The Shadows

Chapter Forty-Two

As she woke, the first thing Annabella's mind registered was that she had a massive headache. It felt like someone was taking a hammer to her head constantly. The second thing was that she was not in the same hospital room that she was before.

Taking in her surroundings, she saw that she was in what looked to be another hospital room. Annabella was alone as of now, so she had time to think of how she was going to get away from whatever this place was.

She tried to sit up and disconnect herself from the machines that she was hooked up to, but she was stopped by something pulling on her wrist. Looking down, she confirmed that she was indeed handcuffed to the bed that she was laying on.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this predicament without alerting anyone who was near her that she was in fact awake, Annabella decided to look for possible exits in case someone came and released her for some odd reason.

As she was observing the room, she heard the footsteps of multiple people heading towards the room she was in. Afraid of who it might be, she faked being asleep once again. As the door opened, the voices of the people finally reached her.

"Why did we grab her again, boss?" The first voice questioned in a very familiar language.

"That is for me to know. Stop asking questions or you will be scrubbing the floors in the torture chamber with a tooth brush." A voice, which she instantly recognized as Samuel, snapped at the first voice in Spanish.

They both walked closer to her, probably to see if she was awake yet or not. Annabella tried to even out her breathing and make herself seem peaceful. She felt someone's face come closer to hers, as if they knew that she was really awake.

The first voice spoke again, almost making her jump from the rudeness of it. "What are you doing boss? She's asleep, so why are you getting so close to her face?"

Samuel sighed, obviously being tired of dealing with whoever this was.

"I just want to check on my Queen in peace. If you are going to keep asking questions about this you will have a bullet between your eyes. Now leave!" He snapped, once again.

After that was said, footsteps could be heard leaving the room and the door being closed was also heard.

It was silent for a few moments before Samuel spoke up, scaring her.

"I know you are awake Annabella. Now be a good girl and open up your eyes for me." He said in what sounded like a sweet voice, but she could hear the threat underneath it all.

Not wanting to make him mad since he currently has the upper hand, Annabella reluctantly opened her eyes to see him closer to her face than she expected.

She flinched away from him and she could tell that it made him angry, so she tried to calm him down by playing the damsel in distress.

"Where am I?" Annabella questioned, trying to make herself sound weak, which wasn't very hard considering her current state.

He believed her of course.

His eyes softened as he responded back to her. "You are at one of my bases in the hospital wing."

"Why am I here?" She questioned once again, trying to take advantage of his soft spot for her.

His eyes hardened, and he responded very angrily. "You are mine. That is why you are here. You will become the queen to my mafia and do as I say if you want your family to live."

Breaking out of her damsel act, Annabella bitterly responded to him. "I will never be your queen. I don't belong to you and you won't hurt my family if you don't want to hurt me."

He just smirked at her.

"There she is. I knew you were hiding below the surface. Oh, I will hurt them if it means you stay with me. I will do whatever it takes so you are with me forever." He said cockily.

Knowing he was right and would do anything, even if it meant hurting her in any way needed.

"Why me? Out of all the girls lining up trying to get into your pants, why did you choose me? The one girl who hates you the most." Annabella questioned defeatedly.

"Don't you get it," He said. "I want you for that very reason. I want to break down every single wall you have built up and make you so helpless that you can help but to fall in love with me." He said like he was talking to a toddler.

Knowing trying to talk him out of anything would be useless, she turned around as much as the handcuffs would allow and tried to go back to sleep and wake up from this nightmare.

Samuel sighed at this, but let her do so, knowing the frustration that she had right now. He kissed her head and left her alone.

'Dad, where are you?' Annabella thought as she fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stefano and his sons still could not find his princess and everyone was back to their old ways once again.

Armani was still in the hospital. He blamed himself for Annabella getting taken again. He said, "If you guys would have just stayed with her, she wouldn't have gotten taken from us again."

Stefano was using all possible resources to track her and the person who took her down, but it was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. There were no traces of either one of them anywhere, and his hope was dwindling with each day.

He could only pray that a miracle would happen and that Annabella was okay wherever she was.