Page 44 of Consumed By the Mafia

There was a door off the other wall that, logically, led to another—likely smaller—space. From her current angle, Abigail could see no windows. The concrete floor beneath them had a couple of suspicious gouges, but she couldn’t identify more than that.

“Grab me that chair, baby girl,” Ryoma said as he walked Wells into the center of the room.

Abigail gave herself a shake and moved forward. This was exactly the kind of space she had been hoping to find not even a week ago. Now here she was, being brought into it as an ally and knowing full well she wouldn’t take the action she should. She could hide behind the fact that they were there because Ryoma had taken a captive for her sake, but it was more than that. She knew it, even if she wasn’t ready to put that understanding into words. Instead she grabbed hold of the chair and carried it over to him.

Wells started struggling again. “What the fuck is this? You can’t do this!”

Ryoma shoved him down onto the seat and kept his hands on the man’s shoulders as he leaned forward. “I can—and will—do whatever the fuck I want with you, dirtbag. If that means I want to slice you up and watch you slowly bleed outor die from the terror, that’s what I’ll fucking do. If that means I let Abby empty her clip and mine into your twig-ass body until she feelssated, that’s what I’ll fucking do.”

Abigail pulled in a breath as Ryoma’s words tangled up in her chest. She ought to have felt disgusted. At herself and certainly at the situation. She ought to, but she didn’t. Watching her lover growl into the face of one of her lifelong nightmares both satisfied and triggered something in her that she had no name for. At the same time, his particular choice of wording ignited a feeling she was becoming much more familiar with. She definitely had no business feelingthatin this sort of situation.

“Baby girl,” Ryoma said again, snapping her out of her increasingly uncomfortable fog. “Could you grab me out some zip-ties? First cabinet. I’ll need three.”

“Wh-what the fuck?” Wells mumbled. He sounded equal parts confused and petrified.

Abigail nodded, walked around them, and took herself to the indicated cabinet. “Are you going to get in trouble for bringing me here? And showing me around?”

“Only if you’re still playing me,” Ryoma replied, a grin in his voice that definitely shouldn’t have been there.

She rolled her eyes, though he couldn’t see, and crouched in front of the cabinet. For a moment she was overwhelmed by the surprisingly organized selection of things displayed before her, but then her mind snapped into focus and she quickly spotted an entire tray full of zip-ties. Which was sort of alarming. Grabbing out three, she made her way back to Ryoma. “Want me to tie him up? Or hold him still?”

“Let me fuckin’ go!”

Ryomapointedly ignored the outburst as he met her gaze. “Lady’s choice.”

Abigail bounced the options back and forth for a beat, matched his grin, and dropped to a knee in order to hike up his pantleg and retrieve the wicked knife once again sheathed out of sight. “I’ll take requests, but I want the fun.”

Ryoma laughed. “I can see that.” He waited until she was standing again before he added, “Once you cut the tape off his wrists, pull his arms around the back of the chair. Then tie his wrists together and make sure you get at least one of the chair posts as an anchor, too. Pull them tight enough to bite into his skin, but not break it. We want him uncomfortable, but we want to control when he starts to bleed.”

“Y-you’re fucking crazy…. Crazier than I thought…” Wells said.

Abigail nodded and walked around behind the chair. She raised the zip-ties to her mouth to free her hands and set to work following Ryoma’s instructions.

She wasn’t prepared for Ryoma’s low growl. “Oi. What did I tell you about that?”

Abigail’s gaze snagged on the darkening, improperly bent middle finger on Wells’s right hand and she nearly misjudged the angle she needed with the dagger. Which she wouldn’t have been heartbroken over, in all honesty, but it wasn’t her intention. Shaking herself back into focus, Abigail swept the blade through the tape, caught one immediately forward-swinging arm, and hauled it back around as she lifted her gaze up. Sheadjusted her grip on the blade and wrangled the other arm under control as she willed her confusion across to Ryoma.

He leaned forward, shifting to press an elbow into Wells in a way that was undoubtedly painful and also enabled him to retrieve the zip-ties from her mouth, eyes narrowed. “I warned you about putting unfamiliar shit in your mouth, baby girl. Did you think I was joking?” He pulled one from the selection and passed it over, helping hold Wells’s arms in place while she worked.

Abigail blinked, still confused, and dropped her gaze to her task as her mind raced. She didn’t immediately remember what he was talking about. Not until the morning in the hotel popped up in her mind, when he’d kissed her senseless after his phone call—when he’d said something ridiculous about her having put the pen cap in her mouth. She swallowed hard and jerked maybe a bit too hard on the zip-tie.

Wells cried out.

Ryoma eased off his collar bone. “We’ll each do a leg,” he said, already holding out another zip-tie.

Abigail nodded and mimicked him, waiting until he sliced off that tape to grab a leg and haul it to one of the chair legs for anchoring. “You were serious about that?”

Wells struggled, trying to kick against their hold.

“Baby girl.”

Shit.Her heartrate spiked. She licked her lips. “I—It was just a reflex.”

Ryoma finished first, standing again. “You need to take better care of yourself.”

Her handshovered for a second after she finished as she mentally tripped over his response.

“Are you two fucking serious right now?” Wells exclaimed. “Let me the fuck go, you nutjobs!”

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