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~ Daniela's POV ~

"I'll let you talk to me but if you start to annoy me, I can't be held responsible for what I do to you."

"What can you even do to hurt someone in such a small room?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I instantly regretted them when I saw the smirk tug at his perfect lips.

"Oh Daniela, what do you think I've been thinking about for the last week?"

"You've been thinking of ways to hurt me?" Shaking his head, he turned to face me properly when he spoke. "Not you, I've been thinking of ways to hurt George, although, I guess they could be used on you too."

I narrowed my eyes, studying him for a moment while he just smirked. I'd always wondered what went on his head but now that I found out they were mostly violent thoughts, I wasn't so sure if I liked the answer.

Although, it did make him seem much more intriguing.

And hot.

Sure.

"You won't actually hurt me though, right?"

This time he just gave me a deadpan look before rolling his eyes.

"Of course not Daniela. If I was going to hurt you, don't you think I would have done it by now?"

I guess he did have a point, but you still can never be too careful. It took Ayden a year before he started hurting me, I'd only been here with Carson for a week.

"Anyway, I think it's my turn to ask you a question now." It was quiet for the moment as I sat there for a moment thinking about my next question, until he spoke up.

"How old are you?"

"It's not your turn Carson, you have to play by the rules." Although he clearly didn't care much for the game we were playing, I always believed in sticking to the rules.

Which is why don't you have any friends.

Actually no, my psycho boyfriend is the reason for that.

"I don't care, I don't follow any rules so just answer the damn question."

Touchy.

"I'm 21." As soon as I said my age, his eyes widened as he turned his head to look at me. "You're only 21?"

"Okay why do you say it like that? 21 is old." All he did was roll his eyes at my offended tone. "I assumed you were older, but I guess since you were stupid enough to get yourself kidnapped, it makes sense."

"Or maybe you were just stupid enough to assume I was older than 21."

This time he just turned his head to give me a weird look, clearly not understanding comeback. I mean, neither did I, to be honest.

"Anyway, it's my turn so stop butting in. What do you do?"

"Everything."

"That's not an answer." Ignoring my irritation, he just gave me a smirk as he shrugged his shoulders. "You never said I had to be specific and your question wasn't very specific either."

"But-"

"My turn. What job do you have?" His teasing smirk was definitely enough to annoy the hell out of me. "I'm not telling you."

"Oh come on, you can't break the rules to your own game Daniela."

"You're making fun of me." This time he let out a laugh, confirming my suspicions. Letting out a huff, I turned away from him while he just continued to laugh next to me.

Maybe I preferred it when we sat in silence, at least then he wasn't laughing at me to my face.

"Okay I'm sorry, I'll answer your question properly." When he said this, I took a couple of seconds to turn to face him. "And you have to promise to stop making fun of me."

"But that's the fun part." When I narrowed my eyes at him, he let out another chuckle while nodding his head. "Fine."

Once his laughter had finally died down, he went back to the question that I'd asked him.

"I guess you could say I'm a business man, I sell things and provide services."

"What kind o-"

"That's all you need to know." Any previous traces of amusement had completely disappeared from his face and instead he just gave me a warning look. Clearing my throat to fill the awkward silence, I nodded my head before quickly changing the subject.

"Well to answer your question, I work at an accountancy firm, or...I worked at an accountancy firm. I have a degree in accounting from Columbia."

My education was one thing I knew I could talk about proudly and one thing I knew no one could ever take away from me. People like Ayden and George could try to take away my freedom and in Ayden's case even my independence but they couldn't take away my education.

I worked my butt off to get into Columbia and then to graduate and do my CPA exam, I deserve to at least feel proud for that.

Carson let out a low whistle when I said this before he let out a laugh. "Maybe you're not a little girl after all, but you're still naive, sometimes."

All I did was roll my eyes at his little dig before I asked my next question.

"Do you actually have any friends?"

This time it was Carson's turn to roll his eyes as he leaned his head back against the wall. "Yes Daniela I do have friends."

"Do you think they're having fun without you?" Although my question was meant to be a joke, when he closed his eyes, letting out a sigh, I could tell he wasn't happy with this particular subject.

