52. Chapter 52
Rosalina
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Fuck, my head was pounding, and that incessant dripping wasn’t helping. I pried my eyes open and choked on a gulp of sharp, metallic air. The rusty red drain blurred against the dull concrete inches in front of my nose.
What the fuck? Was I back in the safe house cellar?
After a couple more blinks, the sheen of wet blood came into focus as it trickled down the grate in the ground.
I pushed myself up, and a wave of dizziness washed over me, making me wish I hadn’t.
My head throbbed in time with the thud of my pulse, and I lifted my hand to my temple, inspecting the damage.
As soon as my fingers whispered against the wet, matted mess of my hair, I flinched away at the jolt of pain.
Holy shit.
I wheezed out a groan as another round of dizziness slammed into me. Black spots exploded across my vision. Fuck, I was going to pass out again. My stomach lurched, and I slumped to the floor.
If I died choking on my own vomit, Cruz was never going to let me live it down.
As shimmering sparkles danced inside my eyelids, and my brain did the waltz inside my skull, images of Lorenzo’s lopsided, bruised face and the sexcapades in the redecorated version of my father’s bedroom seeped back in.
I focused on my breathing. In through my nose, out through my mouth.
Shit.
This had gone badly.
What seemed like a few minutes later—but could have been hours, for all I knew—the swimmy feeling in my head subsided.
I peeked through my blood-crusted eyelashes and was greeted by a cold, gray cell with a metal bench built into the wall.
It was like all these criminal drug lords who hate each other hired the same interior decorator for their dungeons or something.
I cringed when my silent chuckle sent pain shooting through my bones.
Mother effer.
Getting up off the blood-soaked floor sounded like a great idea, but I didn’t trust myself not to fall, so I propped myself against the wall and leaned my head back.
If I could focus, maybe I could hear something or someone beyond the door.
The caged light fixture above my head swayed in time with the ebb and flow of the pain.
Was it moving? It was probably just my imagination.
After a moment of concentration, I thought I heard the shuffle of fabric over the dripping of blood and a whiff of something alpha-like.
With my luck, it was Lorenzo jerking off outside my cage door.
Fucking lunatic. I wasn’t going to find out by sitting here on my ass, so when the light fixture stopped spinning, I used the wall to push myself up.
I wasn’t sure if I trusted myself to stand, but the desperation finally overrode the delirium.
If that sleazy little creep was perving on me, I might actually throw up.
Once on my feet, I slid along the wall to the door and grabbed the vertical bars covering the window.
If I pulled myself up on my tiptoes, I could just see into the wide, shadowed corridor.
There were no surprises, it looked exactly like the last time I’d wandered down here, however many years ago.
A metal table, shelves full of bone saws, and random tools, and more cells identical to this one leading away down either side of the dull gray hallway.
Dare I call out to see if anyone else was down here?
Did I even want to know? Not really. In fact, I really, really did not want to know, because if Lorenzo had taken over the compound, my father was likely either down here or dead.
Neither option was great for anyone at the moment.
But the alternative, just sitting around doing nothing, was not great either.
Time to put my big-girl panties on. I cleared my scratchy throat. “Hello?”
Another scuff echoed through the space, and a gruff voice answered. “Rosa? Are you okay?”
I knew that voice. “Diego?” I struggled to swallow the panic down. “Am I okay? Are you okay? Where’s my dad?” A million questions raced through my already throbbing brain, but the pain at the sound of my own voice echoed through my skull like a church bell, stopping me from continuing.
“Dios mio, Rosa. What are you doing here?” Diego’s face appeared behind the bars of a cell across the corridor.
“Me? What are you doing here? Where’s my dad? Where’s Maria?” My head was killing me, and the dingy light was starting to spin again.
“Maria is still working in the house. They’re using threats to keep us both in line.”
“They who?” I stifled a groan and battled the urge to slide down onto the cold concrete and pass out.
“That’d be the Vasco pack. They took control of the island as soon as they got back from the wedding,” Diego replied.
