Chapter 22

The room smelled of damp concrete and old iron. My wrists throbbed, the coarse rope biting into my skin with every frantic movement. I forced my breathing to slow, my heart hammering against my ribs like a bird in a cage. I wouldn't let them see me break. I wouldn't.
The heavy steel door groaned open, and the sound of polished leather shoes echoed against the floor.
Zolani walked in. He didn't look like the thugs who had grabbed me. A scar on his forehead, cutting a path through one eyebrow. He stood over me

"What do you want from me?" I hissed, my voice rasping but steady.

"You," he said simply.

The sheer arrogance of it snapped something inside me. I gathered every bit of defiance I had left and spat directly in his face.
The room went deathly silent. Zolani didn't move. For a long, terrifying second, he just stared at me, the moisture trickling down his cheek. He slowly reached into his pocket, pulled out a silk handkerchief, and wiped his face with terrifying deliberation.

"I feel sad that you're treating me like this, Omphile," he said, his voice dropping to a low, conversational tone that was scarier than any shout. "I saw you first, you know. Before Zuko even noticed you existed. I was at the car spinning event. I saw you walk in with your friend, and I knew right then. I was disgusted when he took you from me. I should have made my move faster. He didn't deserve you. He still doesn't."

"That's crazy," I whispered, my skin crawling. "You're delusional."

The door swung open again, and one of his men stumbled in, looking panicked. "Boss, the shipment from the border—"
Zolani didn't even turn around. "What did I say about disturbing me?"
In one fluid motion, he pulled a suppressed pistol from his waistband and fired. BLAA! At the guy.

The man's eyes went wide, a dark hole appearing in the center of his forehead before he collapsed to the ground, dead before he hit the floor.
Zolani tucked the gun back into his coat as if he had just checked his watch. He looked back at me, his expression unchanged, while the body of his own man cooled a few feet away.

Zolani was a void. He was brutal, efficient, and completely devoid of mercy.
I looked at the body on the floor, then back at Zolani's cold, expectant eyes. I realized then that my law degree wouldn't save me here. My defiance wouldn't save me. The only way I was going to leave this room alive was to play the part. I had to agree to everything. I had to follow every order. I had to become whatever he wanted me to be until I found a way to burn his world down.

I forced my breathing to slow down, even though my heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
I couldn't let him see me break. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
But as I stared at the dead body of his henchman cooling just a few feet away, a suffocating wave of angst and despair crashed over me. *Will I ever be found?*

The thought screamed in my mind, echoing in the hollow silence of the room. I had blocked Zuko . I had cut off the only man powerful enough to tear the town apart to find me. He probably thought I was just angry, sitting in my room, ignoring his calls. He didn't know I was down here in the dark. Nobody knew. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I swallowed them down, the absolute terror of dying in this godforsaken hole choking me.
The heavy leather shoes clicked against the concrete again. Zolani stepped over the pooling blood of his own man without even glancing down, his focus entirely, obsessively returned to me.

He stepped closer, his dark aura filling the cramped space until the air felt heavy, almost impossible to breathe. The cold, calculated power radiating off his tailored coat made my skin crawl.

"Look at you," Zolani murmured, his voice dropping into a low, smooth register that sent a shiver of pure disgust straight down my spine. He stepped so close his polished shoes nudged the toes of my sneakers. "So beautiful, even when you're terrified. It's a tragedy, really, how he's been hiding you away."
I pulled my chin back, trying to distance myself from him, but there was nowhere to go.
"You don't belong in a place like this, Omphile," he said softly, a dark, teasing smile playing on his lips. He slowly reached out, his long fingers defying my flinch as he ran the back of his hand down the curve of my jawline. His skin was warm, but it felt like ice against my flesh. "And you certainly don't belong to a street dog like Zuko . What has he ever really given you? Stress? Danger? A broken heart?"
I kept my mouth shut, my jaw locked tightly as he caressed my face, his thumb softly tracing the line of my bottom lip.

"I know about that Amanda girl. I know about the pregnancy," Zolani whispered, leaning down until his breath fanned over my cheek. He chuckled, a dark, mocking sound. "He's a mess, Phile. He's a little boy playing with fire, dragging you into the ash with him. But me? I can give you the world. I have the border locked down. I have connections that reach all the way to Johannesburg. I can treat you so much better than he ever could."

He leaned in even closer, his eyes scanning my face with a terrifying, possessive hunger. "You want a big house? You want security? I can give you an empire. You'll never have to worry about cheap township drama again. I'll put you on a pedestal, right where you belong. Just give me a chance to show you what a real man can do for you."

He was a psychopath. He had just executed a man in front of me without blinking, and now he was speaking to me like we were on a romantic date.

So, I forced the fire in my eyes to die down. I let my shoulders slump, playing the part of a broken, abandoned girl. I let him caress my cheek, forcing myself not to pull away as I looked up at him through my eyelashes, my voice trembling perfectly.
"He... he really hurt me," I whispered, letting a single, genuine tear of anger fall past his fingers. "He lied to me."
Zolani's thumb caught the tear, his eyes lighting up with a fierce, victorious satisfaction. "I know, baby. I know. He doesn't deserve you."

"If I... if I stay," I stammered, looking down at his chest, playing the submissive captive, "will you promise not to hurt me?"
"Hurt you?" Zolani let out a soft, delighted laugh, genuinely believing he had broken my spirit already. He grabbed my chin gently, tilting my face up so I had to look into his cold, expectant eyes. "Omphile, I am going to cherish you. You are my prize. As long as you are a good girl, and as long as you follow my lead, you will have everything you ever wanted."

"Okay," I breathed, forcing a weak, compliant nod.