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I stare in horror, reality itself ripping and cracking around me. My mouth opens and closes soundlessly, only to do so again. My face throbs and every square inch of my fucking skin crawls with a creeping, gnawing sensation.
Suddenly, Drazen claps his hands together, loudly. So loudly that the entire dining room of D’Atella falls silent.
“Everyone out.”
He barely even raises his voice when he says it. He simply speaks the words…
…And instantly every diner in the room sets down their glass or silverware and stands. The entire waitstaff puts whatever they’re holding down on the nearest available surface.
My vision blurs a little as I watch every single person in the restaurant, from the patrons, to the waitstaff, to the chefs, all the way down to the dishwashers in the kitchen, file out, leaving us completely and utterly alone at our table in the center of the room.
What is happening.
I grip the table and attempt to stand. But my legs aren’t working. My mouth is painfully dry, and when I try to speak, my head spins again.
“The thing is, Taylor…” Drazen murmurs quietly, his voice dripping with malice as he calmly watches me from across the table. All traces of his early charm are gone, replaced by a viciousness that radiates off him like a toxin.
“Ah, but you’re not Taylor at all, are you?”
I blink as my vision swims. “Yes…I…”
The room spins.
Oh my God…
My foggy gaze sweeps across the table, first to his untouched glass of wine, then to my half-empty one.
Oh, fuck.
“No,” he sighs quietly, taking a slow, measured breath and drumming his inked fingers on the linen tablecloth. “No, you’re not.”
My vision swims again as I feel gravity keep me in my chair and tug my head down to the way-too-soft tablecloth.
I’m only dimly aware of Drazen standing and buttoning his suit jacket, his eyes lancing into me as he comes around the table and taps his fingers on the tablecloth right in front of my face.
“Your name is Annika.”
Come play, Annika!
Come throw the ball!
Come play, Annika…
“Your name is Annika Brancovich, and you are my fucking wife.”
Inside, I’m screaming. But not a sound escapes my lips as the whole world spins and starts to go dark.
“And now,” Drazen snarls from somewhere very far away, “you’re going to pay for what you did.”
Strong hands grab my arms as I slip out of consciousness.
“Time to play, Annika…”
11
DRAZEN
She stirs slightly when the plane encounters some turbulence. But she won’t be waking anytime soon.
