My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 590

Chapter 590

Gianna

Pain.

That was the first thing I felt. It was a deep, heavy ache that pulsed through the back of my head. It throbbed with every heartbeat, every breath, every tiny movement.

A quiet whimper escaped me before I even opened my eyes.

The world slowly came into focus.

The ceiling above me was stained with water marks. One of the fluorescent lights flickered every few seconds, buzzing loudly enough to make my headache worse.

I blinked, everything swam. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. Why was I lying on the floor? Why couldn’t I move?

I tried to lift a hand and suddenly panic shot through me. I jerked harder. My wrists burned.

Rope.

My hands were tied tightly behind my back.

I gasped against something stuffed inside my mouth.

A gag.

My breathing immediately became uneven.

No…

No…

I kicked my legs. My ankles were bound together too. The movement sent another wave of pain through my skull.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Think.

Think.

What happened?

Mama D…

Morgan opened the door…

I saw Mama D…

Then-

Something slammed into the back of my head.

Everything after that disappeared.

My eyes flew open again. The memory hit so suddenly that my stomach twisted. The room finally stopped spinning enough for me to look around.

I was lying on an old mattress in the corner of what looked like a dirty basement. There were windows all around the top of the wall, connected to the ceiling, but they were covered. The air smelled of dust, old wood and cigarette smoke.

Someone had wrapped a bandage around my head.

She froze.

Her hand slowly fell away.

“I know…” she whispered to me, “I know you’re scared.”

I shook my head harder, “Mmph!”

She looked over her shoulder at Cole before lowering her voice.

“I love you,” she whispered, as fresh tears rolled down my face, “I will always love you. But… we have to do this and it’s all your fault.”

I stared at her, confused, hurt.

“Why would you tell him something like that?” she whispered, her voice shaking. “That the Capones would do anything for you… He latched onto those words. After you left, that’s all he could think about.”

I shook my head so hard another sharp wave of pain shot through the back of my skull.

No…

She saw the fear on my face and hurried on. “He backed us into a corner. He’d been putting this together for days. Ever since Vincenzo and Raphael came here and warned us to stay away from you…” Her voice cracked, “That’s why I kept pushing you away. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. But after they came… Cole realized just how important you were to them, and he wouldn’t let it go.”

Another tear slid down my face.

“He held a gun to Morgan’s head.”

My heart seemed to stop beating.

Mama D gave the smallest nod, tears spilling down her cheeks, “He said if we didn’t do exactly what he told us…. he’d kill all of us.” Her voice trembled. “We tried to talk him out of it. We argued. We begged him to stop. We told him it would only make things worse…” She closed her eyes for a moment. “…but he’d already made up his mind. Everything had already been planned.”