Page 44 of Trapped By the Blood Ruby

He had the audacity to hold out his hand—a trick. The moment I took it, it was all over. My gaze darted toward the road. I spotted both Marco and Vittorio standing by, looking off into the woods. I didn’t dare catch their gaze, but something told me Vittorio’s hesitation earlier had been important to all of this.

And that? It felt like a fucking betrayal. He’d never been my friend. None of them had been. I was certain that even Zola would have sold me out, despite wanting to believe otherwise.

My chest caved in on itself. I had no one. I was nothing.

“Come now, Miss Shaw.” Laurent’s tone was deceptively soft.

I was going to die. The realization sharpened. So did something else.

If I was going to die, I would do it with my dignity intact. I forced my limbs to stop shaking so he wouldn’t feel it and placed my hand into his. He didn’t crush it, but simply led me down and out of the truck.

Before I could blink, I was scooped up. He moved so fast, everything around us blurred. My stomach lurched. Then, he stopped. When I next blinked, we were descending steps into a lower part of the manor I was unfamiliar with. When I blinked again, the clang of a door echoed in my ears. I was taken into a small space, a darkened cell with a single lightbulb overhead.

I whimpered, my head spinning, as Laurent set me down. My legs gave out. I crumbled to the floor. The space pressed in around me and a new fear took over. In the span of a single second, memories rushed to me, threatening to drag me down to a far darker place. I gulped, trying to breathe. “No,” I managed, barely a whisper. “No, not this. Please, no. Please, Laurent.”

I had never begged him, not once since he’d taken me. Demands, yes. But I’d never begged.

His expression hardened. “You leave me no choice, Miss Shaw.”

He backed away. I tried to scramble across the floor after him. He slipped through the doorway. It slammed shut behind him.

I didn’t have room for anger beyond my sudden fear.

Instead, I shivered looking around. Scenes flashed across my vision, flickering between here and another place I’d blocked out years ago. My stomach heaved. I scrambled to the corner, to a bucket, and threw up my breakfast. I heaved and heaved, until nothing else came.

He could have just killed me. Instead, he’d put me in here. Had he known? Had he discovered something about my past?

No, surely not. He wouldn’t have bothered. He thought I was a spoiled party brat. He wouldn’t have taken the time to learn anything else about me. Males like him were too arrogant.

I braced my trembling hands on the floor and pushed myself up.

I went to the door and jiggled the handle. “Please!” I cried, banging my fists against the wood, trying to see out the tiny little window into the darkness beyond. “You made your fucking point. Please!”

My throat closed up. I sank to the ground, pulled my knees up to my chest, then buried my face to try and block it out. Oh, Gods. I wasn’t going to survive this. Not again.

The smell of my vomit mixed with dirt and mildew filled the space with all too familiar memories. It made me nauseous all over again. I gulped, trying to remain calm. Then I waited.

But no one came.

I forced myself to think through several equations, visualizing them in my mind just like I did when I was younger. When I needed a way to distract myself. It took a level of focus that pulled me from my surroundings. I worked through each one, balancing it, solving for each variable, before calling up another.

At some point, I drifted off to sleep. I thought perhaps I called for Zola or Vittorio to help me. But it was probably just a dream. When I woke, the urge to pee sent me to the bucket. It wasn’t the first time in my life I’d found myself in a demeaning situation. I was no stranger to it. I just never thought I’d be subjected to it again.

I swallowed down my disgust.

I was tugging up my leggings when the cell door unlocked and swung open. I stared at Laurent. He stared back. There was absolutely nothing in his face. Not even a shred of remorse for dragging me back to this place, for throwing me into a cell that had the ability to break me.

I turned my fear into anger, pulled it tightly around me like a cloak of protection. “Come to gloat?” I snapped.

He leaned against the door, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “It is a shame you made this difficult, Miss Shaw. I had hoped you would cooperate. That we might coexist. Unfortunately, given the state of things, I cannot babysit you while I run a household.”

My stomach squirmed. I remained frozen, waiting for my death. I didn’t even have it in me to argue.

“Since you are intent on offering yourself up to my enemies, I thought I’d save you the trouble. The witches have arrived. They have information I sorely need. I’ve offered a trade.”

My stomach bottomed out. “No…”

“I laid out your options when you first arrived. I offered you a deal that would see you safe and unharmed. You chose to disregard that.”