Bending to Break (A Before I Break Novel Book 1) Read online

  “This will be the last time,” the thick Italian accent was back again, hissing in my ears.

  “I need to put her on an intravenous drip.”

  No, no more needles.

  “That wasn’t in your plan, Miss Williams,” he growled back, his voice dangerously low.

  The warm hands hugged me tighter.

  “Plans change, Mr. Caruso. Miss Heart will be incredibly weak and sick when she wakes up if we don’t implement this now.”

  It couldn’t get any worse than this. Let the drugs kill me.

  “I don’t like this. I don’t fucking like this,” he hissed back, before I heard the slam of his hand against a solid surface.

  “We’ll take her back to her room, sir,” this voice was louder than the rest, it was right next to my head.

  I felt warm hands pick me up, holding me to their chest as they distributed my weight and supported my back. I felt weightless now that the drugs had taken over, pulling me further into the abyss.

  “Fine, but I want a fucking report when you’re done. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I felt my limbs sway as we began to move, the soft rocking was pushing me further and further into sleep and the helplessness was being phased out by the drug teeming in my system. I wished I had been stronger to fight it, to fight them, but I was simply no match. Not at all.

  Chapter Five

  Olivia Heart

  I don’t remember the exact moment when my brain sparked back to life, but I’ll always remember the lack of fear I had when I opened my eyes to a familiar dark room. Sitting up in a daze, with my fingertips gripping the top of the sheets, I glanced at my hand that was covered with a small band-aid.

  A rush of memories spiraled, screaming at me that I was under threat and tried to force me to move. As I hazily sorted through them, I realized that my terror was dulling, my heart spluttered before returning to its gentle drum in my chest. I couldn’t force myself to be scared, couldn’t conjure the feeling to blaze action back into my body. I was weak, frighteningly weak, as I remembered the men that had dragged me to a separate room to drug me once again.

  Goosebumps raised up on my arms, but my brain barely twitched at the fear I should have felt. My lungs didn’t squeeze painfully, my toes didn’t tense, and my hands barely moved. My emotions were frozen either in shock or from the drugs – either way, I was screwed.

  “Don’t worry, it will wear off soon,” I heard from the corner of the room. Perfect English with a clipped Italian accent alerted me to him. I was certain whoever had spoken was the man I had seen before I was knocked back out.

  A flash of large hands grabbing me over the pile of men pinning me down blazed through my head. I could feel his fingers tightly grabbing my chin as he tried to speak.

  A gasp fell from my lips as I scrambled the sheets around my body, desperately looking to see the invader of my room and thoughts.

  From the shadow in the corner of the room, he stepped forward, the moonlight spilling from the crack in the blinds lighting across his face.

  I still couldn’t force my body to react to the fear, but my soul knew that my life was in danger, it began to stretch and pull away from my core.

  As I looked up, I remembered seeing him before I was drugged. I remember his dark eyes haunting and cold as he tried to force me to submit. Even in the poor lighting, I knew he was teeming with anger. I could feel it rolling from him as his eyes drank me in, waiting to see how much fight I had left in me.

  Formidable and cold, he stood broadly before me with honey-tanned skin, and pitch-black hair that was tailored to his look of youth. To match his perfect jaw, he had full lips and a straight nose. Masculine and young, he was a model fresh from an Armani campaign but with broad shoulders and muscles.

  “Who are you?” I croaked, my throat sore from screaming and lack of water.

  “Luca Caruso,” he told me carelessly, as he moved back into the darkness, his fingers flicking on a lamp. As the light sparked into the room, he took a seat in a large cream chair that sat by the window. Leaning back, he surveyed me calmly while waiting for me to speak again.

  “You drugged me,” I tried to scream, to be forceful, but all that came from my dry lips was a soft whisper.

  We were cocooned in the warm light of the lamp, making it harder for me to concentrate. I needed to force my brain and limbs into action. My life depended on it, but all I wanted to do was place my head back on the pillow and drown in sleep.

