Andrei: A Dark Mafia Romance (Dark Mafia Kingpins Book 1) Read online

  His footsteps seemed to rumble through the entire building. I wanted to run so fucking fast, but there was no place for me to run too. The guy with the whip offered a toothy grin that made him look like a hyena.

  “Oh, he’s going to get his money’s worth out of you.” He jabbed me in the back with the butt of his whip to get me moving down the stairs.

  My feet were like blocks of lead, and yet, I kept them moving because I was much too afraid of feeling that whip a second time. Enduring it once was enough for a lifetime.

  I reached the bottom and came face to face with the hulking man that had spent an upper-middle class salary in order to own me as a slave. He grabbed for my arm, but I jerked it away.

  The other men hollered and whooped like their favorite football team had just scored a touchdown or something.

  “She’ll make a fool out of you, Donny.”

  “Are you kidding? Donny will break her like a pencil.”

  “Want to bet?”

  Again, he reached for my arm, and again, I jerked it away. I just couldn’t let myself fall into the man’s clutches because I knew that as soon as that happened, I was done for. All he needed to do was lay on top of me, and I would probably suffocate to death—that was how big this guy really was. And if his package matched the girth of his body, then my pussy would never survive the penetration. He would ruin me with one single thrust.

  “What’s the matter, Donny? Can’t control your woman?”

  Suddenly, he grabbed me by the hair and pulled me towards his body. I was about to scream, but his other hand took hold of the belt and tightened it around my neck, choking me. I flailed my arms at his chest, but it was like throwing punches at a concrete wall. Despite the fog growing thick inside my head, I heard the echoing laughter that emerged from the group. They all found my pain and suffering something to enjoy. These men weren’t men at all—they were fucking monsters. I was in the very pits of hell.

  Just as I was on the brink of passing out, he eased his grip on the belt, and I fell gasping to the floor. He kicked my midsection, and that certainly did not help my breathless situation.

  “Please…” I begged. “No more.”

  But the man had no pity for my plight. He simply yanked me to my feet by the belt. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to get rid of that thing. I swore that if I got out of the situation alive, I would never wear a belt again, even if it meant my pants fell to the ground.

  I blinked, and he had both my arms pinned behind my back. One hand was large enough to fuse my wrists together and keep them there.

  “Now, go,” he said with a growl. It was an animalistic snarl that made me suspect that I was in for a world of hurt after all the trouble I had caused.

  He frog-marched me through a door. It wasn’t the one we had used to get into the room, nor was it the one they had used to remove the sick girl. I gulped. What was waiting for me behind that door? I tried digging my heels into the floor.

  “Don’t make this any worse for yourself.” He hissed. “Because as it stands, by the end of the night, I’ll fuck the scream right out of you.”

  Hearing those words, I made even more of an effort to keep him from taking me away. This man wasn’t just going to rape me; he was going to kill me, and I wasn’t ready to go. This wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I was nineteen for fuck’s sake. I had my whole life ahead of me, and I had ruined it all by walking home alone…

  The doors swung back, revealing another dark room. This one was adorned with oil paintings and leather furniture. Leaning against the far wall was a well-dressed individual that looked oddly familiar. He took a drag of his cigar before looking up. Our gazes crossed.

  It’s the same man from the mouth of the alley! I thought as a brief moment of euphoria welled up inside of me.

  He was even more good looking up close. He had an air of power and arrogance as he scrutinized me with those dark, dark eyes of his. He pushed himself off the wall and snuffed his cigar.

  Surely, he knows that I don’t belong here. He knows that there’s something wrong. That’s why he keeps looking at me.

  Time seemed to come to a standstill in his presence like he was able to command it. His eyes narrowed. The man who had bought me in the auction stopped in his tracks. Why? I had no idea, but I was glad for it. I made a desperate last-ditch gesture because, if this didn’t work, then I might as well write my obituary.

  “Help,” I mouthed without making a sound, as I did not want to alert the Donny fellow that still held my arms behind my back.

  If I had to guess, it would be pretty damn easy for him to snap my limbs in two, and while that was a real possibility, I still had to risk it because there was something about this mysteriously handsome man that made me believe that he would be able to help me.

  He glanced at my captor in the subtlest of ways, then became cold and unfeeling. I held my breath. After a few moments, he gave me the slightest of nods in acknowledgment.

  And, just like that, time snapped back into motion, and I was marched through yet another set of doors, my destination unknown.

  10

  I was taken outside to a large parking lot. Most of it was overgrown with weeds that had shot up from cracks in the asphalt, but a small section of it had been well maintained, and in that section, was some of the most expensive cars I had ever laid eyes on.

  A Rolls Royce Phantom. A few Bentley Continentals. Score upon score of flashy BMWs with a couple of Audis sprinkled into the mix. These guys weren’t playing around, but if they spent their money on sex slaves, then I didn’t want to think about how they had gotten their hands on that sort of dough.

  Drugs? Cartel? Gun trafficking? Was the guy who bought me some sort of mafia lord that took dues from poor hardworking businesses so that he could turn it around and spend their money fucking me to death?

