But a lot has changed since I hopped on that plane to Barcelona with my friends. I’m no longer the same apathetic, superficial pseudo-southern belle I was then. Without access to my phone, my money, my social media accounts, all the tenets that supported my reign of power as an alpha popular girl in high school, I have had to come to terms with who I really am underneath all of that.
I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the girl behind the mask. And I’m not one hundred percent sure the mask is totally off just yet. I may be walking a new walk and talking a new talk but deep down, I still feel like I’m hiding myself. I suppose that’s only natural, considering the fact that anyone should keep their guard up in such a sticky situation. I mean, I am literally surrounded by murderous men in the middle of a foreign country. I’m pretty much lying in a pit of snakes right now, and if I make one wrong move, I will undoubtedly get bitten. But Darios has certainly done his part to make me feel just a little bit safer. Having him on my side is one way to keep the other guys off my back. After what happened to the guard who tried to assault me, every other guy seems to give me a fairly wide berth. None of them want to meet the same dark fate.
I shiver to myself, closing my eyes to block out the memory of the guard falling through the open window, the sick crunch of his massive body hitting the ground below. It’s still difficult to come to terms with the fact that Darios, the man whose arms encircle me and ravish me, is also a cold-blooded killer.
But then, I suppose, at least I can comfort myself with the fact that he killed for me.
Darios is resting so calmly that I can almost kid myself into ignoring his darker side. When he’s asleep beside me he could almost be just any regular handsome man, exhausted after hours of passionate lovemaking. But the battle scars marking the length of his body help to shatter this illusion. He didn’t get these scars from playing football or roughhousing with the boys. His body is a road map of every dark destination he’s visited, every drop of blood he’s spilled, every life he has brutally, expertly extinguished.
I swallow back a lump in my throat and survey the elegant, yet masculine cut of his strong jaw, peppered with dark stubble. My eyes follow upward to his ruddy cheeks and thick black brows, his gently hooked nose and sensual, full lips. His black hair is grown out quite a bit longer than the typical wholesome frat boy hair I’m used to seeing back in Savannah. I’ve grown up around neat military crops and trimmed-down crew cuts, men with smooth faces and easy, disarming smiles. Every attractive guy I knew growing up was essentially the same prototype with only a few miniscule discrepancies to set each separate model apart.
But Darios is different in every conceivable way. Nothing about him is dull or expected. He surprises me at every turn, and for once I don’t have the upper hand. He knows just how to control me, how to mold me into whatever shape he wants — and I let him, because every time he touches me I am reduced to a puddle of obedient desire. Despite the innocent, wilting flower I put on around boys, I have never actually considered myself a very submissive or passive person. In fact, I usually like to be the one holding the reins. It’s safer that way. Easier.
And now look at me. I’m putty in this man’s hands. He has captivated me and intoxicated me, and in such a short time I have become painfully addicted to his attentions. I crave his touch and thirst for his voice. I dream of him when I sleep and I daydream about him when I’m awake. When he’s thrusting inside of me, splitting me in two, I feel whole for the first time in my life. Like I’ve spent all my eighteen years just waiting for someone like Darios to burst in and change my life. Like I’ve been walking this earth in a sort of dazed dream all this time. And now I’ve stepped through a door into another world, a different reality in which I am no longer the same version of myself.
The Delaney Underwood who inhabits my body now is not the one who came to Europe some time ago. I’ve changed, and I owe it all to Darios. For better or for worse.
But part of me longs for some feeling of familiarity, some connection to my past. Sometimes I feel like I’m fumbling for footholds that I can’t find, treading water endlessly in search of the shore. I know what I need. I have to talk to my friends. I need to remind myself that there’s another world out there, outside this sinful bed I share with Darios.
And I need him to let me see them.
So I gingerly reach out and lay my hand on his chest, whispering, “Darios.”
His eyes open slowly and he turns to look at me, immediately making my heart beat faster.
