
I study the water bottle again, crack the cap, and take a tentative sip. It tastes like water, so I swish back a large mouthful and pray I haven’t just ended my life.
My hands have finally stopped shaking, and I’m a little calmer, so I look around the room. The hulking beast doesn’t seem like the type to make mistakes, but a girl can hope.
The mattress on the floor looks new. It’s not stained or scuffed from repeated use, so it makes me wonder, do they replace the mattress for every new captive, or am I the only one?
The entire room is about as big as a small closet. The full mattress in the corner, bare. It’s only a few paces to the one window, high on the ceiling. Between the window and the chill in the air, I don’t doubt they tucked me away in a basement somewhere.
I try not to think about the dead men as I remember the long white hallway with the same gray concrete floors. No windows or exits that I could see. None of this information helps me escape. Not with a locked door and no clothes or weapons.
Surely, it’s still dark outside, which means no one is even going to realize I’m gone for a few more hours, not until the maid wakes me up or I don’t show up for my last fitting at the bridal boutique.
Will they think I ran like my sister, Kat, did? Probably, and my father isn’t the forgiving type. So, putting positivity in my thoughts, when I make it out of here, I need to ensure I clear my name with my father first. Ensure he knows I was kidnapped and didn’t make a run for the border to avoid marrying Marco.