1
Addi
Someone might as well have been pounding against my temple with a hammer. Everything hurt. The same person who’d made my head pound must have scrubbed my throat with sandpaper. It was raw, and when I tried to clear it and swallow, my tongue rubbed on something rough.
Pain.
Darkness.
As I managed to peel my eyes open, I saw nothing. Nothing but black. My eyes hurt so much I had to close them again, and once I did, the view was no different.
Black.
Darkness.
Pain.
It all came to me in a foggy vision.
The bar. The man. I’d seen him before…but where?
And Charlie lying there, on the tiled bathroom floor. Unconscious.
Charlie.
My eyes snapped open. I had to find her. I jumped to do just that, but when I attempted to move, I couldn’t. My hands were behind me, and there was wood at my back. My legs couldn’t move.
Oh my God. That man. The gun… He’d stabbed me with something. Covered my mouth.
Panic flared and made my heart race and my blood boil.
Where was I?
And Charlie?
Was she…?
I tried to scream, but something sweaty and soft had been shoved into my mouth, preventing anything more than a groan from coming through. And my throat…God, it killed.
A light flickered, making me flinch. I writhed in pain as whatever was wrapped around my wrists dug into my skin, biting into my flesh every time I twisted. Fear turned my blood to ice as the light continued to flicker.
And then there was a noise. I cocked my head to listen better. Dripping water? No…footsteps.
I tried to swallow again and felt nothing but shards of glass.
“You’re awake.”
I shivered at the voice and fear cascaded down my spine. I didn’t recognize it, but it was colder than ice, stronger than steel. I couldn’t see anyone, but those footsteps had stopped. Where in the hell was I? And what were they going to do to me?
Oh God. It has to be Daniel.
The light finally stopped flickering and illuminated the room. Barely brighter than the nightlight I used to have in my bedroom as a little girl, it allowed me to make out shapes and shadows. Except all I saw were shadows. Cement walls. One metal door with bars. And at the bottom corner, the shadow of a booted foot.
“If you stay still, stay quiet, nothing will harm you.” He chuckled, and that voice trailed down my flesh like jagged fingernails. “At least, for now.”
Footsteps started again, quieted, and vanished.
Oh God. I hurt everywhere. My shoulders. My back. My knees. There was a relentless throb in my cheekbone, and my head was so heavy it fell forward.
I stared at my lap, watched the tears land on my jeans at my knees and closed my eyes again.
This was a dream. It had to be.
I’d wake up soon and Shawn would be next to me. That was all this was—a nightmare, stress from the last few weeks.
In a moment, everything would be okay. With my hands behind me, wrists wrapped with something coarse, I tried to inch the fingers of one hand to the other, but I could barely touch them. My fingertips brushed, but I couldn’t get close to my wrists to attempt to untie myself.
“Shawn,” I tried to say, but it was just another garbled moan.
Soon, the pain encompassed me. My eyes closed and I felt nothing. Heard nothing. Saw nothing.
I woke again to a searing pain in my scalp. My eyes flew open as I tried to grapple, fighting against the pain, but it was useless. Someone was behind me. Cold pressed to my temple.
“Shut up,” he snapped through gritted teeth. A vile scent filled the air and I tried to scream.
I thrashed, and a sharp pain flew down my back as he kicked the chair I was still tied to.
“I said, shut the fuck up.” Hair scraped my cheek, and it was then I realized he had my hair fisted in his hand, yanking at it. That was the pain in my scalp. “She wants to speak to you, and she needs you quiet.” He paused briefly. “Do you know who I am?”
I turned as much as I could, and he let go of my hair. Pain made my eyes water. Fear made my body shake.
His eyes were all I saw. Dark. Soulless. I did know him.
I whimpered and nodded.
The guy from the steakhouse. He was there. He was the one who’d hurt Charlie, who’d taken me. Mancusso? He wasn’t the guy from my father’s house or MaryAnne’s nephew, but they looked similar.
“Do you know who I work for?”
I shook my head. I could imagine, but it didn’t make sense. How had he known I was at a steakhouse days before he took me from Dreammaker’s? That was the night my apartment was broken into. How long had they been following me?
My head spun with questions, and the wretched taste of the rag slid down my throat.
A click-clack noise echoed on the cement floor. The room was brighter now. I must have missed the flickering of the lights as they turned on. Come on, Addi. Keep your senses and be smart. You can figure this out.
The man behind me must have sensed my alertness because the gun moved from my temple. The clicking noise grew louder until a shadow appeared in the open doorway.
No. I grunted in surprise and jerked in the chair as MaryAnne Johannsen stood several feet from me. It only made the fist holding my hair yank harder, and a squeal escaped my throat as fear knotted and coiled tight in my stomach.
It was Daniel’s mom, who I’d recently learned was part of a mob family in New York, one that happened to be known for trafficking women.
She was the one who’d taken me? I shouldn’t have been surprised, only the last two weeks still didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Especially this—why take me from Dreammaker’s and tie me up in what looked like an abandoned jail cell or warehouse of some sort?
MaryAnne stepped closer to where I was sitting. In the few interactions I’d had with her, she’d always been cold, aloof, distant. The expression on her face was currently furious as she glared down at me, dressed in a navy blue skirt with a cream-colored top like she was an executive heading to work at an office.
“You spoiled little bitch,” she hissed, grabbing my chin. She pinched it between her thumb and fingers, and her nails dug into the thin flesh there.
I cried out from the pain, which only made her grin.
“All you had to do was do what you were told, and now you’ve screwed everything up.”
I’d have spit in her face if there wasn’t a rag in my mouth. I’d have clawed her face off and kicked and screamed until I ruined her if I could.
I was the spoiled bitch? I ruined things?
“Don’t worry, though, Adrianna Marquess. Now that we have you, my son cannot wait until you’re returned. Soon, you’ll be obedient, doing everything he requires of you.” She leaned in, and a cinnamon scent from what had to be a mint or toothpaste because there was no way this woman chewed gum wafted from her breath. “And he will require you to do much, because once he breaks you in, have no doubt he will be paid a pretty penny for what he’ll expect you to do for others.”
I wrenched my chin from her grasp, feeling the sting of her nails slicing skin and a warmth slide down my neck.
She’d cut me, and I glared at her. Like hell that’ll happen. My eyes screamed it to the best of my abilities.