He was avoiding the one question I’d asked twice already. That made me nervous.
“Diego, where is my dad?”
After a beat of silence and a drawn-out sigh, Diego finally relented. “Ah, princesa. That is a longer story.”
I gave in to the urge and dropped to the floor, dizziness washing over me just as my butt touched down. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but it seems we have an abundance of time, Diego. Tell me what happened while I was gone.”
This time the silence was longer. “Well, once the agreements were made, Lorenzo started to move more of his men to the island. The morning of the wedding, Vasco’s soldiers threw your father down here and locked him up.
He’d sent us with you for protection, leaving himself alone and vulnerable.
We didn’t know what had happened until he didn’t show up for the ceremony.
By then, you were gone, and there was no one to stop him from taking over.
We didn’t see it coming.” He stopped, and the sound of his deep breathing filled the air.
“You should sit down for the next part.”
“Already sitting,” I mumbled under the door, and let myself lie down with my ear pressed to the small gap on the floor.
“Your father is here. He’s alive, but he’s not doing well.
It took the whole pack to drug him when Lorenzo carried you down here unconscious.
They’ve been keeping him drugged more and more, and torturing him off and on.
They aren’t even asking him anything, just doing it for fun.
It’s like they already knew exactly where you were.
Rosa, why weren’t they looking for you?”
Icy fingers grabbed hold of my stomach. Was that suspicion in Diego’s voice? “If you think I had anything to do with this, you’re out of your mind.”
He cut me off. “No, no. Don’t misunderstand me. I know you wouldn’t be involved with something like this on your own. But you wanted out of this life so badly, maybe they offered you something you couldn’t refuse.”
A dry laugh wheezed out of my throat and sent me into a coughing fit.
Once I’d recovered, I composed myself. “No, Diego. I never wanted out bad enough for this.” I considered lying to him, telling him I’d escaped from the Morenos, but what was the point now?
He doesn’t need to know that they let me go, but I don’t have to volunteer it, either.
“Nico Moreno arranged for me to be kidnapped at the wedding. That’s where I’ve been. I’ve been his captive.”
A door banged, echoing down the hall, and stopped me from saying anything else.
“Quiet down here! Or we’ll let you starve.” The man laughed. I couldn’t see him, but it didn’t sound like Lorenzo. I wondered if it was one of his packmates or just a random peon.
Lighter footsteps followed, growing closer until a plate poked through the small slot in the door. I wasn’t hungry, but if I didn’t take it now, I wouldn’t have anything until who knew when, and that was only if I was lucky. They could always make good on their threat and starve us.
I crawled to my knees and dragged the dish through, but just before it snapped shut, I caught a hint of sweet cinnamon-sugar in the air and a glimpse of Maria as she walked across with more trays.
I scrambled to my feet, swaying, but when she saw my face pop up behind the bars, her face paled, and I shook my head frantically, bringing my finger to my lips. She mouthed my name, and her hands trembled, rattling the contents of the trays she carried.
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I blinked them back. I wanted to call out to her, hug her, and make sure she was okay. But if she were caught, she would be the one to pay for it. I couldn’t risk her safety for my stupid sentimental feelings.
“Hurry up, my game doesn’t have a pause button.” The light from the alpha’s phone highlighted his half-grown neck-beard as he tapped away on the device.
She cast a glance at me, her eyes glassy but resolute. “Coming, Emilio.”
Okay, I recognized that name as one of Lorenzo’s pack. I honestly couldn’t remember all of them. Imagine joining a pack where you didn’t even know all the members. I couldn’t even recall if there were three or four other alphas besides Lorenzo. But this gave me an idea.
“The rest of you shut the fuck up,” Emilio yelled as he ushered Maria past him and up the stairs that I could just make out beyond the open door.
I’d have to pay attention, but there was a way out of this mess, and I was going to find it.
Right after I passed out.
I didn’t even feel the floor as I crumpled like a wet paper bag. The warm darkness of oblivion pulled me under as soon as the door clanged shut.