  “You were… upset,” he announced, the hint of an Italian accent returning on the last word that rolled from his tongue. “So upset, that you spat in my face,” he growled, as we both remembered at the same time.

  I pulled the sheets further around me and saw my hands shaking, at least my stupid body knew I was under immense threat.

  “Why am I here?”

  Sighing, he leaned forward and rubbed his face, trying to expel some of his anger, but he didn’t succeed. The shoulders of my captor only wound tighter as he looked up at me, his nostrils narrowing as he sucked in air.

  “That’s a loaded question, Miss Heart, and not one I’m willing to answer now. Just know that you’re safe.”

  Safe?

  I ignored him. I knew I wasn’t safe; I was far from anything remotely safe. If that were true, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped and drugged, I would be on the phone with my Aunt Sarah, talking about weddings. My stomach dropped as I remembered the last conversation I had with her, promising her that I would call her back. Was she worrying? Was anyone worrying?

  “Where am I?” my voice was climbing to the top of desperation as the fog in my brain shifted slightly.

  Hidden in his emotionless stare, he cleared his throat to answer me. “Sicily.”

  I finally felt the squeeze of death as my fear kicked in. Sickness rolled in my stomach when I looked towards the curtains. I wanted to propel myself towards the window, to rip away the curtains and see for myself. Betrayed once again by my body, I simply sat still with my building anxiety.

  All I needed was a breakthrough in the fog so I could pull myself out.

  Get it together Olivia.

  “How long have I been here?” I whispered, as I pulled my eyes away from his face. I couldn’t stomach to look at him any longer. I focused on the artwork across the room that sat proudly on the wall. A single-painted Strelitzia with its purple and orange hues taunting me. A flower that represented freedom, and the irony was not lost on me.

  “Four days,” he replied. There was no emotion in his voice to help me deem whether he was telling the truth. The man watching me, carefully leaned back into his chair, preying on me from his throne.

  I flinched. “How did you get me here?” I asked. I returned my eyes back to his, willing my brain to remember all the smaller details about him. Enough to build a case.

  Luca moved slightly to straighten out his cuffs, showing me two tattoos across his wrists. If my head were clear, I would have stored them in my memory, but I simply glazed over them.

  “We took you from your apartment to a private runway. It took them a total of fifteen minutes.”

  Was he pleased with himself?

  Fifteen minutes was all that it took to infiltrate my life. In fifteen minutes, I could walk to work, have a shower, eat breakfast, but also be kidnapped, stolen, and moved without knowing it.

  “The men that pinned me down?” I whispered, my voice trembling as I remembered the possibility of four of them. “They took me, on your orders?”

  Luca nodded before sitting back, his face was only half bathed in warm light now. In this lighting, he looked dangerous as he watched me.

  “We had to move quickly. They’re a team that has been hired by me to protect you.”

  I closed my eyes to block him out, to concentrate on feeling anything but exhaustion. I knew the moment I laid eyes on him that I had been given something else. I was subdued and delayed. Would he keep plying me with these drugs, numbing me up so that h
e could hurt me without me being able to fight?

  Had he already taken from me?

  “What are you going to do to me?”

  Standing up, he shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced at me once before shaking his head. As he moved, the warm shadows bounced across his skin, highlighting his collar bone where another tattoo sat proudly on his skin. I tried to force my eyes to evaluate the dark lines but couldn’t. I was sinking into unconsciousness as my hands let go of the sheets and my body began to slip back down onto the bed.

  My brain screamed at him to demand an answer. Wild thoughts of drug rings, prostitution, and sex slaves ran through my mind. I wanted desperately to claw at him, to run away back to my normal life, but my body had other plans.

  “Tomorrow,” I heard him start, his rich accent luring me deeper into the shadows. “I’ll explain this all to you tomorrow Olivia. You need to rest now, don’t fight it any longer. Your new life can wait a few more hours.”

