Page 10 of Unrestricted
"So why did you run?"
"Because when I heard they'd hurt him I couldn't live with it."
I scoff at that. "The evidence says otherwise." When I see she hasn't caught my drift, I add, "You're still here, aren't you?"
She doesn't say anything because there's nothing else she can add. She struggles to unscrew the cap from her bottle with one hand cuffed to the seat but I don't offer to help her. Let her figure it out or die of thirst.
Eventually, she gets the lid off the bottle and takes a long sip. She gulps the water down too fast and coughs violently. I take the bottle from her.
"Don't bother trying to drown yourself. You won't be getting out of it that easily."
It takes a minute for her to get herself under control. Then she looks at me with those fucking doe eyes. I want to blindfold her just so I don't have to acknowledge the sorrow in them.
"Are you going to kill me?”
It’s only natural for her to wonder, so why does it piss me off that she asked.
"No."
Something passes across her face, a mix of relief and confusion. "So what are you going to do with me?"
I stare at her for a long time. "I wish I knew,cara. I wish I fucking knew."
THREE
Eliza
Every time the car turns sharply, I'm thrown to the side. With my hands bound, I can't stop myself hitting the door. Adriano unfastened the cuff from the chair when the plane landed then pulled my arms behind my back and shackled me again.
It's completely unnecessary and we both know it. I guess he takes perverse pleasure in reminding me I'm his prisoner. Or perhaps it's some kink he's exploring. Either way, I'd prefer to have my hands free. It's been thirty minutes since we left the airfield and my shoulders are protesting.
I shift on the seat, trying to make myself comfortable and Adriano glances at me. He, of course, is perfectly relaxed. At some point he removed his jacket and rolled his shirt sleeves up to reveal strong forearms. They'd make me weak at the knees if I allowed myself to think about him that way.
As the countryside slides past the window I try to find some joy in seeing my homeland again. I missed Italy. Remembering the beauty of the landscape bathed in the golden light of an early evening had been too painful so I made myself forget.
Being here is strange. It's both foreign and familiar. There was a new housing development on the outskirts of the city I'd never seen before. It threw me off balance, not that I was exactly on an even keel.
Adriano hasn't said a word since he shoved me into the back of this SUV and told me to behave. At least, he hasn't spoken to me. He has exchanged small talk with the driver, who I've deduced has just returned to work after recovering from a stab wound to the upper thigh.
They laughed about how close the knife had come to gelding him but I can't find the humor in it. It takes a certain type of person to joke about violence, I guess.
We pass through a small, quiet village, the sort of place that hasn't changed in a hundred years. There's a church, a bar with a few old men sitting out in the evening sun and a handful of houses with their shutters thrown open to let the cooler air in.
A woman leans out of a window and shouts to someone in the street. It's painfully ordinary.
When we reach the other side of the village, the road narrows. Another ten minutes pass before we arrive at large iron gates set into a stone wall. A man opens the gates as we approach. Obviously he was expecting us.
We drive through without slowing and speed along a driveway lined with cypress trees toward a large house. Gabriele's villa in the suburbs of Rome is luxurious but it has nothing on this place.
Magnificent is the only way to describe the house. Clad in travertine, it rises over three stories and has an impressive glass frontage. Wide steps lead to a heavy metal door. There's a massive bronze sculpture outside. I'd love to ask what it is but I doubt after forty minutes of silence Adriano is in the mood to give me a guided tour.
The car stops and Adriano gets out. He comes around to my door and reaches over me to unfasten my seatbelt. I press my thighs together to control my response as I catch the distinctly masculine scent of cedarwood on his skin.
Without the use of my hands, it's awkward getting out of the car but Adriano catches me before I fall. He isn't particularly gentle as he steadies me. He keeps a firm hold of my arm as he guides me through the front door and into a hallway that might be bigger than the apartment I rented in Edinburgh. Shit. I forgot about that. All my belongings, such as they are, have been left there.
I must make a sound of dismay because Adriano looks down at me. "What?"
"Nothing, I just..." it seems too trivial to mention.