And once again, silence fell around us, indicating he wasn't going to respond to me.

"It's your turn." When I spoke in a more tentative tone, he opened his eyes, turning his head to look at me. "Maybe I'll tell you about them another time."

I didn't even expect him to acknowledge what I said about his friends so of course I was happy enough with that.

"When's your birthday?" I see he's going straight in with the deep questions. "6th May."

Giving him a smile I tried my best not to think about my most recent birthday that had just passed just over two months ago. "When is yours?"

"Is that your question? Remember you only get one." When he flashed me a grin I rolled my eyes, nodding my head. "Yeah, it's my question."

"You have the chance to ask me anything and you ask me about my birthday?" When he shook his head at me I just gave him a deadpan look when I realised he was making fun of me again. "7th April."

"Oh that's almost exactly a month before mine." When I flashed him a smile he didn't bother responding to me, clearly not sharing my excitement. This time when it fell silent he leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

I can't be the only who finds that so hot.

"Carson it's your turn." When I spoke he didn't bother to open his eyes. "I'm busy."

"Doing what?" When he heard my incredulous tone his lips twitched up into a smile. "Pretending you're not here."

"That's not nice." When he heard my response he cracked one eye open taking note of my pout before letting out a sigh closing his eyes again. "Fine, what's your favourite colour?"

Choosing to ignore the way he spoke to me as if he was speaking to a child, I thought carefully about my answer before I responded. It's an important answer, your favourite colour says a lot about you.

"Yellow, it's the colour of happiness." That's what my mom used to say to me anyway, she loved anything yellow, especially sunflowers.

"That's stupid."

When he snapped his response at me I couldn't help the way it struck something in my heart, like he was saying her words were stupid.

This time when I fell silent, averting my gaze away from him and towards the floor it didn't take long before I felt his eyes on me and then he mumbled his apology. "Sorry."

"It's not stupid, maybe if you weren't so moody all the time you'd understand what I was talking about."

All he did was nod his head as if he accepted what I said to him, I mean he probably knew he had a habit of always being in a bad mood. He didn't need me to tell him that.

When a few moments passed in silence I mumbled my next question to him deciding I didn't care to ask about his favourite colour. It was probably black, like his soul.

"Do you prefer cats or dogs?"

"Neither."

Of course.

Letting out a frustrated breath, I waited for him as he began to think about his next question, at least that's what I thought he was doing when the light suddenly turned off around us.

They did that every night, they turned the lights out even if we weren't tired. Just another form of torture to add to the cold, I guess. At least there was a little natural light coming in from the window to let us move around and see each other even if it was much harder now.

Sometimes we left the bathroom light on and the door open if we were desperate for the small bit of light, but that was rare. It didn't help much anyway since the bathroom light was so dim.

"Did you come up with this game yourself?"

"Yeah." I gave him a proud smile when I said this while he just shook his head. "It's nothing to smile about Daniela, this is the worst game ever. I'd actually rather play George's stupid game, at least then I have more chance of being knocked out halfway."

"Well it's not like you were going to talk to me otherwise."

At this, he nodded his head in agreement before he eventually stood to his feet, letting out a tried yawn.

"At least your awful game helped to tire me out, so I guess it wasn't totally useless."

"Just wait and see, tomorrow you'll be begging to talk to me Carson."

Of course all he did was laugh as he made his way to the bathroom, probably to brush his teeth.

<<<<<<< >>>>>>> <<<<<<<<

"Daniela stop that, you look like you're trying to kill me with your eyes."

"I'll stop when you stop bouncing your leg like that." Once again Carson let out a groan before standing up from his place on the bed as he began pacing around the room.

For some reason today he'd been totally restless from the moment we woke up.

Today was the first day that George was away, which meant we were trapped in this room for the foreseeable future until he came back to continue his stupid games.

I'd already watched Carson do a million push ups and sit ups, which I didn't mind in the slightest because it meant I got to see him without a shirt, but now that wasn't enough for him either.

I don't even know how he managed to do it with all his injuries, but I guess he really was that desperate to do something. I was still trying to be careful since I had that cut on my stomach from my last night with Ayden. It was healing pretty well and so were the bruises but the last thing I needed was for it to open up again.

