Page 34 of Vicious Arrangement (Alpha Billionaire Daddies #7)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

ARIA

The horrific throbbing pain in my skull wakes me, and I want to throw up, except I think if I move, I just might die.

I listen to see if I’m alone, but I can’t tell. I can hear people through the walls of wherever I am, and I’m honestly not sure if I want to open my eyes because where I am stinks.

Old cheap weed, older cigarette smoke, mold, and sex.

I remember getting ready, Angus… Angus on the floor.

And the man with the baseball cap and being hit and nothing until now.

My stomach heaves, and I force myself to open my eyes and look around, even as the agony shoots through my head like arrows.

There’s wallpapered walls, peeling and stained and I’m not sure I’ve seen a room with anything but high-end wallpaper in years. It’s not in at all to paper walls. I bite my lip, and I try to move.

Terror streaks through me. I’m tied up, bound to a lumpy hard mattress, and a blankets that’s on me is stained and smells like urine, as if someone just fucked an entire football team on it. So much semen.

Oh, God, I think I’m going to throw up.

Sirens rend apart the air, and people scream obscenities outside. A dull thud starts up on the wall behind me complete with moans and grunts.

The clock in my head ticks, but the hands are broken, and I don’t know if it’s day or night. If there’s a window, it’s covered.

To my right, as far as I dare turn my head, is another bed. And I know where I am.

In a hotel in hell.

There’s no one here, and I move, the bed creaking. My mouth’s dry and my throat sore, and I call out. “Help! Please, someone help!”

The room behind me bangs harder and faster, and someone outside the room calls back, “help, please someone help her… she’s in need of a good fuck. Lemme in, baby, I got the tool for you, and so’s my friend.”

I shudder, stomach roiling. I press my lips together hard as tears press hard at my eyes, burning them.

What the fuck is happening?”

A toilet flushes and a light suddenly spills into the room, artificial and white, then it disappears with a slam and a man comes into view.

There’s something incredibly familiar about him but I don’t know who this creep is.

“Oh, good you’re awake,” he says. “I was worried I hit you a little too hard.”

Suddenly, I know who it is.

The man with the baseball cap.

The neighbor.

But other than that… I don’t…

He smiles at me like we’re old friends, and I glare, remembering what he did to Angus.

“Who are you? Is my dog okay?”

“That critter’s fine. It was just enough to make you out of it so I could get you out of that white palace. I’m sure he’s running about having fun.”

The world blurs for a moment, but I grit my teeth and refuse to let myself give in to the panic that’s beating at me.

“What do you want from me? I don’t know you,” I whisper.

He grins, and there’s a slight dimple and I suddenly know why he looks familiar even though I don’t know him.

“I’m Noah’s brother.”

I try to regulate my breathing. I tell myself the date, my name.

I go through all the things they do to see if someone’s concussed.

But I need medical attention. Even if I’m not, I could have a fractured skull.

There might be brain swelling coming on.

I’m about to lose my shit and my mind, so I start counting backwards.

Then I force myself to look at him. Two eyes. One nose. One mouth. If I could make him hold up fingers for me to count, I would.

“Noah,” he says gravely, “did a bad, bad thing. He told the mafia where to find me. What kind of brother would do that? No wonder his grandfather hated him and our father wanted him dead. He’s a monster, and he’d going to pay for it.”

I debate holding back the sob that’s rising, but I let it out, tears spilling. Let him think I’m weak. If I can buy a moment of sympathy, maybe I can talk him down. “W-what are you going to do with me?”

He sits on the end of the bed and slips a hand under the blanket and up my leg to my thigh.

“That’s up to Noah,” he says, stroking my flesh and making my stomach turn. He inches up a little higher. “He’ll either pay the money I rightly deserve, or I’ll hand you over to the mafia to settle my debt. I imagine a pretty little thing like you will do well in an auction.”

The hand slides a little further, stopping at my upper inner thigh, just shy of my panties.

“An auction?” Nausea rocks me hard.

Aaron nods. “There are a lot of sick people in this world, Aria. People who’ll pay a lot of money for a pretty thing like you.

Shit, girl, you look untouched. I know you’re not.

I saw you have an appointment with a lady doctor.

Did Noah knock you up? A pregnant girl just might fetch a lot more than even a slightly touched one.

You’re probably up there with a virgin or underage.

“There are people who’ll pay through the nose to do horrendous things to you.

Things that’ll make you wish you were dead.

But they wouldn’t allow that. No fun in the dead for that lot.

They’ll just make you wish it, and they’ll keep using you and hurting you until they’re done.

Then they’ll give you to the ones who like the dead to play with. ”

He squeezes my thigh hard as he leans in. “Some like to paralyze you so you feel everything they do to the dead before killing you. Just so you know.”

Aaron squeezes a little harder, then lets go and gets up.

He’s so pleased with himself that I can barely look at him.

“I can’t believe I ever tried to convince Noah to give you a chance. You’re a coward. Noah’s right, you’re nothing but a monster, just like your father.”

He spins, eyes blazing as he launches himself at me, hands locking around my throat as he cuts off my air. “You have no idea what you’re fucking talking about. You don’t know my life or what I’ve been through. That fuck Noah has everything and I have nothing. Nothing!”

Tears scald my skin as he chokes me, and I try to fight him, but I can’t. His restraints bite into my flesh, holding me fast. I can’t breathe, and the world’s going dark, but I croak some words out.

“I’m no good to you dead.”

They reach him because he lets go and slaps me so hard across the face that my ears ring.

“You stupid, ugly fucking cunt. Rich bitch who’s gonna deserve everything she gets. I hope they give me a go on you. I’ll fucking cut off your tits, you stupid bitch.”

Bile, bitter and thick, fills my mouth, and I swallow it down, past my now-raw throat.

But the panic’s still in my veins, hammering at me with frantic wings.

I need to get out of here. I have to. I don’t think I’m going to survive the trip to his nasty friends.

He sounds like everything Noah told me about his father, but with all the staggeringly horrific pieces he left out restored, and somewhere in all of this, my heart aches for little Noah.

I have to get out. I’ll die otherwise.

But there’s no way out. The ties are too strong.

Noah’s the only person who can help me, and I pray that he somehow finds me and gets here in time.