Page 2 of Broken Mafia Bride
Then I hear footsteps.
They sound like boots. Slow. Purposeful. Approaching me.
My body betrays me. My eyelids grow heavier. I try to stay awake, to fight it, but my eyes shut again just as a blurry image of a man’s legs comes into view.
A soft touch brushes my wrist. Then the grip on my wrist tightens. A rush of cold sweeps over me, seeping into my bones. I want to pull away, to resist, but my body feels heavy and unresponsive. My mind floats between awareness and unconsciousness, trapped in a dream that feels all too real.
I come to when the grip on my arms shifts, and the man suddenly begins pulling me upward. I hear the sound of water sloshing beneath me and feel the weight of my wet dress tangling around my legs.
My head spins as I try to dig into my memories, searching for answers to the questions plaguing my mind. But I can’t seem to find them. The iciness of the water seeps into my bones, making my teeth chatter. The arms tighten around me, drawing me more firmly against a warm body.
“Shit, you’re bleeding.” The man’s voice seems to be coming from miles away.
Only then do I feel a sting in my side. I try to move my body, but blinding pain slices through me, making it difficult to breathe. My eyelids feel so heavy, and I have to fight to get them to part open. I spot a canopy of trees over us before darkness swallows me again.
There’sa faint smell of smoke, and I no longer feel cold at all. Heat replaces the chill, the rough ground traded for something soft beneath me. My eyes come back into focus just long enough to see that I’m inside a house, and the smoky smell is coming from a large fireplace at the corner of the room.
“Wake up,” a feminine voice says. “Wake up, baby.”
A woman appears behind my eyelids, staring down at me with apparent concern. She’s beautiful, and I feel my hands reaching for her, wondering if it’s an angel. It must be why her voice manages to soothe me, relaxing my tense muscles.
My eyes flutter open, and I wince as a flood of blinding light hits me. I try to sit up, but my body feels like I’ve run into a battering ram. I wince, falling back into the bed. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, and I see that I’m in a sparsely decorated room, and a man is leaning over me.
“Hey, you’re okay,” he says.
Panic grips my chest, and I surreptitiously move my legs, trying to see if they’re bound. The man’s face is unfamiliar, and warning bells go off in my head. I try to sort through my memory to piece together how I got here, but there’s nothing but fog where my memories should be.
The panic only rises the more I try to remember, to no avail.
“W-what have you done to me?” I croak through my dry throat.
“Don’t talk. You need water.” He steps away, my eyes tracking him across the room to a water dispenser. I watch as he grabs a glass from the table nearby and fills the cup.
My throat spasms at the thought of finally getting some much-needed moisture, but I tamp down my thirst. What if there’s something in the water? I can’t just drink whatever he gives me.
“Here.” He tries to hand the glass to me.
“No.” I recoil from his hand.
One of his dark golden eyebrows hikes up. “Take the water. You must be very thirsty,” he adds, but this time his voice is firmer.
I start to shake my head, but he grumbles something under his breath, then catches my head in his hands to hold me still. He forces my mouth open and empties the cup down my throat. I choke on the water, much of it spilling over my jaw.
The man shoots me a scowl after the glass is empty and moves across the room to drop the empty glass.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, or where exactly I am, but I need to get out. The question is how? I’m not exactly in the best shape to make a grand escape, or even a not grand one.
The fact that I can’t remember anything is also a problem.
Where can I possibly go since I don’t even know where I’m coming from? I tamp down the terror that’s welling up insideme. The first step is getting as far from this man as possible. I eye his broad shoulders and corded arms with mounting dread.
The sound of a ringtone slices through the tense silence of the room.
“Go back to bed,” the man orders. “Don’t do anything stupid. You’re too weak.”
If he thinks I’m just going to lie down here and obey his orders, he’d better think again. I nod slowly, blinking at him with my most innocent expression in place. He narrows his eyes at me, not looking fooled one bit, but eventually he picks up his call.
“Yeah, she’s still here,” I hear him say before he disappears from the room.
