As I sat on the bed, I mentally went back over everything that had happened from packing my stuff to... my luggage. Was it here? Rising to my feet, I hadn’t anticipated how wobbly my legs would still be until I took a few steps forward and nearly tumbled over.
There were two different doors other than the exit, so I went to the first. When I opened it, the standard bathroom came into view. There was a large, framed mirror over a single-vessel sink in the center of the space, with a toilet room to the left and a glass shower to the right.
Everything was white and so sterile. I surely would’ve imagined the guy whose acquaintance I had just made to have a place in all black or dark gray, undoubtedly colored the same as his heart. And his eyes.
Shaking my head to dispel the memory of them peering deep into my face, I closed that door and made my way across the room to the other door, which I knew had to be the closet. Once I did, a sigh of relief escaped me.
“My luggage,” I said softly, then I pulled the bags out and set them on top of the bed. I wasn’t sure what to expect uponopening them, but when I unzipped them, there was nothing in either of them.
My heart sank. What did they do with my things? As I turned around, I saw a large dresser, and moving over to it, relief filled me once more as I opened each drawer to find some of my clothing there. I returned to the closet, and after turning on the light, I even saw a few things of mine hanging on the rod at the very back. My shoes were placed in a line beneath them.
The bedroom door opened and I almost jumped out of my skin. One of the other men came closer to the closet, then flashed me a sympathetic glance before his expression hardened once more.
“Is there anything that you need, Miss?”
“My purse. Do you know where it is? Or even my cell phone?”
“I’m afraid those have been confiscated.”
“Confiscated. Why the hell were they...” and my voice trailed off when I saw Zarren reappear in the bedroom doorway.
“You didn’t honestly think I would allow you to contact the outside world, now did you?”
I could feel my facial expression fall even before I saw his smirk. Zarren seemed to enjoy my misery, or at least my frustration and anger. I was sure in that moment that he was a sadist, and remembering his earlier words and the way they were delivered, there was no doubt I was correct in that assumption.
“Is there anything else besides those things that you require?”
I looked at the dresser, then behind me in the closet, before staring ahead at the bed. My fingers were growing achier by the moment, and stiff. And as I tried to twist them together, they were as cold as icicles. The bed had a thin duvet, and I couldn’t forget how cold I got, even in the summer months. With it being nearly winter, I might freeze to death here.
I had to keep my wits about me, which involved keeping up my strength. I moved back to the bed, then fisted the thin duvet in my hand. “Do you have another blanket?
“Another blanket?’ he asked, obviously not expecting that answer.
“There are extra covers in the linen closet,” the other man said to me, then hurried into the bathroom before returning with another blanket. It looked a lot like an electric blanket, but it had no attachments. It would have to do, though.
“Thank you,” I said softly to him.
“Anything else, Bellezza?” Zarren asked, and my brow furrowed at the last word.
Deciding not to question him anymore right now, I could feel exhaustion setting in, so I shook my head. I could battle him another night. Right now, I wanted to get warm and try to figure out how to break free of this prison, even if it more closely resembled a luxury hotel suite.
“Very well. Good night,” is all he said, then he and the other man left the room.
Only when the door closed behind them did I release the breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding. I moved back to the bed and eventually got settled underneath both covers.
My patience level was running thin, especially where the prisoner was concerned. I knew she felt like one, but things could’ve been worse. I knew what a real prison felt like, and one much worse than the kind criminals around this country were locked up in. The Brannington dungeon had been a hellhole and still was for those who had the misfortune of ending up there.
Throughout the early part of my youth, I’d been forced many times down to one of the cells that reeked of death and blood. In fact, one could feel and smell the scent of it despite there being not a lick of light. It’d been all around me. As had the screams of the many men meeting their untimely fates for their crimes.
Those screams had echoed in my ears long after the poor saps had taken their last breaths. Pain... Anguish... Despair... It had all reverberated in my skull, leaving it aching in the process. And there’d been nothing I could do for them, or that I could’ve even done for myself.
Often shackled, my only reprieve had been the times when my great-grandfather’s men would drag my nearly lifeless bodyout of the cage for any given amount of time. Often, they’d bring me to a torture chamber he’d reserved for the worst of the worst. The punishment inflicted upon me, Cillian, and maybe even my own father and uncle, had been brutal, but it’d been the cost of being a Brannington.
We had many enemies across the world, and as a smaller faction of the Irish mafia, we had to be ready to withstand anything. And I had been, and still was. If so, why did the idea of being saddled with this girl make me feel as if I was back in that six-by-nine cage?
I needed to get rid of her, and yesterday would not be soon enough. Luckily, I had a call scheduled with Cillian and Kingston. With the former being in Ireland, my uncle and I had to work around his schedule. That meant early morning for us, and was one of the few reasons why I was even awake at this time.
The alarm clock beside my bed indicated it was just after four. Most nights, I would’ve just dragged my ass back home from some fight or club. I rarely slept, intending to get the much-needed rest once I was dead. Although, since Aurora’s arrival a few hours ago, I must’ve aged at least a few years, and an hour or two of sleep would be needed to deal with her once she woke up.
