Breaking Midnight (Il Paradosso Series Book One)

Chapter thirty-six

Keeping my eyes open was wearisome, and near impossible. I felt my limp body being dragged into a cold dark space and thrown onto a hard surface.

The sharp uneven edges of a stone wall dug into my back when I leaned against it.

Daniel knelt in front of me, fidgeting with what sounded like chains. I felt a hard metal clamp onto both of my wrists, and the pressure was applied around my ankles with the same brutal force.

I opened my mouth to say something but all that came out was an incoherent mutter, and a sigh left my lips.

Whatever drug he had given me was too strong, and I could barely lift my finger without feeling exhausted. After a few failed attempts, I gave up trying.

My vision was blurry and my brain was a fuzz of shapeless images that looked as if they were dancing and floating around in the air.

Daniel's amorphous figure moved around in the dark room in a slow motion as my eyelids fluttered with heaviness.

"Don't worry, princess. It should wear off in about an hour, so just sit back and relax."

His voice had a different tone to it. It was emotionless, frigid and hostile. This wasn't the same man I had conversed with, merely hours ago.

I grimaced when his hands grabbed both sides of my face, and held it for a brief but agonizing minute, pressing his mouth onto mine. I hated the feeling of his lips but my motor senses were still useless and futile. He finally pulled away but maintained the firmness of his palms on my cheeks.

"I've always wanted to do that but like the true bitch that you are, never gave me a chance. Now things are going to be different, Adriana. This time, I'm your master."

Daniel was a coward; it was as simple as that. Instead of fighting the right way for something he wanted, he had decided it was easier to take things without consent.

With his back turned to me, he sat in a chair that was placed on the far end of the dark room, illuminated solely by a dusty night-lamp on the table next to it.

After what felt like more than an hour, my arms and legs began to regain their senses. Slowly but surely, my eyes readjusted, taking in my surroundings to see that I was in a small confinement, that looked like a basement.

The floor was shiny and smelled of cleaning products but the air was rough and musty, probably due to there being no windows for air circulation.

I shifted uncomfortably, my butt numb from the hard surface of concrete. This spiked Daniel's attention from his laptop, and he turned his head for a brief moment.

"I'm thirsty," I croaked with a dry throat. He just stared at me with indifference as if I had spoken a foreign language.

This wasn't the same Daniel I had run into over the past three months. This Daniel was spine-chilling and predatory, a version of him that I would have never imagined encountering.

Antonio's words sank to the back of my pulsating head. The consequences of keeping secrets from him were now greater then I could bargain with.

"Daniel, you can't keep me here forever. There are people that will be looking for me."

He didn't seem the least bothered by my vocalization. He continued with his typing while I sat still, formulating escaping stratagems in my mind.