It was difficult to reach up to the top of the dresser to grab the supplies that Natalia had brought me, but the food smelled delicious and the fresh bandages would help replace those I’d had on for a few days now. She was leaning against the frame of the door into my room, so close that if I reached out, I could touch her, but the camera loomed above her and kept me from doing so.
“Don’t linger,” she warned. “Remember yesterday.”
We’d been at our new system for about a week. Just like she did before, Natalia would come and visit me, bring me some food, water, and medical supplies, only now, she then had to sit just outside my door and talk to me until she had to go and show her face in front of her brothers. The day prior, I’d lingered a little too much at the doorway, and a watchful Romeo feared something may be going on and sent some of his guards to check on me. Natalia heard them coming with only just enough time to jump behind one of the dressers to hide.
Thank god she was small.
It was a confirmation that Romeo was being true to his word and keeping an eye on me, but also that Natalia and I truly couldn’t get any closer to each other.
Following her warning, I backed away from the door, making sure anything I wasn’t supposed to have was tucked away in my pants pockets or under my shirt. I ran them to the bathroom for access later and then returned to my bed to rest. If Romeo was truly watching as closely as it seemed he was, I couldn’t rightfully lay in bed talking to the air without arousingsomesuspicion that something was up. For this reason, when I laid down in the bed again, I turned my head to face away from the camera. It meant I couldn’t even look at Natalia as I spoke with her.
“How’s your leg?” Natalia asked. “You seem to be moving a little bit better.”
Angelo had taken a bat to my knees, and another hard one to my left leg. It shockingly didn’t break either of my legs entirely but did bring my left leg pretty close. For the first three days after Romeo had brought me back up, I couldn’t stand on it at all, and now that I could get up, if I kept most of my weight off of it, I could stay up, though not for long.
“It’s doing better. Hurts like hell,” I replied.
“There’s pain reliever in that bag I fetched you,” she responded. “Use it.”
“I’m trying to make it last,” I said.
She scoffed. “Don’t worry about that. I can bring you more tomorrow. I can tell you aren’t sleeping, so use it to diminish the pain enough to sleep.”
I smiled at the irritation in her voice. “My mom always used to say that anyone who cares about you enough to get angry that you’re not taking care of yourself is worth keeping around.”
“If that’s the case then I’mreallypissed off,” Natalia joked, and it made me chuckle which caused my ribcage to sear with pain. “I’m sorry,” she yelped.
“It’s not your fault,” I said.
She chuckled. “It doesn’t mean I’m not sorry. I wish I had a way to make it up to you.”
“You can distract me then,” I replied. “Tell me something else about you.”
“Like what?” Natalia asked.
“Anything,” I told her. “I can’t imagine you always want to be cooped up in this place? Where do you dream of going?”
Natalia was quiet for a minute. I looked over at her and she was staring towards the ceiling with a smile on her face. “I’ve always dreamed of going toItalia.” Her normally sweet voice changing to her authentic Italian accent as the words came out of her mouth like honey. “My older brothers have gotten to go, but I have never been. I’d love to go some day. My grandma used to tell me about it all the time. It sounds beautiful.”
“It is,” I said. “I’d love to promise to take you some day, but I don’t even know that I’m ever going to leave your house again. At least not outside of a body bag.”
“I won’t let them do that,” Natalia replied instantly. “You’ll get out of here somehow.”
Though I didn’t enjoy not being able to touch and hold Natalia as I could before, I enjoyed talking to her and getting to know her better. I could have easily seen myself losing myself in enjoying her body once those flood gates were open, so though it wasn’t my preferred way to slam the brakes, I was happy for the chance to get to know her even better. She told me more about her and Savio’s childhood with her grandparents and how things changed once her grandmother died.
Her relationship with Savio reminded me of my relationship with my siblings and made me miss them so much it made my stomach sick. I was relieved to learn that Romeo had been letting Lucia visit with the twins, but I’d give anything to see them.
“I wish there was something I could do,” Natalia said. “I could try mentioning it to Savio and ask him to say something to Romeo, but there are no guarantees.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “Romeo somehow figured out that your father brought me back downstairs. You found us too. Was it known that he’d brought me back down there?”
“I just got lucky,” Natalia replied. “The few of my dad’s goons that I can talk to without getting in trouble had no knowledge of it, and from what I heard, my other brothers didn’t know either.”
“So Romeo must have come to my room then,” I said. “Do you think he was going to let me see Lucia as well?”
“It’s entirely possible. She’s done something to him. He’s… I don’t know. Softer?” She snickered. “If he heard me saying that he would flip out.”
“That’s what he told me down in the dungeon,” I said. “That he was there for her. It just made me think that maybe he was coming to get me to visit with her when he saw I was missing.”
