by Bella King
I could kill him right now, stabbing his lungs out in front of a horrified audience of innocent Italians, but that wouldn’t do much for my status on the force. My body would probably never be found, and they would assume I was dead long before Caleb was murdered in Italy.
The thing was, agreeing to his plan was the only way to buy me enough time to inform the police back in the States of my operation. I was a rogue officer now, but my duties remained. I would agree to marry Caleb, but only as a guise to my true intentions. By the end of this, he, not just his empire, would be my biggest bust.
I sighed, looking him straight in his ice-blue eyes. “Alright, Caleb. I’ll do it, but I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
“They always say that,” Caleb said, leaning back in his seat and letting out a satisfied chuckled while shaking his head.
Chapter 7
Sometimes, you’re not given a choice.
I excused myself to the restroom, but I didn’t try to escape as I had originally thought to. Caleb was shockingly open with me about his plan, but there was always more to it than what he said. There had to be more to it.
I had my head held high on the walk to the restroom, but the minute I got inside, I let myself fall into a state of panic. This was like a bad dream that I couldn’t pinch myself awake from. I tried, taking a large piece of flesh on my arm and squeezing it tight enough to cause bruising, but it didn’t wake me. How could it, when this was my new reality?
I rushed into a stall and closed the door, locking myself inside. I suppose running wasn’t an option. If Caleb had been watching me all this time before he had kidnapped me, then why would he stop now? Was there a camera tucked away in each stall, spying on me while I peed?
I looked around, but the place looked normal, like he had really brought me to a regular restaurant in the heart of Italy for a cute little lunch date and a glass of wine so that we could chat about marriage. I was frustrated that this was so made to look so perfect and innocent. It was anything but.
Still, I had to pee from the copious amounts of water I had gulped down before and during lunch, so I lifted my dress and sat down on the nicely maintained toilet seat.
The funny thing was, I had always wanted to travel to Italy. It had been a dream of mine when I was younger, following me into adulthood and causing me to save up the meager paycheck I received from the police force to go one day. I never thought it would happen like this.
Caleb must have known about this. He was too good, too rich, and too clever not to have an entire database on me. If he intended to marry me, then he had probably done a hell of a lot of research to decide that I was the right one. It was funny how wrong he was. That was unfortunate for me, though, because now I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. There was no getting out of this without some battle scars. I may not even be alive by the end of it all.
I finished up what I was doing and left the stall, looking at myself in the mirror as I stood in the bathroom wearing a fancy white dress. I hadn’t been able to get a good look at myself since I had been snatched up and flown across the planet.
I seemed alright. I leaned in, examining my eyes for any sign of unusual dilation that can be caused by head trauma or drug use. There wasn’t anything concerning about my eyes, except that they were a little pinker than usual. I wasn’t surprised after all that I had been through, though.
I washed my hands, giving myself the routine sniff under my arms check like I always did in the bathroom. Bad news. I smelled terrible. Well, I thought to myself humorously, if I was going to be married, I should probably smell nice. I was sure that Caleb had a shower wherever we were staying. He had mentioned a house here in Italy, but I couldn’t be certain that’s where we were going.
I took a deep breath and walked out of the restroom, feeling a little better than before, but sorely in need of a freshening up. I voiced my concerns to Caleb when I came back to the table.
He was paying the bill, laying several Italian bills on the table under a small paperweight they provided. “Of course,” he replied, “We’re heading back to my home, and I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of. Of course, I’d like someone from you as well.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Don’t look so shocked, Kalila. You’re going to be my wife after all. Let’s start with a massage, shall we?”
I quickly agreed. I thought he was going to try to have sex with me. There was no way in hell I was spreading my legs for Caleb, no matter how handsome and nice he was to me. I couldn’t forget that he was a dangerous mafia boss who had stolen me from my home and brought me to the middle of nowhere.
A massage, though, was fine. I needed one myself. Maybe we could take turns.
Chapter 8
Time is an illusion created by kings and followed by slaves.
The ride home was considerably quicker than the ride to the restaurant. I slouched in my seat, feeling a bit sleepy after all the food and wine I had consumed. I could use a quick nap, even after having been passed out for as long as I was. I didn’t even know what day it was.
Caleb had the windows down, enjoying the fresh heat of summer air as it billowed through the car. I felt like we were on a road trip through the countryside. I was even tempted to put my feet up on the dash, but I felt like that would be too comfortable. I couldn’t let myself get sucked into Caleb’s madness.
“What day is it?” I finally asked, raising my voice to battle the wind.
“I have no idea,” Caleb shouted, a goofy smile on his face. “And quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck.”
That confirmed it. He really was insane. I had agreed to marry an insane man just to make a bust. Perhaps I was as crazy as he was. Fuck, maybe that meant that he did know me better than I thought. Maybe I was the perfect fit for him.
I shook my head, looking back ahead at the winding road in front of us. It wasn’t well maintained, light grey from the scorching sun, crumbling on the sides with the occasional pothole. Caleb would fly over them like they didn’t exist, and with how fast he was going, we never sunk into one. It was like walking on water.
