Page 232 of Kissing the Villain

“Shut up,” the man yelled.

He hunched down so I could feel his breath on my cheek and jammed a needle into my neck.

85

ALEX

I wokeup to the sound of water splashing against the side of the boat. Thunder boomed so loudly that my heart raced at the sudden bolts striking the water, one after another. I rolled onto my side, surprised to find my hands and legs free from the shackles—no more blindfolds or bandanas around my mouth.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, whipping me out of my drug-induced sleep. “Hey,” a woman said. “Are you okay?”

I blinked a few times, attempting to focus on the dark-haired woman in her early twenties. She had black streaks under her wide blue eyes, but I could tell she was beautiful on a good day. She had straight hair, whereas mine was curly and wild. And after days of being drugged and tortured, I must have looked like an animal.

“Where am I?” I sat up and leaned back against the wall.

Like me, she had bruises on her arms and legs. Instead of cuts and deep lacerations, she had welts on her inner thighs and arms from being struck. She looked as if she’d been through the same fucked up shit as me, drugged and thrown around like trash.

“We’re on a ship,” she said.

I rubbed the pain from my sore thighs, avoiding the worst of my cuts. “Yeah, but where are we going?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Men kidnapped me from my house in the middle of the night. It happened so fast. They knocked me out cold.”

“Who are these men?”

“They’re criminals.”

“I got that much,” I shot back. “Have you overheard their conversations? Anything that can help us get out of here?”

She shoved her long hair behind her ears. “No, nothing. They dropped me onto this mattress and locked the door.”

“Have they fed you? Come back to check on you?”

She shook her head.

“How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe a few hours or a few days? They injected me with something right after they left me here.”

“Same for me.”

“I’ve never done drugs,” she muttered as she picked at the rip in her dirty mattress. “I don’t like the feeling of being high.”

“Me too. I feel like shit.” My throat was raw and scratchy as I spoke. “My head is pounding from all the drugs.”

“What’s your name?”

“Alex. What’s yours?”

She forced a smile. “Rhiannon.”

“You must be important to someone if you ended up on this boat.”

“My dad is a bad man with a lot of enemies.” She tucked her bare feet under her butt, eyes on me. “How about you?”

“I’m Luca Salvatore’s fiancée.”

Not officially. He still hadn’t gotten down on one knee and presented me with an engagement ring.

---