"I need to do something before I go crazy."

"You could do the laundry?"

Yes, even when we're locked up in this freezer we had to do laundry. It was like another form of torture that George came up with.

It was a funny story actually.

Once upon a time, Carson and I were running out of clean clothes so when we asked for some fresh ones, an hour later one of George's cronies came back with a box of washing powder. The end.

"If you don't want to do something useful, we could always play my game again." When I gave him my fifth, or maybe sixth, suggestion of the morning, he once again turned to face me with a glare.

"Daniela, if you say one more stupid thing I will roll you up in that blanket to shut you up."

"You say that like I wouldn't enjoy it. It's freezing in here."

All Carson did was let out a sigh before he began pacing around the room again, leaving me to sit in silence watching him clench his fists as he wandered around our small ice box.

"I need to hit something."

"There's a wall right there." When I pointed to the wall, Carson just shook his head and came over to me, picking up the pillow from our bed. "Stand up and hold this."

"No way!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because you're going to kill me. Have you seen the size of you compared to me?"

Instead of giving me a chance to try and save my life, Carson just grabbed my wrist, pulling me up off the bed with ease before placing the pillow in my hands. Although he was too busy with his mission to care, I was suddenly aware of his hands on mine as I held the pillow.

"Just hold it with a firm grip and I won't hurt you." I could tell he was amused that I was so scared but still in that moment all I could think about was the tingling sensation on my skin even as he moved back to get ready to punch the pillow.

It was only when he spoke that I realised what was about to happen.

"Ready?"

Part of me wanted to put the pillow down and tell him I definitely wasn't, but the other, smarter part, realised that would only lead to me being punched in the face.

Without waiting for a reply, Carson very quickly punched the pillow which instantly caused me to fall back onto the bed from the force.

It didn't hurt but I definitely wouldn't opt to do it again. Ever.

"Get up."

Letting out a groan, I somehow forced myself to get up off the bed before I gave him a glare. "Screw you Carson."

All he did was let out a laugh before gesturing for me to lift the pillow up again. At first I lifted the pillow up in front of my face before I lowered it so that I could see him again.

"I don't like this."

"Unless you want me to hit your pretty face by accident, I'd suggest you don't do that."

The moment I lifted the pillow up again, the only thing that was going through my head was to hide my face before he saw my potential blush.

Yes, I'm a blusher, I wasn't used to compliments so I was never sure how to deal with them.

We spent the next few minutes with Carson trying to punch the pillow to release his tension and frustration but instead he just got more worked up every time I fell backwards.

"You need to get stronger."

"What are you talking about? I'm strong. There was this one time I couldn't open a jar for days and then suddenly, bam, it opened a few days later."

Although I was being seriously, Carson just let out a chuckle. "Do you know self defence?"

"Yes." When my answer came out almost instantly, he rose an eyebrow at me before taking the pillow out of my hands, tossing it back down on the bed.

"Show me."

"Now?" Nodding his head, he stepped back to give me some space. "Show me what you know."

"You want me to do it on you? Are you sure? Won't you get hurt?"

"I'll be fine Daniela, I train everyday." This time he gestured for me to do something while I still just stood there unsure of what exactly he wanted from me.

"Don't you need to attack me or something?" When I said this, Carson just rolled his eyes before taking a step towards me to imitate an attack.

As soon as he took another step, I also took one closer to him to close the gap before I lifted my knee, driving it into his balls.

As soon as my knee made contact with his area, he suddenly stilled before he let out a groan, dropping down to his knees. I decided to give him some time before I spoke, but in hindsight I should have probably given him a bit longer.

"Are you okay?"

"If you speak again, I will kill you Daniela." His voice came out weak and raspy as he cupped his area, clearly trying to work through the pain.

"I'll just give you a minute."

The room remained silent for a while so I took the time to make the bed before I lay down to get comfortable and warm again. It took Carson quite a few minutes before he finally spoke to me, this time in a harsh tone.

"What the hell was that?"

