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keep an eye on everyone and look for anything weird without looking out of place.
     
    I changed into jeans and a tank top then walked the distance to the dinner. Slipping in the back door, I moved to grab an apron so I could get started on helping out, but I was surprised to find Mark waiting for me.
     
    “Mark, hi. I’m here to help,” I said with a slight smile hoping he wouldn’t want to yell at me since I had indeed shown up.
     
    “About fucking time,” he growled, stepping closer to me.
     
    “I said I was sorry. Let me get out there and get the customers taken care of. You can reprimand me later, okay?” I said, taking a step back. He was way too close for comfort after everything that had been happening.
     
    “Not going to happen.” He let out a low grisly laugh that sent a chill up my spine.
     
    I tried to get away, but he snatched a handful of my hair and pulled my back to his front, with a hand snapping over my mouth.
     
    “Time’s up, sweet thing,” he whispered in my ear before licking the side of my neck, making bile rise in my throat.
     
    He was much larger than I was, with much more bulk, so it wasn’t hard for him to muscle me back out the exit and into the back of the restaurant van. Something heavy and hard collided with my head, and the world blacked out around me as I heard the slamming of the van’s back door.
     
     
     
    The next thing I knew, my head was pounding, and everything was still black. Fabulous! So I couldn’t see, but I could feel the pain they’d already started inflicting. The only thing that was bothering me besides the back of my skull was my wrists where they’d been pulled behind my back and held together. I’d have guessed rope by the abrasiveness of the material.
     
    “Wakey, wakey, sunshine,” a deep male voice said, startling me. Before I could even figure out where the voice had come from, I was being yanked to my feet. “Time for some fun.”
     
    “Can’t wait,” I mumbled. Really, there was nowhere else I wanted to be. Except, like anywhere else in the entire world, but no one ever asked me what I wanted. “Are we having drinks and appetizers first, at least?”
     
    The man only grunted in response before I tripped and fell to the ground. With no way to stop the momentum, with my hands bound and all, my head slapped against the ground, and it was my turn to grunt.
     
    “Asshole,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
     
    “The more you talk, the more painful it’s going to be,” the man told me as I was once again hefted to my feet and forced to walk.
     
    “Oh, like you are going to take it easy on me anyway?” I snorted. I didn’t know why my sassy side had decided to come out when it was clear I was going to be paying with blood and screams. Probably because I was pretty sure it was the end. There was no way I’d escape the hands of the mafia enforcer. While I couldn’t remember his name, I knew that he was the sickest, darkest, most twisted individual in the whole organization. He had to be, when he was the one doing all the dirty work for the Boss.
     
    “You never know,” the man told me as I was shoved from behind to keep walking.
     
    I snorted again, but didn’t say anything. If anything, I was hoping I pissed him off enough that he’d just make it fast and get it over with.
     
    Eventually, I was pushed into a chair and the bag over my head was torn off. I squinted into the bright light of the room I was now in. There was nothing recognizable in the large room. Surprisingly, it was well lit, and I could easily see the whole place. There was a table with glistening metal pieces on it, but it was taller than I was seated, so I couldn’t see what exactly they were. Glancing down, I noticed there was a drain right below me. Easy clean up. Glad they were thinking ahead. Then again, torture was pretty much a weekly thing for the mafia.
     
    “Ah. I have wanted to get my hands on you for so very long, sunshine,” the man who