ADELINE

 

I WAKE UP slowly, my head throbbing with a tremendous pounding that feels like someone knocking on the side of my temple with a hammer.  Groaning, it takes me a few times to be able to sit up.  It takes even longer until I'm able to open my eyes.  And when I do, I just want to close them again.

I don't know where I am.

The room is dark except for the moonlight shining through two skylights in the ceiling.  The realization that I'm lying in someone else's bed in a strange room hits me hard.  I press my fingertips to the pounding on my head and feel crusted blood matted with my knotted hair.

What happened to me?

I think back to the last thing I can remember, and the horrible flashes of memory come back to me all at once.  Giovanni and I were on a date.  We left the restaurant.  We were walking…we were lost…and then a group of men tried to rob us…the gunman grabbed me...and then I must have blacked out.  I'm trying to remember what happened after that, but I'm drawing a blank.

The harder I try to think, the more pronounced the fierce pounding becomes.  I cry out in pain and grip the sides of my head.

When the pounding settles to a dull ache, I decide to find out where I am.  Did Giovanni save me from the gunman and take me to a friend's house or something to recover?  That's the only plausible thing I can come up with at this moment.

Pulling back the blankets, I realize that I'm no longer wearing the little black dress that I had spent hours picking out before our date.  I'm wearing some type of thin cotton gown with no underwear under it.  Who the hell undressed me?

Panic starts to rise in my chest as flashbacks of sensations begin to bombard my overwhelmed mind.  I remember someone poking me with a needle and the sense of feeling like I was flying and falling.

I fumble in the almost pitch-black room and manage to find a table beside the bed.  My fingers land on a solid object, and I squint in the darkness trying to figure out what I'm touching.  When I realize it's a small lamp, I search for a switch, finding one after what feels like forever.

Holding my arms under the dim light, I search for evidence of my flashbacks.  There is some bruising and definite needle marks on the inside of my elbow.  Did I have an IV…or was some kind of drug injected into my veins?

Slowly, I crawl out of the bed on unsteady legs, gripping the mattress to keep my balance.  My legs feel heavy as if I've been sedated with something.  That coupled with the fact that I have a lot of memory loss makes me thinks that someone must have drugged me.

But why?

And who?

I slowly manage to make my way to the door.  Holding myself up against the wall, I reach for the handle.  It takes me a few fumbling tries before I'm able to focus and find it with my fingers.  I pull the latch and pull, but the door is stuck.  With all of my strength that I'm able to muster, I yank on the handle, cursing when it doesn't open.

I search for a lock of some kind, but find none.  But through my inspection, my fingertips come upon a new discovery.  Some type of keypad beside the door.  My blood chills as I stumble back and fall on my ass to the floor.  I'm locked in here.  "What the ---?"

"You can only enter and exit with the code," a dark voice says from behind me.

Screaming, I scramble to my knees and search the dark room for the source of the voice.  "W-w-who are y-you?" I stammer, my entire body shivering in sheer terror.

Out of the corner of my eye, a tall, dark figure rises from a chair in the corner of the room.  "My name is Lucien."

My mind scrambles to find some memory of his name.  Does he work for my father?  Is he an enemy of my father?  I search and search, but come up empty.  I've never heard the name Lucien muttered before.  "W-where am I?" I ask the dark shadow.

"My home," he answers simply.

This must be some sort of mistake that I'm here.  I can't remember what happened after Giovanni and I were mugged, but this is all wrong.  I'm not supposed to be here.  Shaking my head, I crawl back to the opposite corner of the room near the bed and press my back against the wall.  I'm panting, completely and utterly exhausted and feeling like I just ran a marathon.  My entire body feels lethargic; my limbs heavy from what can only be some sort of sedative.

"Did you…did you drug me?" I ask breathlessly.

He doesn't answer right away.  "Your handler should have told you that it would be necessary for your trip here."

Handler?  My trip here?  The thought of not being in New York City anymore and under the protection of Gio and my father has me folding in on myself, hugging my knees to my chest.  I've never left the city, let alone the state before.  "Where am I?" I ask him again.

"You already asked me that, and I already answered you."  His tone suggests he's bored, impatient even.

I frown at his answer.  He damn well knows I want a location more precise than his home, but I know I'm not going to get any more information.  "Why am I here?"

A dark chuckle comes out of the shadows.  "Enough of the twenty questions.  This isn't how this works."  After a deep sigh, he then says, "Your handler should have explained everything to you."

This isn't how what works?

He mentions my handler again as if I should understand what the hell he's talking about.  I could ask him a thousand questions, and it still wouldn't tell me everything I desperately want to know.  Instead of uttering another word, I decide to remain quiet, hoping that he will tell me more.

He takes a few steps out of the shadows, and the moonlight cascading through the skylights highlights his face.  I notice his dark hair and dark, piercing eyes first.  Then I study his statuesque and handsome features.  He's clean-shaven and dressed in an impeccably tailored dark suit and tie.  He doesn't look like a kidnapper or someone who would keep a woman against her will.

But I guess looks can be deceiving.

"You're here because I'm the one who bought you," he says, answering my earlier question and bringing my worst possible fear to fruition.

When I was a little girl, a few of my sisters were kidnapped and held captive by enemies of my father.  My oldest sister, Isabella, was sent back home…one piece at a time.

A violent shudder rips through me at the idea that I'll probably have the same fate as Isabella, and I watch as a smirk forms on the man's face at my reaction. 

"My father will pay you whatever ransom you're asking for," I blurt out before I can stop myself.  My father doesn't negotiate with kidnappers or enemies.  He always told me it makes him look weak.  That's why four of my sisters are dead and only three of us, the three that managed to never be kidnapped, still have a pulse.

He quirks a brow and cocks his head to one side at my statement, but remains silent.  His dark eyes narrow and watch me intently, studying me as the only sound in the deafening silence of the room is my panicked, rapid breaths.

After what feels like an eternity, he finally tells me, "You can clean up in the bathroom."  He motions over his shoulder to an adjacent room.  "Someone will bring you breakfast soon."

Before I can say anything else, he's stalking to the door, inputting a code that I can't see, and leaving.  The door closes behind his retreating form, a beep and a click signaling that I'm locked in here.