  I knew he had gotten up by the faint sound of the chair squeaking. As he moved through the room, I noticed his smell, expensive and clean, not like I had expected. Somewhere faint in the background, I heard the turn of a handle and then nothing. I was enveloped once again in silence.

  Chapter Six

  Luca Caruso

  I shouldn’t have gone to see her, but fuck.

  I was supposed to wait and allow her to adapt to her new beginnings, but instead, I had found myself sitting, staring at her as she slept. My fingers had twitched to smudge away the faint line of mascara under her right eye, to smooth away her damp hair, to place the sheets over her, but I forced myself to remain statue still.

  Two hours had slipped by as I watched the rise and fall of her milky chest. There haven’t been many moments where I have sat for that long with just my thoughts, but I found it a difficult but satisfying task. Difficult because of the situation, but satisfying because only my eyes guarded her tonight.

  Originally, I had gone to bathe her in my anger from her obnoxious treatment towards me, the moment she spat in my face, I almost lost all sense of who I was. I felt vitriol spill into my veins quicker than any man-made poison. Instead, I found myself quietly observing her – forgiving her, wanting her to wake up.

  “Shit.”

  This wasn’t what I wanted. Years ago, I had made a promise to myself not to interfere, to let the universe take control, but now, I found myself in a rare position that I hadn’t been prepared for. I made a choice within five minutes. In those five minutes, I had set a motion of pure destruction in the hopes that I could fight off the universe's plan to take away my only source of happiness.

  It was still up for debate whether I had it in me to fight further.

  Slipping into my office, I wasn’t so surprised to see Dante with his feet up on my desk as he chugged back whiskey that had been a gift from his mother.

  “How’s it going Lucie?” he said, with a smirk that he reserved for his teasing. Only Dante knew when he could push my buttons, after spending his life glued to my side, he was the only person I let piss me off without consequences.

  “Fine,” I lied, as I snatched up the bottle of whiskey from the table and poured myself a glass.

  Dante had the grace to give me a moment to take a sip before calling me out on my shit.

  “You’re out of your depth,” he breathed, as he noisily placed his glass down on my desk. “What’s your plan now?”

  I felt my jaw clench at the insult but decided to let it slide. I couldn’t deny his view of the situation was correct, but it didn’t make it any easier to tolerate.

  “I’ll speak to her tomorrow,” I bristled. “She’ll have no choice but to submit to her new life here.”

  Dante didn’t miss a beat. “Choice, no, but she will fight cousin. Women like her won’t just accept a situation like this. You need to be smart moving forward, you need to—”

  I slammed my glass down on the table which made him flinch. Brittle was my temper right now and I didn’t need him telling me how fucked the situation was or how to handle it. In thirty-two years of being alive, I had fought through far more dangerous situations than this one.

  “I know what I’m doing,” I glowered at him, but he barely flinched, instead, he shrugged carelessly and picked his glass back up.

  “I hope you do,” he smirked. “Because she’s an ardente force that will either bring you to your knees or keep you warm at night.”

  “What do you know about her?” I snapped with a dismissive hand, as I tapped my computer back to life.

  “I know everything that you do, remember? I have been with you for the past eight years as we kept watch.”

  This isn’t what I needed to hear, and he knew it. Dante couldn’t leave well enough alone with his misplaced worry. It was me that was doing this and not him. I didn’t need him to burden himself with the same guilt.

  Why should we both sink for my mistake?

  “This will be on me Dante. I don’t need you wrapped up in this.”

  Dante scoffed before grabbing at his leather jacket that hung over the side of his chair, signaling that our conversation was ending.

  “Too late, Luca,” he sighed, “I made a promise to your mother that I would look out for you. I’ll continue to do this but don’t expect me to lie to you. If this starts getting out of control, I will speak my mind.”

  “I expect no less of you.”

