“Well, here I am,” I whispered. “Back in this fucking nightmare.” Even as the one person I’d never wanted tangled up with my family was right in the fucking web and probably being tortured right at this instant.
The hot tear sliding down my cheek surprised me.
Then it pissed me off, made me scratch faster.
Tears didn’t help. Not now, not ever.
Instead, I continued doing the single thing that might very well mean the difference between us surviving this place and us dying in the fucking dark.
I scratched until my fingers bled.
Fifteen
Southern Italy
Unknown hrs local time
Dan
The punch to my ribs took my breath away, sending red-hot pain radiating through me.
Not cracked.
But damn well bruised.
“Tell me,” the man I recognized from the elevator demanded. Not one of the goons, though they were lined up like three little ducks against the far wall. Instead, it was Ava’s uncle, Fabio, who was speaking, and he wasn’t pretending to be charming at the moment, wasn’t discussing romance or honeymoons. Rather, he tossed a heavy set of brass knuckles that had just become familiar with my ribs down onto a scarred wooden table.
“Not sure what you’re talking about,” I said once the pain faded.
“What do you know?” he growled.
“I know a lot of things,” I said, already bracing myself for the hurt that was about to come my way. “Like the amount of product in your hair is actually flammable.”
The blow across my cheek was expected, splitting my lip, coating my tongue in blood.
The smartass remark was certainly unnecessary, but I’d gone through counter-torture training, had been in a handful of “fun” occasions like this, and in my experience, the best way for me to get out of these situations alive was to keep the snark flowing.
They certainly wouldn’t keep me alive if I just gave them what they wanted.
And they definitely wouldn’t stop the pain just because I told them the truth.
I was fucked unless KTS could get us out, and my only goal at this moment had to be keeping me and Ava alive until the calvary arrived.
Fingers gripped my hair harshly, yanked my head back until I was forced to meet angry brown eyes that were nearly identical to Ava’s. Except, the woman I loved had speckles of gold and green in her irises, flashes of color that were brought out depending on the light of the room, the clothes she was wearing.
“What do you know about the shipments?” Fabio gritted, fingers tightening.
“Did your truckload of lingerie go missing?” I shrugged. “Perhaps it was hijacked somewhere along the way?”
Another blow.
More blood on my tongue.
“What did KTS see?”
My lips curved up. “Everything.”
The grip on my hair disappeared, but the relief was only there for a second. Because Fabio stepped back, inclined his head at one of the men on the wall, a giant hulking fucker who stepped forward all too gleefully.
He cracked his knuckles as Fabio headed to the door, saying something sharp in Italian.
The only words I recognized were Ava and cell.
And that made ice fill my veins, worry for Ava blustering forward. Would they take her next? Were they going to her right now?
But before I could open my mouth, say something to delay Fabio from leaving, the hulking fucker closed the distance between us and punched me right in the stomach, stealing my breath, stoppering up the words.
Stopping me from speaking.
Then the door was closed, and Fabio was gone and—
The fists kept coming.
Sixteen
Southern Italy
Unknown hrs local time
Ava
The first sliver of light had my hand dropping to my side, my aching fingers flexing, and my breathing evening out.
Just a bit more and—
Footsteps.
Carefully sitting up, the action causing the wound on my side to pull painfully, I covered that tiny opening and focused my gaze on the door.
It wrenched open, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to be blinded, even as the light flared behind my lids. I carefully slit them open, saw the outline of the door, and braced myself to be taken like Dan had been.
Instead, he was shoved through, his body hitting the floor like a sack of bricks.
I forced myself to not react, to stay where I was.
If they wanted to interrogate me, I was going to make sure Dan was okay first. In the end, I wasn’t given a choice in the matter of whether I was staying or going. The door slammed closed, darkness falling over us, the footsteps retreated, and we were alone.
“Dan?” I whispered.
“I’m fine,” he said and groaned softly.
“I think we need to both wipe that particular phrase from our vernacular.”
A soft chuckle that was trailed by a pained breath. “I’m really okay,” he said. “Bruised ribs, split lip. I’ll have a shiner, but that’s the extent of it.”
So, they hadn’t gotten really impatient yet.
They were confident in their castle, in their dungeon, in their having swiped two KTS agents from a hotel under full surveillance, and they weren’t in a hurry for information. They would wait, would be patient.
Would play.
I forced myself not to shudder and carefully shifted, getting to work on the rock again.
“Let me,” Dan said, crawling over and nudging me gently out of the way. “You need to elevate that ankle.”
“You’re—”
“Bruised, but okay,” he said. “I promise. Take a break. I’ll work on the corner you got open.”
My protest was on the tip of my tongue, but I was already feeling dizzy, so I shifted to the side, giving him space to work, before lying down on my back and staring up at the ceiling. The light coming in from the corner of the stone I’d unearthed was dim, speaking of either dusk or dawn.
It was hard to track the hours.
And I’d been unconscious for part of the trip from the hotel, waking up as they’d carried me down into this fucking dungeon, so while I knew we were on my father’s estate, I didn’t know if we’d come straight here, or if there had been any detours taken.
If it had been me doing the taking, I would have hauled ass here, gotten us locked up securely, not dilly-dallied on the way.
Which was why I suspected it was dawn.
Well, that and the blood loss.
If I’d been bleeding for a full day as I’d been when I’d woken, I would be dead.
Yay for job skills.
I could tell how many hours had passed by counting the steady drip-drip of my life force leaving my body.
And me calling blood my life force?
That told me enough about the state of my body.
I wouldn’t live if this escapade dragged on for days, even with the fancy first aid kit from KTS.
The small sliver of light grew as I stared up at the ceiling and contemplated my thoughts. I’d begged for death many times while in this cell, wished for it, wanted it, until I’d finally found the strength and fury to fight for my freedom.
Today that anger was still pulsing through me.
But today, I also had the smallest worry that it might not be enough.