Page 39 of Devilish Prince

It's been almost two weeks since I’ve seen anyone other than Calvin, so my chest squeezes warmly at the thought of having company to talk to. I let the curtain fall shut and walk to the door and thrust it open. Sunlight bathes the deck out front and I step out of the climate controlled cabin into the warmth of the summer air. The car sounds like it’s straining to make the climb, which is understandable considering the incline. The steep eight-percent grade was hard for Jen’s car when I drove up here. She intended to bring a taxi, and I’m sure those things aren’t any better.

A sleek black sedan with tinted windows appears on the winding drive below and I walk toward the edge of the deck as it vanishes behind the row of trees to snake its way around the back side of the cabin and finally circle around to stop near the front. The stairs creak as I descend, arms folded over my chest in anxious anticipation. It’s not a long drive, but I have a feeling Jen will beready to get out of the car and into the cabin. She told me how she felt afraid, and this place represents safety for both of us.

Except when the car rolls up, and the driver comes into view, I get the feeling something is very wrong. It’s not a twenty-something young person driving an Uber that I see. It’s a man in a dark suit with dark aviator sunglasses and a stern expression. My shoulders tense, my body stiffening, and my blood runs cold. It can’t be…

The car stops short of the deck and for a second I think about running back inside, locking the doors, and calling 9-1-1, but I remain in freeze mode, staring at the dark car as the back door opens. My mind wrestles against itself, arguing how this has to be Jen, not Lorenzo, how I must be fooling myself, my eyes playing tricks on me. I take a tentative step backward and gasp as I see Jen flung from the car.

She collapses on the leaf-littered blacktop and cries out. Her face is bloody, her shirt torn. “Sofi, run!” she grunts but before I can even turn to go, Lorenzo steps out of the car, gun in hand, pointed at me.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to do that if I were you.” He steps over Jen and walks toward me a few steps, but he keeps his distance.

I shake, horrified at what I’m seeing. My mouth gapes, and my hand slowly rises to cover it. Tears force their way up to my eyes and they brim there, waiting to be given permission to fall.

“What the hell?” I want to run to her and find out where she’s bleeding, but Lorenzo stands between me and her. “What did you do to her? Why did you do that!”

The front door of the car opens and the guy with the suit and glasses, whom I don’t recognize, steps out and walks back toward Jen.

“Please,” she whimpers, “please just let me go now.” The man ignores her pleas for relief and grabs her by the back of the head with a handful of hair, hoisting her up to her feet. Her pants are covered in blood, her hands bound behind her back.

“Holy shit,” I mumble. I take a few hasty steps toward her and Lorenzo clicks his tongue, reminding me he has a weapon.

“You might want to stop there, Sofia. You have done enough harm to your friend.”

“What do you mean, you sick pig! I didn’t do that.” I shudder and hug my arms over my chest as I take in her wounds. The gash on her forehead is deep. The blood seems to be coming from her groin, as if she started her period and they gave her no sanitary napkins.

“Hmmm, well you left us no forwarding address or phone number. We had to use our means to find you.” Something on the gun clicks beneath the tip of his thumb and he slides it into his pants. “I’d have thought you learned your lesson about me, but perhaps not.”

“Let me tend to her wounds…” I take another step closer to her, but the man holding Jen whips out a knife and puts it to her neck, which he exposes by pulling her hair back hard.

“This is a nice little hide away. I hope you had a refreshing time here before our wedding.” Lorenzo steps toward me and I back away. I can’t get to her and help her because he’ll just grab me.

“I’m not marrying you, you bastard.” As addicted as I am to his cock, there is no way I can marry a man like this.

“You don’t get a say, Sofia.” He snaps his fingers and the man in the suit draws a fine line across Jen’s neck with the knife, cutting her deep enough to draw blood, but not deep enough to kill her.

“Stop!” I plead, giving those tears permission to fall.

“Sofi, I’m so sorry… They were going to kill me.” Jen stumbles as the man shoves her forward, then she races toward me. I open my arms to her but she runs right past, onto the deck then into the cabin. I turn to watch her briefly, hearing the lock click, before I feel Lorenzo’s hand grab my bicep and squeeze hard.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Sofia,” he growls in my ear and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. I jerk my arm hard and it connects with his gut, and just as I do, I feel something strike my head.

I wince, my knees giving out, and reach for the back of my head as I fall. Everything spins around me for a second before I black out.

My head throbs and it hurts to move. I feel nauseous too, as if I’ve had too much to drink. But I don’t remember drinking anything. What I remember is panic, and fear, and Jen… covered in blood.

I force my eyes open, not knowing where the deafening hissing and whirring sounds are coming from. Wherever I am it’s dark. Weight pins me down on a mattress, though I’m free to move. I blink a few times and let my eyes adjust to the tiny amount oflight and my gaze is drawn to a bright red light along the dark wall. It says “Exit” in bold letters, illuminated in the pitch-black space.

Pushing myself upward, I come to a seated position and feel inertia make me sway. It’s an odd feeling, not knowing if it’s coming from inside of me, like vertigo, or from outside of me, like I’m in a vehicle of some kind. I decide on the latter and lean along a wall as I rise and put one foot in front of the other, moving toward the red sign.

Everything starts to come back to me, Jen being assaulted right in front of me, Lorenzo holding a gun to my head… He hit me hard too. I must have blacked out. My pulse races and I move faster, feeling along the wall until I find a metal latch. I pull it and the door pops open with blinding light piercing the darkness.

“Ah, you’re awake.” I push it farther open to see Lorenzo seated casually with the man in the suit. They have a game of cards laid out on a table between them, cigars in hand. I blink hard, rubbing my eyes against the brightness as he continues. “I thought you’d rest peacefully until we landed, but I’m glad you’re up. You can help pick our new venue. Adelina was just telling me how wonderful the vineyards at Tenuta di Fiorano are this time of year.”

I lean hard against the side of what I can only assume now is the fuselage of a plane, and my eyes scan the narrow space. A woman with dark wavy hair smiles at me. “Ciao, bella, I’m the wedding planner.” Her accent is thick, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

Vomit rises up and out of my mouth dousing the carpet in tea, red wine, and the remnants of my breakfast. Where is Calvin? And why am I on a plane?

26

---