Faking it with Damian Black by Louise Jane

Chapter 56

-MILLIE-

I couldn’t feel my toes or my fingers. Every muscle in my b*dy felt like it had

been coated with cement, frozen. I couldn’t move a muscle. Everywhere felt

heavy, even my eyelids. I’ve been awake for a while, trying to make out my

surroundings. I’ve been taken, that much I could remember. Natalie and a

bearded guy with a heart tattoo on his n*eck.

As I tried to recall more before I lost consciousness, the pounding in my head

got louder. There was a beeping sound across the room and a gentle hissing. My

best guess was a heart rate monitor, but it wasn’t mine. My heartbeat had been

overspeeding since my consciousness returned. Then, I heard voices m uffied by

the walls before everything went dark again.

The next tI woke up, there were people speaking inside the room. I stayed

still, listening. Their voices were garbled, echoing like someone speaking in a

canyon. It tooka moment to recognize one of the voices. Natalie. She was

arguing with a guy

“This isn’t what we agreed on the agitation in her tone was thick. “If this goes

sideways, I would f ucking go to jail!” She hissed “Everything I worked for will go

to waste.

“Worrying will get you nowhere, sweetheart, the man replied. His voice was

rough like sand, and I could imagine a smile on his face as he spoke. If I could

only trust my senses. I would say he was mocking her. “I know a good way to

help you relax.”

Natalie groaned, cussing. “I’m not in the mood, Aides!”

Aides chuckled. I like it better when you’re not in the mood.”

“F uck you,” Natalie huffed. The sound of boots stomping against the cemented

fioor resounded, followed by a metal door slamming shut,

Their footsteps echoed until it was gone. I took the silence to do a b*dy check.

First, my fingers. I turned my hand. smoothing gently on where I was lying. It was

soft and silky. I was in bed. Then, my feet. I wiggled my toes. Something kept

them from moving. Shoes. I recalled I was wearing shoes when they took me.

Apart from that, nothing more. They must’ve drugged me.

Squeezing my eyes, I forced my eyelids to part, the bright overhead lights

slightly blinding me. I counted to ten, pulling myself together. Running my

tongue over my mouth was a struggle. Swallowing down was even worse. My

throat was parched, drier than a desert. Whatever they’ve givenwas enough

to keepimmobile. Cuffs restrained my hands on the bed’s metal frame. I’m

still in my clothes from my meeting with Felicity.

I followed the source of the beeping sound. Sonja lay on a hospital bed, wires

leading to a heart rate monitor attached to her b*dy. The steady beeping sound

bounced on the four walls of the room. If I hadn’t memorized how she looked, it

would. have been impossible to recognize her from the bruises covering her

face. An oxygen hose was shoved down her mouth, and an IV was inserted on

her left hand.

We were in a dungeon-like room. Bricked walls with no windows and nothing

could helptell where we were or the time. The alcohol mingled with the

smell of wet boxes and newspaper And a metal door was across the bed where I

was lying

down.

Looking up, there were three overhead lights, and a camera attached to the

corners of the ceiling.

Someone was watching over this room. A few minutes later, Natalie strutted

through the door, looking better than when she was at Felicity’s restaurant.

She still looked unhealthy, but she didn’t look like someone struggling

financially. Her brown hair was tied in a high ponytail, the curls falling over her

shoulder as she sashayed to where I was.

“Millie,” she smiled, gazing atwith uncertainty. Or fear, I couldn’t tell. “How

are you feeling?” She stood before me, her rose perfmaking my head spin.

The numbness in my b*dy was going away slowly, but I opened my mouth to

speak and then choked on air.

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09:30 Sat, Feb 10

Chapter 56

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Natalie frowned. She walked closer and reached behind the bed. It reclined

until I was in a sitting position. My head spun as the bed reclined. I had to shut

my eyes and calm my head from spinning round and round. Natalie filled a glass

with water on the bedside table and dropped a straw on it. She offered it to me,

and I sipped it slowly.

“Better?” Natalie asked, setting the glass back on the bedside table. If we were

still on friendly terms, I would’ve thanked her.

“What… what’s going on, Natalie?” My expression soured. I’d rather she doesn’t

showher fake concern. As the numbness. faded, my anger returned as I

recalled everything that had happened between us,

Contemplating. Natalie stared atbefore she sighed and stepped away from

me. Her gaze fell towards Sonja and slid back to mine.

“This isn’t part of the plan,” she murmured, as if that would enlighten me.

“Plan?” I looked at Sonja, wondering how the three of us ended up inside this

room. These are the women whom I didn’t want to associate with, but our lives

were intertwined already, whether I liked it or not. “Did you do that to her?”

Natalie clenched her fist, and the pulse in her throat quickened. “No.”

I already know I won’t trust anything she says, but for the lack of ability to do

anything. I indulge myself in making conversation with her. “But you know who

did that to her?”

When she only stared at me, I huffed and asked her. “Why am there? Am I gonna

end up like Sonja?”

“Nothing will happen to you if you do as you’re told,” she said.

It took my poor brain a minute to process her words and figure out what the f

uck am I supposed to do for them. “What am I supposed to do, then?”

“You will know in time,” she murmured.

I made a face, narrowing my eyes at Natalie. “Just cut through the bu lsh it,

Natalie. I’m not stu pid. Why the f uck am I here?”

Her friendly facade quickly vanished, her eyes turning sharp. “No, you’re not stu

pid, and that will get you killed. A word of advice: shut your mouth if you want

to get out of here alive.”

I have no idea what will happen to me, but I want to understand why my friend

would end up like this. Natalie had always been ambitious. She dreamed of

becoming a big social media star and making it to Hollywood if the opportunit

“What happened to you, Natalie?” I asked, genuinely curious as to what led her

to this situation.

There was no doubt she was working with dangerous people. She couldn’t do

this without help. The question why.

Natalie nibbled her lower l*p. Her gaze could melt steel. “You happened.”

My mouth hung open. “Me?”

“If you hadn’t barged into Hunter’s apartment that day, things wouldn’t have

turned out this way.”

me.

Frowning, I tried my hardest to see things from her point of view. “So it was my

fault I found my ex f ucking you?” I sneere

“He hated me!” she screamed, her hand trembling. My gaze dropped to the left

hand. She was still wearing that st upid wedding ring. “Hunter didn’t want to be

withafter you ended things with him.”

“How… How is that my

fault? That was Hunter’s choice and not mine.”

Natalie shook her head. “You know nothing. I hated being the other woman, but

I had to do it. I needed Hunter, and whent he didn’t want to be with me

anymore, I had to improvise.”

“What are you talking about, Natalie?” There seemed to be another story going

on here. She needed Hunter? What for?

09:30 Sat, Feb 10 N.

Chapter 56

Money? Infiuence? And if she hated being the other woman, why did she stay

with him? Why was the still wearing my f u cking ring

The color on her face drained. Like a fi*p of a switch, she detached herself from

our conversation and shutout. “For old Imme’s sake, if you want to live,

you’d do as you are told. Millie,” she said and walked our of the room, leaving