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“You ready?” Nicholas asked.
Stubbornly, she held her arm out towards him. “I’m ready. Do it.” Foolish or not, she didn’t see what other choice she’d had. For the moment, she was trusting him.
He didn’t wait or prolong it. He pricked her arm with the needle and moments later everything started going fuzzy.
And, in a reverse of all the fairytales, the last thing she felt was the kiss of his lips on hers as she fell asleep.
Chapter 13
SLOANE
“Wake up, honey.”
Sloane blinked violently as she startled awake, only to find Nicholas pulling back and capping smelling salts.
She was in a car. But before she could start freaking out, Nicholas’s hand was in hers. “Look around. We aren’t outside. We’re in a garage. Underground.”
Her breaths still started coming up short as she looked around and struggled to take in everything at once.
“Where are we?” she asked breathlessly, barely able to get the question out. She squirmed in her seat, suddenly very aware of the fact that she had to pee again.
“We’re here. In Brooklyn.”
She couldn’t stop blinking. Her eyes felt dry and gritty. So did her mouth. It had been the same last time she’d woken up, she supposed, but at least then she’d woken up on her own. The rude awakening to these surroundings—
And then she froze. “Nicholas,” she hissed. “Those men!” She pointed to large, brutish men approaching the car.
He nodded. “They’re friends.” He squeezed her hand hard. “But listen, this is important. Don’t say a word. I mean it, not a single word, until we’re alone again. You might see things that scare you but you still can’t say anything. I’ll take care of you and I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“Okay but Nicho—”
The men were almost to them. They were almost as big as Nicholas and did not look friendly.
“I’m serious. No more talking.”
“But I have to pee!” she got out right as they came up to the car.
Nicholas just nodded, gave her hand one last squeeze, and let go of her hand as he rolled down the window.
“You’re late,” said one of the men. He had more of an accent than Nicholas did and was older, upper middle-aged with salt and pepper hair.
“I drove as fast as was safe. Is Alexei around?”
“Papa wants to see you first thing.” Then the man peered past Nicholas at Sloane. “What’s that? You were only supposed to bring Olezka. She a gift for Papa or something? We got enough whores in the stable but I guess there’s always room for one more.”
Her eyes shot to Nicholas, heart in her throat. Whores? Stable? What the hell had she just gotten herself into?
“I’ll talk to Papa myself about her.”
The man lifted his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. Sloane didn’t have a good feeling about any of this.
“Olezka’s in the trunk. You two want to help with him? He might be a mess by now. I haven’t checked on him in hours and it wasn’t pretty back there when I did.”
The man grunted and gestured to the other one with him. Nicholas reached down and undid the latch to the trunk.
“All right,” he said quietly to Sloane. “Stay behind me and remember. Not a single word.”
She nodded shakily even though she felt stupid. The appearance of those other two brutal looking guys was enough to have her quiet. She was more and more sure they were mafia. Holy shit… they trafficked stupid girls like her. Her legs were shaky as she stepped out of the car.
Nicholas was immediately by her side grabbing her arm to steady her. She looked up into his eyes, trying to beg him with her gaze to reassure her he hadn’t been lying to her this whole time. That she wasn’t a foolish sheep walking with a wolf straight into a den of scarier wolves.
But where else could she go now? If she was going to try to escape, she should have done it at the hotel back in the middle of the country, not here where it was too late. But she’d been trapped there, too. Too trapped by her own phobias to save herself and now she was—
Behind them, Ramona meowed pitifully. Sloane swung around.
“I’ll be back for her. I left the windows down and it’s cool here in the garage. She’ll be fine,” Nicholas said under his breath. “Now walk.” It was a command, not the soft, kind voice he usually spoke to her with.
And as she’d looked back, she saw the other two men drag a soiled Olly from the trunk. He sagged between the two men like a broken doll. They dragged him without bothering to untie him.
All together, they all trod forward towards an elevator. Sloane was pretty sure she would have been melting down about her surroundings, but the rest of the situation felt so dangerous, there were simply too many stimuli at once. She was holding her breath as she stumbled forwards besides Nicholas.
