Page 3 of Mafia King's Forbidden Obsession

I don't know how much time passes, but after what feels like forever, the car finally comes to a stop. My heart thunders in my chest as the men drag me out of the vehicle.

I stumble, struggling to keep my balance as they haul me on both sides. Suddenly we come to a stop, and the blindfold is lifted off my face. I’m in an old, decrepit building.

The smell hits me first—dust, mold, and something metallic… blood.

Oh, fuck.

I notice the walls are stained with crimson, reinforced by the peeling paint that looks to be a light grey color. The floor is a vast expanse of concrete— concrete with rough finishing, also enmeshed in streaks of blood and....a white powdery substance. I don't know what they are, but bile rises in my throat as I resist the urge to gag.

Brown cartons litter almost every inch of the floor as we continue to walk in the dim, barely existent light. Every turn we take has walls smeared in blood or white substance.

This place is terrible. It reeks of blood, cleaning supplies, and worse, death.

So this is it. This is how I die.

Finally, we get to a stop when the men shove me roughly inside a room. I hit the floor hard, pain shooting through my body as I lay there, gasping for breath. Tears burn my eyes, but I try to hold them back when I hear them exchange a few words.

The words are curt and in, what I can only guess, Italian before they leave. The heavy door creaks shut behind them, leaving me alone with Ezra…. in whatever this room is.

The room has a dim bulb in the center. Shadows play tricks on my eyes as the light doesn’t reach my position. I can barely make out his silhouette, but I can see enough to know he’s different—those eyes, so cold and devoid of the warmth I’d seen in them the night before.

It’s like a different person is standing in front of me.

The room is filled with the sounds of light footsteps as he approaches slowly. My heart’s pacing thick with trepidation. When he reaches me, he crouches down to my eye level.

My breath catches in my throat when he stretches an arm and rips the tape from my mouth. The sting is sharp against my skin.

“Don’t scream,” he says, his voice low and annoyingly calm. “No one will hear you. You’ll only piss me off.”

My chest tightens with fear. I search his face, looking for some sign of the man who took me to heaven and back last night, but there is nothing. Just cold, unfeeling eyes staring back at me.

“What do you want from me?” I whisper, my voice shaky.

Ezra’s gaze bores into mine.

“That’s not the right question.” His tone is as icy as his stare. “You should be asking yourself what you’ve done to deserve this.”

His words make my head spin. I wish the frown on his lips would widen into a smile and he’d yell ‘April Fools’.

What have I done?

I rack my brain, trying to make sense of this nightmare, but nothing adds up. He's simply a one-night stand I'm starting to regret.

“I…I swear I don’t understand,” I stammer. “I haven’t done anything.”

A cold, humorless smile twists his lips. “Haven’t you?” His hand shoots out to grip my chin tightly. I shiver at his cold grip as I try to hold his gaze.

“Think, Raven. Think hard.”

I try, but my mind is a mess. Nothing comes to me. “I don’t know,” my voice breaks.

This is a mess…a mistake. All of it.

“Please, Ezra… just let me go.”

The statement seems to piss him off. His grip tightens, eyes narrowing into slits.

“Not until you give me what I want.”

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