AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Falynn
PLAYLIST: ? YOUR POWER - BILLIE EILISH ?
Carlotta appearsto me like a savior. For a fleeting beat of my heart, I’m relieved. She’s coming to help me. She’ll undo the handcuffs and set me free. Somehow she’s worked it out with Giovanni and convinced him to let me go.
Then I notice she’s wearing her winter coat and boots, clutching her handbag at her side, and my heart sinks. She’s not coming to rescue me; she’s coming to saygoodbye.
A few feet into the room, she stops and frowns. I must look like shit, because I recognize the pity in her normally beady eyes. She shuffles over and hands me a small travel-sized bottle of aloe vera in a pouch.
“Here,” she says. “For the bruise.”
I don’t take it, too alarmed by what’s happening. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve been fired.”
“No, that’s not possible!”
“Yes,” she sighs. “Just now. Your husband…he’s not well. The power has corrupted him.”
A cold shiver racks its way through me. I can’t refute any of it. Deep down, I know she’s right—Giovanni has always been ruthless and dominant, but he’s reached new levels the more time goes on and more power he attains. He’s not the man I married and fell in love with. He’s amonster.
“Please hang on,dolcezza. I’ll figure something out. I’m going to get you out of this. Just please don’t make him any angrier than he is. Just do your best to give him what he wants.”
“You shouldn’t worry about me. It’ll only get you in trouble. He’s giving you an out. Go, Carlotta.”
“Dolcezza, I won’t leave you. I’ll come back.”
“Don’t,” I interrupt glumly. The numbness from weeks ago trickles into me, my mind already on its way to checking out. “Please just save yourself.”
For the first time in the five years I’ve known her, Carlotta’s on the verge of tears. She steps over and engulfs me in her arms, kissing my forehead.
“Sei come una figlia per me. Ti salveó.”
She leaves me in heavy, ominous silence. My breathing speeds out of control as I look around the prison-like bedroom and realize how fucked I am. Air gasps out of me, my chest tightened by sheer panic. I’m going to die here. I’m finally going to suffer the consequences for mixing myself up with the Mafia.
Tears wet my eyes and a strangled cry leaves me.
No.
I can’t give up, no matter how hopeless it seems. There’s always a way out. I turn my attention to the handcuffs tethering me to the bed and begin tugging on them with as much muscle power as I have. It’s not much, and I’m exhausted beyond belief from this ordeal, but I dig deep and pull every last bit of strength out of me.
Giovanni’s guard on the balcony overhears the metal scraping against the wooden bedpost, because he pops his head inside and barks at me to stop.
I wait until he turns his back and then try my next idea—shrinking my hand into as small of a ball as possible to attempt and slip it through the metal cuff. What I’ll do if I’m able to escape the handcuffs isn’t something I’ve thought about yet. It seems easier, while panic still infects my lungs and steals my breath away, to focus on one thing at a time.
“Ugh!” I accidentally groan. My hand comes so close to slipping through the metal cuff, but the bastard who put it on me clearly thought ahead. He cinched it enough so that even my slender hand can’t fit through.
Instead, all I’ve done is bruise and chafe my wrist. It throbs, much like my jaw.
I give up with a defeated, exhausted grunt. As I lay propped up against the headboard, my gaze lands on the little pouch with the travel-sized bottle of aloe vera Carlotta gave me. I frown.
Aloe vera isn’t the only thing in the small pouch. Something sleek and silver pokes halfway out of the pouch, glinting in the light.
A hairpin?!
Of course Carlotta would—she always thinks ahead!
I stretch my arm to grab the pin and then set to work digging it into the lock on the handcuff. It clicks and clicks but the interior gears don’t unlock. I grit my teeth and tinker with it more, so desperate my hand starts shaking.
