Valente

The Miscommunication

I had stopped fighting. There was no point. Not too long after I had been taken, I felt the car stop and I was picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder. At this point I started to thrash around trying to get free. To no avail, but I was down on what felt like a wooden chair and I felt more rope come around me to keep me sitting there.

I could hear muffled words. I couldn't tell if they were talking to me but with how thick this sac was, I couldn't hear them. I could barely breathe. There was loud bang. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. The bang was followed by a lot more muffled talking. It sounded like someone was yelling. Within seconds I was being untied and the sac over my head was being pulled off. I blinked quickly to try to adjust to the lighting. I looked around quickly and seen that it looked like I was in a basement. There was a lot of men standing around me and one was sporting a bloody lip and an already turning black eye. None of these men looked familiar to me which made me question if these were really his men or if I was wrong about who took me.

It wasn't until I locked eyes with the man standing in front of me that I confirmed that this was indeed not his men but someone else's. "Joseph?" I whispered and he took a step towards me, "let me help you up Miss Gravino" he said and offered me a hand which I just stared at. "what is this?" I said and his face dropped. "This is a misunderstanding that is not going to go over well with the boss" he said, and Adrian's angry face flashed across my mind. This was his doing. I looked down at my wrists to see them red and even bleeding in some areas. I have to get out of here. I stood up quickly and felt the whole room spin as I suddenly was tumbling to the floor and everything went black.

...

I woke up in a bed. I quickly sat up and looked around to see the room was painted black and red and the entire décor matched this theme. The bed was huge and had black satin sheets. I noticed a man who appeared to be dressed as a doctor packing up some things into a little brief case at the end of the bed.

"who are you?" I asked and he only then noticed I was awake. "Miss Gravino, oh boss will be so happy you're awake. How are you feeling" how was I feeling? I suddenly felt the pain again. The back of my head was throbbing, and my wrists and ankles were too. I looked down at my wrists and rubbed over the purple and red bruising. I've had worse, and it would have been worse if it was him who found me.

"I'm alright, where am I?" I asked and the doctor pursed his lips. "uh, yes let me get boss for you" he said and walked out of the room. Not even a moment later, a very concerned and angry Adrian came charging into the room. He walked right up to the bed and I backed up a little before he sat down across from me and pulled me into his arms. Despite the fact that his arms were so muscular and I was nearly suffocating from how hard he was hugging me, I felt nothing but relief that he was there. I knew I would be safe now.

"I am so sorry Bella, they thought I requested you here because you owed me something, they didn't know you were meant to be my guest-" I cut him off there "this was your fault?" I asked and pushed myself out of his hug. "My fault? Not entirely. I simpl-" I cut him off there "take me home." His eyes grew hard at that. "You won't be going anywhere any time soon; you have a minor concussion from hitting your head on the floor and your wrists are sure to raise some questions" he looked down at my wrists and reached for them, but I quickly pulled them out of his reach. A hurt look immediately came across his face. "Bella, let me see them" he reached again but I shook my head. "What happened" I asked, now I want answers.

"Right, well I asked for some of my men to retrieve you and bring you to where I was working out of today but you see they misunderstood this to be a, we'll call it a shake down" I furrowed my eyebrows together. "Shake down?" I asked and pursed my lips. His eyes quickly dropped to my lips and he shifted uncomfortably. "They thought we were kidnapping you but really you just weren't answering you phone after you decided to lie about seeing someone else" he said and his eyes connected with mine again. I stared at him for a moment. They thought I was to be one of Adrian's victims. Who is to say I won't be? By the looks of it, he's not running a very tight ship. "A tight ship?" he scoffed and stood up. "That's what you think of me?" he asked and angrily started pacing. I really need to watch what I let slip around him. "If you ran a tight ship there wouldn't have been miscommunication" I angrily replied and folded my arms. Only after folding my arms did I realize I was in a very large black t-shirt. I squealed and immediately pushed the covers off to see if I had pants on. Of course, no pants but my underwear were still on. "What the hell Adrian! Where are my clothes?" I screamed and he rolled his eyes. "Oh, relax Princess, you had blood all over them. The maid changed you." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms again. "I'm sure she did" I remarked sarcastically. "I'll have you know, Principessa, that I do run a very tight ship. But unfortunately, there is a lot going on right now and you were never part of the plan, nor was killing one of my own for touching you, that has been a real mess to cover up" he sighed and began to head for the door. "What are you talking about?" I asked and he stopped just before the door. "What did I tell you, questions get you killed. Take a nap, I'll be back later" he said and left the door. I stood quickly a sturdied myself before heading for the door just as I heard it lock. Son of a Bitch.

...

I woke after what I could only say was hours as it was now dark outside again. I sighed and went to turn over when I realized there was something very large behind me. I slowly adjusted myself to see what it was and in the moonlight, I could make out Adrian's rough features. In his sleep he looked so peaceful. His eyebrows relaxed, his lips slightly pushed out and a soft expression. His hair was falling across his forehead, no longer held back by gel and I suddenly wanted to touch it. I slowly reached out and before I could make contact with his hair his hand shot up and roughly grabbed my wrist which I let out a loud hiss at as my wrists are still very bruised. His eyes were open now and he quickly let go, "are you alright? What's wrong" he asked and sat upright looking around the room, the once relaxed expression long gone. "I'm fine, I didn't know you were sleeping in my bed" I said and I could feel my cheeks heating. "This is my bed, Bella" he laughed and lay back down. "Well, if you could show me to my own bed-" he grunted and wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me into him "nonsense, go back to sleep" he said and I sighed. Only for tonight Adrian. Tomorrow, you are in a world of trouble.