CATALINA
I felt restless.
I didn’t know how long I had been asleep or even what day it was.
I didn’t even know the time.
Was it morning yet?
I didn’t know anything save for one thing.
I felt restless.
There was a heavy pressure pressing on my chest, and it would not leave me alone.
I took a deep breath, and it was still there, pressing down on me.
There was something important I was supposed to remember.
I didn’t know what that was, and my mind struggled to make sense of the fog clouding my mind.
What was the last thing that happened?
We were going out to dinner.
I had been so excited, too, since the only times I had ever gone out to eat at a restaurant was with Father when he needed to show me off to his associates. The perfect, obedient daughter of one of the most powerful dons in the Southern U.S.
But this dinner was different.
I wasn’t being paraded around like a show pony.
I was being … spoiled?
The fog lifted.
I let out a small gasp as my eyes sprang open, and I sat up on the bed.
The small of my back felt tender. I winced when I accidentally stretched a muscle there.
Black dots danced around my eyes as a pounding headache took hold of me and would not let go.
I let out a small groan, closing my eyes as my finger moved under my shirt and sought out the soft cotton gauze.
I had been shot.
When it didn’t feel like I was going to pass out from the pain or the headache, I opened my eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room, my heart beating about a million miles an hour. Where the hell I was, and what had happened to my men?
Was I back with Father?
Did … Did …
I couldn’t think. What if my men didn’t make it?
What if they were dead?
My eyes stung, and I flung the heavy blanket off my body.
Sweat coated my forehead as I shivered from the slight chill that permeated the room.