When I wake up, I’m in Emily’s apartment. I’d recognize the yellow walls and bright pink bedding anywhere. It’s like I’m in a package of Bubble Yum gum. The question is, how the hell did I get here? I look down and see that I’m at least out of my workout clothes, dressed in a pair of sweats and an oversized shirt. Though I smell like dried sweat and morning breath, so I obviously didn’t get showered. “Em?” I call out as I sit up in the bed. I hear scrambling down the hall and then Emily’s opening the door. “Q! Holy shit, you’re finally awake! How are you feeling? Are you ok?” “I mean, I need a shower, but I’m good. How did I get here?” I ask her. She sits on the edge of the bed next to me and brushes a piece of hair out of my face. “Josiah brought you here. Dante wanted you some place out of the house since someone has been getting in and out with those pictures. Josiah and Pablo are in the living
I’m some weird combination of fuming and afraid. Anxious and livid. I know mixed feelings can be rough, but feeling these two extremes aren’t easy. I try to tamp it all down and just think about what I have to do in order to get ready for the gala. “Hey Pablo, my appointment at the salon isn’t for another few hours, so we’ve got some time to kill. We could head to get something to eat,” I say, just now realizing that I’m alone with Pablo. Shit. If this is the hormones, I need to get this under control. “Sure, absolutely. I know a great place,” Pablo says, starting the car. There are a few moments of tense silence before I ask, “Where are Josiah and Emilio?” Pablo clears his throat, “Emilio is with Dante. They think that they have a lead on who is doing some of this. And Josiah…well, I though that he was at Emily’s, but I guess not.” That strikes me as weird. They always know where each other is. “Oh…ok,
I have no idea how long we’re in the car. I can’t see the clock at all and the windows in the back of the car are tinted enough that I don’t have an accurate idea of where the sun is to try and gauge the time. That has to be why no one can see me handcuffed in the car. Why no one seems alarmed as our car passes. Why no one is helping me. My phone continues to ping and I can tell that it’s pissing Pablo off. Well fuck him very much. If that irritates him, I’ll be happy to kick my phone under the seat so he can’t find it. Mother fucker. He pulls into an underground parking lot and turns around to look at me with his gun in his hand. He vaguely points it in my direction, but he doesn’t have to point the gun directly at me to get his point across. “Now I’m going to open the door so that I can get that fucking phone and set you up in a…more comfortable position.” The last part is said with a smarmy smile that makes disgust role up
Dante’s POV I throw my phone across the room, gripping my hair in agitation. “WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!” I scream. “We found both of their phones in a parking garage off of Atlantic in the Bronx on their way out of the city. We also found her purse in one of the trashcans here,” Emilio says. “FUCK!’ I scream, “How the hell did this even happen?” “I’m so sorry, Dante!” Emily has been crying ever since she called me freaking out about Pablo taking Quinn. “We had a fight after I told her that she shouldn’t go to the gala. She stormed out and Pablo was standing outside the door.” I fall onto the seat beside her and put an arm around her, rubbing her back. “It’s not your fault, Emily. Pablo was supposed to be someone that we all could trust. When I find that asshole, I’m going to string him up by his toes and carve him up like a Thanksgiving turkey.” Just then, one of the nurses walks into the room. “Mr. Luciano
Quinn’s POV I wake up in an unfamiliar bed in a room that I’ve never seen before. It’s nearly double the size of my childhood bedroom and half again as large as my bedroom with Dante. “Where the fuck am I?” I move sit up and throw my legs over the side of the bed, moving to stand. But the second that I start to get up, I have to sit back down and cradle my head. What the hell did Pablo just give me? Suddenly, my hands fly to my stomach. What about the baby? Please tell me that it’s ok. How would I know? Am I seriously going to tell my kidnapper before I tell my husband that I’m pregnant so that I can check and make sure that my baby is safe? I’m so freaked out that I work myself up to needing to vomit. Luckily, there’s a door wide open that shows the bathroom. I bolt off the bed and into the bathroom, just barely making it to the toilet. Once the dry heaves subside, I sit on the floor on my ass. What do I do?
“W-w-what are you doing here?” I ask, completely stunned. I’ve stopped in the entryway into the dining room, unable to move. I’m not even sure who I’m talking to: my father or Gabriele. What the hell is happening? Did…did Gabriele kidnap me? My father? Why are they together? They’ve hated each other for as long as I can remember. Even when Gabriele and I were together, my father only spoke to him with thinly veiled disgust and Gabriele looked at my father like he was a bug beneath his shoe. The only reason that Gabriele tolerated my father was because of me. The only reason that my father tolerated Gabriele was because Don Reina, Gabriele’s father, could have had him taken out whenever he wanted to. I’ve known Gabriele since I was a child still wearing pigtails and with braces. I’d never been afraid of him. Not until now. Not until I saw that possessive look on his face as his eyes roam my body in the barely there dr
“You sold me to screw over the biggest mafia family in town and to clear away some gambling debt. To a man I don’t even know anymore. This is what you’re telling me?” I can’t looking at Gabriele anymore, the feeling of fear too much as it flows through my veins. I don’t know what he’s been through in the years since he left, but whatever has happened to him, his look leaves me with the icy feeling that prey must feel whenever there is a fierce predator around.The overwhelming need to get away.And the certainty that you can’t.So I turn to my father in hopes that this is all an elaborate lie. That he hasn’t given me to someone that would slit his throat as sure as he would shake his hand.But I know that it’s true by the blank stare that my father gives me. “I thought that this was preferrable to the previous arrangement that you thought we had. Though, I will have to say, you got Luciano Jr. wrapped around your fingers quicker than I would have thought possible. A
I can’t stand being in this room any longer! After Gabriele had locked me in here AGAIN, the only other person that I saw was Rebecca when she brought in my food tray and then came back to pick it up. I had eaten everything on the tray. It would do me no good to pass out while I’m trying to get out of here. Placing a protective hand over my stomach, I think that I also have to keep my baby safe. What I do know is comprised of two things: 1) I have to get to Dante and warn him about the danger he and his family are in and 2) To do that, I have to get the hell out of here. Now! I could try to find a phone, but that just risks me sticking around in the open for too long. It’s too easy to get caught. I’d do better to spend my time getting keys and a car. I can call from a business on the road. Now I just have to find a way out of here. I know that people think rich kids attend posh schools where ever