Chapter Eleven
What was going on?
Celina blinked several times, trying to clear the fuzz which had shrouded her vision.
She looked around the empty room for some indication of where she was or who was holding her but her head felt like it was filled with cotton.
How did I get here?
She willed herself to stay calm, her mind whirling back to the last things she could recall.
I was with Ariano…at his place.
The memory was fleetingly warm until she remembered she had left, annoyed and determined to leave him and their tryst behind her.
I acted like a brat. I shouldn’t have expected some heartwarming pillow talk after the way I have treated him. He had every right to shut me down when I got too personal.
Suddenly, she sensed someone else in the dark room. Either a rustling of clothing or the sound of someone breathing, she didn’t know which had alerted her, but she was one hundred percent positive that she wasn’t alone.
Then she felt it. The terrifying feeling of a fingertip being dragged down the curve of her cheek and down her throat. Her breathing stopped and the rush of cold blood through her veins caused her to freeze for a moment.
“No! Don’t touch me!” The words burst from her as her body started to thrash, trying to defy the bonds that held her secure.
She wrenched her arms uselessly, but the shadow only laughed at her.
“Shh,” he purred malevolently in her ear, her struggles completely ineffective as she continued to try and strike out at her abductor. “There’s no point in fighting, princess. You’re not going anywhere for a while.”
“Who are you?” she cried, terrified. She hated to admit it, but she realized that over the years, her father’s orders that she be guarded at all times had actually kept her safe.
It was too late now, but she quickly made a promise to herself that if she got out of this alive, she would never take her security detail for granted again – and she’d stop being such a bitch to them too.
Why hadn’t she let Ari take her to her car last night?! Why did she always have to over-react? So what if he hadn’t wanted to share his whole life with her immediately. Did she really have the right to ask him to?
She tried to blink and look around. It was then that Celina recognized she was blindfolded also.
“What do you want?” she demanded, trying to sound braver than she actually felt.
“Let me go! Do you know who my father is? He will kill you!”
She cringed inwardly as she heard herself use the ‘daddy’ card. She never thought she’d actually appreciate the brutal reputation he had garnered in order to instill fear in everyone around them.
The cruel laughter came from her left side, the man having moved silently around the back of her. Or maybe there was more than one man? The thought caused her to shiver anew.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she demanded.
The laughter stopped and the silence terrified her more than the sound of the unknown man rasping in her ear.
Oh my God, she thought as she felt a cold, rough hand against the upper swell of her breast. She jerked her body to the side to get away from the creepy touch. A wave of dizziness hit her at she continued to struggle against her bonds.
Her hands were firmly tied behind her back and as her mind slowly registered the danger she was in, she noted her feet were also bound to a simple metal chair.
Celina wondered if she had a concussion.
You have more serious things to worry about than a concussion, she yelled at herself.
She wondered where her surveillance was now.
They’re probably right where you left them, she reminded herself, furious at the way she had behaved.
She remembered the Uber drive back to her car in the restaurant parking lot.
I got out of the Uber and walked over to my car…
That was where her memory went blank.
Had the driver assaulted and kidnapped her? Had someone else taken her?
None of it made sense, least of all what she was doing in this large stale room that smelled of rats and diesel fuel. She could only assume she was in an abandoned warehouse of sorts.
Wait a sec…is this one of Papa’s places?
A new feeling of confusion started to take over the terror. A slow, sick realization that she recognized the hellhole in which she sat.
If this is one of Papa’s places, then he must know I’m here…no wait, that doesn’t make any sense.
She tried to make her brain work properly, but whatever her captor had given her to keep her unconscious was weighing on her brain heavily.
Marc…only Marc, the Chef from her father’s restaurant, would do something so stupid…
Suddenly her mind flittered back to the previous year when “someone” had leaked naked photos of her online.
Her father had been furious, demanding answers from her, but Celina had been just as shocked as him.
She had tried to explain to her father that the pictures were at least five years old and done in a moment of youthful indiscretion, but he was hearing none of it, and for months, Giovanni refused to talk to her. Celina knew that most teenagers thought they were impervious to repercussions. The old “it’ll never happen to me” was like Celina’s calling card back then. She had grown up fast the day the photos came out online.
There were few things worse than her father’s silence though. Celina waited and waited for the explosion from him, the threat to throw her out, disown her. She deserved it, really. She had brought shame to the family, and in her world, there weren’t very many sins that were worse than that. But maybe because he was just as embarrassed as she was, Giovanni never mentioned the incident again.
