Page 5 of Keeping My Captive

I fight and kick and scream, but the man manages to get me back inside the club. He forces me to stand beside Selina, who is facing the devil himself — Constantine Carbone. I’ve never seen him in person before, only in pictures, but I would recognize his evil face anywhere. He’s responsible for all of this. But how the hell did he find us?

“I’ll go with you,” Selina pleads with him. “Just let her go.”

I stare at Selina in awe. She’s so damn brave, so tough. And she’s willing to do anything for my safety. If we make it out of this alive, I have no idea how I’ll even repay her for her selflessness.

Constantine lets out a deep, hearty laugh. “Oh, you think you make the rules now, my little pet?”

Selina visibly flinches from the nickname, and I wonder how many times he called her that during their ten years together. I shudder at the thought.

Constantine walks over to us. Up close, he’s handsome with salt and pepper hair and dark eyes. I would never peg him for a monster but looks can clearly be deceiving.

He reaches out to touch Selina’s face, but she grimaces and takes a step back. He tsks at her, and a cruel smirk forms on his lips as he says, “It seems my little pet has lost her manners. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you your manners again. I’ll beat the fucking defiance out of you until you can no longer walk.” And then he draws his hand back and slams his fist into the side of her head.

My first reaction to his brutality is total and utter shock. I’ve never seen a man hit a woman before. And then, all too soon, anger begins to well up and seep through every pore in my body, and I scream at him, “Leave her alone!”

The moment his black eyes rest upon me, I realize my mistake. Constantine slowly walks over to me, like a mountain lion stalking its prey. Gently, so gently, his fingertips graze along my cheek and jaw before he wraps his hand around my neck and forces me to lift my chin. He stares at me, taking in every detail of my face. “And you must be Aria Vitale. My god, you look just like your mother,” he says in awe, and I can practically see the fucked-up thoughts swirling inside of his evil eyes. If eyes are the gateway to the soul, this man has none. They look void of emotion, void of any kind of light, void of everything. Just endless shadowy pits of pure darkness. “Oh, I’m going to have fun with you,” Constantine tells me. “All the fun I was denied with her thanks to your no-good father.”

I open my mouth to tell him off, but suddenly Selina lets out a primal scream beside me. In the blink of an eye, she’s pouncing on Constantine, her nails scoring his cheek before one of his guards suddenly hauls her backwards, away from him.

She fights the man holding her like a wild animal, and I can’t help but silently cheer her on. I step forward to help her, but I’m immediately pulled back. I struggle against my own captor, kicking him in the shin and making him yelp in pain.

We’re both putting up the fight of our lives right now. We’re not backing down. We’re not making it easy on them.

Eventually, Selina goes limp in the man’s arms, having worn herself out. Her breathing is ragged and raw as she stares daggers into Constantine. I’ve never seen this side of her before. But considering what she went through as a teen and into her adulthood, I’m sure she’s had to adapt and become someone else, something fierce and unbreakable.

Constantine casually pulls a white handkerchief out of his suit pocket and wipes at his face, staring down at the blood when he pulls it away. A hearty chuckle escapes his chest before his dark eyes lock onto Selina. “Save your strength, little pet. You’re going to need it for what I have planned for you,” he threatens. Then, he looks to his men. “Hurry up and frisk them, and then let’s get the hell out of here.”

A shiver runs up and down my spine.My cell phone.It’s hidden in the front of my dress. I need Constantine to give us more information, something, and I can only hope and pray that Renato is still on the line and listening to all of this.

“Where are you taking us?” I yell at him to make sure it’s picked up on the microphone.

“We’re going on a little boat ride,” he says cryptically before turning to leave, stepping over the dead bodies as he goes.

Police sirens can be heard in the distance while four men roughly search Selina and me, tearing at our clothes and putting their fingers and hands in places they shouldn’t be. I fight them off as hard as I can. “Don’t you dare touch me!” I screech. “Don’t! Stop!” Despite my best efforts, they manage to manhandle their way inside my dress before pulling out my lifeline to Renato.

“Cell phone,” one of the men calls out before he drops it to the floor and smashes it against the concrete with the heel of his heavy boot.

A sob escapes me then as I look up at Selina. We know exactly what the other is thinking — they’ll never be able to find us now. We’ll be taken, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to change that.

CHAPTER3

Aria

IGROAN MISERABLY as I slowly come to. My entire body hurts. The last thing I remember was being shoved into the back of a black windowless van. I screamed and kicked at the guards, fighting as hard as I possibly could…until one of them hauled off and hit me in the head.

Everything went black after that.

My head throbs with a painful migraine blooming behind my eyes. “Wh-what…where are we?” I ask as I force myself to wake up fully and face reality. I try to move, but I realize my arms are trapped above me and I’m literally hanging in the air. My eyes snap open and dart around the poorly lit warehouse. Rope painfully tugs against my skin as I kick out at empty air, my feet dangling a few inches from the dirty concrete floor.

“Aria, it’s okay,” Selina says from beside me.

I glance over at her and realize she’s strung up and helpless just like me. Selina looks deceptively calm, and it makes me panic even more to the point where I feel like I’m going to hyperventilate. Is she mentally preparing for what’s about to happen? I know she survived hell and back many times in her past. She was with our very kidnapper for an entire decade from the ages of thirteen to twenty-three. I can’t even imagine what she went through, and I hate to think that I might be about to suffer that same fate.

“It’s not okay,” I whine, tears streaming down my cheeks. “We have to get out of here, Selina!” I hiss, pointing out the obvious. I stare at her, hoping that she had time to think of a plan or something while I was unconscious, but I see the despondent look on her face when she turns her head towards me.

Her somber expression tells me everything I need to know.We’re both totally and completely screwed.

A whimper escapes me as heavy footsteps echo in the warehouse, growing closer, and Selina hushes me to be quiet. My entire body trembles when I see Constantine emerge from the shadows. His attention is exclusively on Selina, however, when he walks over to her and says, “Hello, my little pet.”

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