"What? You told me to show you what I knew." Making the mistake of looking at him, I noted the angry glare he was giving me as he brought himself to his feet. "Freaking self defence, not that."

"That is self defence." Instead of arguing with me, he just came to sit down on the bed next to where I was lying.

"Are you feeling better?" This time, he just nodded his head, letting out a breath.

"Im sorry for hurting you Carson, I mean, I did ask if you were sure but, anyway, is there anything I can do to help you?"

Although I was being serious, Carson rose an eyebrow before an amused smirk tugged at his lips at my offer.

"You want to help? Do you realise what we're talking about Daniela?"

His- oh!

"I didn't mean it like that! I thought maybe you'd want a glass of water or something."

As you could expect, for the next half an hour we sat in silence while Carson recovered from the pain and I recovered from the embarrassment of that whole situation.

By the time I'd finally gotten over the mortification, Carson was back to fidgeting around the room again causing me to let out a groan.

"You're giving me a headache, can you just sit still?"

"Why don't you just go to sleep or something?" Turning my head to look over at the chair where he was now sitting, I shook my head.

"I'm not tired otherwise I would if it meant I got a break from you."

"If you can't fall asleep, I could always help you." At first when he said those words, my dirty mind instantly went in the complete and utter wrong direction, until I saw the look he was giving me.

"Why is everything always violent with you?" All he did was shrug his shoulders, giving me a grin. "It's who I am."

"Well, I'll have to decline your offer, I don't really want to die."

"I wasn't going to kill you Daniela, what kind of person do you think I am? I was just going to knock you out." When he said this I just gave him an incredulous look before letting out a scoff.

"Like that's any better."

"At least you'd wake up after." As much as I wanted to glare at him, the seriousness in his tone caused a smile to tug at my lips.

"Maybe one day I'll take you up on your offer if I can't stand being around you any longer."

Our conversations pretty much continued like that for the next couple of days. Unlike the first day when we played my game that he apparently hated so much, I didn't actually learn anything new about him. It was like he was still trying to keep his guard up, even if he was talking to me more now.

He didn't want to let me in, anyone could see that. It was like he was having an internal battle with himself every time we started talking. First he would respond to me and then after a while he would start to give me shorter answers before he'd eventually just end the conversation.

So for the next three days, if we weren't sitting in a comfortable silence, we were either bickering or just having random conversations here and there. Most of them included Carson telling me all the ways he was planning to hurt George when he had the chance.

From the very vivid descriptions he gave me, I could tell he wasn't kidding when he said thats all he thought about.

It was only three days later when we finally had a proper conversation again.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing Carson." I could feel his eyes on me as I lay in the bed facing the wall so that the light from the window wasn't shining in my eyes.

"You've been quiet all day Daniela, something is clearly wrong."

"I told you, it's nothing." This time when I mumbled the words, I heard his footsteps as he came closer to the bed before he eventually sat down next to me. I expected him to try to talk to me or maybe to try and find out what was wrong, but instead, all he did was lie down next to me. The moment he did, I savoured the extra warmth that his body gave me as I turned over to face him, burying my face in his shoulder like I always did.

While I lay there, my mind was once again plagued with the same thoughts I'd had ever since I woke up this morning and felt the pain.

"I need your help with something." When I broke the silence that had settled around us, I lifted my head to look at him.

"With what?"

Oh kill me now.

"Um...well, I uh-"

"Daniela stop stuttering and just speak." Now he seemed a mixture of irritated and curious as he waited for me to get over my nervousness. Taking a nervous breath, I diverted my attention to the tattoo on his neck to avoid his gaze.

"I need some tampons."

When it fell silent between us, after a couple of moments I finally gathered the courage to look at him again.

"Tampons?" I nodded my head and without another word, he gently pushed me away from him before he got up off the bed, heading over to the door. I watched as he banged his hand on the door like we usually did if we ever needed anything which was pretty rare anyway.

A few moments passed before one of George's men came to open the door, looking over at me on the bed before he turned his attention towards Carson.

"What?" This guy was never in a good mood when we saw him, which had been quite a few times since we'd been here.

Of course, both Carson and I had our own fair share of exchanges with him whenever he was mean to us.

