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He tilts his head, eyeing me with narrowed eyes. He doesn’t say a damn word when he hits whatever is on the screen of his phone a few times, illuminating his smirking face.
My heart falls into my ass, and I swear everything turns into slow motion when the door behind me opens and two men emerge. Just as three gunshots ring out on stage and three distinctive thumps echo in my ears.
People scream hysterically, crying out as more gunshots ring out. Until a full-on battle ensues in the main ballroom. I can’t tell if the family is fighting back against the intruders, or if they’re running for their lives now.
All I can do is stand there as two men capture my arms, holding me tighter than necessary.
“This is all for you Shadow!” the voice bellows through the speakers.
He shakes his head almost in disappointment. “This was never going to end well for you, Little Snake. I kept you alive this long to get what I wanted,” Gabriel says, nodding to the men behind me. “Tell Shadow I send my regards and have faith he’ll deliver what belongs to me.”
“He will, Mr. Viotto,” the man to my right says in a low voice, yanking me through the door.
“I’m going to kill you,” I say, looking behind me at Gabriel, who grins, waving me off. “I will come back and absolutely obliterate you.”
“Promise, Little Snake?” he chuckles.
“From the bottom of my fucking black soul!” I shout when the door shuts between us, and I’m dragged down a set of stairs, barely able to walk with the two men hurriedly taking me against my will.
I stiffen when the entire building shakes, and a loud explosion rings out from above.
“Time to say, nighty night,” a deep voice comes from beside me, the first time one of them has spoken directly to me.
And that’s the only warning I get before something hard slams into the back of my head, sending me into a blissful darkness full of nothing.
“Journey, you need to wake up.”
A pounding in my head wakes me up from my long slumber. Or was it a long slumber? Fuck. I can’t remember anything. Sludge moves through my mind, clouding my damn thoughts.
“J!” a shrill voice from beside me sputters out with desperation. “Please, Sis. Please wake up! We probably don’t have much time.” Sniffles echo through the room. “God, you need to wake up.”
I groan, lifting my chin off my chest and stretching the muscles out. What the hell happened? Where am I? And why is my little sister sounding so frantic?
I smack my lips a few times, desperate for some sort of drink. I reach out–—or attempt to—but I’m stopped by something around my wrists, rubbing painfully into my flesh. I flinch from the pain, popping my eyes open.
A part of me wishes I didn’t look around the dingy room, reeking of mold and moisture with nothing else in the room except me and…
“What?” I groggily ask, stiffening at the sight of the empty room.
“Thank God!”
My head whips to my sister Sunny, which wasn’t a good idea. Everything in the damn room spins, and my head hurts worse than before. I wince, leaning to the side and expel everything in my stomach out.
“What’s happening?” I croak.
“We’ve been kidnapped, that’s what’s happened,” she quickly says in a joking manner. “I need you to open your eyes, Sis.”
“Did they hurt you?” I ask, peeling my eyes open again and focusing on her face. “God, you look so grown up now.”
“And you look old,” she says, rolling her eyes. “No. No one has hurt me. Unless you consider the ropes around my wrists and feet as hurting me.” She gestures down to the bindings secured around her feet.
“Ugh. My head,” I groan, desperate to hold it in my hands. “This was not the reunion I was envisioning.”
“Yeah,” she whispers sadly. “I don’t know what happened.”
I shake my head. “It was me. I happened,” I whisper, sniffling slightly when the night before comes back in vivid detail. “Wait, how long have we been like this?”
“I woke up maybe ten minutes before you did,” Sunny murmurs, shaking her head and letting her long brown locks hang over her shoulder. “I was just chilling in my room and then these guys came in with a camera pointed at me, telling me to encourage you to do whatever that asshole says.” She grits her teeth, anger seeping through her words.