It wasn’t long before we turned down a considerably nicer road that led to his house. It was black, almost so fresh that it was wet, and the car rolled down it so smoothly that I felt like we were gliding across ice, not tar.
The car rolled up to a black gate, and it was then that I realized I had missed my chance to escape. Caleb seemed to have given me so many, but once we rolled through those gates, I could be able to turn back. Even now, I was locked into the deal I had made with him.
Caleb leaned out the open window and punched a few numbers on the keypad. A voice answered over the intercom, and Caleb recited another group of numbers that were too long for me to remember. The gate then opened, sliding to the right until there was enough room for him to continue driving through to the house.
The sun was beginning its journey down toward the horizon, but it was still bright enough to see around the property as we drove up to the house. There were gardens around, as Caleb had mentioned, and not just one of them. Every few hundred feet there was a change in the plants along the road, and I spotted a whole orchid of orange trees in the distance on the right side of the road. The place had a huge yard, impressive to someone who couldn’t even afford brand name food.
I marveled at all the sights until we rolled up to the house and Caleb stopped the car. He parked it under a terrace, like the ones at hotels, turning off the car and helping me out of the passenger’s seat politely. It was a lot more difficult for me to get out after having eaten so much. I accepted his help graciously.
“I bought this place from an older gentleman who had used it as a party house. He had a lot of fun in it up until the Viagra stopped working. Now, he’s in a retirement home, but I hear this place is still packed with all sorts of fun rooms. I haven’t explored them all though,” Caleb said as we walked up the porch.
“If there are that many rooms, I’m
sure we can each have our own,” I suggested.
Caleb laughed. “You’re funny, Kalila, but not the only woman I’ve had to convince to spread her legs for me. It won’t be difficult.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, but now my fate was in his hands. I was lucky to be alive at this point, so I continued to count my blessings as they came. At least he seemed intent on seducing me as opposed to making me do something I didn’t want to. He had seemed to give me choices this whole time, but I didn’t want to think of it like that. He was a crook, an evil man, and a psychopath. I couldn’t forget that.
The house was stunning, and that was even before we entered the hallway. I was amazed by the amount of crystal packed into such a small area. There was a crystal chandelier, crystal candle holders, crystal classes, and impressive crystal statues of naked women arranged around the room.
“Shoes in the closet, please,” Caleb said, handing me his black leather shoes with red interiors and pointing to a small door on the opposite side of the hall.
I took them, removing my own when I got the door. I opened it and found that it was a short, walk-in closet with wall to wall shaves of shoes. I placed our shoes on an empty shelf near the top and walked out, closing the door softly behind me.
Caleb was nowhere to be found. I looked around, seeing an open door at the end of the hall. I guess he expected me to find my own way around the house. I walked to the door and opened it.
“Boo,” Caleb yelled, jumping out from beside me when I walked into the room.
My heart leaped so high up in my throat that I thought it would fall out of my mouth and onto the floor at my feet. “Jesus fucking Christ, Caleb,” I gasped, clutching my chest with one hand and steadying myself with the other against the doorframe.
“I thought that would help to wake you up. You seem tired,” Caleb said, turned back to his calm and collected self in an instant.
“Well, yes, but I think a nap would be better,” I said.
“Alright then, I’ll show you where the master bedroom is. I have a wardrobe, soaps, perfume, everything you need there. Follow me,” he said, waving a hand.
His energy levels were like those of a cocaine addict. Come to think of it, he might very well be one. I heard that rich men loved to sniff the white stuff. I dealt with a lot of crackheads on the job, but never the rich ones. I wondered if he did consume anything to keep that spark in him, or if it was just a result of his natural extraverted tendencies.
Caleb motioned for me to follow him, leading me through the living room that we were in, down a hall and up two flights of stairs into another hallway. At the end of it, there was a black door, large and unlike the rest in the house.
“This is the master bedroom. Make yourself comfortable. If you need a nap, do so, but I will return to wake you in three hours,” Caleb said, opening the door for me.
I walked in. The room was huge, with a grand bed against the wall that was much larger than a king-size. Every room in the house amazed me, but this one was especially invigorating. Everywhere I looked, there was some kind of tasteful exotic decoration. Furs, entire reconstructed animal skeletons, and what looked like a human skull occupied the room.
Caleb closed the door behind me, leaving me alone. I heard a key turn, and his footsteps walking away. I guess I was locked in, but that mattered little to me. I knew that I wasn’t going to escape while on his property. He had too many safeguards against that.
Instead, I wanted to enjoy myself and gain some peace now that I was left alone. There would be no hurry to contact the police department back in the United States because they probably assumed that I was dead already, like all the other officers before me. Messing with the mafia was a bad move, and I was probably the only one that had survived more than a few minutes in the hands of Caleb and his thugs.
The bed was calling to me, urging me to remove my clothes and dive in, but I needed to get clean first. I smelled like days’ worth of sweat and grime, and my hair felt greasy and uncomfortable against my scalp.
