Page 34 of Paolo DeLuca
Chapter eighteen
Lyricslowlyopenedher eyes, blinking to adjust to the darkness. The only light source was a nightlight from outside, filtering through the broken windows. Her head felt heavy. Too heavy to raise. So, she just let it hang for a moment until she could gather her strength, then she raised her eyes to the ceiling.
“Where the hell am I?” she wondered. “What the hell happened?”
Then everything came rushing back to her. Lyric sat straight up. She studied the room. Someone drugged her. “Shit!”
“Well, look who’s awake.” Lyric jerked her head at the sound of the voice from the woman… from the club?
The woman I tried to help.
“What’s going on?” Lyric tried to get to her feet but only made it to one knee. The room spun, and she fell back on her ass.
“I needed you as bait,” the woman said. “I need your boy toy to come get you.”
The smile on the mystery woman’s face almost made Lyric sick.
“You…” Lyric took a breath. “You drugged me?”
She was going to be sick. Lyric leaned over, placing her hand over her mouth, heaving a few times. Thankfully, her stomach was empty.
Laughter rang out, echoing in the empty room. “That was the only way to get you out of the club. I always hated that fucking place. Puntas. Bitches falling over Paolo all the time.”
The disgust in her voice and face washed over Lyric. This was the woman Paolo warned her about.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Lyric needed to keep her talking until her head cleared a little more. There was this fog keeping her from taking a course of action. Then, she could handle this bitch. She needed to protect Paolo because Cali was right, he would come for her. Everything he’d done so far was to protect her from this woman. She had no doubt he’d come, guns drawn and blazing.
Cali walked toward her, finally coming out of the shadows where Lyric could get a better look at her. The woman from the club with fiery red hair and emerald eyes now had jet-black hair and the crazed brown eyes of a fucking lunatic. If Lyric didn’t get the fuck out of here, she’d die in this shithole. Wherever she was.
“I told you,” Cali said. “I need you to lure Paolo here.”
“But why?” Lyric asked, finally rising to her feet on wobbly legs. She backed away, putting space between her and Cali.
“Because I’m going to make him see we belong together. And he doesn’t need you,” she snarled, pointing a well-manicured red polished finger at Lyric.
Lyric had to think of something to make her see she wasn’t a threat. “But I barely know him,” Lyric confessed. “I just met him.”
Cali laughed, and shivers moved through Lyric’s body. And not the good kind. This woman was a psychopath. “I’ve seen you two together, honey. I know when two people are in love.”
In love? Was I in love with Paolo? Was he in love with me? It was something to think about, but not right now.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Cali rushed her and grabbed Lyric’s upper arm, squeezing as hard as she could.
“Don’t play with me, little girl,” she sneered.
Lyric winced and tried to jerk away from her. “Tie her to the chair,” Cali shouted. “Paolo should be here soon.”
Out of the shadows, a big, burly bald man with a scruffy beard hanging mid-chest stalked toward her. He grabbed her by her elbow and dragged her to a chair.
“Sit,” he ordered. By his look, Lyric knew he would harm her if he needed to. Maybe even just for the hell of it.
She did as he asked. She would play along for the time being. Hopefully, she could come up with a plan before Paolo got here. She didn't know what to do if something happened to him.
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