Page 27 of Blossom in Shadows

I rounded the front of the vehicle to find Sergio on the ground with blood beginning to pool around his head. I was certain he was dead, but there was a gentle rise and fall of his chest which had a strangled sound coming out of my throat.

Even with my phone in my hand, it was like I couldn’t register anything or what I should do about it.

The moment I realized I needed to call Elio, I felt something prick my skin and the world started to tilt.

As my eyes slid closed, a voice whispered in my ear, “Looks like I found the whore. You’ll be dancing for me from now on and I sure as fuck won’t let you out of my cage. Agosti thinks he could give my life away, but he’s wrong and now he’s paying with you.”

I try to stop my body from jerking as the memories come back to me, but I can’t. It’s impossible. The need to run and hide hits me as adrenaline has my eyes popping open and my body betrays my attempt at playing it cool.

It’s too much for my brain to process and now I’m staring at the same man who put his hands on me in Sala as he sits across the dingy room from me on a metal folding chair. Whatever I’m laying on smells musty and old, it’s thin and nowhere near the bed Elio and I share. Our bed at home is soft like a fucking cloud and this might as well be a bed of nails.

The man, whose name I never cared to learn and still don’t care to, grins at me. It’s an evil thing full of malice and proposition. Both of which I recoil from. I want to crawl away, but there’s a shackle around one of my ankles, the metal of it digging into my flesh and weighing me down.

“Ah, whore,” he says it like it’s my fucking name, “you’re awake.”

My mouth feels like a thousand cotton balls have lived and died in it. There are no windows in the small space, but it’s damp and cold. I must be in a basement, but where? Does it even matter if I know?

Hopelessness fills me and it’s so much deeper and darker than what I felt after my injury. I thought that was soul crushing, the idea of not being able to dance the way I wanted to, to have my dreams taken away from me.

This is so much more because this feeling comes along with the fear of never seeing Elio again.

I should have told him I love him. I should have told him I never wanted to be anywhere but in his arms. Maybe I should have let him pamper me in all the ways his eyes were begging me to let him, including giving up my dance classes.

But then I wouldn’t have been me. Right?

I don’t even know anymore and the more I think, the more my head pounds.

My voice is broken, shards of my spirit barely passing through my lips, “Where am I?”

The man chuckles, “You don’t need to know. You just need to know you’re in my clutches now and no one is going to rescue you.”

I sit up slowly on the cot, if you can even call it that, and rest my back against the damp wall behind me. It chills me down to my marrow on contact, but it seems to wake me up a little bit more. Nothing is exactly bright down here, but at least it doesn’t feel like I’m encased in sludge the same way.

“Why did you take me?” My voice is weak, and I hate it, but I need as much information as I can get.

“Agosti thought he could just hand me over to the McCarthy clan after beating me, but I wasn’t going to let it happen. I could see in his eyes he knew who I was, it was the only explanation for him keeping me alive.” His laugh is bitter and filled with malice. “He ruined my chances of starting over, so I’m going to ruin him.”

I scoff, my lip curling up in disgust while I try and play the one card I think I might hold. “If you think taking me is going to hurt Elio Agosti, then you don’t know a damn thing about the man. I’m nothing but a toy to him, a temporary plaything.” The words roll off my tongue, but they sound like a lie even to me, “He’ll forget all about me and you won’t have the leverage you think you do.”

The man stands up slowly and shakes his head as he closes the distance between us. He grips my chin so hard that I know it’s going to leave bruises behind. He tsks my performance and I try not to let my shoulders fall.

His voice is cold and on the edge of sanity, “Losing you will bring him to his knees. The only thing true in those words is that you are a toy, but you’remytoy. I’m going to break you and send him the pieces.”

When his fist connects with my face, the first blow has dark spots dancing across my vision. It’s the second which sends me into darkness, and I welcome it with open arms.

CHAPTER 13

ELIO

Twelve hours. That’s how long my woman has been missing and I feel like I’m about to fucking snap. It’s twelve fucking hours too long.

The moment my phone rang yesterday afternoon and I saw it was Sergio calling, my heart sank as if I knew. I tried to keep my voice modulated, but there was panic laced within it, “What happened?”

“Boss,” he choked out, sounding off, “I was hit from behind. I just woke up in the alley and Zinnia’s bag was laying next to me. She was taken.”

My blood ran cold, and I was stunned into silence. I was lost in my own head, the possibilities whirling through me and leaving me completely fucking incoherent. Lorenzo had to rip my phone out of my hand. He started barking into the phone, but I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t fucking see anything.

I was haunted by the images of her being hurt, of her being dead. I couldn’t shake the vision of lifeless brown eyes, the same eyes I’d fallen in love with, staring back at me without anything behind them. No spark. No mischief. No understanding.

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