Page 5 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“Pick it up.”

The man holding me slowly released his vice-like grip, and my legs shook so violently I wasn’t sure how I was still standing. My nostrils flared, and tears stung behind my eyes, but I bent down to pick up Nero’s head, cradling his face in both my hands. I couldn’t look at it; instead, I focused on his cracked glasses on the ground, yet that somehow made it worse.

“Walk. Don’t run. And don’t forget our message.”

I turned slowly, staring straight ahead at the high walls of my home in the distance as I placed one foot in front of the other, stumbling a little under the weight of what I was carrying. But they were letting me go. They thought I was just a maid. I had to keep up the act.

“Hold on!” the unmasked man shouted. I froze, my lips trembling as his boots drew closer behind me. He stopped in front of me, blocking my path with narrowed eyes. “What’s your name?”

When I didn’t speak, he grabbed the ID badge from the maid’s apron and looked at it.

I swallowed. Sophia and I looked nothing alike. His head snapped up, suspicion flashing across his face. He reached around and yanked the band from my hair, and my favourite hairpin fell to the ground. My long ringlets cascaded over my shoulders, and a spark of recognition lit his eyes.

I knew I had a second to react, or it was over. I threw Nero’s head at him, picked up my sharp, butterfly hairpin, and stabbed it in his shoulder, missing my target of his neck because he saw it coming just in time. My feet pounded the street as I sprinted back up the road towards the gate, and I cursed my body for refusing to give me a voice when I needed it most. If only I could scream… if only I could shout… I’d have an army of Italian soldiers racing out to protect me.

His body bulldozed into mine, pinning me to the ground. I thrashed and struggled under his weight as he laughed above me, leaning down to whisper in my ear.

“Well, look what we have here. An Italian princess playin’ dress-up and sneakin’ away from the safety of her palace walls. Didn’t your mamie ever tell you that only monsters play in the dark, Princess?”

His words sounded distant as he pressed a potent-smelling rag over my mouth, and there was a sharp pricking sensation in my neck. The dizziness surged, the fog thickening with terrifying speed as my limbs became heavy and useless. Whatever fight I had left in me bled out of my body as rough hands hauled me from the ground, and the world fell away.

A Choice Is All You Have.

Where was my hairpin? That was my first thought as the dizzy world came back into focus. It was my only weapon and held sentimental value for me. I tried to reach for my hair, but my hand didn’t cooperate.

It was dark. I was moving. Everything was moving.

My eyelashes fluttered shut again before I could make sense of it. Instead, I focused on the voices. Male voices. Not Italian. A laugh from someone behind me. Panic flickered in my chest, but I couldn’t hold on to it. All sensations and feelings felt as fleeting as the wind.

Drugged.

The thought arrived slowly, sinking deep into my consciousness. My throat tightened. I forced my eyes open again. Black leather. That was the smell. I was on a seat… maybe a car or a plane? I couldn’t tell.

A figure sat opposite me, his knees spread, one ringed hand resting on his thigh. His face warped and doubled. He leaned forward, and my eyes closed again, drawing me back into the abyss where it felt safer.

When I resurfaced, it was with a shiver that wracked my entire body. I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. There was fabric beneath me, something much softer than before. A mattress. I was on a bed.

No. No, no, no.

My body jerked weakly as I tried to peel my eyes open in the dim light. It was a pathetic movement when all I wanted to do was leap to my feet and run. But at least my body was moving. I tested my wrists. Free. My ankles weren’t tied together either. That should have been a relief, but it wasn’t. Of course, it wasn’t. Because they could have done anything to me and I wouldn’t have been able to fight back.

Terror and panic flooded in, hotter this time, heating my veins. I forced my head to turn and take in the bedroom. A glass of water sat on the bedside table. A wardrobe. A chest of drawers. Closed curtains with a stream of yellow light trickling in from beneath them. An empty chair in the corner. I didn’t know where the fuck I was, but I knew I wasn’t home. It wasn’t Italy.

They wanted Arianna. Irish accents. They were McKenna’s men.

Cazzo.

My breathing turned ragged. I tried to sit up, but fell back onto the mattress. A door opened, and a tall, looming figure leaned against the frame. He stepped inside, and the world crashed once more.

When the drug had finally left my system, I lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as my mind and body finally reconnected.

My palms stung. My muscles ached. But I wasn’t injured. And… I hadn’t been raped. I was pretty certain of that. I was still wearing the maid’s uniform and the hoodie, but my shoes were gone.

The room was eerily quiet. No voices drifted through the walls. There was only a low, artificial hum that could have been a radiator or a lightbulb. I had no idea.

I tried to swallow past the stale, sour taste in my mouth and glanced at the glass of water. God, I wanted just a sip, but I didn’t dare. I doubted they’d drug me again or poison it, but I wasn’t willing to trust it.

After the longest time, I pushed myself into a sitting position, fighting the wave of dizziness and nausea that crashed over me. My stomach lurched violently, and I tipped sideways, squeezing my eyes shut until it passed.