  I didn’t have much time to think of such things because I was being pushed in the direction of a waiting car. By the shine of its paint, the Cadillac looked like it had just been rolled off the lot. The guy was making bank, and that definitely wasn’t a good thing. How many people had he stomped on to get where he was? Frankly, I didn’t want to know because I feared I would become one of them.

  He opened the door to the back and shoved me inside. “I would say, ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ but you’ve already proven to me that you can’t be trusted.”

  There were a couple of zip ties in the center console.

  “No, please, you don’t have to do tha—”

  Smack!

  His hand collided with the side of my face so hard that I was left seeing stars. I attempted to blink them aside but they lingered as he strapped my ankles together and to the tiny hook meant to keep the floor mats in place.

  The very edges of my vision seemed blurry. Had this guy given me a concussion? It wouldn’t have surprised me. He was twice my size, and I was not some little girl.

  He finished with my hands and buckled me into place. Wherever we were going, I was coming along for the ride because there was nothing I could do to stop it. My hands were tied and secured to the headrest of the passenger seat, which made things incredibly uncomfortable, but my buyer did not seem to give a rat’s ass about what happened to me.

  The door slammed shut, and he walked around to the other side. He jumped behind the wheel, and off we went.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, even though it probably would have been smarter to keep my mouth shut.

  He did not answer. Instead, he turned on the radio.

  “Um… what’s your name?” My fear was forcing me to ask stupid questions. It was something I did whenever I was nervous. “I heard a couple of the guys in there call you Donny.”

  He turned up the volume. I fidgeted. I really didn’t like the way he was just ignoring me. The music was loud, but I was sure he could still hear me. Besides, he kept looking in the rearview mirror and checking me out with those dull, lifeless eyes of his. I wished he would have kept his eyes on the road beca
use the way he was driving, we were sure to get into some sort of crash and the last thing I wanted was for a couple of cops to find my naked, tied up body. That was a news story I never wanted to be published.

  Once we were on the highway, he started weaving in and out of traffic. Most of the time, he shifted lanes without even bothering to check his side mirrors. My fingers tightened into fists as we rode someone’s ass.

  “Will we be there soon?”

  Again, he did not bother to answer. It was pointless to keep asking. I was only wasting my breath. So, I attempted to find a comfortable position to settle into, but the way I was tied, it was incredibly hard. There was now an ache at the small of my back that wouldn’t go away. I leaned forward, hoping that would help, but all it did was squeeze my tits between my arms and push them up for display.

  A grin painted Donny’s face, and his eyes got a little bit brighter. I wasn’t sure whether I had imagined it or not, but I swear he had licked his lips. I thought back to the man who had promised to help.

  Where is he now? Did he lie? Did he find it funny to get my hopes up? Probably. If he is in that underground club with the rest of them, then he is probably no better.

  And yet, I couldn’t accept that because there was something about him that made me want to trust him. That subtle nod of his—it had meant something; I was sure of it. Still, fear festered underneath every inch of my skin. This guy had plans for me, and my brain couldn’t stop imagining what those plans were. Would he lock me up in a sex dungeon and never let me see the light of day? Or would he make me the center of attention at some gang bang party? Or would he just fuck me once and then feed me to the fishes?

  Fuck.

  Whatever happened, it didn’t look promising.

  A short time later, the car pulled up to a warehouse near the docks.

  Okay, Cora, he is definitely going to feed you to the fishes. Your body will be waterlogged by morning and washed up on some distant shore. This is the longest fucking night of your life. It will be a goddamn miracle if you ever see the light of day again.

  He killed the car, but for a moment, he didn’t move.

  What is he doing?

  During the ride, I had managed a state of semi-calmness. It had washed over me while Donny took the off-ramp onto another highway. In that time, I had turned off my mind to all the dark thoughts brewing inside of it. But that calmness shattered to bits as I saw the great hulking building that loomed in front of us.

  Its lack of illumination made it ominous, like an ogre ready to snatch me up in his meaty paws and eat me whole. The shabby streetlights could barely reach its corners, and seeing them wasn’t much of a comfort. There was barbed wire lining the entire perimeter, and there was no telling what other “safety precautions” might be set in place to keep girls like me from running away.

  Behind the building, waves crashed against the humanmade rock wall that kept the sea at bay. It looked angry—very angry. The sound echoed through my skull and bones.

  I can’t go in there.

  Thinking back, the night had seemed so surreal. Getting caught in an alley and being sold at auction by the Italian mafia—they both seemed like events that would only happen in a movie or something.

  But this?

  This felt horribly real.

  Once I was taken inside the place, there would be no escaping it and that’s what terrified me the most. It wasn’t the fact that I might die at the hands of these men, but that I might never share another laugh with my friends or find that perfect boyfriend who I could one day call my ‘husband’. That building would swallow me up and never spit me out.

  I started to tremble like a leaf fighting the fall.

  Do something, Cora!

  But there was nothing I could do—absolutely nothing. These men had proven that they could do whatever the fuck they wanted with me and face no repercussions for doing so.

  This was a lawless land, and I was caught in the middle of it.

