Page 117 of Powerful Deception

I don’t remember anything after those words, and the harder that I try to think, the more my mind fills with nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Sitting up from the cloth couch I’m lying on, I try to piece together my surroundings,

Nothing about this place looks familiar.

Where the hell am I?

And where’s Dante?

Pushing myself off the couch, I cringe at the pain radiating off my ribs. I look down and see that my dress is ripped, and I can see dry blood on my ribs going down to my hips.

As I stand to full height, the pain shifts from just my side to my whole body, causing me to double down and dry heave from the pain.

Fighting through it, I stand back up again, and make my way over to the door that’s on the other side of the small room.

There are tears rolling down my face when I finally make it over. But the tears of pain are quickly replaced with ones of despair when I turn the knob and the door doesn’t budge.

“Fuck.” I pant out, the pain becoming unbearable. “Hello?” I start yelling out, hitting the door with as much force as I can muster.

I hit the door a few more times and then stop to listen for any noise, but nothing comes through.

Trying to keep myself as calm as possible, I turn back to the room to give me some sort of clues as to where I might be.

Nothing seems familiar and there’s no windows to look out of the room. The one door looks as if it’s the only way in and out.

Something about this place doesn’t feel right. It’s too staged, too clean, too bright and it’s freaking me out.

I go back to banging on the door, hoping that there is someone on the other side of the door that will hear me.

The more that I knock, the more I want to fall to the ground and succumb to the pain, but I don't, I keep knocking.

I keep knocking until I hear footsteps on the other side of the door.

When the door is pushed open, I almost fall to the ground, but somehow I’m able to keep myself steady, even with my heels still on and see who is about to walk in.

Roberto Gallo stands in the doorway, looking over at me with a smirk that makes my stomach churn even more.

“Ms. Vitale, it’s good to see that you’re awake.” He spits out, coming further into the room.

As soon as Gallo is in the room, a man, not the one that was always at the laundromat, comes to stand in the doorway.

They're keeping me in.

“What’s going on?” I say, trying my hardest to not let the pain seep through.

“I told you that it was happening. That it was time for us to follow through with our plan.” His smirk grows even more sadistic.

“There was no plan.” I say through my teeth. “We only agreed that I would bring you any information that I could, and then figure something out from there. That’s it. There was no concrete plan.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You paid me to do a job, and I'm doing it. Since you know, you were fucking the bastard and were taking too long to get information to me.” He shrugs, coming closer to where I’m standing.

“I sent you those pictures.” I say, my voice is starting to fail me.

Gallo scuffs at my comment. “You really think random pictures is going to tie Rosetti to your father’s murder? Those pictures were complete garbage.”

I take a deep breath and try to power through the pain as I speak.

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