My eyes widened, as much as they could. “N-no. D-don’t c-come…down…Enzo…”Two heads popped around the corner of the wall. Cecilia and Gia saw me and gasped. I shook my head as they opened up the cell I was in.“You…two…need to go. Now.”“Bianca is keeping watch. Enzo and Dad are gone. You can get out.”Cecilia pulled out a bolt cutter from under her pink daisy dress. I opened my mouth but the two of them shushed me. Going around, it took both of them to cut the chains that were holding me to the chair. Taking the cutters from them, I cut the chains at my ankles.“Who put you up to this?” My throat was raw and ever word took time to get out.“Wizard. He messaged us. Said he’d reward us if we got you out.”I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Next time, say no. It’s too dangerous. If you got caught, you’d be killed.”Gia shook her head. “I’m already engaged to Sir Kirkland and Cecilia is engaged to Mr. Lorenzo. We are already spoken for. Cecilia even managed to get Mr. Lorenzo to agree
“Rosaria!”I opened up my eyes and realized I had fallen asleep. Kamilia was crouched down, her hand on my cheek. Damir was behind her, looking worriedly down at me. Closing my eyes again, I leaned into her touch.“Hey…” My voice was quiet.“You…I can’t…” Kamilia sounded like she was crying.I opened up my eyes to find just that. The woman who I’d never seen cry or even bat an eyelash at anything. She had tears falling down her face. Lifting up my hand, I brushed them away.“Don’t…cry. I’m n-not worth i-it. Too…much trouble.”Kamilia chuckled quietly. “You are far too much trouble. Come on. Let’s get you fixed up.”Damir stepped up and lifted me up. I was surprised. He was such a slim guy with glasses but he didn’t seem to have an issue with me. They walked to a waiting car and I was placed gently into the back seat.“Mrs. Baranov!”Keenan was sitting in the back seat and helped Damir pull me into the seat. The door shut behind me and I let my head rest in Keenan’s lap.“I’m sorry. Ju
I was sitting up in the hospital bed with a book in my lap. Kamilia expressly refused me to get a new cell phone. Saying that I needed to rest and not be worked up over anything. It was more frustrating that I didn’t have access to Wizard, who I had hoped could work with Keenan to find Marek. There was no information coming in.It had been four days already. We were coming up on three weeks. I didn’t even know if Enzo had set something up with Juri for a trade. Though, I also didn’t know if Kamilia had said anything to him about me. She seemed more on edge than normal and it made me think that maybe they were keeping my escape a secret.The door to the room opened quietly and my eyes widened as Keenan slipped in. He closed the door before turning around.“Keenan!” I put my book down.“Mrs. Petrov told us we couldn’t reach out because you needed rest.” He came over to the bed. “How are you doing?”My lips pursed in a thin line. “Better. I can walk but not very far. Kam is stopping all
When Keenan pulled into the underground parking lot, I felt like I could breathe a sigh of relief. It was home. It felt like home. Knowing Marek wasn’t there didn’t make it feel like a victory but there was still something to coming back to where we lived together. Keenan helped me out of the car and we made our way over to the elevators.“Can you do me a favor?” I handed him his phone back.“Of course.”I smiled at his immediate reply. “There is a package coming for me in a few minutes. Can you wait at the front desk for it? I’m going to head up to the penthouse. When you get it, just come up and knock. I’ll come down and meet with this asshole.”“Sure, Atamansha. Anything else?”“Some food? Maybe India? I’m starving. If I have to look at Jell-O within the next ten years, I think I will puke.”Keenan laughed and nodded. “Done.”I stepped into the elevator that took me up to the penthouse and Keenan moved to the one that would take him to the front desk. The doors shut and I sighed. L
Wizard had been right. They were keeping this guy far too comfortable. He was sitting in a wooden chair, tied to it with ropes, but he was being fed and watered. The room itself was empty, probably from one of the guys who left a few months back. Boris was sitting at the table in the corner with Lec and Zann when Keenan and I walked in.All of their eyes widened and Zann stood up.“Keenan! What the hell? She is supposed to be in the hospital!”I snorted. “Yeah, while you guys sit here twiddling your thumbs?”“He hasn’t cracked, Ria. We’ve tried.”Glancing at the guy, it looked like they’d punched him a few times. He had a black eye and his face was swollen. There were a few cuts on him but it was barely anything. It actually made me angry. This was Marek’s life and I felt like they didn’t care. I knew they did but it was hard to see when I’d literally gone through so much worse not even a week ago.“Any of you been in Marek’s torture sessions?”Keenan and Zann shook their heads but Le
I stood under the stream of the shower. It was nice they didn’t turn off the water even though no one lived here. Or maybe the guys requested the water to be turned back on. Still, I was glad that I hadn’t needed to walk through the hall covered in blood. Enzo’s guy had broken about thirty minutes ago but I’d fallen too deep.Zann, Lec, and Boris had all left. Keenan stayed, his head down as he leaned against the wall. After their outburst, I wasn’t interrupted again. Not until Keenan informed me that the guy was already dead. Frankly, the difference in length of time alive between having them laying down and hanging was so different that it surprising. Still, he hung on to consciousness longer than I thought he would.Scrubbing my skin, I knew there wasn’t any blood or guts left but I still scrubbed. The madness was still encompassing me. I’d gone too far. I needed Marek. I needed him to pull me back. Maybe this was better though. Maybe this would get me through saving him.I’d gotte
Keenan was sitting quietly in back as we drove, his hands in his lap. I was looking out of the window, but not really looking. I missed Marek. We were so close now that it hurt that much more.“I think we broke him.” My brother leaned over and whispered to me.I turned to him and sighed. “I mean, you being alive tends to break people.”“Sure, but…like…look at him. He’s completely gone.”Lorenzo looked in the mirror and I turned around. Keenan did look really lost. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I walked over to him and squatted down on the running board.“You okay, fratellino?”Behind me, I heard a chuckle. “He is really like a fratellino. Poor guy. Stuck being adopted into our shitty little family.”“Shut up, Lor. Seriously.” I turned back to Keenan. “It’s been a lot for you today. Did you want to sleep? We still have an hour before we get there.”Keenan shook his head. “No. I just…there is a lot I feel like I’m missing.”I took his hands and Keenan finally looked up at me. “Ask anything. I
Lorenzo was leaning back in his wheelchair, a headset on his face while he had a controller in his hands. We were parked just out of sight of the building. Pulling out one of two drones that Lorenzo brought, he did some recon for us before we made a fool of ourselves by going in blind.The whirl of the drone sounded and Keenan opened the door, catching it as it came down. It shut off as Keenan brought it back inside and Lorenzo took off his headset. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed his eyes for a second.“I don’t know how you do that. I tried it once and I thought I was going to throw up.” I shook my head.“It takes some getting used to but you do.”Keenan set the drone down into the foam it came from originally. “What are we looking at?”“Honestly, I think they were relying on us not finding it than us finding it and holding us back.”“So security is lax.”Lorenzo nodded. “Really, it’s the most lax I’ve ever seem while holding someone as important as Marek Baranov.”My eyes widened. “