The van finally stops.
The back doors open and hands grab me, pull me out, and I'm looking at a building I recognize with sick certainty.
Warehouse. Red Hook. Brooklyn.
The same area. Maybe not the exact same building but close enough that my body remembers before my brain catches up, every muscle tensing, every nerve screaming.
No, no, no, no, no.
"Move," someone says, and shoves me forward.
I move because I don't have a choice, Vittorio stumbling beside me, both of us being marched toward the entrance.
Inside it's dark, cold and smells like rust and mold. They’re pushing us down stairs, down into a basement, and the panic is clawing up my throat now because I know what basements mean, I remember what basements mean.
The door at the bottom opens.
I'm shoved through.
The room is exactly what I expected and worse than I remembered. Concrete floor, concrete walls, a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, and standing in the middle of the room with a smile that makes my skin crawl?—
Declan O'Rourke.
And beside him, Killian.
My vision tunnels.
My breathing goes shallow, fast and wrong and I can feel the panic attack coming, can feel my body shutting down inresponse to seeing them, to being back in this place with these men who?—
No.
No, I'm not doing this.
I force myself to breathe. In through my nose, out through my mouth, slow and controlled, fighting the panic back inch by inch.
They will come for me.
Matteo will come. Luca will come. Enzo will come. Rafael and Dante will come. They will find me and they will get me out and I just need to survive until they do.
I just need to breathe.
"Isabella Romano," Declan says, and his voice is exactly as I remember it, smooth, cold and utterly wrong. "It's been a long time."
I don't respond.
"Not very talkative, are we? That's all right. You were quiet last time too. At least at first." He takes a step closer and I force myself not to flinch. "Do you remember this place, Isabella? Not this exact room, but close enough."
"What do you want?" I whisper.
"What do I want?" He laughs. "I want what I've always wanted. Leverage over your family. You were very useful for that nine years ago. And now, with all this chaos with the De Lucas, with your brother's alliance falling apart, with everything so unstable—well, you're useful again."
Vittorio speaks for the first time. "You're making a mistake, O'Rourke. The De Lucas will?—"
"The De Lucas will do nothing." Killian cuts him off. "Your father already withdrew support from the Romanos. You think he's going to start a war over you? Over her?" He gestures at me. "You're both expendable."
"So here's what's going to happen," Declan continues, walking in a slow circle around us. "We're going to keep you both here for a while. We're going to let Matteo know we have his precious sister. We're going to negotiate. And if he's smart, he'll give us what we want and you'll both go home mostly intact."
"And if he's not smart?" I ask.