“Yes,” he murmurs, covering my hand with one of his.
“I have something to ask you,” I continue nervously. “I-I am worried about my friends. I just want to see them and make sure they’re okay. Please.”
Darios narrows his eyes at me suspiciously for a moment and I worry that he will be angry, but then he simply nods. “Of course. You have agreed to stay with me, and I will hold you to that vow. Your friends are in the basement panic room. Tomorrow morning, Lyssa will be ransomed back to her parents, but tonight you may stay with them if you like.”
I sit up and lean over to kiss him on the cheek gratefully. “Thank you,” I mumble.
“The guards should give you leave to do so. If they give you any trouble, call for me and I will… set them straight,” Darios assures me.
I crawl out of his bed and pull on the oversized men’s button-down shirt he’s lending me, then give him one more appreciative smile before I head out down the stairs. Brushing my hair back behind my ears as I descend to the basement, I nod curtly at the two guards stationed near the entryway. To my pleasant surprise, they both stand aside for me to come through without a word. Being Darios’s little mistress — or whatever I am — certainly has its perks.
“Darios has given me permission to see my friends,” I tell the guard at the door. He unlocks the door and opens it to let me in. I step through into the dimly lit, dank little cellar and immediately Lyssa and Caitlin come running to me, throwing their arms around me.
“You’re okay!” Lyssa exclaims.
“We were so worried,” Caitlin cries, hugging me tightly.
“I’m fine,” I reassure them, feeling an overwhelming surge of fondness for my friends. Seeing their familiar, albeit pale and horrified, faces is such a comfort. Neither of them look very good, which is to be expected considering our situation, but at least they’re alive.
“Where have you been? I overheard one of the guards mention a while back that Megan went home with her family, but I didn’t know what happened to you,” Caitlin says, fidgeting anxiously.
“I was hoping maybe you got to go home, too,” Lyssa adds with a shrug.
I sigh sadly. “No, I’ve been here the whole time. Have they been keeping you in the same place together all along?”
The girls shake their heads. “Nope. For a long time we were in separate rooms. It was so lonely and scary… I thought I was going crazy,” Lyssa remarks with a visible shudder. Suddenly, I am reminded of the guy who attempted to sexually assault me and my blood runs cold.
“Wait — has anyone tried to hurt you? Either of you? There was one man who tried to hurt me but Darios, he saved me. If anyone has laid a finger on you, I will make them pay,” I burst out. Lyssa hugs me again.
“No, no. I’ve just been quiet and keeping to myself. Nobody gave me any trouble,” she says.
Caitlin looks a little troubled, though. “Well, there was one guy who tried to… touch me. But I spat in his face and he left me alone.”
My mouth falls open and I take her hand instinctively. “Caitlin! You could’ve gotten killed! These guys — they’re dangerous. They won’t bat an eye at the thought of hurting you.”
She shrugs. “For a while there I didn’t care what happened to me. I was — I was so depressed I almost wanted one of them to hurt me. Just to have something happen. But ever since that big fight, I’ve been down here with Lyssa. I feel a lot better now that I’m not all alone up there.”
My heart sink
s. “Well, I have both good news and bad news,” I begin, biting my lip. The girls both look at me expectantly. I go on. “Lyssa, you’re going home tomorrow. Your mom has the ransom money. But Caitlin… that means you’re going to be alone again.”
I can see both happiness and pain etched in both of their pretty faces. Caitlin turns to Lyssa and hugs her, saying, “I don’t care. I’m just happy you get to go home. Besides, I won’t be alone now that you’re here.” She looks at me hopefully.
I don’t have the heart to tell her that Darios probably won’t let me stay with her the whole time, but I can’t break her spirits any further. Not right now. “You’re right. I will stay with you as much as I can. This is a good thing, girls. Lyssa is going home! And can I just say, I am so, so happy to see you guys again. I missed you more than you know.”
