Serena POV

I sat on the couch in the office calmly with my hands on my lap as Ricardo stood in front of me, watching me curiously.

He hasn't said anything but just stares down at me.

"You can take the mask off now, I want to see your face," He says finally. I reach up and untie the mask from behind my head, throwing it on the couch beside me while smirking at him.

"What gave me away?" I ask cheekily. His eyes scan every aspect of my face while he leans against his desk with his arms propped behind him. I guess he didn't expect me to be this calm that he 'caught' me.

"Nobody's beauty turns heads like yours does," He says with a smile on his lips. He looked relieved that I was here in front of him and it disgusted me. "When the guards told me about a woman who had all heads in the room turning, I knew it had to be you."

"I see the pig in you has not died down over time," I spit at him.

"I see the spite in you hasn't either," He comments before moving his hand to touch my face. This time I pull away from him and give him a dark look. "Why are you giving me such a sinful look as if I have hurt you? I have taken care of you."

"Taken care of me?" I say with a laugh as I shake my head. "You turned me into a cold-blooded killing machine for your own personal gain."

"Portador de la Muerte," He says with a smile, completely ignoring my comment. "Many people thought that you have died. But I assured them you would be back soon enough."

"I am no longer the monster you made me to be," I say and he smiles.

"I knew that the moment we stepped into this room. You could have killed me the second the door closed and the guards were out of sight but you didn't. You are not the killer I once trained you to be..."

"Tortured," I spit at him while raising my voice. "You tortured me to be that way. You gave me no choice. It was to become your personal assassin or die. I should have chosen death but instead, you beat me and cut my flesh to get what you want. You took everything from me until I broke."

"Is that why you cover yourself with these designs? To hide from the lessons I gave you to become who you are?" He arches an eyebrow as if he was actually curious. The mention of the lessons sent my body into a panic. My body stiffened, my heart stopped and my breath got stuck in my lungs. "You can not hide from who you are. All it takes is the right push to get you back to where you were.

"You have a gift and you try to suppress it," He says and looks down at my body with lust in his eyes that made me feel sick. "I will not let that skill go to waste."

"I know all about your plan," I spit with disgust evident on my face.

"You do now?" He asks with humor in his voice.

"The walls always had ears in this place."

"So, prey tell, what do you think my royal plan is?" He asks mockingly as if I didn't know the truth. Little did he know, I had the upper hand.

"You know, the whole trying to get me to have your child in order to make a strong heir," I say and watch the smirk fall from his face. "Or was that just a rumor as well?"

He was silent for a few minutes as he looks over at me.

"You planned to force me to marry Tomas originally to trap me with a child because you knew I would never leave a child behind as my parents did. But when you realize Tomas would never go with your plan you decided you would do it yourself."

"Tomas is weak!" He bursts out and pushes himself off the desk. He was trying to intimidate me but I would not move or show emotion. "He is just like his mother, weak. I want my heir to be the strongest ruler to ever be. Your strength and my power. Our son would be the king of the underground."

I stare at him for a few seconds as my eyes roam over his face before I burst into laughter. He takes a few steps back, surprised by my reaction.

"First of all, I would never let you touch me, to begin with." I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest with a smile on my face. "Our son? Never going to happen.

"The only thing you got right in that whole speech is that I have the strength in this situation. Considering the only reason we are even sitting here having this conversation is that I am holding back from killing you, no matter how bad I want to. Because we both know if I wanted you dead right now, you wouldn't be breathing.

"But your power? What power? You are a weak man who preys on those he thinks he can or forces them into submission by killing the things they love. You dare say Tomas is weak? Look in the mirror old man. You killed his mother, the woman you claimed to love because you didn't get what you wanted.

"She was a person, just like I am. Unlike her though, I am putting my foot down and stopping you. You are fucking sick and will soon pay for what you have done."

I look over his shoulder at the clock to see any minute now they would storm in here. I stand from the chair and move to go by the door thinking he wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything.

When I turn back to face him, he stabs a needle into my neck and injects whatever was inside the vial into me.

I punch him hard in the face and he stumbles back, his hand slamming to the side.

With a shaky hand, I grab onto the syringe and pull it out of my neck before throwing it on the ground.

"What did you do?" I nearly whisper before looking up at him as my head gets heavy. "What did you give me?"

He ignores me as he slowly walks towards me.

"Serena?" Someone yells in my ear. "What's happening?"

"My dear Serena. You are too headstrong for your own good. I know what is best for you and your life, I always have. I guess the lessons I once taught you have since been disregarded," He says with a sigh as I stumble on my legs, trying to go towards the door. "I will just have to force them into you again."

"Serena?" Another voice yells

I stumble forward and he catches me before I fall. My limbs start to tingle with numbness as he pets my hair, moving it away from my face in a soothing manner before pulling the earpiece from my ear.

"Don't you worry darling," He says into my ear with the earpiece still in his hand so they could hear. "Nobody will interrupt us or ever help you escape me again."

With that he crushes the earpiece. I try to look at the clock but it is a blur.

My body feels heavy but I could still feel everything. I tried to move my arms but they only moved a few inches before falling back on my lap.

Moving an arm behind my back and another under my knees, he lifts me and starts moving towards the spare bedroom attached to the office. My head bobs against his chest as he moves before gently setting me down on the bed.

I feel a tear fall from my eye as the hopeless feeling fills me once again. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything.

I felt him tug at the bottom of my dress, tearing it off to expose the guns on my thighs.

He chuckles while he unstraps them.

"My little assassin, can never go anywhere without a weapon," He throws one of the guns onto the couch before moving to the next one. His touch made me want to throw up but I couldn't even manage to do that.

When he got the next one off he started moving up the bed and towards me so I could see him.

His hand came up and wiped the tear away from my eye.

"Don't cry darling," He says and pecks my check. "Everything will be just the way it should soon."

He got off me and stood on the side of the bed.

I tried to see what he was doing but could only hear a drawer opening before being closed again. I could hear him shuffling around the room but he stayed out of my peripheral vision.

After a few minutes, I felt his hands on my feet as he unstrapped the heels from my feet, throwing them on the ground.

"There, let's get you semi-comfortable before we begin," He says and my heart starts racing in panic as I tried to fight to medication.

He moves to the side of the bed and looks down at me with a smile on his face.

"You should never have run from me," He says moving his hand towards my arm. A familiar cold metallic item touches my arm before sliding across my skin. Pain emerges from my bicep as the urge to scream builds.

I can feel blood dripping down my arm as he lifts the knife from my arm and moves to another spot, this time he slides it across my right thigh.

Tears fall from my eyes in pain as I try to move my limbs to stop him, but I couldn't move.

Where was Massimo?

Six more cuts later, he places the bloody knife on the dresser near my head.

"I have to get some work done while I'm here but don't worry darling, I will be back soon," He says and places a kiss on my forehead.

I see his shadow disappear out of the room as I lay there helplessly.

The feeling of blood dripping from my body mixed with pain makes it hard for my mind to focus.

After a few minutes of attempting to fight the drug, I gave up. My mind starts racing as I try to remember anything Ricardo ever said about a drug he used.

When he used to give me lessons whenever I messed up, he would talk none stop while I was chained and gagged screaming in pain.

I rake my brain over and over again until something clicked.

A year before I left, he said he was using a drug to make his victims feel helpless while he tortured them. The more they fought, the more the drug worked.

If they relaxed and gave up, the drug would wear off. But at that point, they would already give up and think the drug was in effect still.

Closing my eyes, I try to focus on my breathing.

If this didn't work, hopefully Massimo got here in time.

Otherwise, I was fucked.