Saved Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle

Clara

If I had a watch I’d be able to tell how long I’ve been in the closet, but I have nothing. No watch, no cell phone. No bathroom, either, and I really have to pee even though I haven’t had much to drink today. It doesn’t matter, it’s like my body decided that I’m stressed out and in danger so I should probably find a toilet.

Fat chance of that happening. The closet is actually bigger than I thought it was at first. When Gavin pushed me back into it and my back slammed against the wall, I thought for sure that I was going to be in a tiny cupboard too small to even sit down.

But it’s bigger than that. With my eyes closed so that I don’t freak out about how dark it is in here and my hands out in front of my face, I can walk what I think is probably the entire length of his bedroom. It’s a terrible space and I’m sure that he had it built exactly for this purpose.

It’s not like there’s enough room in here to store clothes, so I doubt it’s a modified closet.

When I stand up on my tiptoes and reach above my head I can touch the dropped ceiling, but there isn’t anything there for my fingers to grab. No bars, no handle to a hidden door, nothing. Everything in here is smooth and perfect, the floor included.

And, of course, there isn’t a door knob on this side of the door. No light comes in around the door and even though I threw my body against it time and time again, it didn’t move.

This asshole probably had his entire house designed so that he can just lock people up random places without having to worry about them escaping. Sinking to my knees, I squeeze the sides of my head hard as I try to come up with a plan.

It’s impossible to think in here. It feels like the darkness is actually pressing down on me and making it that much more difficult for me to come up with a coherent thought. My body is just screaming at me to run for it, but I can’t.

Not with that door shut and locked.

Not without him opening the door to let me out.

Even then, I know that I’m not going to be able to make a run for it. I tried to push him down the stairs, for fuck’s sake, and that backfired in a huge fucking way. I can only imagine what he would do to me if I tried something else like that again.

No, there has to be another way to get him to let me go that doesn’t involve me trying to be faster or stronger. If I could just get past him then I’m sure that I’d be able to escape.

Screw the fact that I don’t have any money. I had it before and it was the only thing that saved me, but I’m pretty sure that without it I could have survived just a little bit.

I drop my forehead down onto my knees and curl up into a little ball on the floor. The wood floor is cold through my jeans but that slight discomfort actually makes me feel more alive. I don’t want to get too comfortable in here and forget exactly what’s happening to me.

My dad never locked me in a closet after he told me that I was going to have to marry Nick. He sold me off when I was young enough that marrying him was always a fact of life, just like I was told that I’d have to have plenty of kids for him to make sure to carry on the Prince family name.

I never questioned it, not once, not until I was old enough to realize that most women don’t get married off like that. Not until I was finally able to put two and two together and realize that I was nothing more than a pawn for my dad.

That’s when I ran, and I’ve been running for a long damn time. Too long.

I’m so tired.

Exhaustion creeps in and settles in my bones as tears slip down my cheeks. It’s stupid to cry, and I know that, but I can’t help it. It all just seems so futile, so beyond hope that I honestly don’t see how I’m ever going to make my way out of it.

Sobs tear through my body and I’m actually glad that Gavin isn’t here to see me so upset. What would he do? I can’t imagine him actually wanting to comfort me, not when it’s so obvious that he’s used to getting what he wants and doesn’t really care about what other people want.

But maybe he would.

A shiver runs through my body and I wish that I had a blanket or something to wrap up in. I’m freezing cold and even though I’m not sure what’s wrong with me right now, there’s something in the back of my brain telling me that I’m going into shock.

It’s probably just from seeing it on TV or reading about it in books, and I shake off the thought.

This isn’t shock. This is just what happens when you realize that the evil that you ran away from and thought that you escaped is back to get you again but just in a different form.

This is me accepting that even though I ran as hard and as far as I could, it doesn’t seem to matter. I never really escaped what was planned out for me, did I?

I swapped the man I belong to, that’s all. But I don’t know Gavin. I have no idea if he’s as cruel as Nick is or if there’s actually a chance that he could be kind. And right now I don’t want to try to figure that out.

My mind keeps circling around the fact that I had a way out and and I blew it just because I made some stupid decisions. The Jacobs brothers were supposed to protect me and make sure that something like this didn’t happen to me, but they weren’t there when I really needed them.

They didn’t come to my aid when I was in so much danger.

But they’ll come now, right? Surely they’ll figure out that the only reason I haven’t paid them yet is because something bad has happened to me. They’ll understand that and they’ll be here as soon as they put two and two together.

It’ll be a fight, and I know that, but I think that they can win. They’re not good men, not kind men at all, but they’ve never hurt me. All they’ve done is take my money and keep me safe.

Except for when Gavin took me.

The Jacobs brothers promised me that they would help me, but they didn’t. I hadn’t even missed my payment to them yet and they still weren’t there to help me.

I gasp, my head snapping up as I roll that over and over in my mind. I hadn’t missed my payment to them yet, which means that they still should have been there to help me out. They should have been around when I needed them, but they weren’t.

So that means that something happened to them.

Which means that they’re not coming for me.

Which means that I’m facing all of this on my own and that there isn’t anything that I can do about it.

All I know is that I can’t belong to Nick Prince. I’m not sure if Gavin is any better, but he has to be. God, he has to be.