Chapter 3

The darkness was not complete. It kept cracking open, letting in sounds and voices that I could not make sense of at first, like listening to a conversation from underwater.

Then the words got clearer, and I wished they had not.

"She is out cold, Mr. Toretti. I gave her enough to knock down a horse." That was Nico's voice, proud and easy, like he was showing off a car he just waxed. "She will not remember a thing."

"Beautiful." A second voice, deeper, older. "You were not lying, Caruso. She really is something."

"Told you. And the best part is, she has nobody. No family that gives a damn, no friends, nothing. She could disappear tomorrow and not a single person on this earth would notice."

The older man laughed softly. "A man could get addicted to that kind of convenience."

"There is more. I am going to set up a camera. Get everything on tape. That way, if she ever gets any ideas about leaving me or opening her mouth, I have the footage to keep her in line forever."

"Smart boy. I knew you had a brain behind that pretty face."

My stomach turned so hard I almost vomited right there on the bed. Every word was a nail being hammered into a coffin I did not know they were building for me. Nico, the man I left everything for, the man I thought loved me, was selling me to his boss like a piece of furniture.

And he was going to film it.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to claw his eyes out. But my body felt like it was filled with wet sand, heavy and slow and useless. Every finger weighed a thousand pounds.

Move, Serafina. Move or die here.

I put everything I had into my right hand and felt it twitch. Then my left. Then I forced my eyes open a crack, just enough to see through my lashes.

Toretti was standing over me, loosening his tie. He was older than Nico by at least twenty years, with thick hands and a gold watch that caught the light. He leaned down close to my face, and his breath smelled like expensive whiskey and cheap intentions.

"You know," he murmured, running one finger along the collar of my dress, "I picked this dress out myself. Told your boyfriend exactly which one to buy. Silk looks good on you, sweetheart."

The disgust hit me so hard it burned away some of the fog in my head. My hand shot up and I swung at his face, catching him across the jaw.

He stumbled back, shocked. "What the hell?"

Nico grabbed my wrist and slammed it down on the bed. "Sera, what are you doing? Just be a good girl and lie still."

"Get off me!" My voice came out cracked and weak, but I meant every word. "You disgusting, lying pig. You are selling me? You are actually selling me?"

Nico's face hardened. "Nobody is selling you. Stop being dramatic. You always do this. You always make everything about you like the whole world is supposed to revolve around your feelings."

I gathered every drop of spit in my mouth and launched it straight into his face.

He did not even flinch. He just wiped his cheek slowly, and then his fist came down on my jaw so hard my vision flashed white. But the pain was like gasoline on a fire. It did not knock me out. It woke me up.

"Give her another dose," Toretti snapped, holding his jaw where I had hit him. "The first one is wearing off."

"I have more in my bag." Nico turned away, and that was all I needed.

I lunged at Toretti and bit down on his hand so hard I tasted blood. He screamed and tried to shake me off, but I held on like my life depended on it because it did. My other fist connected with his nose, and I felt the crunch under my knuckles.

"You crazy little animal!" He grabbed my ankle as I tried to roll off the bed and yanked me back. "Get me something to tie her with. A belt, a cord, anything!"

Nico was already moving toward the closet when someone knocked on the door.

Three sharp knocks.

Everyone froze.

"Housekeeping," a woman's voice called from outside.

I did the only thing I could. I opened my mouth and screamed with everything my body had left.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!"

Toretti clamped his hand over my mouth so hard I could barely breathe. "Shut up, you stupid little—"

I bit into his palm until he yelped and jerked back, and I screamed again.

"PLEASE! HELP! THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME!"

"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you okay in there?" The woman outside sounded panicked now, and I heard her talking into a walkie talkie.

Nico rushed to the door and threw his weight against it to hold it shut. But it swung inward, and something stopped it. Something solid.

An expensive leather shoe, polished so bright I could see the ceiling light reflected in it, wedged itself in the gap between the door and the frame.

And then a voice. Low, calm, almost amused, like a man who just found something entertaining at the end of a very boring night.

"Well, well. I could have sworn I heard a damsel in distress." The door pushed open slowly, and the shoe's owner stepped inside with his hands in his pockets, looking at the room like it was a painting he was deciding whether or not to buy. "And h

ere I was, thinking chivalry was dead."