3. A nasty combination.

"Don't pull me! Can't you see I'm..." The rest of her words got stuck in her mouth when a dirty slap landed on her face.

Aurora saw twinkling stars! Her vision became blurry as she tried to register what just happened. She felt a sudden headache and dizziness from the pain.

Her hand reflexively flew to her cheek, but she couldn't touch it. It burned like hell! She felt some liquid trick down the corner of her mouth down her chin, and she touched it. Bringing her trembling hand down, she saw blood! Her lips might have been split open by that hot slap!

The tears she had been fighting to hold back since she woke up started flowing down her burning face. Her whole body trembled as she cried.

She had never been slapped, like ever, before. Her parents dotted on her. They had never raised a finger on her. She was an only child who was highly pampered. So all these were taking a great toll on her. She felt bruised, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well.

She felt herself being dragged up the stairs, her legs missing some of the stairs and hitting some of them. She cried silently for all these to end, but she knew it had only began.

They finally got to a door and they halted. Aurora tried as much as she could to keep her whimpers and sniffs undertone. She didn't want to anger the bulkiest guy any further. All her body ached right now, but that bruised part was now hurting even more. She was sure the bruises had been strained further.

Her cheek was still burning from the slap earlier. And now she could feel some tightness around that part and she knew it was swollen. The eye on that side of her face felt smaller now, and it hurt. If this was what this guy was doing to her, she could only imagine what Mr. Dangerous Man would do to her. She silently cursed the day she was born.

Bulkiest guy suddenly opened the door in front of them and ordered her to enter. She was very nervous, but she knew if she delayed as much as a second, another slap would land on the other cheek. So she quickly entered the room and the door was shut behind her. She looked behind, thinking he would be there, but to her dismay, he was not.

Now she was torn between moving forward or going back. She wasn't given any other instruction aside to enter the room. And now that she was inside, what next?

She carefully looked around. The room was very large, well and tastefully furnished. The only colours she could see in the room were white, black or grey.

She didn't know if Mr. Dangerous Man was in the room or not so she was treading cautiously. She made sure to stay away from anything. She didn't want to touch even the floor.

She carefully limped her way to the parlour. She waited for some time, contemplating whether to sit or keep standing. But her legs hurt so badly so she sat stiffly and stayed alert. She would get up with the slightest sign of Mr. Dangerous Man coming.

Just as she was about to relax after about 20 minutes, she heard a deep, gruff voice.

"And who asked you to sit?"

Aurora almost had a heart attack. She was alert all this while, so how did she not hear him coming? She sprung up on her feet immediately, which almost caused her to topple over. She bit her lower lip to mask the pain that she felt in her legs and her bruised hip as she stood with such force, but released her lip immediately when she felt pain again. She almost laughed through her pain. It looked like her whole body was bruised.

"I...I'm s..sorry, s..sir." She stammered an apology with her head bowed low, muttering a word of prayer for her dear life.

She turned slowly to the sound of the voice and she saw him, almighty Mr. Dangerous Man, in all his glory. She almost chuckled at herself at the name she had given him. But it suited him perfectly. He was indeed a dangerous person.

Right now, he looked like he was just coming from the gym. He was sweaty all over, his hair was raffled, slightly damp and looked a bit dishivelled. But, damn, he looked so handsome in those track pants and white v-necked shirt with a white towel around his neck.

How can someone be dangerous and handsome at the same time? That was a nasty combination!

Like roses with lots and lots of thorns around it. Or like honey with a swam of bees all over it.

She kept looking at him, now drinking water from a bottle. He finished drinking and thinned his lips a bit and... freaking goodness!!

He had...he had ..dimples??

Aurora looked away quickly when he turned to look at her. Gosh! She had a thing for guys with dimples and this devil had to have, not on one, but both cheeks? Now that was very sinful!

Derek felt her eyes on him and he turned to look at her. Truly, she was staring at him, but she quickly stole her gaze when their eyes met. It was his turn to look at her, but he frowned at what he saw.

Wait, why did it look like... Did they beat her up?? He frowned when he saw her swollen left cheek and puffy, bloodshot eye. Did they beat her?

"Come closer." His authoritative voice sounded, a tight frown etched on his sinfully handsome face.

Derek had initially ordered that they put Aurora in one of the dark cells underground. But he later changed his mind and told them to put her in one of the rooms down there.

It was actually a room he had prepared for himself where he would go whenever he felt like being alone. No one else had ever entered that room apart from Aurora's father and the bulkiest guy. They were his right hand men, until one of them decided to betray him. He had no idea why he changed his mind and let them bring Aurora to that room.

Before he left Charlotte earlier that day, he had told her to come back for her daughter once she had the money. All of it. Until she paid him 15 million dollars, her daughter would remain in his custody for the rest of her life.

That was never the initial plan. In fact, he had planned to kill both of them as soon as he got there. But he had a change of mind. Very rare of him.

He had a different plan now. And that was to torture them and put them through intense pain till he was satisfied, and that was when he would let them go. He had no plans on killing them anymore. But he would take whatever money they had. It was not theirs if it was from that thief.

Before he attacked them, he had them investigated. He got to know that Charlotte was working in a small grocery store, and Aurora just got enrolled into Prime State University as a Computer Science student. There was no way they would have any huge amount of money if it wasn't from that man.

"Come closer." He repeated, this time, his voice was stern when it looked like this girl in front of him was confused, like he had spoken to her in a foreign language.

Aurora flinched a little in fear at his stern voice and took one step forward. She tried as much as she could to walk normally. She didn't want him to know she had been injured. She didn't know why, but she wanted to act strong in front of him. But she failed miserably when she attempted to take the second step.

The pain was too much for her that she hissed and limped. Tears rushed to her eyes, but she quickly blinked them back. She was supposed to act strong.

Crying would only make her look weak, she told herself as she painfully pursed her lips and took the third step, carefully and slowly this time, then another, till she was about four feet away from him.

Aurora had her head down all this while, so she missed the look on Derek's face. He was fuming. He didn't tell them to beat her up. He didn't order for them to touch her. Why was she in this state?

And now, he was torn between going to deal with his men or taking care of this girl right now. She seemed pretty hurt. And for the very first time, he felt bad for someone he had initially planned to kill.

Was he not planning to put her through pain? Why was he now feeling this way seeing her in this state?

After some time, when Aurora saw that he wasn't saying anything, she lifted her gaze to his face. He was keenly looking at her, and she nervously stole her gaze again. Why was he looking at her like that? It was as if he was contemplating how to deal with her.

Her heartrate accelerated. That was it. What else was she thinking? That he would act nicely towards her? He was surely going to kill her and her mother.

Her eyes widened at the thought of her mother. She lifted her eyes and met his gaze again. Without thinking twice, she found herself asking.

"Please, where..where is..my mother?"

Derek was pulled back from his thought by her question.

"Sit." He said, pointing to a couch nearby without replying her question.

Aurora was sceptical, but obediently lowered herself on the couch. Why did he ignore the question? She could only hope that nothing bad had happened to her mother.