I spotted a door to the bathroom, swinging it open and stepping inside. The bathroom sparkled like it was made of precious gemstones. The walls were a pearlescent white, and the floor was lined with golden tiles. I wondered if they were real gold. They certainly looked like it.
I looked around for spy cameras, still paranoid that Caleb had been watching me for so long before. He had little reason to spy on me now. He could make me do anything he wanted, but I wanted to double-check just to be sure. I wasn’t comfortable with being kidnapped, as any normal woman would be.
Satisfied that I was unseen, I pulled down my dress, stepping out before yanking my panties down and kicking them into the corner of the room. The dress was still basically brand new, but those panties had to go.
The sink counter had body gels and scrubs lined up on it, scented with vanilla and apples, two of my favorite smells. It figured that he would know that too. I picked one up and read the ingredients. It had none of the harsh chemicals that I was allergic to. Caleb was too good at this.
I brought a few of these gifts into the shower, which could have easily fit an entire crowd of people inside. It probably had at some point, which wasn’t something I wanted to think about. The story about the horny old man was gross enough for me. I didn’t want to know what went on in the master bedroom.
I turned on the water and began adjusting the water for warmth. It prayed from multiple showerheads on the ceiling, directed at all sides of my body. It was the finest shower I had ever been in, and once I got it to a comfortable temperature, I found myself not wanted to get out.
After almost ten minutes of soaking in the steaming hot water, I finally grabbed one of the shower gels and began lathering up my body with it. I checked myself for any unusual marks or puncture wounds that could be present but didn’t find any. I didn’t remember how I had been knocked out, but I suspected there was some drug involved.
I was terrified of needles, so finding no marks in my ass was relieving. Maybe I would just Caleb about it. He seemed to be open enough to tell me what was going on, even if he did make me wait until he finished eating to explain everything.
I rinsed the suds from my body quickly with how much water was streaming out of the showerheads, and then moved to my scalp, which needed a good scrubbing. I always heard that you should only shampoo and scrub your scalp, doing the opposite with conditioner. In this case, I was shampooing all of my hair, even the ends, because I was just that filthy.
I didn’t know how they flew me here, but it must have been in a dirty cargo area, because my hair was so nasty that the water was brown when I finally rinsed out the shampoo. I watched the brown suds circle down the drain, then switched to the conditioner.
After rinsing up, I felt worlds better than I had in the car. I was still sleepy though, so a proper nap was in order. I grabbed a towel from the heated rack outside the shower, wrapping it around myself. I then took another one for my hair, making a turban with it and stepping out onto the plush rug in the bathroom.
I scrunched up my toes on the rug. It was a white one, thicker and more absorbent than any you could get in a regular store. I wondered what it was made of. I stepped off it onto the cold tiles, leaving the bathroom and the clothes on the floor behind. I didn’t need to be neat if I was a prisoner. Small rebellions were the only thing keeping me sane.
The bed called to me. It looked so soft that I could dive in and drown, but I needed to wear something for when Caleb came to wake me. I didn’t want to be naked in his presence.
I walked over to another door, which I assumed was a closet, and opened it. I was right. The closet was so deep that I couldn’t see the end of it, lined with lingerie and elegant dresses, even nicer than the one that I had been gifted that day in Caleb’s car. Impressive.
There wasn’t any sign of sleepwear, but it occurred to me that Caleb expected me to either sleep naked or in lingerie. I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction, but I didn’t have th
e option not to. I rummaged through some things before pulling out the most conservative silk set that I could find.
The fabric was like water, rolling against my skin like it wasn’t even there. I pulled the lavender shorts over my legs, and I still felt naked with them on. Not only were they tiny, but the fabric was so thin that you could clearly see the outline of my mound through it. I sighed. These would have to do.
There was a camisole that went with it, equally as thin and revealing, but I’d be lying if I said they weren’t the most comfortable clothes I had worn. I felt like I was wearing nothing, no, less than nothing, as I climbed into bed to take a nap.
I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow, lulled into dreamland by the crisp white sheets and the weight of the comforter.
Chapter 9
It’s easy to forget why you’re here. Take a moment to remember.
“Hey sleepyhead. It’s time for a little fun.”
Caleb’s deep voice broke through my dreams and shook my brain awake in an instant. My eyes fluttered open and I lifted my head, frowning and looking around, confused at first with my surroundings. This hadn’t been a dream after all. Caleb was sitting on the edge of the bed, a smirk on his face as I rediscovered my fate.
“You looked so peaceful sleeping there, but I would like for us to spend some quality time together before dinner. What say you?” Caleb said calmly.
I nodded, agreeing to something I didn’t especially care for. At least he hadn’t tried to slip into bed with me. I would have instinctually cuddled up to him, and that would be bad news for me. This was going to be a fake marriage, not real love. We didn’t need to get that close.
“There’s actually a room for that in the mansion. I discovered it this morning before I came to fetch you. It’s filled with all sorts of delightful rubbing oils and places to lay,” Caleb said, rubbing the sheets on the bed as he spoke.
