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When Betty doesn’t answer, I look back up at her and the corners of her eyes soften. “I know, sweetie, but sometimes, when we love someone, we don’t see what everyone else does.”
“I need to see Wicked.” Pushing off the table, I snatch my keys. “Can you watch Wolf?”
“Of course.” Betty shoos me away, and I wait for the elevator before stepping inside. I can’t sit still. The underlying need to know what is going on is eating me inside and if Wicked doesn’t tell me, I’ll force it out of him. The elevator stops at the bottom parking lot level and I beep my DB 11, goose bumps raising down my spine. Spinning around, I look around the space. Empty parking spots except for mine, that’s parked in the penthouse section.
Pushing the button again, I reach for the door handle just as a hand covers my mouth and I’m being dragged backward. I kick and scream, my arms flying behind me to reach for something—anything—when I’m being shoved forward and a dark blindfold is forced over my head. The sliding door to the van closes and the heavy body on top of me lifts.
“You motherfucker!” I scream before a heavy fist thumps me across the head and everything goes black.
Water drips onto hard concrete floors to the rhythm of the pounding in my head. I slowly crack my eyes open, wincing when my hand reaches up to touch the side of my temple. Finally, I blink away from the blur and my eyes rest on the ceiling. Moss grows through paint cracks, water seeping through the damaged crevices.
I attempt to push up from the ground when my hands are unable to move. “Fuck!” I scream, tugging on the chains clasped around my wrists. Pain bites at my ankles when I realize how bad of a position I’m in.
“Motherfucker!” I turn my head to the side, blood trickling down the back of my neck.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say…” a voice purrs in the corner. All of my pain fizzles out. Even with how small the room is, against the painted concrete walls and ground, his dark shadow in the corner sticks out.
“Who the fuck are you?” He steps out from the shadows and a whoosh of air crawls over my skin. Shock seizes my muscles and I tug on the handcuffs again. “Antonio?” Confusion tugs on my heart as he makes his way to the bed, looking down on me from up above. “What is going on?”
“Ah, sweet child.” He runs the tip of his finger over the side of my face, and memories erupt inside of my mind from when I was little. “You’re Papa’s best friend?”
“Mmhmm,” he murmurs. “Do you know who else I am, principessa?” Antonio asks, his lips brushing my ear as his fingers trickle down inside my elbow. The blood drains from my face, and my eyes shoot up to his. “Starts with S.”
“You motherfucker. I should kill you!” I squeeze the chains on my handcuffs, searing anger burning through my veins.
“Why?” Skully brushes my hair to the side as a needle pinches into my arm. “Didn’t your lover tell you? Oh, but he’s been working with me all along.” My eyes drift closed, my mouth turning dry. My bones turn to lead as I struggle to stay awake. The colors and textures of the room begin to swirl together.
“Can you see me, little child?”
“I’m—” I go to open my mouth but words fail to fall out.
He turns, I think, and disappears before coming back. “I know you can hear me and will remember this, so hear this, Ruby La Rosa. Wicked was put in your life for a reason. Everything was planned…do you still trust him?” I feel something cold graze the inside of my thigh and I force them closed, only they’re halted by an object. The room spins as he flips me upward to standing, my arms and legs stretched wide. I wasn’t on the ground… what is this? There’s a dark figure directly opposite me, and I force my eyes wide to try to focus on it, only my heart rate speeds up and my mouth curves in a smile.
“They broke their promise to me,” he announces. Why is he still talking? I need a drink. I jolt forward and the wheels on thebottom of the bed move, pushing me close to the door. Someone spreads it wide open, and then I’m moving. Farther and farther down a black hole…
Faces fade in and out, moving closer to me and then backing away. Orange flames explode somewhere in the back, but I can’t even keep my head up.
“Up her dose. She’s too aware.”
“No, she needs to be, partly.” Metal clinks together, but I fight to keep my eyes open. Desperate. Frustration claws its way into my brain when I can’t. I can feel my grasp on reality slowly slipping away. Heat licks over my thighs and I force my heavy eyes open to see what it is. Flames. Someone standing near the edge, holding a burning stick.
“You don’t want her organs?” someone asks in the background, and my mind is catching up, but my body won’t hurry.
“No. I had other plans for her.”
“And now?” the man asks over the clinking of utensils.
“Now, we’re going to make sure she looks clean enough.”
“…sir? That was your brother’s niche.”
“Until they killed him.”
My eyes finally close.
My hair sticks to my forehead, and my eyes slowly drift open. Everything aches. My legs, my body. I move my fingers and toes before slowly bringing my arms down and curling into a ball. I just want to sleep. Sleep…
A loud crash jolts me awake, this time entirely awake. “What!”
