Her head spun as she tried to assimilate the new information with what she thought she knew about her mother. “He told me she was an addict. I rarely saw her, and she was out of it the times I can remember.”
Selena shrugged. “Perhaps she was an addict, or maybe he used drugs to control her. It is a favorite technique to break a sex slave. It would work just as well on a wife.”
Nausea crept up her stomach and she cupped a hand to her mouth. “He is a horrible man, and I understand why you want him dead.”
“At first, I thought I would just kill you as repayment for my broken dreams and the lives of my babies and the horrors I suffered at his hands.” Her smile was cold enough to make Mia shiver. “But then I received a better offer.”
The room was spinning alarmingly and Mia couldn’t focus. “Please just leave, Selena. I’m not feeling well enough for this discussion right now.”
The woman laughed harshly. “The sedative is taking effect.”
She struggled to open her eyes. “What?”
“Mr. Peretti pays generously for your return to him. He has given me enough to start over far from here in the kind of life I should have had.”
Her vision had been reduced to a blurry tunnel, so it took her a moment to realize Selena had moved closer and now loomed over her where she had slumped on the bed. “You don’t have to do this.”
“No, of course I don’t.” Selena suddenly held up a knife. “I do this because I want to, Miss Kasilli. I would have killed you for free, but he made it easier by luring Mr. O’Mara away and providing all the tools I would need. I would like to see your death, but I must content myself with knowing you will be Peretti’s esclava.”
Mia tried to shove the other woman’s bulk from her when Selena pinned her down. Her confusion made it difficult to figure out why the other woman had a small box she ran over her arm until it beeped. Vaguely, she realized it was a microchip scanner.
A second later, she screamed as the maid dug the tip of the blade into her arm, hacking and slicing indiscriminately in the process of removing the chip. The question of how the maid had known about the tracker flitted across her mind, but she assumed the other woman had either listened at doors or had a source of information like Wallace.
She was barely conscious when Selena rolled her into a large laundry cart and dumped several towels atop her. Mia tried to form words to scream for help, but her mouth and mind wouldn’t cooperate. Her last moment of awareness was the jolt of the laundry cart as Selena pushed it from the bedroom and down the hallway toward her ultimate destination as Aldo’s plaything.
18
Mia woke with a crick in her neck from her head slumping against her chest and drool running from her mouth down her chin, leaving a wet patch on her neck. It took a few moments for any real awareness to return, but as soon as she recognized an unwelcome voice, her head snapped up as though she had never been drugged by that awful Selena.
“Aldo.” The name felt thick on her tongue and waves of nausea surged up her throat, as though her body was trying to reject the syllables. Her blurred gaze made it difficult to find him for a second, but when she did, his features came into sharp focus.
“Ah, Mia, it’s about time you joined us. You’ve been asleep a long time.”
“Us?” Still fuzzy, she moved her head cautiously, first looking down at herself. Shane’s robe was long gone and someone had dressed her in a slinky white negligee that barely covered her nipples and appeared to end about an inch below her butt. A small wiggle of her hips revealed she wore no panties, and that surge of nausea rose again at the thought of being unconscious and naked. “What did you do to me? Where are my clothes?”
“No idea.” He laughed, and the cold sound slithered around in her skull. “It wasn’t me who got you ready. I would have left you naked.” Sounding a bit sullen, he added, “Mia helped you dress.”
“What?” How could she help herself dress? She blinked as her arm throbbed. Looking down, she saw a lumpy bandage covering the spot where Selena had cut the chip from her arm.
He waved his hand, and she followed the motion, realizing they were sitting at a small dining table. A plate of food was before her, along with a set of dull disposable silverware. Surprisingly, her hands weren’t confined.
Still slow from the sedative, it took her eyes a moment to focus on the face across from her. When she did, she gasped with shock. “Who is that?”
“Mia,” he said casually. “Though to avoid confusion, she will now be called Spare.” He turned to look at the girl. “Do you understand, Spare?”
The girl nodded, her face betraying no emotion. “Yes, master.”
“What did you do, Aldo?” Horrified, she stared at the girl, who was probably a few years younger than her. It was like staring into a slightly distorted mirror, as though the angle wasn’t quite right or tiny imperfections marred the reflection. Her nose was smaller, and her eyebrows fuller. A scar down her cheek showed through a layer of makeup, but otherwise, they shared almost identical features.
“I secured a substitute.” He patted the other Mia’s hand in a patronizing fashion. “She looked a lot like you before Dr. Sandoval performed his magic to transform her. It was a bit harder turning her into you, but she soon broke.”
Mia glared at him before meeting the placid gaze of the girl across from her. “I’m so sorry you’ve gotten dragged into this. What’s your name?”
“Mia.”
She exhaled. “I mean your real name, honey? What were you called before this sick fuck got ahold of you?”
“Mia,” she repeated, no trace of emotion visible. “I am master’s Mia.”
