Chapter 35
ARIA
When I regain consciousness, my entire body feels like it’s on fire. I’m sore and feeling a bit disoriented, my head throbbing badly. I wonder why, but it only takes a moment for the memories to slam into me—those assholes slamming into our SUV, and then someone grabbing me. Oh God!
“Fuck,” I whisper on a groan, my eyes still closed because I don’t want to face my new reality yet.
Spending the last few months with Enzo, ever since he brought me home, has been nothing short of a dream. I got a glimpse of the life I had always hoped for and prayed for, and it was perfect.
Now, some asshole is messing that up by kidnapping me. I should have known that something would happen to take away the little happiness I finally found. I should have known that my new life was too good to be true because nothing good ever happens to me.
I suddenly can’t hold back the tears that slowly slip out of my closed lids and run down the side of my face.
Peeling my eyes open, I push myself up even though it’s difficult to do because of the pain that explodes in my shoulder.
But once I’m up, I sit with my back against the concrete wall, scanning my surroundings.
A shiver races across my body because it’s kind of cold in here.
The ceiling is low, and I can tell that I’m definitely in somebody’s basement.
Whoever took me made a small cell down here, prison bars style, and I’m currently locked away inside.
The air smells like mildew, or maybe it’s a slight metallic scent.
Oh my God! Is the smell leftover blood from someone who died here before me?
My mind is literally running wild with ideas here, and none of them are good.
How the hell do I end up in these situations?
The bed I’m on is old, with a thin mattress.
The sheets are ratty, old, and thin. Come to think of it, it’s itchy as hell, too.
There’s a toilet and sink in one corner of the room.
A single bare lightbulb overhead. It’s on right now, but the light is dull.
Though I guess I should be thankful that I’m not completely in the dark.
Though that bit of light has my head pulsing with a headache. I try to move my head around a bit to ease some of the tension and stiffness in my neck because that shit hurts. I think I got whiplash when the SUV was swerving around, and when I hit my head.
I don’t even know if I have a concussion or not, which is not good because I was asleep earlier. Hell, I don’t even know how long I’ve been here for.
Plus, my ribs are still sore, and it’s a little hard to take a deep breath. One of my wrists, an ankle, and maybe my knee might be sprained because all of that shit is in unimaginable pain right now.
I don’t want to see myself in a mirror anytime soon because I’m sure I look pretty banged up. I feel a wave of nausea hit me, and I slowly get up from the bed and hobble my way to the toilet, making it just in time to throw up.
God, just walking from the bed to the toilet has me panting for breath because of the pain that’s stealing the air in my lungs.
I turn the pipe on and catch some water in my hands. It looks clean enough, so I use it to rinse my mouth out, then drink a bit of it too because I’m so damn thirsty, before I try to make my way back to the bed. Every step fucking hurts.
“Ah fuck!” I let out a cry as I accidentally put too much weight on my hurt leg when I’m next to the bed, and I fall to the floor.
I land on my knees and instantly feel the stab of pain that shoots through my body from the impact with the concrete.
Pain shoots through my back, and I let out a groan.
I use the bed frame to help myself up from the floor, and damn all that shit does is hurt my beat-up body more. I don’t know how much longer I can deal with all this pain. It already feels like I’m delirious with it. I wish I had some freaking painkillers with me.
By the time I actually make it back on the bed, I’m exhausted and physically drained. I lean my body against the wall facing the stairs so that I can see as soon as someone comes down here.
I rub circles on my stomach, caressing my bump while singing a little song for her.
I’m kind of getting worried because I haven’t felt any movement from her at all since I woke up.
I instantly feel more tears well up in my eyes at the thought that something happened to her from all the trauma to my body earlier.
“Baby girl, if you can hear me, please, please, please hold on for Mommy. I need you to be okay, and I need you to hold on until Daddy can come get us, okay?” I whisper to my stomach through sniffles. It would absolutely break me if I lost her now. I don’t think I’d ever survive it.
