Chapter 10
My hands shook nearly uncontrollably, and the water bottle slipped from them. Its contents spilled out around my feet. I paid it no mind as Zarren’s words repeated in my head. I was the daughter of a Sicilian mobster, and I would soon be forced to marry a Russian mobster, too.
“A-and you work for my father or—”
“I, too, am in the mafia, only I’m a Brannington.”
“I don’t know what that means,” I said softly, having never heard the name.
“It’s Irish, and I run these Boston streets for my family.”
I was in some sort of alternate universe. I had to be. This had to be just a dream, or some sort of nightmare. My eyes were already wide open, even more so due to his words, so I reached over and started to pinch myself hard, eventually eliciting a chuckle from Zarren.
“You’re not sleeping, Aurora. Everything I’ve told you is not only true, but unfortunately, your destiny, too. As I said last night, your life as you knew it is now over.”
“Noooo,” I cried out as I bolted upright to my feet. “I don’t know what kind of agreement you have with either the Sicilians or the Russians, but it ends now because I won’t be passed around like a fucking card in one of your demented games.”
He moved in close to me, but I was able to thwart his attempt to touch me.
I quickly scurried across the room. The front door was just in reach, but as I made my way to it, I realized there was no handle on it for me to grab.
Beside the door itself was a panel with a scanner and keypad, but no other way to open the damn thing.
Zarren closed the distance between us, and as I turned around suddenly, he was now pressed chest to chest against me.
Mine was rising and falling rapidly as his intoxicating scent engulfed me, making me lightheaded.
Well, that and his overwhelming male presence.
His warm breath tickled the baby hairs on my forehead, and it made a total body shiver wrack my small frame.
Zarren was built like an impenetrable wall.
I was 5’10, but he had to have at least a half dozen additional inches on me.
He was all hard muscle, and as I stared straight ahead at his chest, I could make out the tattoo of two wolves facing one another with aggressive snarls.
Beneath it, he also had a large serpent dripping venom from its fangs.
There were a few more, but I couldn’t quite make them out because his large hand slid under my chin as he forced my face up so I’d have no choice but to look at him.
“No matter how unwilling one might be to play the game, a pawn is still a pawn.”
“I’m no one’s pawn,” I seethed before adding, “Especially not yours.”
He smirked, and again I was as drawn to those full lips now as I’d been last night. Cursing myself inwardly as I trembled once more, I could see how pleased he was with my response. I had assumed, upon first meeting Zarren, that he was dangerous. I had no idea that it was because he was a gangster.
No, not a gangster. A mobster. Is there a difference?
I had no time to even think about that because he leaned in even closer. His mouth was now inches from mine, and my lips trembled this time. Seconds later, his teeth snagged onto my bottom one, and he tugged roughly before pulling away from me.
I used that to push against his chest, but unlike before, he was not as movable.
I kept trying, however, until he took both of my hands in his, then slammed them above my head.
He gathered them together in one, then held them firmly above me as he brushed the other against my bottom lip.
In that moment, a warm drop or two fell from my eyes, and he used his thumb to trail it down my cheek.
“You and I are more alike than you’ll ever know,” he said to me, and his words caused my body to stiffen.
Other than obvious biology, I had no idea what he was getting at with his admission.
I stayed completely still, though, even as his touch both awakened something inside of me, while killing everything else in the process.
He continued to stroke my cheek, long after he’d wiped those errant tears dry.
“Our mothers made the ultimate sacrifices, but in the end, our destiny is our destiny, and no amount of time can change it. Your father knows you’re in Boston, but I was able to get to you before he could.
You’ve already been promised to a family in Moscow, only we, Branningtons, will be the ones to reap the reward.
This will weaken your father further, allowing us to gain the needed territory in Sicily to wipe him out. ”
“You have to be lying to me. Is this all a game to you?”
The despair creeping up inside of me was life-threatening at this point. It was like a pool of water growing deeper and heavier with every passing second, and if any of what he said was true, the depth would swallow me whole.
I kept searching his eyes for something... anything... but I could see the truth inside of them, buried behind something else I couldn’t quite decipher. There was more to what he was telling me, and I needed to know it all.
“What sacrifice did your mother make? If mine risked her life to get me away from this so-called father, what did yours do, Zarren?”
“None of your fucking business,” he finally said before releasing me from his grip.