"She needs some tampons." Even just hearing Carson say it was embarrassing, but when the guy turned to look at me again, giving me a disgusted look, I felt much much worse.

"That's gross, I definitely didn't need to know that." The man shook his head, not bothering to hide his disgust even a little.

Usually I would have probably snapped back at him, but in that moment all I wanted to do was curl back up in the blanket, cry and wait for the pain of my cramps to die down.

"Don't look at her, look at me. Go and get what she asked for, instead of giving your damn opinion."

"You don't get to make demands Agnello, if she's bleeding, let her bleed. The whore deserves it."

At first Carson looked over at me and when he noticed my humiliated expression, he turned back to the man, letting out low chuckle.

"I've been waiting to hit something for a while now."

Before I could even process what had happened, Carson had grabbed the guy by his collar with his left hand before slamming his fist into his jaw.

It didn't take long before he pulled back and hit him again before eventually slamming him up against the wall, holding him by his collar.

"I'll give you one last chance to go and do what I said. If you don't, I'm going to go to town on your face and by the time I'm done, you'll be the one bleeding out."

I watched from my place on the bed as the guy weakly nodded his head, attempting to push Carson away from him. Instead all he did was tighten his grip, slamming him back up against the wall.

"Apologise to her." This time, Carson stepped aside allowing the guy to see me.

"I'm sorry."

"Say it like you mean it." Just as Carson lifted his fist to hit him again, the sound of more footsteps coming down the hallway caught my attention.

"Carson stop." When he heard my words come out in a soft voice, Carson turned to look at me, the anger still evident on his face. It seemed to take him a second for that flare of anger and adrenaline that he had to lessen enough for him to see sense.

Eventually, he roughly let the guy go, giving him one last glare as he quickly left the room, slamming the door shut.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Are you kidding? Of course I did." Surprisingly, Carson was smirking at me as he got back into the bed next to me, pulling me back into his arms. "What kind of idiot doesn't bring back up with him from the beginning? He deserved to get hit just for that."

All I could manage was to let out a small laugh through the pain I was feeling but I think Carson could tell it was forced anyway.

"Does it really hurt that bad?"

"It hasn't even started yet and I feel like I might pass out."

"Don't you need some kind of medication?" When he said this, I nodded my head. "I'm saving the pain killers in the first aid kit for when it starts, we don't have enough left."

"I could have told that fool to get you some." It fell silent for a moment before Carson let out a laugh. "Ah, screw it, I'll just ask him later, it'll give me another chance to hit him."

This time I couldn't help but laugh before I lifted my head to look at him. "You're crazy."

This time instead of giving me a smirk like he usually did, he gave me one of his rare smiles, showing off his perfect teeth. I watched him as he then lifted his hand, a soft frown replacing his smile as he flexed hand, taking in his bruised knuckles.

"You hurt yourself for no reason." When he heard my words he turned his attention away from his hand and towards me. "This isn't even bad Daniela. It's more satisfying when my knuckles at least bleed a little bit."

"Like I said - crazy." This time Carson was the who let out a laugh when I rolled my eyes at his statement. A few moments passed between us when the pain of my cramps hit me all over again.

The fact my period hadn't started yet only told me that this was going to be ten times worse when it did. I lay there resting my head on his shoulder, gripping his shirt in my fist to try and help me work through the pain.

Then I felt him place hand just below my stomach where the pain was coming from. Almost instantly the warmth and the light pressure he was using to rub my stomach began to soothe the cramps.

Lifting my gaze I made eye contact with him, unsure of what to say to him. I didn't want him to stop, what he was doing was perfect, so instead I just curled back into him closing my eyes again.

"My friend, Aviana, she usually always smoked a joint to get rid of the pain."

"A joint? Like cannabis?" When Carson nodded his head I let out a laugh. "Does it work?"

"She says it does, but maybe she's just too high to feel the pain, I'm not really sure." When he mentioned his friend, at first he seemed amused as he spoke but then slowly it turned into a frown.

Remembering the conversation we had the other day, I knew he didn't really want to talk about his friends, so I quickly changed the conversation before his mood changed even more.