When I get too tired and everything hurts more when I sit up, I lie back down and try to get some rest, which is hard because of the ache in my body, and I’m scared of what will happen to me while I’m here.
No one has shown their face yet, at least not that I know of, since I was still unconscious when they brought me here.
Are they going to kill me? Am I going to die here before Enzo can even find me?
Does he even know we were ambushed and I’m missing?
Fuck! I don’t even know if Giana, Bruno, or even Umberto are still alive.
The rest of the guards… Did any of them even make it out alive?
Do any of his men even know about the attack so they can give him the news?
Damn, just thinking about receiving that kind of news… I know he’s going to be devastated.
There are so many possibilities for who could have kidnapped me for various reasons.
And with everything swirling around inside my head, it makes it difficult to get any rest at all.
I don’t know how long I spend awake, just waiting…
waiting to see what awaits me, but no one shows their face, and eventually I do fall asleep.
The door slamming against the wall up the stairs has me jumping out of my sleep, and with that, the pain I tried to pretend wasn’t there while I struggled to rest flares to life instantly.
God! I just want this nightmare and pain to be over already. I want to be with Enzo and pretend that this day never happened, and I was never taken.
The light in the basement, the one outside of my little cell, comes on, and it’s so bright it hurts my damn eyes. If I thought the dull one over my bed was bad, this one is making everything worse because it feels like my eyeball is throbbing now.
A second later, I hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and my head snaps up. I sit up on the bed, my pulse hammering to dangerous levels—at least that’s what it seems like—as my heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest.
I see a pair of expensive shoes first, followed by suit pants, slowly revealing the person’s body until his face is in full view.
My jaw drops in shock when all I see is Salvatore fucking Rossi. What the actual fuck?! For a second, I can’t do anything except stare at the man currently standing in front of my cell.
I honestly thought he was just a creepy and perverted old man. I didn’t think he’d ever have the balls to do something like this. As a matter of fact, I didn’t think he was this obsessed with me to actually kidnap me. I mean, why else would he go to all this trouble, right?
There’s a cruel smirk splayed across his lips as he watches the shock on my face as I take him in, in stunned silence.
“You took me! And you had your men crash into my SUV, knowing that I’m pregnant, you asshole!
” I snap at him. I mean, everyone fucking knows I’m pregnant from the announcement Enzo put up in the papers.
“Just let me go. You don’t have to do this,” I try to reason, though from the look on his face, that’s never going to happen.
He’s never going to let me go willingly.
“Hello, darling. Missed me?” he smirks. “And I’m sorry about that, my love.
They were just supposed to grab you, not crash your car.
But it seems as though your husband,” he spits the last word, “has you guarded pretty well, and that was the only option my men had. But, from the looks of things, you don’t look too injured.
Just a few scrapes that’ll heal in no time. ”
“Of course, I didn’t miss you. Are you crazy or just delusional? I’m married! What the hell are you doing?” I question, because clearly, he’s lost his ever-loving mind.
“Married?!” He scoffs. “That is exactly why I had to take you!”
“What? Enzo is going to kill you when he finds out that you’ve taken me!” I shriek and his face turns a dark shade of red from the anger coming off him in waves.
“You were supposed to be mine! Your father promised you to me! You were supposed to be MY fucking fiancée! How dare you fuck and then marry that piece of shit Enzo Andretti!” he screams at me, my body freezing at his words because he is definitely giving off psycho delusional vibes.
God, his words are making my skin crawl.
“I was never yours! I never even wanted to marry you!” I snap at him.
Rage flashes across his face as he unlocks my cell door and steps inside, advancing toward me. I try to scoot back and away from him, but I can’t move much, so my attempt is useless.
My ankle and wrist are swollen. The pain in my knee has gotten worse, and everything else seems to be going downhill where my body is concerned. I still haven’t felt much movement from my baby girl, and it’s really starting to scare the shit out of me.
“Stay back!” I snap at him.
“Why the hell would I want to do that when I went to all this trouble to get you? You’re finally mine now after months of waiting!”
“I’m not yours. I’ll never be yours,” I snap, defiantly.