Title: Twenty-One (21)
Author: Clarissa Wild
Publication Date: October 7th, 2015
Genre: Dark Romance (18+)
21 years
On her 21st birthday she’s taken. Collected by a rich family as an
unpaid debt. Her body sold. Her mind his.
21 weeks
For 21 weeks she carried a burden no girl should ever have to carry. Now
she loses her freedom to a man born to destroy her.
21 days
His name: Angel DeLuca. His mission: to break her in 21 days before she
sees through his lies. But she won’t give up without a fight.
21 minutes
It takes only 21 minutes for their lives to be forever entwined.
21 seconds
21 seconds to spill. Time is running out.
Secrets ruin them … but not all truths are worth the price.
This is a STANDALONE Dark Romance novel. WARNING: contains explicit
situations, dubious consent, graphic violence, drug abuse, and other disturbing
content.
Exclusive preorder on: iBooks
(Copyright 2015 Clarissa Wild. Unedited. Subject to
change.)
Day 1
Sky
A never-ending
darkness shrouds me, the surrounding void like space, swallowing me whole. Eyes
open or eyes shut, it doesn’t make a difference to the vast emptiness around
me. It seeps into my bones like poison, clouding my mind from the memories that
I had.
Where am I?
My body feels cold,
and my limbs solid, like they’re not mine. I notice myself breathing, however.
The only thing I hear is the steady, rhythmic beating of my heart. The only
sound in this dark hole. Thud, thud … thud.
For a moment I
doubt my own existence.
Who am I, even?
A drop of water
falling onto a surface pulls me back into reality. I’m here, but how?
My fingers tighten
and relax in an attempt to regain control. My muscles feel stiff, but slowly
the sensation is returning to the tips of my fingers, giving me a small bit of
hope that I might find out what happened to me.
With slow
movements, I let my hand slide only a few inches, but it’s enough to determine
that I’m lying on a concrete floor. My head begins to hurt and every passing
second the pain increases. I move my fingers to my head and touch the back of
my scalp. The searing pain stops me and tells me I’m wounded.
When I touch my
face I gasp. There is a bag over my head with a hole near my mouth and nose
through which I can breathe. For a second, I contemplate removing it, but then
I realize they might be watching me.
A buzz moves
through my body, bringing life back to my limbs. And even though I’m regaining
my sense of touch, my vision is still impaired. However, my eyes feel fine as I
touch them, so it must be the lack of light.
I push my elbows
underneath me and lean up. A sudden queasiness overtakes me, causing me to
buckle and heave. I puke on the floor beside me, which surprises me, because I
hardly ever puke.
I tally up the
sensations that I’m feeling. Nausea, loss of motor skills, buzzing nerves,
botched memory … it all leads to one conclusion: I was drugged.
Stabilizing myself
on the floor, I focus on regaining control over my body before moving again.
This place is unfamiliar to me, and I dig into my mind to find clues as to how
I ended up here. The pain that’s slowly creeping to the surface of my skin
distracts me, but I still manage to catch a glimpse of a memory in the back of
my mind.
Men with black
masks and fire weapons dragging me out of a room. A cloth with a sharp odor
pushed against my mouth. Drowsiness engulfing me. A big SUV, also black, doors
sliding to the side. A blow to the back of my head. All lights went out.
My skin pricks with
anxiety, and I shiver to shake off the fear. It doesn’t help, because I know
deep down that there is more to come.
There is one
question in my mind that can’t help but repeat itself. Why me?
This is the single
question every victim of abduction asks.
Except, I already
know the answer.
It was only a
matter of time before they came for me.
My papa once told
me that goodness always comes at a price. Now more than ever, do I realize the
truth in his words. However, I don’t regret making the decision for even a
second.
Now, I’m here in a
darkness so deep it consumes me whole.
And still the light
of rebellion sparks inside my heart, fueling a fire I haven’t felt before. An
uncontrollable need to defy whoever is keeping me here.
But I will wait.
Lying in the cold, harsh, emptiness of this space, I will await my captor’s
arrival and take whatever he’s going to give me. Punishment. Pain. I’ll endure
it all.
Because that’s what
a good person does when they’ve made their choice.
They bear the
burden of their choice, because it’s the only thing they can do.
***
I don’t know how
many hours pass before a noise wakes me. I can’t remember when and how I fell
asleep, but I must’ve been very tired from the ordeal. A metallic door is slid
open, a crack of light splitting through the opening. The burlap bag over my
head makes it difficult to see, but when I narrow my eyes and focus I can still
determine where I am.
Only now do I see
how small my cell really is.
The vast emptiness
I thought would overwhelm me, turns out to be not much more than a
bedroom-sized cell. A quick look at the walls reveals iron rings of all shapes
and sizes, used to hook a chain around and snare whoever needs to be contained
and subdued.
In other words; me.
Squinting, I watch
as a man steps inside, and I focus solely on his presence. Even though the door
is open, and freedom is luring me on the other side, I stay put and watch. No
matter how much I’d try, I’d never be able to flee. Not like this, with my
muscles weak and my body aching. There are probably a bunch of guards waiting
outside, wondering whether I’m going to try anything.
So I won’t. I’ll
sit right here on this cold, hard concrete, observing my captor as he walks
into the room with a certain aloofness. His feet are bold, his body brawny, his
face hiding behind a Guy Fawkes mask. If I weren’t so scared, I would’ve
pondered why he chose that specific mask to conceal his identity, but now is
not that time.
