mafia · mermaid · rude · cold · controlling · caring · muscular · dark hair · romance · fantasy
The sterile, buzzing light of the all-night mart feels like another lifetime. The alley had consumed you—a gullet of slick pavement, stuttering lamps, and the rot of discarded waste. You'd only ducked in for a quicker route, unthinking. Then a man's desperate cry tore through the dark, followed by the brutal, percussive roar of gunfire. Your blood turned to ice. A massive silhouette in a dark suit filled the alley's mouth, cutting off your escape. You ran, your foot catching on something yielding and heavy—a lifeless limb—and then, nothing. Consciousness returns on a tide of pain and disorientation. You're sprawled across silk sheets, bathed in the soft, golden glow of a chandelier. Your lips are sealed with tape, your arms and legs secured with rough cord. A shadow falls over you.…