A door whips open and light spills into the obscure space, tearing me from my twisted thoughts. I stiffen my lower lip and sit as straight as I can with the cuffs digging into my wrists.
“Ah, there she is, Luca’s little whore.” Bo’s eyes gleam as they raze over me.
I must look like total shit. “He’s going to gut you for this,” I spit. “And then I’ll dance over your entrails.”
“Are you sure?” He stalks toward me and grips my chin, forcing my eyes to his. “I thought you guys broke up?”
“Fuck you.”
“Soon.” A twisted sneer curves the ends of his thin lips. “I’ve been waiting for weeks, Stella, waiting and waiting to catch you alone. Even when you moved out of his place, one of his guys was constantly on you.”
My brows knit. He’d had me followed?
“For an entire week, I had your friend’s apartment surveilled.”
Of course, the one time I left Rose’s studio was to take that damned test. I better have passed after all this. I glare up at him, steeling my nerves. “For just a whore, you sure seem pretty obsessed with me.”
His fingers release my chin and tangle in my hair. He rips it back, but I bite my tongue to hold in the scream. I’ll never give him the satisfaction.
“It’s payback, babe. Luca Valentino is an arrogant guido, and it’s time he’s put in his place.”
“It’s your funeral,” I scoff.
He steps closer still, that twisted grin growing wider. “Maybe, or maybe, he’ll be so bent after I’m through with you he’ll kill himself and do us all a favor.”
Icy fear races down my spine. I’d been banged up quite a few times as a kid, hell even as an adult my dad had slapped me around more than I cared to admit. I’d put up with a lot, but there is no way I’m letting this motherfucker touch me.
He looms over me, and it takes everything I have to keep from shaking. Throwing my shoulders back, I glare up at him. “I’ll never give you what you want.”
“Oh yeah, and what do you think that is?”
“Me.” I shoot him a saccharine smile. “After all this time, that’s what you wanted, right? That’s why you attacked me in the subway all those months ago. You wanted me back and I refused to return to your tiny, limp dick.”
The slap ricochets across the thick silence. I bite back another scream, refusing to give him the pleasure of my pain.
“Shut your mouth, you little whore.”
I force my lips to slide into a smile despite the sting. “What’s wrong? You don’t want your buddies to know what a terrible lay you are? That I faked it every time? Or maybe that Luca fucked me so good he erased every miserable time with you?”
A few of the guys chuckle, and rage flashes across Bo’s almond eyes until they grow to full furious circles. “I’m going to fuck that smile right off your face.”
Bile oozes up, but I swallow it down forcing my expression to stay calm. I just need him to untie me, and I can reach my pepper spray. From there, I run. I’d rather be shot in the back than suffer his disgusting hands on me. “I’d like to see you try,” I egg him on.
“Untie her,” he barks at his cousin.
“Are you sure?” Feng’s dark brows bunch together.
“I said fucking untie her.”
Feng walks around behind me, and I drag in a steadying breath. I have to time it right, or I’ll have five guys on me. He uncoils the rope around my waist but doesn’t unclasp the cuffs.Shit.
Bo points at the chains around my legs. “Take those off too so I can spread her wide for me.”
Oh, hell, I’m going to vomit.
Feng eyes his cousin before he moves in front of me and unlocks the manacles around my ankles.
At least I can run now.