Elena
Iwoke to find my hands tied to a metal chair and my legs stretched out before me, tied to a bench. Terror seized me as I looked around the abandoned warehouse. I smelled of the river and other metallic things, old and forgotten. The stench of fear filled up the place—a place where dark people did dark deeds.
“You’re awake, finally. I was starting to think I gave you too much.” Hugh’s voice sounded different from usual. Less refined and uglier.
He was standing near a smeared window and waved a syringe at me. Had he used that on me? My stomach lurched. The side of my neck throbbed now that I could take stock of my body. The thought of Hugh injecting some unknown sedative into me made me tremble with fury. How dare he?
“You stupid idiot. You’re going to pay for this,” I spat at him. I was well and truly pissed and, as always, impulsive in my anger.
Hugh laughed and crouched down near me.“Am I? With what? Rafaelle Luciano already took everything from me. I have nothing more to lose.”
“No, you’re wrong. He let you live. I doubt he’ll extend that mercy again,” I said, sure down to my bones that I was right. Rafe might have manipulated me to make me need him, to take the sanctuary that he’d offered, but he wouldn’t forgive Hugh for this. I knew it in my soul. Raffaelle Luciano would kill the man who threatened me. I didn’t doubt that for a moment.
“You think a lot of yourself, don’t you? A dirt poor little has-been, so sure that the almighty, powerful son of Mauro Luciano will rush here and save you. Keeping a flexible young pussy around to stick it in isn’t exactly a commitment. How do you even know he’ll come? Maybe he’ll be happy to see the back of you,” Hugh sneered.
His words could have cut me once. After last night and the memory of how Rafe had held me, how his dark eyes had burned into me, Hugh’s pathetic words bounced off me. Rafe had made me bulletproof. I forgave him for his manipulation at that moment. In this shitty situation, the thought of Rafe made me feel safe. It put everything into perspective.
“You don’t think that, or you wouldn’t have taken me for revenge against him. We both know he’ll come,” I said simply and turned my face to the wall. “He’ll come.”