Page 2 of Unraveled Love

I stared at my lap, watched the tears land on my jeans at my knees and closed my eyes again.

This was a dream. It had to be.

I’d wake up soon and Shawn would be next to me. That was all this was—a nightmare, stress from the last few weeks.

In a moment, everything would be okay. With my hands behind me, wrists wrapped with something coarse, I tried to inch the fingers of one hand to the other, but I could barely touch them. My fingertips brushed, but I couldn’t get close to my wrists to attempt to untie myself.

“Shawn,” I tried to say, but it was just another garbled moan.

Soon, the pain encompassed me. My eyes closed and I felt nothing. Heard nothing. Saw nothing.

* * *

I woke againto a searing pain in my scalp. My eyes flew open as I tried to grapple, fighting against the pain, but it was useless. Someone was behind me. Cold pressed to my temple.

“Shut up,” he snapped through gritted teeth. A vile scent filled the air and I tried to scream.

I thrashed, and a sharp pain flew down my back as he kicked the chair I was still tied to.

“I said, shut the fuck up.” Hair scraped my cheek, and it was then I realized he had my hair fisted in his hand, yanking at it. That was the pain in my scalp. “She wants to speak to you, and she needs you quiet.” He paused briefly. “Do you know who I am?”

I turned as much as I could, and he let go of my hair. Pain made my eyes water. Fear made my body shake.

His eyes were all I saw. Dark. Soulless. I did know him.

I whimpered and nodded.

The guy from the steakhouse. He was there. He was the one who’d hurt Charlie, who’d taken me. Mancusso? He wasn’t the guy from my father’s house or MaryAnne’s nephew, but they looked similar.

“Do you know who I work for?”

I shook my head. I could imagine, but it didn’t make sense. How had he known I was at a steakhouse days before he took me from Dreammaker’s? That was the night my apartment was broken into. How long had they been following me?

My head spun with questions, and the wretched taste of the rag slid down my throat.

Aclick-clacknoise echoed on the cement floor. The room was brighter now. I must have missed the flickering of the lights as they turned on.Come on, Addi. Keep your senses and be smart. You can figure this out.

The man behind me must have sensed my alertness because the gun moved from my temple. The clicking noise grew louder until a shadow appeared in the open doorway.

No.I grunted in surprise and jerked in the chair as MaryAnne Johannsen stood several feet from me. It only made the fist holding my hair yank harder, and a squeal escaped my throat as fear knotted and coiled tight in my stomach.

It was Daniel’s mom, who I’d recently learned was part of a mob family in New York, one that happened to be known for trafficking women.

She was the one who’d taken me? I shouldn’t have been surprised, only the last two weeks still didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Especially this—why take me from Dreammaker’s and tie me up in what looked like an abandoned jail cell or warehouse of some sort?

MaryAnne stepped closer to where I was sitting. In the few interactions I’d had with her, she’d always been cold, aloof, distant. The expression on her face was currently furious as she glared down at me, dressed in a navy blue skirt with a cream-colored top like she was an executive heading to work at an office.

“You spoiled little bitch,” she hissed, grabbing my chin. She pinched it between her thumb and fingers, and her nails dug into the thin flesh there.

I cried out from the pain, which only made her grin.

“All you had to do was do what you were told, and now you’ve screwed everything up.”

I’d have spit in her face if there wasn’t a rag in my mouth. I’d have clawed her face off and kicked and screamed until I ruined her if I could.

Iwas the spoiled bitch? Iruinedthings?

“Don’t worry, though, Adrianna Marquess. Now that we have you, my son cannotwaituntil you’re returned. Soon, you’ll be obedient, doing everything he requires of you.” She leaned in, and a cinnamon scent from what had to be a mint or toothpaste because there was no way this woman chewed gum wafted from her breath. “And he will require you to do much, because once he breaks you in, have no doubt he will be paid a pretty penny for what he’ll expect you to do for others.”

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