Chapter 188: Chapter 188

The first thing I felt when I woke up was the cold.

It seeped straight through my clothes from the concrete floor, freezing my skin. Then came the pain. My wrists throbbed where the rope bit deep, sawing into my skin. I lay there in the dark with my eyes squeezed shut, my heart hammering against my ribs, my head pounding like it was going to split open. My mouth tasted like dust and ash. My brain spun with that awful, sickening confusion of waking up somewhere you never went to sleep.

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

The room was dim and smelled like old damp. Concrete walls closed in around me, high and suffocating. Way up top, a tiny window showed nothing but pitch black. Above me, a single bare bulb hung by a wire, casting a greasy, sick-yellow glow over the room.

I pushed myself up. Pain flared instantly behind my eyes, and the whole world tilted. I slammed my eyes shut, holding my breath until the dizziness stopped spinning the room, then opened them again.

Something moved in the corner and my stomach dropped. I could see the silhouette of a person standing in the shadows before I could even make out a face. Panic hit me like a bucket of ice water and immediate.

Instinctively, I pulled my bound hands tight against my stomach.

The baby.

The fear changed in a split second, twisting from survival into pure, frantic desperation.

The figure stepped forward, walking right under the yellow light.

It was a man but a total stranger, why would he kidnap me?

"Who are you?" I asked. I tried to sound tough, but my voice was thin and raspy. "What do you want?"

He stared down at me. Then, a slow, sickening smile spread across his face. There wasn't an ounce of warmth in it, just pure malice.

"So," he said softly, "you're Gelo's wife. The one he kept hidden." He tilted his head, watching me the way a cat watches a trapped mouse. "Does he really think I'm a fool? Does he actually think he can keep you from me?"

I looked up at him, my heart hammering against my sternum. The truth of my life sat right there between us in that miserable, freezing room.

"Whatever problem you have with Angelo," I breathed, trying to keep the tremble out of my chest, "leave me out of it. I'm not part of your it."

He laughed.

It was a horrible sound. No joy, no humour, just cold, ugly noise. The sound of a man who had already decided how I was going to die.

"Why wouldn't he come for you?" he asked, stepping closer. "You're his wife."

I shut my mouth and looked down at my hands. The rope bit into my wrists. He's not coming, I thought, and the realization was a heavy, aching stone in my chest. He doesn't love me. I was just a business deal. An empire transaction. There was no world where Angelo came charging in to save something he only acquired to seal a bargain.

But the baby was real.

This tiny life inside me didn't ask for any of this. I wasn't going to lie on this filthy floor and wait for a man who wasn't coming. And I was not going to let this monster touch my child.

While he kept talking, I started working my wrists behind my back.

Tiny, quiet movements. I twisted, scraping my skin raw, feeling desperately for any give in the knot.

He kept talking, his voice bouncing off the concrete walls, and I kept my face blank, gritting my teeth through the pain, working the rope, feeling it shift just a tiny fraction.

He stepped even closer and crouched right in front of me. Before I could pull away, his hand shot out and clamped onto my chin, forcing my face up. His grip was hard, his smile terrifyingly close.

"You really are beautiful," he whispered, his eyes crawling over my skin. "I can see why he hid you away." He leaned in, his breath sour against my cheek. "Maybe I'll take a taste of what that bastard's been keeping to himself before I send you both to hell."

"Let me go," I rasped, terror choking my throat.

He leaned even closer.

The rope gave.

The tension snapped. I didn't think. I didn't hesitate. I threw everything I had into driving my elbow straight into his face.

Crack.

The impact smashed up my arm, and he let out a sharp, gurgling yell. I was on my feet before he even hit the ground.

I bolted for the door. My legs were heavy like lead, trembling from the chemical sweet taste of chloroform still sitting on my tongue. The room lurched sideways, but I forced my feet to move. The door was right there. Just a few more steps but I didn't make it.

His hand slammed around my ankle like a steel trap.

I went down hard. My knees cracked against the concrete floor, shooting blinding pain up my legs.

I kicked frantically, trying to tear free, but his grip was iron and filled with rage. I twisted around, scrambling on my back, and saw his face.

The smile was gone. His eyes were wide, dark, and utterly ruthless.

My heart shattered with pure, unadulterated terror.

I slammed my free foot down on the floor and pulled with everything in me.

He jerked me back hard, dragging me across the stone.

"You are going to regret that," he whispered. His voice was deathly quiet, and that quiet was the scariest thing I had ever heard.

I looked at the heavy door, just out of reach.

I felt his fingers digging bruisingly into my ankle.

I felt the fragile warmth of my baby inside me.

"Let go of me!" I sobbed, completely dropping the mask, letting the horror rip through my voice. "Let go of me right now!"

He smiled again. That cold, dead smile.

He began to haul me backward toward him. I spun onto my stomach and dug my hands into the rough floor, pulling, clawing, feeling my fingernails bend and snap back against the concrete. The terror overflowed, crushing my lungs, crushing my chest, and holding onto my baby with everything I had left, I opened my mouth and screamed.