Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“You need to stop babying her,” Declan says. “She’ll be fine.”
“H-how long is the drive?” I ask.
“Can’t really tell you that,” Declan says. “It’ll be a while. I’m going to give you something that’s going to help you, Teagan. Open up.”
“What is it?”
“You’re just going to have to trust me,” Declan says.
“I’ve got her,” Luca says. “Open your mouth, baby.”
I feel his finger against my lips and open like he asked. He sets a chalky, bitter tablet on my tongue, and then I feel the rim of a glass bottle against my lips.
“This is just whiskey, okay?”
I open, fill my mouth with whiskey, and wash down the pill, then lean against Luca for the rest of the drive. I don’t know how long it takes to get there, and I guess that’s part of the point. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe an hour, hour and a half. But being blindfolded may have made it feel longer. I do know that when the car finally stops and they remove my blindfold, we’re deep into the mountains. It’s dark, and we’re at an isolated home built into the side of a cliff.
A man in a dark hood wearing a gold skull mask, the mouth twisted into a smile, waits at the doorway. “Names?” he asks.
“Declan and Luca De Rossi,” Declan says. “This is Teagan Townsend.”
“She’s not on the list,” the man says. “What’s her purpose?”
“She’s ours,” Declan says simply.
He seems to accept that as an answer. “We’ll need to make a record of her,” he says. He nods at another man, also wearing the same mask, waiting near the door who then approaches us.
“Come with me,” he says.
I look at Luca, who grips my hand tightly. “Come on,” he says. “You’ll be okay. I’ll be with you.”
We enter the home, and he ushers me aside. “Sit,” the man says.
I do as he asks, sitting at a desk. Luca sits beside me while Declan waits in the doorway, leaning against its frame.
“Identification?” the man asks.
I remove my wallet from my purse and, with shaky hands, thumb through the contents. I almost take out Blakely’s ID, but Luca stops me.
“No,” he says, pushing it back into my wallet. He removes my own ID from behind it and hands it to the man, who examines it before making a copy and handing it back. Then, he asks for my right hand and takes my fingerprints. I look at Luca, confused, and he just kisses the top of my head and rubs my back until he’s done. Then, he turns my hand over and takes a blood sample from my finger.
“You can go in,” he says.
I get up, and Luca holds me tightly against him, his fingertips digging into my side. I wrap my arms around his waist, holding tightly onto his belt with both hands as we exit the small office into the main hallway. Declan allows us to pass, then exits behind us.
“I wish you’d cling to me like that, Teagan,” he says quietly enough that only I can hear it, running a finger up the side of my neck.
I look back at him but say nothing.
“She does look really pretty when she’s terrified,” Declan says. He trails his knuckles down my spine. “All wide-eyed, aware of how helpless she actually is. I guess I can’t blame you.”
“Mmhmm,” Luca says, barely reacting as we make our way down the dark corridor.
I watch Luca’s posture shift once we reach the main room. He shakes off whatever apprehension I’d seen earlier in the car and replaces it with the same confidence I see from him on stage. He’s always huge, but somehow, he gets bigger, more imposing. He looks at me, both his green eyes and his tone hardened like I’ve seen a few times before.
“Listen to me, Teagan,” he says, stopping a few feet away from the door. “When we go in there, you do what I tell you to dono hesitation. Keep your head down, don’t look at anyone, don’t talk to anyone, even if they talk to you. Don’t try to fucking argue with me, and don’t fucking mouth off, okay? You can fight with me later if you want to, but not here. Do you understand?”
Behind me, Declan runs his hand over the swell of my ass.
I swallow hard. “Yeah, Luca. I understand.”
“I’ll see you guys in about half an hour,” Declan says.
He squeezes the back of my neck before he walks around us toward a man waiting on the staircase. I look at himjust barelybefore I remember I’m not supposed to look at anyone and cast my eyes downward.
“Mr. De Rossi, welcome,” another masked man says. I catch just a glint of the gold before I correct myself and look down at his shoes. “And who is this? Is she for them?”
I keep my head down like Luca told me to, and he answers for me. “No. Teagan is mine.”
“Too bad,” he says. “If you ever felt like sharing, I could make it worth it for you”
“No, you couldn’t,” he snaps. “And no, I won’t. Just give me the fucking cups before I crack your skull in half and use that instead.”
The man holds two gold chalices out in front of him, and Luca takes them both. He hands one to me and guides me around the man and into the room.
“Look up,” Luca says. “But don’t react.”
I slowly raise my eyes. All the air leaves my lungs when I see what’s in front of me.
There’s a girlprobably younger than melying on a marble slab at the front of the room. Several knives stick up in her abdomen and a couple in her throat and thighs. Blood slowly drips from several troughs in the slab and into a reservoir below.
“Is shewhat happened?” I ask.
He digs his nails into my hips as he guides me toward her. “I told you not to react.”
“Did they kill her?” I whisper.
“Yes,” he says.
“Where did she come from?”
“It isn’t good, Teagan. You shouldn’t ask,” he says. “You’ll need to fill your cup, Teag. I’m warning youit’s going to be warm. It’s better to fill it from the spray than from belowthen it might be chunky, too.”
“I have to drink it?”
“You’ve done it before. You like it.”
“Not like this.”
“Just do what I fucking tell you to do,” he says. Then, softening his tone, he adds, “There’s no difference, baby.”
He starts to fill his chalice, and I do the same. But there is a differencea big difference. I try not to look at the small, pale girl on the table, but I can’t help myself. My eyes run down her body, and she movesshe fucking moves.
“Luca? Her hand moved.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “She’s dead, Teagan.”
“But”
“Teagan ” he cautions. “You’re not fucking listening. Cheers, baby.”
He throws back the contents of the cup, and I do the same, trying my best not to choke on the hot coppery liquid filling my mouth.
Once I swallow it, Luca’s mouth finds mine. I taste the copper on his own tongue in my mouth before he pulls away.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.