Page 17 of Taken By Him

Two men carry in boxes and go upstairs. Apparently, they know where I’m sleeping. People are having conversations about me behind my back, it’s unsettling.

After the last box is brought up, I go up, too.

“One of the girls should be here soon, I’ll send her up to help.” Margaret says from behind me.

There’re three boxes in all. My entire life fits into three boxes.

“No, that’s fine. Thank you, but it’s mostly clothes. I can do it. It will give me something to do.”

She gives me a small smile then leaves me to it.

It’s nearly all clothes. Nothing in my father’s house was ever really mine. I’m happy to find my laptop and my tablet, though. I have a full library on my tablet. If nothing else, I’ll be able to put a small dent in my reading list.

After I’ve hung everything in the closet and put away everything else in the dressers, I sit in an armchair that faces the window. The backyard is large and sectioned off with fruit trees. A row of pine trees lines the back wall of the estate.

Would it be hard to climb over the wall? More importantly, where would I even go?

“Kasia.” The door to the room opens and Dominik walks in.

“Can’t you knock?” I say, turning back toward the window. I thought I’d have a longer reprieve from him today. It’s barely afternoon. Shouldn’t he be working, shaking someone down or something?

“Knock in my own house? No,” he says firmly and stands beside the chair. “I brought you this, but if you’re in a mood I can keep it a bit longer.”

My phone is in his hand. I look up at him. No smile, just a raised eyebrow. I take it from him.

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

Has he done anything to it? Put some sort of tracking app on it? Can he see who I talk to, who I text?

“I spoke with your father. He has to go out of town for a while, but he’ll call you this afternoon.” He slips his hands into his pockets. He’s wearing another suit. A black suit and tie set against a dark grey shirt. With his hair slicked back, and his beard neatly trimmed, he looks more like a handsome businessman than the demonic thug I’m sure he is.

My phone’s dead; it needs a good charge.

“How long will he be gone?” I ask. The longer he’s out of town, the longer the engagement. I’ll have time to think of a way out of this or get Dominik to change his mind.

I get up from the chair in search of my charging cable. It was among my tablet and computer.

“A few weeks at best. He mentioned you recently graduated. Did you have plans, a job offer maybe?”

I had a lot of plans. A lot of things I wanted to do next. Getting married to a mob boss wasn’t one of them.

“Kasia, I asked a question,” he says when I keep quiet.

After I dig out the cable, I turn to him. “Does it matter? Would you change any of this if I did?”

“No.” He answers without a second of hesitation and I have no doubt he wouldn’t have thought twice about his actions if I had a full life of achievements and goals ahead of me. My life means nothing to him. Not when he can use me for whatever purpose he has in mind.

I shake my head and go about plugging the charger into the wall.

“Then why bother asking?” I mutter.

He doesn’t answer me, but instead walks to the empty boxes.

“You’re unpacked all ready? Where are the other boxes?” he asks.

“That’s all there was.”

He goes to the closet and flips through my things.

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