Page 1 of Sweet Retribution

CHAPTER ONE

Iwake alone and confused. My wrists burn where they’re bound. My ankles as well. My legs are tied with a rough, thick rope to the corners of the bed. It’s too dark to see my surroundings, but the room smells.

Or it’s me. I can smell urine and feces. I feel wetness between my legs and under my butt. I’m naked, bruised, and sore.

The last thing I remember is shopping in the outdoor market with Maria. We were selecting vegetables for a salad I knew Stone wouldn’t eat, and cheese for the macaroni and cheese dish I was going to make for him tonight.

Or last night. Or the night before. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone. I try to lift my arms, but I’m too weak. Too weak to open my eyes and survey my surroundings. I don’t want to know where I am.

“I didn’t think you’d ever wake.”

Antonio.My skin crawls and I shrink into the thin, lumpy mattress. My father had told Antonio Rossi he could marry me when I turned eighteen. It didn’t matter that he’s fifteen years older than me, and a rapist.

As business partners, marrying me would make the two of them–Antonio Rossi and Lorenzo Parisi–the most powerful in their underground sex-trafficking world.

I’d escaped their control a month before my birthday, my mother and I leaving under the ruse of looking at universities in England and France. We’d fled with the help of Sonny, my bodyguard, who’d been charged to keep tabs on me during my teenage years.

I supported my mother, living with brain damage and dementia caused by my father, waitressing in little diners around the United States for eight years.

Until Stone Parlatore kidnapped me, brought me to Italy, and forced me to be his bride. He, however, hadn’t tortured me.

“Don’t pretend you’re not awake, Callista.” Antonio kicks the side of the bed and I flinch, the ropes ripping at my skin.

I don’t correct him, telling him I changed my name to Gia the moment I escaped the confines of Lorenzo Parisi’s prison will only anger him more.

I slowly open my eyes, blinking from the brightness of the single bulb in the ceiling above me.

“You’re a filthy littleputtana.”

Then why did you take me?I don’t look at him. I don’t speak to him. I’m afraid of what he wants. What he’ll do to me.

“You’ve bled all over the bed and you smell like a mound of shit. Finish your cycle so I can plant my seed in you. I’d say keep your legs closed until then,” he laughs bitterly, smacking my right foot, “but it’s too late for that.”

The rope burns around my ankles. Warm liquid trickles down my thigh. I don’t have the energy to process what he’s said and pray he’ll leave me before he rapes me. Again? For the first time?

He mentioned blood. My period. I was supposed to start my period. Or am I bleeding because he abused me, tore me apart? I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, or if I’ll ever be free.

Stone.He promised to keep me safe. He promised no harm would come to me or to my mother. Has he given up on me? Did he send me to Antonio? Was this part of his plan all along? Make me fall for him, my kidnapper, make me give up my virginity to him, then sell me to the enemy?

He never told me his plan, only that I had to marry him and he’d keep us safe, Mama and me. Marry him for two years and then he’d let me free after he sought vengeance on Lorenzo.

I didn’t care what his plan was for my father or Antonio. If he planned on killing them, mother and I would be safe.

But he’s not dead. Or at least Antonio isn’t.

I hear the door close and I relax as much as possible. I’ve escaped whatever punishment Antonio has planned for me only because I’m lying in my own filth. I’m disgusted and embarrassed, and also grateful it keeps him away.

All I can do is lie here and pray Stone comes for me before Antonio rapes me.

Or kills me, which would be better.

***

“It’s been for fuckingdays, Lucca. Where the fuck is she?” I jab my guard in the chest. I don’t ever show this side of me, not even to my right-hand men.

Lucca is faithful to me. I know that. But he was responsible for keeping Gia safe while I was dealing with Lorenzo. I haven’t slept in ninety-six hours. As soon as my eyes close I dream of her being killed. Or worse. Her staring at me begging me to rescue her while Antonio rapes her. I wake before I’m fully asleep.

I promised her safety. I promised I’d take care of her while she adhered to her end of the deal: marry me.

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