Chapter 5 Blindfolded

Adriana’s POV

The room felt eerily silent after the strippers left leaving the lingering scent of cheap perfume and sweat clinging to the air like an unwanted memory. My eyes followed them as they strutted out with their hips swaying in exaggerated movements all traces of their earlier hostility (of course towards me) disappearing the moment the guard slipped them their payment.

They giggled whilst whispering to each other as they disappeared through the door not sparing me another glance. Just another job for them, another night of easy money. Something I wanted to try but didn’t have the confidence to go through.

I, however, couldn’t move from the floor. My body refused to cooperate. I remained kneeling in the middle of the cold floor with my hands clenched so tightly in my lap that my knuckles had turned ghostly white. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there staring down at my trembling fingers but the weight in my chest grew heavier with every passing second.

I guess The shock was finally setting in, pressing down on me until I could barely breahte. It wasn’t just the shock of seeing Rafael again. That would have been enough on its own. But it wasn’t just that. It was who he had become.

The Rafael I knew or more like the boy who had once kissed away my tears, who had held my hand when I was scared, who had whispered soft promises against my skin was gone. And in his place stood a stranger. A totally fucking stranger I never would have seen coming.

He was no longer just Rafael, the boy I had left behind. No longer my high school sweetheart. No longer the man who had once loved me with everything he had. This Rafael was something else entirely. Something darker. Something terrifying.

I shivered violently while hugging my arms around myself but it did nothing to stop the tremors racking my body. I squeezed my eyes shut but the image of him wouldn’t leave me. He had been sitting there, cold and unbothered while another man lay dead at his feet.

Rafael had murdered someone. Right in front of me. Without batting an eyelash. The same Rafael that wouldn’t want me distressed even for a single minute and when he wants to fight, he makes sure I wasn’t there to witness the violence. He knows how much I used to hate it.

My mind struggled to accept what my eyes had already seen. The sound of the gunshot still echoed in my skull all sharp and violent. The thing that rattled through my bones like I was the one being shot. I could still feel the heat of his touch on my jaw, the way his fingers had dug in with bruising force, the way his eyes that are now unfamiliar and hollow had pierced through me with nothing but cruelty.

This wasn’t the Rafael I had known. The Rafael from six years ago would never have handled me like this. He wouldn’t watch anyone do it either. That Rafael had loved me. Had adored me. Had given me the kind of love that had once felt unshakable. But this man?

This man only wanted to break me with anything he could use.

I lifted my gaze hesitantly my eyes locking onto his image once more. He looked expensive now, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit every inch of him exuding wealth and power. His shoes alone looked like they could cover my daughter’s surgery. What the hell had he done in these last six years to get here?

Was it the guns? The bloodshed? A sick feeling curled in my stomach. I had always known Rafael had a darkness inside him something violent lurking beneath the surface but back then… back then, he had kept it at bay. When I was with him, he had tried to be good. He had even wanted to be good.

But now? There was no goodness left in him. He had become the darkness itself. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him anymore. Not when the one person that mattered made life hell for him.

A single ruthless kiss had confirmed that for me. One moment of his lips crashing against mine, one moment of heat and fury and devastation and everything I had fought to bury came rushing back to the surface. I had spent years trying to kill those emotions and to suffocate them and to pretend they didn’t exist.

But it had only taken one kiss to unravel me. I could still feel the imprint of his mouth against mine, still taste him on my lips. It was dangerous. The way my body had reacted along with the way my heart had nearly betrayed me. Old feelings are the most dangerous.

I swallowed hard, my throat burning as my mind replayed the way he had looked at me afterward. Like I was nothing. Like I was disposable. His hand had gripped my jaw like I was something to be handled not cherished. It left behind a dull aching pain that settled deep inside me not just on my skin but somewhere even more painful.

Rafael hated me. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in the way he touched me, hear it in his words. He hated me with everything in him and I knew that he wouldn’t stop until he had his revenge.

A vengeful Rafael was a terrifying thing. I had seen glimpses of it before but never like this. Never directed at me. There are so many unanswered questions between us but I’m sure he’s placed the dots already.

The air in the room shifted and I tensed as I heard movement. The guard, who had been silent this entire time finally stepped forward. I hadn’t even thought about him too consumed by my thoughts and too shaken by what had just happened. He stopped a few feet away from me, his towering presence making my skin prickle.

"Get up!” He ordered in a flat tone while staring at me like I was a nuisance he needs to get rid of. Like Rafael had only that his had more hatred.

I didn’t move. He exhaled sharply then took another step forward.

"We can do this nicely. Or we can do it the hard way.” He said again and I’m sure he is trying hard not to send bullet between my eyes like he did that man.

"Do what?" My voice came out hoarse. I swallowed thickly my pulse hammering in my ears.

"You’re coming with me." He didn’t even blik as he answered.

"I have something important to do. I can’t…" I shook my head quickly trying to steady myself. My thoughts immediately went to my daughter. What the fuck does this mean? Her babysitter is about to leave! I need to go home.

"Then you can tell that to the boss yourself."

The boss. I felt the words like a slap. Rafael is a fucking boss now. I didn’t know why that part stunned me so much. I should have known. The power he carried and the way people obeyed him without question and the fact that he could shoot a man dead in a crowded room without anyone daring to speak against him.

This wasn’t just money. This was power and it is the kind I cannot even imagine. Rafael had built an empire from nothing. I would like to know the story of how he did it. God knows he had went through hell.

My stomach twisted violently and I forced myself to take a deep breath. My mind was screaming at me to run but I knew better. I had signed a death warrant the moment I stepped into his world again and there was no escaping it now. A world where Rafael exists.

The guard didn’t wait any longer. He reached into his pocket and before I could react a blindfold was slipping over my eyes. And there was nothing but darkness. Then I lose conscious at the same time just for a moment. Fuck.