34. Chapter 34
Rosalina
“Rosa,” Nico’s voice drifted to me from somewhere outside my door.
Took him long enough to show up. I’d been down here for ages, it had to be at least afternoon by now. The light hadn’t changed because there were no windows, but the temperature in my cell had warmed, and the chill of morning had long worn off.
My neck was stiff from dozing on the hard bench that functioned as a bed, and I dragged myself into a sitting position as the door opened.
The faint light from the hall framed the big alpha. He was more disheveled than I expected him to be. Glassy, red-rimmed eyes and a dress shirt that looked slept in.
“What do you want, Nico?” I played it off as if I hadn’t been counting the seconds for someone, anyone, to come down here and let me out.
“You made a stupid mistake that could’ve cost your life and gotten Cruz killed. Don’t think for a second that your bad behavior will go unpunished.” He stepped over the threshold, his eyes fixed on me.
“What are you going to do, spank me?” Remembering his earlier threat, I laughed nervously, but the thought had my cheeks warmer than I’d like to admit.
“No, not this time. That clearly wouldn’t have the desired effect.
” He paused, his eyes trailing languidly over my rapidly heating skin.
“Remember when we took your friend? I told you that she was insurance. Anything you do to endanger a member of my pack—try to escape, misbehave, or anything else you should not be doing—she will suffer for it.”
He placed a velvet box and a bottle of water on the floor next to the drain, turned, and walked out the door.
My stomach dropped, and nausea rolled up the back of my throat. I expected them to hurt me, but they were using Claudia to punish me, instead. Weren’t they going to torture and kill me? Did this mean they were keeping me alive for something? Why hurt Claudia and leave me unscathed?
My imagination ignited with possibilities. I knew how this game went; I’d heard about it enough times from my father’s chatty soldiers trying to scare me. Even if I hadn’t grown up entrenched in it, it was in plenty of movies. It was always an eye, an ear, a tooth, some other body part.
I didn’t want to know what was in that box.
People kept giving me jewelry that wasn’t jewelry, and I was fucking over it.
The lock on the door clicked, and I waited until Nico’s retreating footsteps faded before approaching the box with caution. As much as I’d rather leave it there unopened, I needed to know what kind of maniacs I was dealing with. I circled it, filthy bare feet slapping on the concrete.
The black velvet was like a coiled snake, poised to strike.
Could it not just be jewelry this one time? It always had to be something I didn’t want.
My hands trembled as I inched toward the unassuming thing. It was long and skinny, like the type of box a diamond bracelet would come in. If only it was a diamond bracelet.
I closed my eyes and reached out, plucking it off the floor. My heart used my ribs like a xylophone, but I pushed down the fear and pulled the lid open.
Bile stung the back of my throat, and it took everything in me not to gag. The sour spark of stomach acid bled across my taste buds as I looked down. It was a fucking finger.
A mangled, dismembered finger.
They fucking cut off Claudia’s finger?
She was going to be pissed. She loved getting her nails done.
What was she going to do if she was missing her—what was this thing anyway—index finger.
I should chop off their dicks—right before I murdered them—and send them to her in a box as a consolation prize once I got out of here. That sounded like a solid idea.
If I got out of here.
The reality of my situation crept in, and my stomach twisted into a knot. These fuckers were actual monsters. They had the same kind of shit my dad had and better security. I might not be able to get away this time. If they were willing to chop people up, what were they going to do with me?
I sat down hard on the ledge, my stinging eyes wide and glued on the nauseating contents of the box I held.
They sure fucking knew how to kick a girl when she was down. I didn’t care much about what they did to me at this point, but I couldn’t risk endangering my friend. It was a clever way to keep me compliant. Not that I wanted to give them credit for it, but it was a little bit impressive.
Unfortunately, this put a damper on my plans. I couldn’t risk Claudia getting hurt any further for my actions. I was going to have to figure out where they were keeping her, get her out, and then save us both.
That was going to be complicated when I didn’t even know where I was, let alone where she was.
Overcome with disgust and outrage, I chucked the box with its morbid contents across the room with a scream. The pale digit bounced off the cinder blocks and rolled to a stop near the grate in the center of the floor.
Wait. What the fuck?
I scooted to the edge of the bench and nudged the cold flesh with my toe.
It tumbled over on the crusty, gray floor.
Was that a flash of color? It had been lying on its back, but with another tentative nudge, it rolled.
The nail was facing up, and it was red. Not to mention ragged, as if someone had been chewing on it before it was detached.
I shuddered, not wanting to accept the reality that it had been part of someone’s body not so very long ago.
But it hadn’t been part of Claudia’s body.
Thank god.
She never painted her nails red, not ever.
And even if she did, she’d never chew on an expensive manicure.
She was much more civilized about that sort of thing than I was, because I certainly had no problem doing it.
The only thing that saved me from that terrible habit now was that these gels were hard as rocks and crusted with dirt.
That changed things.
So, what the fuck? Were they lying to me?
Bluffing? Trying to scare me? They were going to have to try harder than that.
I knew Nico’s brother Dom was the one who took her after listening in on the conversation in the car.
But as I thought back, I remembered that she’d been dancing with two guys at the club that looked like twins.
Like Nico’s twin brothers. And I also remembered she’d had a very late night and didn’t get back to me the next day until close to noon.
Her new favorite hookup was the reason her text message replies had been so spotty lately, too.
Nico’s brothers weren’t going to hurt Claudia. If I had to put money on it, they were absolutely too busy fucking her.
Still, I’d been given some chick’s finger in a box. I shuddered and pulled my foot back. Poor woman, whoever she was. I hoped she was having better luck than I was. Probably not, though, based on what was rolling around on the floor.
Avoiding the anonymous finger, I grabbed the water off the floor.
I breathed out a soft growl.
I was going to fucking kill him.
My stomach took that moment to grumble, reminding me it had been at least a day since I’d eaten last.
“Feed me, cowards!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Maybe this was their plan all along—starve me to death.
No one responded, as I’d expected, but alone in the quiet, with only my hunger for company, I had time to think.
I should go along with their stupid intimidation tactic.
If Nico believed that I’d behave, he might slip up and give me an opening to escape.
Cruz would be harder to trick because he’d seen my fuckery, but Nico seemed like the boss.
This might be the break I needed.