"It probably does help, I've heard some people use it for medicine and stuff but I never would."

"Why?"

"I don't do drugs, I don't drink either, I never have." At least I can say that confidently now knowing that I didn't actually drink on my 21st birthday like Ayden told me I did.

"You're a good girl." Carson gave me a smirk while I just rolled my eyes. "No, that's not the reason, it's more personal than that."

From the look he was giving me as he continued to rub my stomach, for some reason, in that moment I really felt like I could tell him anything.

So I did.

"My parents died when my dad was driving drunk on their way home from a bar. Alcohol was the reason my parents died, so I've never touched a drop."

"But your boyfriend he-" Just as he started speaking, he quickly cut himself off before he could finish his sentence causing me to frown.

Why does he care about Ayden?

"What about him?"

Carson fell silent for a second before he continued speaking again.

"Doesn't he drink? Or your friends?"

Is this the part I tell him I don't have any friends because of my psycho boyfriend?

Nope.

"I guess I don't mind if people drink around me, I just don't."

~ Carson's POV ~

All I did was nod my head, my mind still thinking about what I almost said to her.

If I'd told her I knew her boyfriend owned multiple clubs across New York, it would have just screwed up everything between us. Thankfully she'd already mentioned Ayden to George on the first day so I didn't seem weird by knowing about him.

I didn't exactly trust her, but I guess after spending time with her she wasn't that bad. It's not like we were getting out of here anytime soon and, I was never planning on telling her about the mafia or anything personal about myself.

The quicker we either die, or leave and go back to our own lives, the better.

At first my plan was to keep her at arms length so that one, I didn't get attached to her and then have to watch her go back to Ayden hating me for being his rival and two, she wouldn't learn anything about me that she could tell him.

But now...there's just something about her. Her scent is intoxicating, the sound of her laughter makes me oblivious to everything else going on at that moment and her smile, it lit up the whole damn room.

So, my plan to keep her at arms length was slowly but surely crumbling. Especially now that I was rubbing her stomach to help her through her period which is only something I've ever done for my little sister when she was younger.

But it's not like we were getting out of here any time soon, so did it really matter?

"What were your parents like?" When I broke the silence, she looked at me through her long lashes, a soft smile tugging at her lips. "They were amazing."

She fell quiet for a moment, her mind clearly drifting to the thoughts of her parents before she continued.

"My mom was my best friend, she was like my other half really. My sister, my mom and I did everything together. I remember my dad used to always cause a fuss because he felt left out whenever we went out for a girls day."

As she spoke, a soft smile graced her lips and a far away look appeared on her face.

"My dad was definitely the funniest person I've ever met. Whenever I was upset he would always be there to try and make me smile with his jokes, and they worked every time. He had this thing of never letting any of us be sad, especially my mom, he hated seeing her upset."

I didn't say anything as I listened to her speak, somehow I found myself hanging off every word she said.

"They were so in love Carson. I used to wonder how it was ever possible to find a complete stranger and just fall so in love with them, sometimes I still think about it - that it was the kind of love you only ever come across once in your life but maybe you're not lucky enough to have it for yourself."

The longer she continued to speak, the happiness in her tone started to fade as she continued to think about her family and her past.

"Sorry, I'm talking too much, aren't I? I don't really get to talk about my parents, no one ever really asks about them, am I boring you?"

"Of course you're not Daniela, it's okay, I don't mind listening to you." I tried to give her an encouraging smile but it seemed like her walls that had fallen were very quickly coming straight back up.

"It's okay. Are you hungry? They haven't brought dinner yet. You know, It was probably because you hit our delivery guy and now he's all moody about it."

Although I forced a laugh when she said that, burying her face into my shoulder again, I couldn't shake the disappointment I felt when she ended the conversation there. After that just we lay in silence as I rested my hand on her lower stomach rubbing it occasionally.

knew I couldn't push her to tell me all about her life, it wasn't fair on her. She'd go back to Ayden eventually, if we ever got out, and we'd never see each other again.

I just had to do my best to not get attached to her. I'd spent my entire 25 years without a girlfriend or anything of the sort, it couldn't be that hard, right?

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