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The door slams shut, and the old house all at once is darker. He hangs his coat casually on a hanger beside him.
“This way.” His boots clunk against the hollow floor. He leads me past a broken-down dining room, where I glimpse a spare room cluttered with a bird cage and a shiny cabinet that’s crisscrossed with chained locks.
I tense, wondering if ‘Jane’ is in there.
Deep breaths, I tell myself. He hasn’t harmed me, yet.
We get to our destination – a bedroom of loose carpet that he rips up effortlessly to reveal a small square hatch in the floor.
I shake my head and inch back.
“Wh—what will you do to me if I run?”
“I would let you run, Alessia. But you would be a fool to. There are no cars on this road. I purposely built this shack to look abandoned, and even more purposely built it to be far away from any life. Without a vehicle, you would starve before making it anywhere, or freeze under the snow for no one to find.”
Fuck.
Every second with him feels darker. I should’ve pulled that damn trigger. I had everything I needed to get help. Arnold would’ve relocated me somewhere even farther from this twisted fucking mafia.
Eeerr.
The hatch groans open to a set of black marble stairs that in no way match the rest of the house.
“Leandro, please,” I beg, grabbing his arm. It’s a rock of pure muscle. His skin is warm despite the mounting cold. Through my fear, a part of me whispers a need to be wrapped up by him. To experience the protection that earlier gentleness in his eyes promised.
Has it been that long since I’ve been touched? Just… held in a way that made me feel needed.
It reminds me of my dark thoughts about Arnold. He’s a balding man divorced with two kids, unattractive mustache, and the stench of coffee-overdosed law enforcement, but I still waited on him like the prince was coming to visit.
My best years… going to waste.
“Go, Alessia.”
I sob as I hesitantly take my first step down. There’s no light past the first five steps. I’m just moving blind into my own coffin.
God, no. I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling the cool touch of ceramic walls on either of my sides. Leandro’s heavy steps behind me make the space feel like it’s closing in on me. A jolt of panic strikes my spine like lightning.
“No. No.” I turn, grasping at his leg. “Let me out!”
He grabs my arm lightly. There it is again. That soothing warmth of a man. He doesn’t have to be gentle or patient. Not with his captive. But he is. His fingers barely squeeze my arm, and that almost shocks me the most.
I quiet, swallowing past a lump in my throat and make myself meet his gaze. I expect anger, irritation at least, though that’s not what’s looking back at me. The danger of a wolf on the hunt is there, though it isn’t angry, it’s almost… hungry. There and gone in an instant, it’s replaced by a screen of indifference. What was that?
“You will not be alone,” he says, guiding my body back around and gently forcing me down the stairs. “There is a sense of home here.”
I’m perplexed as I continue down. Ten steps. Twenty. An underground bunker?
I come to a cement door triple-latched from the outside.
He undoes the locks while standing behind me. His presence is that of a murderous giant. His breath is low and brooding, arms capable and ready to snap bone at any second.
My nerves are fried from anxiety, until he finally opens the door to the sound of women voices far below.
Leandro guides me past the threshold and takes a step back. “Meet your new family. May they accept you as their own.”
“Wait,” I plead.
“I will return soon.” He shuts the door in my face.