His footsteps sound
more like sand scraping off a harsh surface as he circles around me like a
snake ready to attack its prey. The door is left open like a silent seducer, a
tool to entice me to run. I look up at my captor, giving him a deadly stare,
and even though I can’t see him, I know he can feel the determination in me.
I won’t let myself
be tempted to flee like a wounded deer.
Not when I know
that this is merely a distraction, like a lollypop being dangled in front of a
child while the adult knows full well he’s never going to give it to the child,
and the child knows he can never reach far enough to grasp it.
I refuse to be that
child.
My captor walks some
more, and then returns to the door to close it.
His experiment
failed.
I control my
emotions.
He doesn’t know who
he’s up against.
In the darkness I
hear him come closer, the only sound being his steady breath and soft steps.
He’s still testing me. Seeing if I’ll give in to the fear. Alone with him, the
predator, in a cage filled with blackness. But I’m not afraid of the dark.
My soul has already
been tainted and defiled. Nothing he does can hurt me. I already went past the
breaking point once … and I survived.
“Up.”
The sound of his
voice suddenly breaking through the façade makes me take in a breath. It’s
familiar and yet so unknown, the way he speaks to me with full authority,
resoluteness resounding in every spoken letter, even if there are few.
I crawl up from the
ground, slowly, steadily, maintaining my posture. My aching back and pounding
head won’t stop me from attempting to keep my dignity as I stand up straight
and stare ahead.
My captor’s steps
are everywhere, resounding in the darkness like echoes that disappear into the
night. He’s confusing me, and I try not to concentrate on the sound, but on my
own heartbeat instead.
Suddenly, he’s
right in front of me, and the air is sucked out of my lungs. I struggle not to
let my breath come out in short gasps, but I won’t let his tactics work on me.
His breathing
sounds like that of a bull, short and loud, as if he’s readying for charge.
But he doesn’t
move. He just stands there, gazing at me.
“Do you know where
you are?” he asks with a low, gruff voice that brings goose bumps to my body.
I compose myself
before I answer. “No.”
“Good.”
I can hear a faint
smile behind that word, but the second my eyebrows move, he puts his hands on
my chest and shoves me. I fall down backwards on the hard floor, bruising my groin.
After a while, he
says. “Do you know why you’re here?”
I don’t answer. I
refuse to. Why would I? He is only here to intimidate and hurt me. There’s no
benefit for me in answering his questions. As a matter of fact, I think he owes
me some answers instead.
“Why am I here?” I
ask.
He’s silent for a
few seconds, and then a smug laugh is dulled by the mask.
“Bold. I like
that.”
“Who are you?” I
ask, putting emphasis on every word as if they’re the last that’ll come from my
mouth.
He muffles another
laugh. “Who am I? I am the man who will break you.”
I shake my head,
still lying on the floor as if I’m taunting him. Maybe I am. I want him to
speak, and for that to happen, I have to be the one asking the questions, not
the other way around.
“Where am I?”
“Where you belong,”
he growls, and then he takes a step forward, grabs my arm, and pulls me up from
the floor.
“Why—”
Smack. His hand
hits my cheek, silencing me.
“You do not talk
unless spoken to.”
My head is still to
the right, as I refuse to look at him. I will not bow to his violence. If he
hits me, my body will remain rigid, unmoving. Not an inch of pain will exude
from me.
“You may be
wondering why you’re here, but you’re forgetting the most important question.
What have you done to be here?”
My lip quivers, so
I force it to stop. I can’t show weakness. Not now, not ever.
He grabs my chin.
“You don’t seem to remember, so let me refresh your memory,” he says. “You
stole something. It’s time to give it back. You have twenty-one days to come up
with an answer.” He pulls me closer with a pinch. “Lie and I’ll know. Do you
understand?”
I nod while blankly
staring at his mask. If I’m to obey to survive, I’ll do just that, but no one
can take away my pride.
He let’s go of my
chin and pushes me away. “It’s time for you to pay back what you owe.”
Fear ripples
through my veins. “Pay what back?” I say, taking a step forward.
He shoves me so
hard my back hits the wall and the air is ripped from my chest. I sink to my
knees against it.
“Don’t think I will
go easy on you. Just because I know about you, doesn’t mean I won’t rip you
apart if you don’t tell me the truth.”
“What truth?” I
gasp. “What do you know about me?”
He turns around,
but waits, standing still in the darkness with only the sound of ragged breaths
filling the room.
“You tell me,” he
says, his voice softer than before, almost as if he himself doesn’t know the
reason.
Frowning, I look up
at him, and for some reason the way he cracks his knuckles feels so familiar.
But then the
feeling immediately disappears as he starts walking toward the door.
“Wait, you haven’t
told me why I’m here yet. How am I supposed to know what to tell you?”
I can hear him
knock on the door. Then there’s a pause. “Oh … you’ll now soon enough.”
The forewarning
brings chills to my skin.
The door opens with
a squeak and in comes the blinding light again. It’s so bright, my captor’s
clothes almost look pale as snow. But then I realize that’s only because I
haven’t seen light in such a long time … and I won’t be seeing it any time
soon.
The last words he
speaks remain with me for the rest of the day, echoing in my mind over and over
again. “Welcome to your own personal hell.”
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