But Celina never forgot. Or forgave.
It had taken some time, but she learned who had leaked the pictures; Marc. The high school friend who had chased her relentlessly for about six months and who had also been at the party that night when a bunch of them had all gone skinny dipping.
Celina hadn’t known he had been filming her or her friends, but it didn’t take too long to connect the dots, especially when she offered a good chunk of money to anyone who had proof of the posting.
It had cost her ten thousand dollars, but everyone knew a friend would turn on another friend for enough money – at least in Celina’s world. And Jordan had needed cash quickly to deal with a “problem” of his own.
He had traded her the cash for Marc’s phone. The one that still had the original unedited version of the video from that night.
She had bided her time, waiting for a night when she knew he would be alone in the restaurant before stripping off her clothes in the office and setting the scene for his downfall. She knew that Marc would need to come into the office before he locked up for the night to shut down the computer system in there, so she arranged herself, naked, with her front pressed against the cold plank wall. Her hands were “locked” into a pair of fake handcuffs at her back, and her face was turned to the side, away from the security camera in the opposite corner of the room.
“Woah, what the fuck! Celina?” he breathed when he came into the office. She looked at him over her shoulder, smiling alluringly.
“I’ve been waiting for you forever, Marc,” she whined pathetically. “I need you so bad right now.” She almost gagged as she forced the disgusting words from her mouth. She felt a shiver work through her as she felt his eyes fix on her exposed rear. It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before, girl, so suck it up and get this done. He won’t see anything else anyways.
“Celina, what are you doing?” he choked out.
“What? I thought you liked me, Marc,” she purred alluringly. “Remember when you followed me everywhere in high school? Even into the girls change room before gym class.” She gave her butt a little wiggle.
“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he squeaked.
“Oh,” she sighed. “I think you do. Sarah Coffrey said she saw you spying on me.”
He shook his head, visibly swallowing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him adjust his growing hard on.
“Look, whatever you heard – “
“Don’t worry, Marc, I’m not mad. It’s just that…well, I’m kind of embarrassed, but…I could really use your help.” She paused again, waiting for him to take the bait.
“Yes! Of course, anything you need!” he stepped toward her.
“Well… you know how you have a kink? Watching naked girls, I mean?” she rushed on before he had the chance to deny it. “Well I have a kink too…I like – “ she stopped dramatically.
“What?! What do…like?”
“Do you see that paddle on my Daddy’s desk, Marc? I want you to…come over here and…” she had to force the words out before she hurled “spank me with it. Once. Just once.” Because if you wind up to do it again, I’m going to kick your balls so far up your peeping Tom throat, you’ll be able to suck them yourself. Damn, this had better be worth it!
“Yeah, yeah, of course I can do that for you, Celina!”
Again, she glanced at him over her shoulder and saw him reach for the phone in his pocket. The little fucker!
“If you take out your phone, Marc, I’ll kill you,” she said pleasantly.
He froze as her soft words sunk in and shoved the phone back into his pocket. “I wasn’t taking out my phone! I was just…adjusting myself,” he lied.
He grabbed the paddle and walked up to her, his breathing heavy in her ear. “I always knew you wanted me. I knew you were just trying to tease me when you kept saying no.” He squeezed her ass hard as he spoke, making a squeak escape from her unexpectedly. Don’t kill him! she warned herself. Not yet, anyways.
Before she could draw a breath to rail at him, he wound up and smacked her ass. Hard. Air she didn’t think she had in her whooshed out harshly as her whole body stiffened.
She paused to the count of three, making sure she had enough data to use. Then she unclenched her fists and slipped her hands out of the cuffs. Without turning her body, she grabbed the trenchcoat that hung on the hook a couple feet to her left, and swung it over her shoulders, slipping her arms inside and belting it quickly before she turned to Marc.
He looked confused, as if she had pulled his favorite toy away from him for no reason.
“Wait! What are you doing? Where are you going?”
“I’m finished, Marc. Thanks for your help. I’ll be sure to give you credit for the video.” She turned to grab her purse and slip on her shoes.
“I don’t understand! Aren’t we – going to…” he looked about, as if his playroom had suddenly disappeared.
“Marc, do you remember that video you took at Lina’s house party?
“No! I – “
“Oh, don’t bother denying it,” she said, rolling her eyes.
She sighed and stopped in front of him.
