CHAPTER NINE

Summer's pov

8 years ago

I didn't know how long I laid there, but I could remember the aching pain that burnt through my body afterwards. I still felt the feeling of the weight that had previously been on me, crushing me to the floor, the large hands that had pinned my head to the ground in an attempt to shut me up, to be in control.

"Get her up. Giovanni said he needs some girls." A voice I knew too fucking well growled.

"She doesn't exactly look like she'll be of anymore use tonight." The guard said as he stood over me.

"Don't you think I fucking know that George?! We are short on girls and Giovanni is being a stingy bastard, so take her to him. Maybe he'd finally get us some fresh meat."

Willy squatted in front of me, and smiled, exposing his brown-stained crooked teeth. "Now, you be a good girl, Summer. If you try anything stupid again, I'll make sure you'll be immobile for a week."

I shut my eyes closed forcefully, ignoring his horrible alcohol stenchedbreath.

"Take the bitch away." He muttered.

I felt myself being lifted up by my hair and dragged across the room. They didn't care about the blood dripping from the cut on my forehead, or the way I let my body be limp as he pulled me like I was some ragged doll. They didn't care if I died or lived. They were going to keep hurting me over and over again. I was tired of it, tired of everything.

I didn't know how long I was being dragged like a worthless piece of rag. The pain I felt previously numbed out all of my senses, leaving me in a silent void. Suddenly, the guard came to a halt, and his grip on my hair loosened, giving me the chance to scan my surroundings. I was in one of the suites, probably ready to be used again.

"For fuck's sake George," A man groaned. "Could you have at least got her cleaned up and brought here like a human being."

"I was just following Willy's orders." The guard mumbled back.

"Well, that idiot should know that I have a very important guest, and this isn't a good look."

I glanced up at the man speaking, Giovanni Morales, the slimy fat bastard who apparently owned me. Seated beside him was someone I had never seen before, he exuded a kind of danger that was different from the people I had met. I caught his eyes, they were a cold kind of blue I had never seen before, the kind that could stare deep into someone's soul. Except, he didn't even spare me a glance, I was nothing, and his unimpressed expression told me he thought the same about everything here, even Giovanni.

"Stronzo! Take her back and don't pull this kind of shit again. Tell Willy if something like this happens again, I'll cut off his balls and feed it to my hyenas."

"And can you fucking carry her properly!" Giovanni yelled when the guard's grip tightened on my hair again. "Do you always have to be an animal?!"

As the guard lifted me off the ground and carried me out of the room, I heard Giovanni chuckle nervously and say one simple name: Adonis.

Back then, I forgot the name just as fast as I had heard it. What I didn't know was that the name was going to end up being my salvation, my escape, my shot at a new life. I wasn't stupid, neither was I delusional, I was broken, and I had only one aim; Survival. So I played the damsel in distress, and let myself be saved.

Present Day

I was sick of the beeping monitors, sick of the stupid food they chugged down my throat, stick of the stench in this stupid hospital. But I couldn't complain, because this was what I wanted.

"Time to take your meds." The nurse said as she walked into the room, pushing a cart in front of her.

"I hope it won't knock me unconscious again, because I'm quite tired of sleeping."

She picked up a cup, and headed towards me. "I can't say, because these drugs are meant to make you feel better."

"I really do not."

As she got beside me, she kept her eyes on the door. "Alex is worried about you."

"Well, if he's worried then he should come get me."

"You know he can't. It's too dangerous."

I rolled my eyes. "I gut myself open to get out of that house. I'm pretty sure I've already done dangerous."

She looked at me, her forehead furrowed. "No one asked you to do that. Your job was to stay put not cause a scene."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Someone who's here to make sure–"

"I don't do anything more stupid?" I cut in.

"To make sure you're safe."

I scoffed and shook my head. "This is ridiculous. So, instead of a way out, I'm being sent a baby sitter. Does he not get the moment Adonis's brain clicks, I'm a dead woman?"

"Look, all—"

At that moment, Adonis and Viktor walked into the room. Adonis's expression maintaines a dangerous calm, but I saw Viktor's eyes narrow at the nurse and I. Shit. I have to say something.

"She's adamant about not taking her drugs." The nurse said, with a nervous chuckle.

"They taste like shit." I muttered, my gaze on Adonis.

But it felt like he wasn't even looking at me, but through me.

"Leave." He said to the nurse.

"But she has to take her pills."

His gaze sliced towards her. If looks could kill then she'd be long dead. "Get the fuck out."

She took one look at me, then Adonis, before moving towards her cart. "I'll just come back."

As she walked out of the room, I noticed Viktor followed her, leaving just both of us in the room.

"Adonis." I said softly, hoping to use whatever hold I had left on him.

"Shut up until you're asked to speak." He replied, cold and clipped.

This was what I feared. His true self. I guess I am fucked now.