Caged: A Dark Mafia Romance

I squirmed in my seat, trying to alleviate the pressure. I wouldn’t dare look Eddie in the face right now, but I could have sworn that out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smirk.

Bastard. He would pay for this someday.

If I got out of this alive… well, if I got out of this alive, I would run as far away as I could from the name Eddie Vasco. No job was worth this, and the Hamptons with my parents and some boring dinner with a financial advisor sounded heavenly right about now.

I stared out the window to try to get my bearings. I had assumed he was taking me out of the city somewhere, but it appeared we were in Brooklyn by the landmarks we were driving by. I had many pictures on my apartment wall of Eddie being in Brooklyn since it was clearly a favorite neighborhood of his, but I had assumed that if he kidnapped a prosecutor, he would want to disappear and fall off the grid a bit more than driving me past the Costco in Brooklyn.

A flash of panic hit me.

Why wasn’t I blindfolded?

He was allowing me to see everything. Which meant that…

He wouldn’t allow me to leave alive.

I needed to be blindfolded! I needed to be blindfolded now!

But as we turned onto a dirt road and headed toward a large deserted building, I knew it was too late. I knew exactly where Eddie Vasco was taking me.

The Jumping Jack Power Plant.

This towering abandoned industrial building that loomed over the Brooklyn waterfront would be the location of my nightmare.

I had never been inside, though there were many explorers on the hunt for mysterious locations who knew of this place and had taken pictures. I had once attended a gallery opening in the Upper Eastside that highlighted the rusted beams coated in graffiti in the exhibit. I also knew enough to know it had been sealed off in the eighties and would make a perfect place for Eddie Vasco to take me, and no one would ever hear me scream or find my body. My soul would join the other ghosts that haunted the metal chambers.

Was this place the burial grounds for the Vasco family?

There were many rumors that surrounded the Jumping Jack Power Plant. Tales of Satanic rituals, sex parties that took kink to the next level, and even that it was the location for sex auctions. Torrid tales swirled around this place even though very few people knew of its exact location. The only thing factual was that it was once a power station of some sort and once acted as a chop shop since there were pictures of old cars and dilapidated machinery inside. There was also a colossal structure in the middle constructed out of massive beams that resembled a large man doing a jumping jack—hence its name.

“Home, sweet home,” Eddie said as the car pulled up in front of the building.

I didn’t know what he meant by ‘home’ but there was no way this place would be where he lived. He had taken me here for something yet unknown, and then to get rid of my body with the rest of his victims.

Eddie got out of the car and walked around to my side.

I couldn’t get out of the car. If I did, I had no chance at all. Once I entered that structure of death, I knew it was the beginning of the end.

Chapter Four

Eddie Vasco

Never stick your hand inside the cage of a wild animal.

I knew better than this, and yet, as I reached into the car to pull Nayla out, the heel of her foot kicking me square in the nose reminded me of that painful fact.

“Don’t touch me,” she screamed, though her voice sounded hoarse and ragged.

Blinking back tears and tasting the blood gushing out of my nose into my mouth, I shouted through clenched teeth, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Wiping away the blood, though more kept coming, I called out for my driver. “Vinny, give me a hand, will ya?”

This little vixen clearly needed more of a lesson on what acting out got you.

Wide-eyed and half naked, Nayla most certainly put up a fight. She kicked, she punched, she even bit poor Vinny on the forearm. She wasn’t going down without a fight, but a fight I would give her right back.

“Motherfucker!” she screamed, kicking and slapping away at us as we both crouched into the car attempting to pull her out.

I should have tied her up, and I’m sure Vinny agreed.

I tried not to laugh when sweat poured down poor Vinny’s forehead as the tough guy struggled against a wee little lass. Her panties were long gone, and she had not a care in the world that all her naughty bits were on full display as she attempted to fight us off. No one would believe this story if they weren’t seeing it firsthand.