Tyjae raps her knuckle on the metal bar that separates us, then takes a step back. I watch her as she moves to stand directly in front of me.
“Griffin and I go where the money is, hired muscle if you will.”
There’s a man that is normally always with Tyjae. I never learned his name and I didn’t care to. The situation I’m in doesn’t come with basic pleasantries, such as introductions. I wouldn’t even know Tyjae’s name if Elio hadn’t spoken it in front of me when he snapped at her once.
“I’ve learned it’s always best not to ask questions in this job, so color me curious,” Tyjae says with a shrug. “Why is a potentially powerful mafia prince kidnapping a woman he wants to force to marry him? A woman who he keeps nearly starved and chained to a wall. A woman he won’t go near and is hiring outside of his array of skilled men to guard.”
Of course, Elio wouldn’t tell his hired muscle my identity. The problem with hiring people in these types of situations is that money doesn’t buy loyalty. If Tyjae and Griffin figure out who I am they could go to my dad and demand more money in exchange for my return, then up their stakes once more with Elio.
After my vying ball, word of Nathaniel Olin’s hidden daughter became public knowledge. His daughter was the enforcer of The Olin Empire, but it hasn’t been long enough for everyone in the underground to know my face and name aside from the nickname I earned: The Phantom.
It makes sense that an heir to an underground syndicate would have enough brain cells to rub together to figure out that much. I have enough confidence in the ruthlessness of my father and the men loyal to him that we would come out on top of a mafia war, but that would involve my survival to stand next to them in the fight.
“You could just ask my name,” I grumble as I stumble over to the bed and plop down on it, the weakness in my body becoming too much.
Tyjae frowns at me. “I could, but I get the feeling you won’t tell me.”
I hum and catch sight of my horrendous nails again, grunting at the current peasantry of this so-calledprincess.
“Get me a burger and I’ll tell you whatever you want,” I shrug, then meet Tyjae’s dark brown eyes filled with the curiosity she spoke of. “Get me a nail file and I might just lick your pussy.”
Tyjae barks out a laugh and grins at me. “I don’t need you to lick my pussy, nor do I need you trying to file your way out of here.”
“I’m chained to the wall,” I state. “And filing away at metal chains as thick as these seems like a daunting task I don’t have the patience for.”
Tyjae shrugs.
“You should become rather familiar with patience for as long as you’ve been in this cell and how long it will be before you’re out of it.”
I hold her stare and she leans against the bars, assessing me once again.
“Do you know how long you’ve been here?”
I purse my lips. It’s not the time I’ve been here that matters to me, so much as the time I’ve lost from them injecting me with whatever-the-fuck when I misbehave.
Tyjae must see something in my face that encourages her to continue. “I’ve had one cycle since you’ve been here, you’ve had none. I came two weeks after you arrived.”
I snort.
“Great, your lady bits work, good for you.”
I shrug and swallow down another bout of nausea.
“You haven’t had your period since you’ve been here,” she says. “So, either you’re on birth control that prevents it or you’re pregnant. You’ve been here a little over a month.”
My chest pulls tight at the realization she’s come to. I have the implant in my arm, but where others don’t have periods, I’m one of the lucky few that gets short, light cycles. But I have them and they’ve always been regular.
Motherfucker.
I was due to have my implant renewed months ago by now. With everything going to shit in a handbasket, it was the last thing on my mind.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Tyjae says, her mouth pulled down in a frown.
Panic seizes my heart and I jolt to my feet. The sudden movement’s too much for my weakened body. No sooner am I standing than my knees buckle and I fall to the hard concrete ground. The pain from the fall blasts through my body before everything goes black.
13
Malia