  11

  I barely registered that my buyer had gotten out of the car. I was much more concerned with keeping myself from a state of hyperventilation. My eyes were fixated through the window shield and on that building. After everything that had happened, it was odd that a warehouse would freak me out the most, but there was something final about it like I was staring at my oversized coffin.

  The back door swung open, and Donny stood there, just as tall as the car. For some reason, he appeared even bigger than before. I sucked in a ragged breath, but still, I was lightheaded and shaking. He pulled out a pocket knife and flicked it open. I flinched. The blade looked razor sharp.

  “Relax,” he said with that gruff voice of his. “You’re just going to make things worse on yourself if you struggle. So, if you promise to be a good girl, I won’t hurt you.”

  Is this guy telling the truth? I couldn’t tell. But I wasn’t about to piss him off and get my head popped like a pimple between his massive hands.

  He reached out his no knife bearing hand. It reminded me of a person approaching a dog for the first time.

  “I’m not rabid,” I said.

  That made him laugh. “Good, I was starting to worry. Some of the girls have been known to be biters, but I know you wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”

  I was really starting to dislike his tone. He was treating me like some dumb bimbo with half a brain in her head. But now was not the time to worry about self-respect.

  He leaned into the car, and this time, he sliced through the zip ties. Blood rushed into my fingertips. They pained me. I rubbed some life into them. The pins and needles continued for quite a while.

  Donny leaned against the side of the car, watching me. “Sorry about that,” he said with a point of his thumb. “I might have tightened them a bit too much, but I didn’t know what you were capable of and I didn’t want you jumping into the passenger seat and trying to claw out my eyeballs.”

  “Has that happened before?” I spoke before I even realized what I was doing.

  “Once.”

  “W-What happened? To that girl, I mean,” I stammered and scooted slightly to the opposite side of the car. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice.

  I flexed my fingers and tightened them into a fist. I glanced over at the brute standing at the open door. Even if I were to use these fists against him, it would accomplish jackall. He was built like a tank, and I was the little steam engine who couldn’t.

  “I took care of her.” His upper lip peeled back, revealing a set of too-white teeth. They were jagged like that of a shark.

  “You mean –”

  “Enough questions,” he snapped, causing me to jump and nearly hit my head on the roof of the car. “I’m not as thick as I look. I know you’re trying to buy yourself some time, but your time is up. Let’s go.”

  In a weirdly gentlemanly way, he held his hand out for me to take. But I was frozen in terror. My throat had squeezed shut, and every one of my joints was locked with immobility.

  “No…” My lips were the only part of my body that managed to move.

  “No?” he repeated as he looked at me with an expression of disbelief. If I didn’t know any better, I would have suspected that I had sprouted a second head from one of my shoulders. “I don’t think I heard you correctly because there’s no way you would tell me ‘no’. Now, I’ll only ask once more. Let’s go.”

  “No…”

  His face turned red with anger. “Get out of the damn car. Now.”

  “No. No. No. No!” I couldn’t say or do anything else. I was like a broken record repeating that same syllable over and over again.

  He lunged forward to grab me, but I managed to scuttle backward until I was pressed into the door.

  The door!

  That was when it dawned on me. Desperately, I tugged on the handle, but it would not budge. I tugged on it with all my might, but nothing happened. Deep, thunderous laughter sounded from deep inside my buyer’s gut.

  “These doors only open from the
outside, honey, and there’s no one here to save you.”

  His words did not sink in. I started throwing my whole body against the door, hoping that I could break it down or something. If I kept this up, I was bound to dislocate my shoulder or something, but a quick trip to the hospital was much better than winding up in a body bag.

  “I’m not here to play games with you,” Donny said with a leveled voice. “So, either you get out of this car, or we are going to have a serious problem on our hands, and I don’t think you would enjoy that very much.”

  “No!” I screamed, still thrashing about like an inmate at the looney bin.

  I had no idea what waited for me inside that warehouse building, but I knew it was all wrong.

  Terribly fucking wrong.

  Finally losing his patience, he climbed into the back seat. Somehow, I managed to climb into the passenger seat. I tried that door. Nothing. His big, catcher’s mitt hand flew in my direction, but I ducked just in time and hurtled myself behind the wheel.

  Push to start! Eureka!

  I stretched my leg, trying to find the brake pedal, but I couldn’t reach it. I slunk down and barely grazed my toes against it.

  “Oh no you don’t!” he shouted. His voice was loud enough to momentarily stun me.

  His hand caught the belt, and I felt it pulling me towards the back seat, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. I clung to the seat like a cat. If he wanted me out of the car, then he would have to kill me first.

  “Fuck me, the boss is going to be pissed when he finds out I bought a total whacko bitch.” He tied the belt to the headrest and got out of the car.

  Huh? I looked up and blinked.

  A second later, he opened the driver side door and undid the belt. Finally—I was starting to think that thing would fuse to my body or something.

  I prepared myself to jump out of his reach, but he grabbed me by the hips. His fingers dug into my flesh, threatening to pierce it. I whimpered but continued to cling to the seat. There was no way in hell I was going to let go.