VOWS WRITTEN IN BLOOD

CHAPTER 5

ELENA'S POV

Everything was blurry. I could barely see.

A sharp pain split through my skull, migraine-deep, like I'd been knocked out cold. My body wouldn't cooperate — every muscle heavy, every movement demanding more strength than I had. I was weak in a way I didn't recognize.

The air around me was thick with dust, rusted metal, something enclosed and stale.

I forced my eyes open. Light poured down from a single bulb overhead, harsh against concrete floors and stacks of wooden crates. It took a second for the setting to register.

A warehouse.

My breath caught in my throat.

I tried to piece together what happened, but all I had were fragments. The party. The study. After that — nothing. Panic climbed up my chest before I could stop it. I forced deep breaths, short and shallow, my body still fuzzy, still weak, my mouth dry as paper.

I'd been drugged.

The realization hit harder than the pain did. Whatever they'd used had knocked me out fast enough to erase everything between leaving the mansion and waking up here.

I tried to stand, tried to move, but the warehouse felt like an endless maze through the haze still fogging my head. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped, echoing in the emptiness. No music. No voices. No city noise underneath it all.

Just silence, complete enough to crawl under my skin.

I searched the space for anything — a way out besides the massive main entrance chained shut, any clue to where I was. Nothing looked familiar. I pressed myself to think.

The last thing I remembered was leaving the ballroom.

After that, darkness.

The truth settled on me slowly, and then all at once.

I'd been taken.

I'd failed.

I'd been caught.

Footsteps echoed through the warehouse — slow, unhurried, confident. Guards shifted somewhere behind them, adjusting weapons. The smell of cigar smoke drifted in before he did.

Rafael walked in with the same ease he'd carried at the party, one hand in the pocket of his tailored suit, a cigar in the other, his gaze fixed on me the moment he cleared the doorway. A cool smile settled on his face.

"Wow. You're awake."

I said nothing.

He stopped a few feet away, studying me the way someone studies a problem they're deciding how to dispose of.

"I was starting to think you were dead."

"What do you want?" My voice came out thinner than I wanted it to.

"Straight to business." He almost smiled at that.

Silence stretched between us before he broke it again.

"It's fun seeing you again... Jessica."

I held his eyes without blinking.

"Or—" A cold pause. "Your name is Elena." He said it like he'd known it for years, no hesitation in it at all.

My expression betrayed me for exactly a second before I caught it.

"I wanted to see how long you'd keep the act up," he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He let out a soft laugh. "That's disappointing. I had harsher methods planned, but I suppose we'll work with what we have." He signaled to his guards.

"You already seem to know everything. Why bother asking?"

"It's always better to hear it from the source. And I take a particular pleasure in watching people who think they're smarter than they are."

"I still don't know what you mean."

"You walked into my house under a false name."

I stayed quiet.

"You lied about your name before you'd even said a word to me."

Nothing.

"You spent the whole evening asking questions. What I do for work. My background. My family." A pause. "My father."

He crossed the distance between us fast, fisting a hand in my hair. I screamed before I could stop myself.

"I was just curious," I insisted through the pain.

He let go and stepped back, voice dropping calm again. "Tell me the truth. What exactly was your motive for being there?"

"It was a party."

"Don't play games with me."

"I was invited."

"Why would I believe that?"

"I wouldn't expect you to."

Whatever smile had been on his face was gone now. "You lied about your name before we'd exchanged a single word. Only someone hiding something leads with a lie."

The calm I'd been holding onto started slipping the moment I saw the irritation behind his eyes. He'd noticed everything. Every detail I thought I'd covered.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't recognize you?"

"I'd hoped."

"A dangerous thing to hope for."

Silence again, heavier this time. He stepped closer, and every footstep landed like a threat echoing through the empty warehouse.

"The moment I saw you, I knew exactly who you were," he said. "I keep my enemies close. I knew who you worked for. I understood immediately why you were interested in me." He stopped just short of me. "The only thing I don't know is what you actually came here to find."

I made myself meet his eyes. "If you already know who I am, then you know I'm not going to tell you anything."

A calm smile spread across my face, forced, but steady.

"Fine." He turned toward the door. "We'll continue this another time."

He stopped without turning back.

"Oh — and Elena." My name in his mouth felt like a threat all on its own. "You've messed with the wrong person. And when someone messes with me, they bleed for it."

He walked out. The massive door slammed shut behind him, chains dragging across metal in a sound that seemed to swallow the whole warehouse whole.

And I was left alone in the dark with one truth I couldn't outrun.

Whatever came next, I wasn't walking away from this untouched.