Page 46 of Reckless Games

What was he talking about?

"Still, what if she finds out that it was you who caused the accident?" Sebastian’s voice joined the conversation. "It's because of you her parents are dead. Because of your love for her mother and hatred for her father." A cold dread settled in my stomach. I leaned closer to the door, my heart pounding in my ears.

"And who will tell her?" Nikolai's voice held a challenge. "Good food was all she ever wanted. I still gave her a luxurious life in my mansion, trained her to be the best killer out there. She can protect herself in ways no one else can. I gave hermore than she bargained for. More than the crappy life her father would have given her anyway. Poor him, should have thought twice before running away with one of my women and impregnating her. She was my favorite out of all of them."

My soul left my body. I peered inside to see Nikolai and Sebastian talking casually. Jacob was there too, his eyes cast down in guilt and remorse. It was clear he did not want to be there.

The walls started to close in on me, making it hard to breathe. I needed to get out. I stumbled backward, knocking over a vase. It shattered, echoing through the corridor. They all turned to the noise. Panic surged through me as I made a run for it.

"Don't let that bitch get away!" Nikolai barked.

I sprinted down the hall, my heart in my throat, but they caught up to me just as I reached the mansion's entrance. Nikolai’s hand clamped down on my arm, yanking me back. He slapped me hard across the face, and pain exploded through my skull. The second slap sent me into darkness. The last thing I remembered was his voice, dripping with venom, "You’ll pay for this with your life, you ungrateful brat."

When I woke up, my entire body ached, but the pain in my wrist was the worst. It felt like my skin had been torn apart and cut multiple times. I looked down to see it coated with dry blood. I started to cry as Jacob entered the room.

"Gosh, you're awake! Finally! I was so worried," he said, hugging me tightly. I kept crying until I finally managed to ask, sobbing, "What did they do to me?"

Jacob could not meet my eyes. He looked down in shame and guilt. Before he could answer, we heard footsteps approaching. He moved to stand at a distance from me quickly.

"Ah, so the princess is finally awake," Nikolai mocked as he entered with Sebastian.

"You bastard! You killed my parents!" I lunged at Nikolai. But before I could reach him, everything changed. A jolt hit me like a truck—sudden and violent. Pain shot from my wrist, racing through my veins, igniting every nerve in my body. It was as if a thousand knives were stabbing me simultaneously, each one sharper than the last. My muscles seized up, contracting uncontrollably. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My body was no longer mine; it was a puppet dancing to the cruel strings of electric current.

I tried to scream, but my jaw locked tight. My vision blurred, and the room spun as every fiber of my being was consumed by agony. The pain was all-encompassing, obliterating everything else. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t feel anything except the searing, relentless electricity coursing through me.

Time lost all meaning. Seconds stretched into eternity. I was trapped in a hellish loop of pain, each jolt feeling like it would never end. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, that I would surely die from the intensity, it stopped.

I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, my limbs trembling uncontrollably. My muscles twitched from the residual electricity still lingering in my system. The world slowly came back into focus, but everything was tinged with a hazy, surreal quality. My breathing was ragged; every inhale was a struggle against the lingering pain.

Nikolai bent down to my level, his cruel smirk piercing through the haze. "Next time, I'm not going to be so generous, princess," he said, flashing the remote in front of my eyes.

I tried to focus on his face, but my vision was still swimming. My body felt like it had been shattered and put back together wrong, every part of me aching and raw. I caught sight of Jacob, his face twisted with helpless anger and sorrow.He looked like he wanted to kill Nikolai, but he couldn't. I saw the mark on his wrist. The same mark that was now on mine.

“It wasn’t your fault.” I managed to whisper after breaking out of my thoughts.

***

Chapter 24

Lorenzo

I woke up slowly, my mind drifting from the darkness of unconsciousness to the dim light of my room. At first, everything was a blur. The world around me felt distant, as if I were submerged in water, the sounds and sights muffled and distorted. My head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache, and I struggled to make sense of my surroundings.

As I blinked, trying to focus, I noticed the familiar decor of my room: the dark wooden furniture, the heavy curtains drawn shut, casting the room in shadows. I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy and unresponsive. I groaned, the effort sending a sharp pain through my skull.

What had happened?

I pressed my hand to my forehead, trying to massage away the pain and coax my brain into functioning. The last thing I could clearly recall was... nothing. My mind was a blank slate, an empty canvas with only the faintest of lines drawn across it. Panic started to rise in my chest as I struggled to remember.

And then, like a dam breaking, the memories flooded back.

Angela.

Her name was the first thing that pierced through the fog. Her face, her smile, the way she looked at me with those eyes that had once seemed so full of warmth and trust. But now, all Icould see was the betrayal etched in every line of her expression and every word she had spoken.

Why? The question echoed in my mind like a painful, unanswered scream.

I heard my father’s warning ring through my ear;it’s always the innocent ones who are the wildest and most dangerous in our world. Fuck! How could I have been so blind all this time?

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