“How much did they pay you?” she demanded. He shook his head and shifted his eyes downward as if trying to bury his gaze inside his hipster beard.
“Celina, I’m sorry! I swear to – “
“Do you know why I’m standing here naked right now?” she demanded, her voice like a whiplash. “Do you think I like being looked at by a slimy, sick pervert who has no issue snapping naked pictures of barely legal girls and selling them to an internet tabloid?” Her voice was rising in pitch as she finally confronted the guy who had humiliated her and her family. “I’ll tell you why I’m here, Marc,” she got herself under control as she delivered her retribution.
“I’m here because I have access to the off-site security tapes for this place.” She paused, letting the information sink in. “And right now, the tape that’s recording me and you in this room, it’s going to find it’s way into my hands. And from there…who knows where a copy of it’s going to show up? Like the forty-five seconds of the recording where my hands are cuffed and you’re smacking me? Well, that could very well end up in my father’s in-box. Anonymously, of course.”
“Do you know what that means, Marc?”
She didn’t have to explain it to him. The translucency in his skin told her he understood just fine.
“Now, I want you to tell me how much you got paid for those pictures,” she snarled.
“Ten grand,” he choked.
“Well I hope you still have it,” she sighed. “You’re going to use it to pay off Samantha Clover’s student loan.”
He gaped at her in shock.
“I – what – I don’t have it!”
“You better get it,” she replied smoothly. “Because you ruined a perfectly good girl’s reputation and home life with those pictures. The least you can do is try to make it right.”
He gaped at her.
“But…I can’t…” he blustered, then caught the narrowed look in her eye. “Fine! Fine! I’ll fuckin’ do it. But what about you?” he demanded. “What are you going to do with the tape if I pay off her loans?”
“I’m going to hold onto this evening’s tape so that your gut clenches every time you see my face – just like mine did whenever I had to look at your face, ever since I got proof of what you did. That’s good enough for me. Oh and Marc, don’t even think about quitting. My father’s men could find you anywhere you go, if he tells them to.”
****
No way. There’s no way that even Marc is this fucking stupid, she thought, shaking her head and continuing to try to wrench her arms free.
In reality, Marc was nothing but an opportunist. He wasn’t a criminal. He didn’t work for her father in that capacity at all, and she didn’t think he had it in him to try to make her “disappear”.
So, who was in the room with her? Whoever it was, was playing for keeps because everyone knew that her father would tear anyone limb from limb if they dared to lay a finger on his only child.
You’re Giovanni DiMarco’s daughter. You’re in one of his warehouses. Whoever has you here means to kill you, there is no doubt. So, smarten up and save yourself! After all, you’re the one who did this guy a favor and evaded your own security detail. But if I’m in my father’s warehouse, that has to mean that whoever took me, must work for my father. But who would do that?! Everyone tried to curry favor with him, not put a bull’s eye on their own back…
Abruptly, a memory came flooding back to her of the altercation at her car in the parking lot after the Uber driver had driven away.
It had been an exchange she’d had with her kidnapper while she fought against the drug he had injected into her neck.
He grabbed me at my car. He pricked me with the drug and dragged me back to his car…
“Now you’re going to get what you deserve, you little slut. Did you think no one would find out you’re spreading your legs for that outsider?” he spat.
No. No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t dare…
But as the sound of the rasping voice filled her mind as if he was there with her again, Celina couldn’t deny the truth which was staring her in the face.
And he called you princess. That dumb fucker! Is he on a suicide mission?
Fear seized her belly as Celina knew that there would be no placating, reasoning or threatening Alex.
He was obviously unbalanced.
Finding out she had gotten away from him and spent the night at Ari’s had pushed him over the edge. It had meant that Ari had won – not only the promotion, but the girl too.
She realized with a sinking heart that the only way that she would make it out of this alive would be if someone found her first – before Alex killed her.
I fucked up things so badly with Ariano that he doesn’t even know I’m missing. He thinks I’m just avoiding him, being my usual pouting self, just to teach him a lesson. He’s probably glad he doesn’t have to deal with me right now.
A strangled sob escaped her throat.
For someone who had rarely been by herself, Celina had been alone for most of her life, overlooked, underestimated, undervalued.
But never had she felt so lonely or terrified.
This is how it all ends, she thought mournfully. Not with a bang but with a whimper. She steeled herself as she felt Alex’s rough hand grasp her breast and squeeze painfully, his triumphant laugh echoing through her mind as she tried to draw into herself.