Page 76 of Claiming the Mafia Queen

Ishiverascoldfingers tap my shoulder. Groggily, I blink my eyes open, but it’s dark.

All around me.

So dark that I can’t even see the hand in front of my face, let alone another person an arm’s length away.

I can’t see them, and there’s no way to know what they look like; who they really are. “Don’t fucking touch me…” I growl into the room, and immediately the hand retreats.

I can feel a presence, though. I can sense it.

I hear screams blaring out in the distance. The noise is echoing off of what seems like metal, and it’s all around me. Sounds like a horror movie.

“Madam Rosa?” I take a shot in the dark.

A woman’s maniacal laugh echoes just inches away, but no voice rings out. Instead, I hear footsteps fade away slowly.

What’s with the games?

From everything I’ve heard, Madam Rosa doesn’t play games.

I run toward the footsteps, but I feel my waist catch harshly and my breath fling from my body. The familiar clanking of chains fills the room. I grab at my waist. Fuck! I’m chained up.

A sliver of light filters into the room as a door opens just feet away from me. There’s not enough light to brighten the room, and I still have no idea where the hell I am. A dark silhouette of a figure walks through it, to the other side. And as quickly as it opened, the door closed, and I was back in darkness.

I fall to my knees and pull them to my chest as I sit on the cool, concrete floor. Nothing is making sense.

If this person wants me dead, why not just kill me?

What’s the point of all this now?

I should have answered Luigi when he asked me where I was going. Then he might be somewhere hot on our tails. But, I needed a walk. All the planning. All the talking…

It was too much.

I was a woman of action.

I didn’t want to talk anymore.

I wanted to strike, and maybe I was right.

My gut is usually in times like this…

Proper planning is important; I’m not denying that, but I wasted too much time.

I take in a shaky breath and fight back tears as I think about Alessandro. Is he going to wind up like this one day? Shoved in some smelly ass dungeon?

It feels like hours before another sound is made. But when it does, it’s at the door again. The familiar chime of metal clanking and a door creaking open calls out to me, causing my head to lift.

The sliver of light filters back in. This time it’s just enough for me to see that the figure this time is wearing something red.

All I hear is the soft clanking of heels against concrete as they get closer to me. I lose the figure in the darkness, but the sound of heels continues to drum out. They’re pacing…

And then, all of a sudden, they stop moving.

And the light in the room illuminates, painfully scorching my eyes. I stand, blinking wildly. As the dots in front of my eyes fade and my blinking slows, the room comes into focus.

There’s a woman. And we’re surrounded by what looks like an old restaurant kitchen. There’s metal sinks. Overhead sprayers. Drainage grates are in the center of the room, along with draped plastic curtains all around the prep area.

I wonder if I’m glancing at Madam Rosa.

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