And it’s true. I have longed for the companionship of my friends for so long, and now that we are reunited, however briefly, I want to make the most of it. So the three of us flop down on the pile of moth-eaten cushions on the floor and start catching up. We talk about our time here, Caitlin and Lyssa explaining how lonely they’ve been, how scared, and even how bored. After some prodding, I reluctantly tell them about my growing involvement with Darios. I explain how he saved my life, how I finally gave up my virginity to him.
I tell them about how I’m starting to fall for him, and they share their concerns at first, but once I explain more about my dynamic with him and everything he’s done for me, they come around. But I notice Caitlin being cagey and quiet, which is very out of character for the girl who always has something to say.
“Hey, Cait. What’s going on?” I ask, and she gives me a dodgy, teary-eyed look.
“Yeah, what’s up, honey?” Lyssa adds, patting her arm sweetly.
Caitlin stares at the floor for several seconds, as though trying to build up the courage to say what’s on her mind. Then she suddenly looks up and says, “Delaney, I-I have to admit something. It’s awful. And I will totally understand if you hate me—”
“What is it?” I interrupt, confused.
She rolls her eyes up to the ceiling and takes a long, deep breath before going on. She looks me right in the eyes and confesses tearfully, “I can’t stand it anymore. I hate keeping secrets from you. You’re my best friend and you need to know. I… I slept with Brandon.”
There’s a thick, heavy silence. Lyssa looks back and forth between us in horror, as though she’s expecting me to fall back into my former ice queen persona and slap Caitlin across the face. I have to admit that there was a time I would have done exactly that. The old Delaney would have made it her sole mission to punish Caitlin for such an awful betrayal. My heart hammers in my chest for a moment as it dawns on me that I now understand why Brandon answered my call to him on her phone in that strange manner. They were sleeping together behind my back. The whole time he was pestering me to sleep with him, threatening to find some other girl to sleep with if I wouldn’t, he was already cheating on me with my best friend.
But despite this betrayal, I can’t even find the energy to be angry. I’m a little hurt, of course, but I’m realizing that as bizarre as it is, I am actually a little relieved. I have a perfectly good reason to ignore him, to cut him out of my life as I have wanted to do for so long. I am absolved of guilt.
“Please, please forgive me,” Caitlin begs, clasping her hands together as a tear rolls down her cheek. I can’t remember the last time I saw her cry. She’s a tough girl. So it’s all the more moving that she is so broken up about this.
“Cait, I honestly can’t even be upset. I never loved him anyway. And yeah, this does hurt a little bit because you’re my best friend. But in the end, he’s just some stupid boy. I never want something like this to come between us. If I’ve learned anything from this whole crazy predicament we’re stuck in, it’s that I have way bigger things to worry about than guys like Brandon. He’s not important. But our friendship… now, that is important,” I tell her.
“I’m so sorry, Laney. It was so stupid, he came to me because he wanted to make you jealous and I just did it because I was jealous. You know, I was the most popular girl in school until you came along and I guess there was always a part of me that resented that. I was bitter. I was such an idiot. I can’t believe I would be so stupid,” Caitlin sobs.
“It’s okay. We’ve all done things to hurt each other in the past. Petty, stupid things that don’t matter anymore. We’re better than this,” I assure her, leaning over to hug her close. Lyssa joins in, wrapping her arms around us.
“I love you guys, and I swear we’re gonna make it out of this alive. And I promise that once we do, things will be different. I don’t want to ever feel like I have to compete with my best friends. Nothing but love from here on out, okay?” I remark.
“Agreed,” Caitlin mumbles, wiping her eyes.
“I love y’all so much,” Lyssa says genuinely.
We spend the next few hours chatting about the old days, even laughing about the stupid things we did and the superficial lives we led back home. It’s crazy to think about how much has changed in such a short amount of time. Halfway through the night, a guard comes to tell me that it’s time to go, but I shake my head.
