Page 8 of Vicious Little Princess

3

~Caterina~

An irritating beeping blasted through my subconscious and jolted me awake.

My eyes snapped open, and it took me a few moments to clear my blurry vision.

That wasn’t helped by the pounding in my head, which worsened as I raised it from its lolled forward position.

It took me a moment to discern that infuriating sound that had woken me to be that of a large truck backing up.

Backing up where?

Where the hell was I?

The last thing I remembered was being with Julian on the back of his bike, having the time of my life, and then… then Angelo had been there with his goons and… he’d caused that crash.

Shit! Julian!

I went to bolt up from my seated position only to find resistance, realizing I was bound to a fucking metal chair. I moved my fingers around behind me, determining that my hands were restrained by a pair of cuffs.

I was still in the black leather pants that Julian had gifted me, although my boots were gone and I was barefoot. I was down just to my white strappy tank too, and I could make out the bloodied scrapes all down my arms, likely from the crash. Or, for all I knew, being dragged in here to this chair by Angelo or his muscle.

I strained to take in the room, a bland concrete monstrosity. I noted the track twenty feet ahead of me and the closed double garage doors.

So I’d been left in a garage somewhere.

There was a truck that I’d heard just outside.

That didn’t really narrow it down location-wise.

A grating scrape jarred me from investigating my surroundings further and I looked out toward the direction of the sound, just as a light was turned on and a metal door was pushed open, someone stepping inside.

I blinked rapidly to adjust my vision to the sudden influx of light.

And that was when I took in that all-too-familiar Ivy League haircut and the goatee, followed by the gray leather jacket that he always wore, come winter or the height of summer.

Angelo Simone.

“Ah, you’re finally awake. Good. I need to head out elsewhere, but I didn’t want to leave without explaining what’s about to happen. Or seeing your face when I did. I was about to have one of the guys I’ve got with me fetch a hose to wake you up that way if you hadn’t come around naturally soon.” He grinned at me nastily. “That would have been fun to see, but no matter, they can still use it for other purposes if they like.”

“What the hell is the meaning of this?” I demanded. “Where’s Julian?”

“Two birds with one stone.”

“What?”

“Julian is due punishment for what he did to me. When I saw the two of you were together, I decided to exact said punishment on you as well. Besides, it really didn’t seem like you were suffering as you should be, riding on his bike and yelling excitedly and happily. Guess Nico isn’t getting the job done. Change of plans then.”

“What plans?”

Stroking his goatee, he told me, “These friends of mine work for a buyer I’ve been busting my ass to acquire for your father, since our previous ones for the whores we’d procured fell through when they betrayed us. So as a test and proof that we can work together, I’ll be handing you over to him.”

“You… what?” I choked, unable to stop a shudder from taking me over at his sick plan. “Does my father know about this?”

“Not yet. But I’m sure once he comes around to the idea, he’ll be grateful when it both gets you out of the picture once and for all and earns him one hell of a lucrative partnership for his flesh trade aspirations.”

“What about the alliance that my marriage to Nico solidified?”

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