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“That’s enough,” he says sternly. “You and I are going to have to start our lessons again. Right where we left off. You clearly forgot all about respect. Now you need to keep quiet. And if you don’t want to, I can make you.” He grabs something else next to us, and I try to pull away from him.
“No!” I shake my head. But he holds me in place and peels out the duct tape.
“Stop wriggling,” he orders low.
I don’t, but he manages to wrap it around my head anyway. So many times I’m scared he’s also going to put it over my nose. He wraps and wraps I don’t know how many layers. My hair is pulled, agony piercing through my skull.
Tears threaten to fall, and I swallow them back.
No.I promised myself a long time ago that Mateo Bianco wouldn’t get any more of my tears. He will not.
The tape feels tight around my mouth, my head, and even down my neck.
“There,” he says softly. “I just don’t want you to get in any more trouble. Do you understand?” He runs the palms of his hands against the sides of my face, rubbing his thumbs against the tape and making sure it’s sticking properly.
Then they come to rest on my waist.
“I’ve waited your entire life for this,mia rosa. I will not wait any longer. One of my friends is lending me his jet since the authorities seized mine. Tomorrow we’re flying to Sicily, and in a week we’re getting married. I can’t wait.”
My breath is heavy through my nostrils. He uses the rest of the tape to bind my arms tighter, to the middle of my forearms, and my legs up to my knees.
“There, there. Now you’re not going anywhere.” He drops a kiss to my forehead and then on the bit of tape that’s covering my lips. “I must say, even like this, you look beautiful.”
And there it is. That meaningless word again.
Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Fucking beautiful.
I can’t hear it anymore. Not from his mouth. Not when it sounds like the worst thing it could possibly be. Not when it means it gets me his attention.
He lets me go, lying me down on the tiled floor again. “Not long, my princess. I promise.”
The door opens and shuts.
Sam is never going to find me. I don’t even know where we could possibly be. This is not a rescue situation. Either I get myself out, or I know it’s over for me.
I drift in and out of sleep, attempting to stay awake while the headache gets worse. My vision keeps getting blurrier until it’s impossible to keep my eyes open anymore. I’m not sure if I’m falling asleep or losing consciousness from the concussion.
* * *
“Good morning,mia rosa.”
I jerk awake. His voice is a whisper and yet it rings out loudly against the migraine. Trying to focus my eyes is impossible and it makes me feel claustrophobic. Bianco’s blurry form is right above me.
“I’m going to bring you upstairs. I need you to sign something for me. Try and be good.”
I want to do everything in my power to make it hard for him, but my power is nothing. I have always prided myself in fighting all I had for my freedom. Here I am, tied up and muted, and I have no strength to fight whatsoever. My entire body is against me, begging for rest. My muscles ache, my head is about to explode. Every time I attempt a strong movement, I give up halfway through.
The weakness is killing my will to survive.
He picks me up easily. An arm under my knees and one around my waist. I can’t even keep my head up, letting it hang as he walks out of the room and up some stairs. It’s only when he sets me down on a chair and the world flips back from upside down that I understand where we are.
In his Washington D.C. house. The one where I grew up. I look around, finding the familiar office that had become a place of nightmares.
My heart kicks with fear from the memories I have here, but I manage to calm it. Because, rationally, this is a place Sam would check. And this gives me a chance of surviving.
He must see the hope in my eyes because he crushes it right away.
From behind me, he brings his mouth to my ear. “I’m sorry, but Sam checked out the place yesterday. He didn’t find anyone, so he left. He was very, very angry.”
