And then it's just me and him.
Lionetti stands there for a moment, adjusting his cuffs, his expression unreadable. Then he crouches down in front of me, his movements slow and deliberate.
I force myself to meet his eyes.
"Where's Inez?" I whisper, my voice cracking. "Please. She has nothing to do with this. Please let her go. Take me. Just—just let her go."
For a moment, he doesn't respond. He just studies me, his gaze cold and clinical, like he's calculating something.
Then he reaches out and grips my jaw, tilting my face up toward the light.
"Everyone has a price, sweetheart," he says softly. "Fortunately for me, those prices are high."
His words hit me like ice water.
I yank my jaw out of his hand, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
And then I spit.
Right on his shoe.
The room goes silent.
Lionetti looks down at his shoe. Then back at me.
His expression doesn't change.
But his hand does.
The backhand comes fast and hard, snapping my head to the side. Pain explodes across my cheek, white-hot and blinding. I taste blood again, thick and metallic, and the room tilts violently.
I don't fall. I grip the bedpost, refusing to go down.
Lionetti stands slowly, brushing off his hands like he's just finished a minor inconvenience. He snaps his fingers once, sharp and commanding.
"Pick her up," he says to someone behind me. "Get her cleaned up. The buyers are downstairs and ready."
I hear footsteps. Heavy. Multiple.
Hands grab me—rough, impersonal—and haul me upright. My legs buckle, but they don't let me fall. They drag me forward, my bare feet scraping against the floor.
"Wait—" I try to say, but my voice is barely a whisper. "Inez—where—"
No one answers.
The room spins. My vision blurs at the edges, darkness creeping in.
And then I feel it.
A sharp sting at the back of my neck.
Cold spreads through my veins like ice, fast and overwhelming. My limbs go heavy. My head lolls forward.
"No—" I try to say, but the word comes out slurred, barely audible.
The hands holding me tighten as my knees give out completely.
The last thing I see is the floor rushing up to meet me.