“No. You know what? I’ve been separated from my friends long enough. I’m going to stay here with them tonight. Darios told me not to let anyone stand in my way. I-I have free reign of the villa,” I tell him firmly. Caitlin grabs at my hand anxiously, squeezing it as though trying to warn me to be more careful about how I talk to him. But I won’t let this guy see my fear.
The guard stares at me for a long moment, sizing me up. I can tell he is not accustomed to girls talking back to him. But my mention of Darios seems to seal the deal, since he finally gives me a nod and replies, “Very well, then.”
He closes the door, leaving me to pile onto the mishmash of pillows with my friends for the night, all three of us exhausted. We whisper amongst ourselves like we’re fourteen years old and cuddled up at a sleepover together, just like old times, until finally we all drift off to sleep.
However, I am jostled awake an hour or so later by the sound of someone turning the door handle and pushing inside. I sit up, blinking in the darkness, trying to determine who the hell could be coming into the cellar at this hour. Something puts me on edge, my heart racing in my chest.
“Who is it? Who are you?” I hiss through the pitch black silence.
Heavy footsteps plod into the room and I seize up, anxiously awaiting the reply.
16
Delaney
I stand up cautiously, squinting in the direction of the door. By now my two friends, both of whom are fairly heavy sleepers, are waking up. Lyssa mumbles sleepily, “What is it?”
“What are you doing?” Caitlin yawns.
“Someone is coming in,” I say softly. “Stay back.”
As the door opens further, there’s just enough grayish light filtering through to cast the intruder in a wide, hulking silhouette. For a moment I dare to hope that it’s just Darios coming to collect me and bring me to bed, but when the figure speaks, my heart sinks.
“The two of you go back to sleep. I have come under direct orders to retrieve Caitlin Thomas from the cellar. It’s time to go,” he says gruffly, with a heavy accent. It definitely isn’t Darios, and something about him puts me on edge. I don’t trust that he’s working for Darios.
“Wait, what?” Caitlin says, standing up next to me and linking her arm with mine.
“You heard me,” the man responds, taking several steps forward. I push Caitlin back behind me and Lyssa gets up to help me guard her from this strange man.
“No one is taking my friend anywhere without an explanation,” I declare, fear and fury roiling inside of me. I’m terrified that this man is here to hurt us, to attack Caitlin the way that guard assaulted me. But this time, Darios is nowhere to be found, so who will save us?
“I do not have to explain myself to spoiled little American gir
ls like you. This matter does not concern you. Back off. I will resort to brute force if necessary, dzukna,” he snarls.
Lyssa retreats, clearly taking the guy at his word. But I plant my feet more firmly and shake my head, holding my arms outstretched. “No. Tell me what’s going on. If you lay a finger on me, you’ll have Darios to reckon with, and I don’t think you want that,” I counter sharply.
The man stops short, glowering down at me. My eyes have adjusted as best they can to the low light and I can now make out the craggy face of a slightly older man. I can see the outline of a crooked nose and beady black eyes. He’s as intimidating physically as he is verbally, and I have to fight the urge to shrink away into the shadows.
“You are insolent. I pray that someday you are put back in your place,” he says darkly. “If you must know, I am here to take Miss Thomas back to her family.”
“What?” gasps Caitlin, emerging from behind me. “B-But my dad… he lost his job. My parents are almost broke. Th-they don’t have the kind of money to buy me back.”
“Oh my god, Cait,” Lyssa breaks in, confused, but she’d just confirmed my suspicions. More than that, it explained so much, like why she so easily fell into bed with Brandon. She’s been struggling with a huge secret, and it’s made her act out in uncharacteristic ways. It breaks my heart to think that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing her troubles with us. We shouldn’t have to hide things from each other. I make a silent vow to be a better friend from now on.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask, giving my friend a worried look.
Hitman - the Series: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance Collection (Alexis Abbott's Hitmen #0) Page 87
