Page 26 of Romeo

“I’ll always come back to you,” I promise Thalia, repeating the words I told her this morning. After today, I’ll never let her out of my sight again.

CHAPTERELEVEN

THALIA

“She awake yet?” an unfamiliar voice grunts.

“Aye, I see her starting to move,” another gruff voice answers.

Awareness slowly trickles through my body, each limb waking up as I blink a few times to adjust to my new environment. Confusion clutters my mind, and I search my fuzzy memory to piece together how I got here.

I was with Romeo this morning, that much I know. After he left, I grabbed my laptop and pulled up my email to check any new orders that came in over the last few days.

The email.

I should have known it was a trap. Part of me was suspicious, but I panicked and made the only choice I could.

The subject was simply “Romeo.” It contained an address and time and instructed me to show up if I wanted to spare Romeo’s life. The email detailed how Romeo couldn’t protect me forever, and if I ignored the opportunity, they’d make me watch while they slaughtered Romeo before doing the same to me.

My first instinct was to tell Romeo, but I knew he would tell me to stay put. He’d probably have someone hack my email and find out where the message came from, then go there himself to prove a point. I tried not to picture how poorly that would end, but visions of Thomas being shot filled my mind, his face flickering and switching to Romeo’s as blood pooled around his body.

No.I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let him sacrifice himself for me. Not after he took me into his home, offered protection, fed me, clothed me, and gave me the best couple of days of my life. Romeo has shown me more love and care than I’ve ever experienced, and I can’t let him suffer because I’m the loose end he never tied up.

“Theresa!” one of the men shouts, ripping me from my thoughts.

“It’s Thalia,” the other one says.

“Doesn’t matter. She won’t be around for long.”

The breath drains from my lungs and my eyes water as my heart thunders in my chest. I will myself not to cry, not to sniffle, not to show any sign of weakness, but I’m losing the battle. Fear settles in the pit of my stomach, a deep, animalistic fear that has me resorting to base survival instincts.

I’m aware of every sound and every scrap of light in the cold, dark basement. One of the men near the only door pulls out a lighter and flicks it twice. A bright blue-orange flame illuminates his face. He has a large nose and thick eyebrows, and I can make out the edges of a large skull tattoo on the side of his neck before the flame dies.

I stare at the lit cigar, the end glowing orange in the otherwise dim light of the basement. Smoke curls and swirls in the air, casting a muted cloud over the dank room.

“Tell Antonio to get his ass down here. She’s waking up, and I don’t want to deal with another brat today,” the man with the cigar says.

“What am I, your servant? Tell him yourself, lazy ass.”

The men bicker back and forth, and I close my eyes, trying to remember anything else about how I got here. I ended up taking a train and two buses to get to the address in the email, and that was after sneaking out of the Di Salvo compound. Romeo never told me I couldn’t leave, but that did little to ease my guilt as I slipped out a side door and hid in the garden until someone else left and opened the gate.

I hate the thought of Romeo discovering me missing. Will he think I left him because I don’t want him anymore? Or because he’s not good enough? Nothing could be further from the truth. I remember scribbling out a note telling him I loved him, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave it behind. I ripped it up and flushed it down the toilet before sneaking out. If he knew how deeply I loved him, he’d never let me go. He’d come after me and get himself killed in the process.

So I had to go alone, and I had to do it without anyone else knowing.

However, when I got to the location, I knew I had made a mistake. The building was an old storage rental place that went out of business years ago. At first, I didn’t see anyone, and I almost turned around and ran back to Romeo’s, but then someone grabbed me and covered my mouth with a sweet-smelling rag. And then…

Then I woke up here.

“Calm your fuckin’ tits, Jerry,” a nasal voice calls from down the hall. “Didn’t think you’d complain about watching a piece of pussy. I know it’s been a while since you’ve had any.”

My stomach flips as I swallow down bile. If any of these men touch me…

“Fuck off, Antonio,” the man I assume is Jerry retorts.

“All right, then. I thought you wanted me to come babysit, but if you’ve changed your mind–”

“Just get in here already. Jesus Christ, this is why I get migraines when I work with you.”

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