My hands fell down to my side, and he turned around and walked to the stairs. A part of me wanted to chase after him to find out why he had suddenly shut down, but common sense returned, and I quickly spun back around to see if I could get this door opened.
I had no idea why I even wanted to know anything about Zarren. Maybe it’d been the forlorn way he had mentioned his mother and mine as if the two shared some sort of connection, then he basically admitted that his own family only wanted to use me to further their own gains.
I decided not to waste another second on trying to figure him out. I was reminded of the vision I had earlier of him being led away and tossed into jail, and I used that to fuel my determination more. I slapped at the keypad and even used my own palm to try to unlock whatever was on it.
The damn thing kept flashing an error message as it beeped.
The sound was incessant, and it only added to my despair.
I didn’t have much time. I had no idea when the handoff to the Russians would be, but I had no intention of sitting around to find out.
I kept trying any combination of letters and numbers until I heard a sound at the top of the stairs.
I spun around, then flattened myself against the door as Zarren descended them, this time fully clothed.
The black fabric of his T-shirt was tight against his muscular arms and broad shoulders.
His hair was no longer slightly mussed as he had brushed it back into place.
Still, he looked every bit as intimidating as he did last night and even a few minutes ago.
When he reached me, his hand snaked out and wrapped around my throat. “Stop looking for a way to escape because you aren’t leaving until I fucking say you are.”
Before I could do more than try to open my mouth, he effortlessly turned me around, then typed something onto the keypad, but his grip on my neck was so tight that I couldn’t turn my head to see what it was. The door swung open, and he spoke to the men standing outside of it.
“I need for you to stay here, Liam. Conor and I will be back soon. Make sure this one doesn’t try to flee. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of what’ll happen if she does.”
“No, Boss. I’ll keep her here even if I have to restrain her myself.”
“Like hell you will,” I managed to get out, but due to the hold on my throat, it lacked the confidence I’d hoped to deliver.
“She’s a mouthy one,” the man I now knew to be Liam said.
“Gag her if you need to. When I return, I’ll stuff that mouth full of something else,” he said at the same moment he released, then pushed me into the other man’s arms. After, he disappeared through the door, which slammed shut with a loud thud.
The keypad indicated the premises were once more locked, much to my chagrin.
I turned to face the man who was even taller and more built than Zarren, then shuddered. He was now staring at me with curiosity that made my skin crawl. “Don’t even think about it.”
From there, I fled back upstairs. Once on the top level, I couldn’t remember which room had been the one I’d been placed in, so I tried different doors.
Each one was locked, and I refused to even go there about what secrets each space could be hiding.
For all I knew, there could even be others like me here.
After the fourth door, it actually opened, and I was greeted by the same view as when I’d awakened. I quickly hurried inside, then tried to lock this door, only to find out that it didn’t have an actual lock.
Of course not.
I was a prisoner, and the warden and his goons would need to be able to get to me when needed. That thought made me remember his parting words, and ones that had the desired effect of eliciting fear, but also something else I couldn’t quite describe.
Or maybe, I refused to admit that his very presence, brutal treatment, and crude words aroused me in some way.
I’d never been the deviant kind and had always done everything I was supposed to.
The good girl who never gave my parents a moment of strife or grief, and the dutiful girlfriend who’d stood by her man despite all the warnings otherwise.
And I’d also been the star pupil who’d aced her classes, a model friend, and a sympathetic nurse.
In the midst of everything else, I had forgotten about my job.
I’d been so worried about Drake, and as I thought back to seeing him in that video, nausea rose inside of me.
Hurrying to the bathroom, I ended up dry heaving upon knowing that he had not only had sex with random dancers, but also the very person I’d trusted more than anyone else in the world.
Brae. My best friend, who’d thought Drake was a loser and would only drag me down, had come on his cock the same night she’d left my apartment after feigning a headache.
She mentioned seeing a doctor the next day, but she had evidently meant it in a different way than I’d thought because that had been her hours after Halloween night turned into November morning.
The tears I had valiantly kept in check earlier came pouring from my eyes like a faucet, and I collapsed on top of the bed as they fell.
I didn’t even stop them as I had so much grief to get out.
Not only was I now forced to mourn the loss of my career, the man I’d thought was my future, and the one I’d always considered my person, but as Zarren had said, my entire life as I knew it was now over.
Some day soon, I would be used as a bargaining chip between three warring mafias, and nothing but death would save me from that fate.