  ****

  Ever since she had arrived in my home, I hadn’t been able to sleep. Instead, I worked until my eyes ached for anything but the bright light of my computer screen. When that did nothing to help, I turned to exercising in a private gym situated beneath the house.

  Four days and my routines were destroyed.

  Four days and I was second-guessing myself.

  Tonight, was no different. After pushing myself in the gym, I retired to my room in hopes that I had done enough to force my body to submit to sleep.

  Tomorrow we would start our lives together. For eight years, I had practiced the perfect patience and never stepped a foot over the boundaries I had set. Now I was steaming headfirst, feet barely registering the ground as I catapulted over the faint white line I had placed there many years ago.

  I suddenly felt desperate.

  ****

  The following morning, the land that I owned was bathed in bright sun, warming the grounds around me. In the quiet, I sat beside the pool, covered in the shade as I waited.

  Waiting was never my strong point. Being used to a strict schedule, my body struggled to remain still – to ignore the urge in my feet to pace. That urge only increased when I peered at my watch to see they were now five minutes late.

  Before I could demand that the maid hovering around the table go find them, my ears were alerted to the sound of shoes clipping against the stone tiles.

  “Don’t fucking touch me, asshole.”

  Good morning, Miss Heart.

  “Keep moving, Miss Heart,” Chen spoke clearly, no doubt heading her up from the back to avoid her slipping out of his grasp.

  A mere second later, they were approaching me from across the pool.

  Olivia Heart was surrounded by four of the best mercenaries money could hire. Dwarfed by their large muscles and weapons, she was huddled in the middle, her willowy figure wearing a black shift dress with bare feet.

  Looking over my sunglasses, I saw that her hair was damp, drying naturally in the heat as she moved slowly while her eyes scanned the grounds.

  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was gauging her surroundings for an escape.

  You won’t find one.

  I stood to greet her, ignoring the tension building in the base of my skull.

  Held back by Chris, formally known as Rum by his colleagues, she snatched her arm away from him, no fear present on her tear-stained face.

  This was interesting.

  It was my turn to face her wrath as her eyes found me beneath the canopy, simmering with rage, and terror glin
ting back at me.

  “I said don’t touch me,” she hissed, as she looked at Rum with all the distaste in the world.

  I wanted her attention. They were not worthy of it, even if it was to be on the other end of her venom.

  I couldn’t control it, my mouth opened. “Good morning, Olivia.”

  Stopping abruptly, Chen had to pull back quickly before he ran into her from the back. Olivia’s glower quickly receded, leaving only terror on her pretty face. Chen moved to bring her closer, but she recoiled from his touch, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “You have questions, and you want answers – sit,” I demanded, while motioning for her to take the seat next to me. Ignoring my gesture, she squinted across the pool to the other side, looking at the wall that spanned around the front of the house.

  It gave me the perfect opportunity to gauge her emotional status. From the shake of her hands and the quick rise and fall of her chest, I knew she was struggling to contain her fear.

  “Are you going to drug me again?” she whispered, as she took one step towards the table.

  Towards her fear.

  Brave and bold.

  A strange tingle swept down my spine when our eyes connected. This behavior wasn’t expected and given the sudden calmness, I knew she was silently plotting, hoping for a way out.

  Brave little thing.

  Would I need to drug her if she didn’t accept the new terms of her life?

  “Only if you don’t behave,” I said, as I took my seat, ignoring my body's urge to touch her.

  Looking around her, all four men faced forward, their eyes going over my head, but I knew they were on edge as much as I was – I sensed as much from Chen who kept his gaze pinned on the back of Olivia’s head.

  They had expected a fight, violence, and for her to scream like she had when she first woke up.

  Sitting hesitantly at the table, she forced her eyes on me, unblinking green eyes full of questions penetrating my human shell before I could prepare my defense.

  Miss Heart took me by surprise when she began to control her rage and fear, letting it sit with her while she observed me.