Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
He’s got blood on his fingertips. I think I hear yelling through the wall, but it’s muffled. Soundproofing?
I swallow and hope he can’t see the disgust. “I’d like a man and a woman,” I tell him, idly walking around the room, picking up a cleaning product, pretending to read the label, and setting it down. “An older man and woman, preferably. I want them to stand in for my parents, you see.”
He narrows his eyes in the balaclava. Suddenly, I think I’ve got it all wrong, but what else would meat refer to, in this evil context, except people? Then I realize his eyes are narrowed because he’s smiling. He laughs lightly. “I see. I guess you could call this therapy, right?”
“Something like that.” I smile thinly. “I’d like them together, if possible.”
“Think you’ll need any help?” The man stands, gesturing to the corner of the room. “I assume you know the rules. Once we dish them up, you have to carve them up, and you’re in luck. We’ve got a couple just in. In fact, one of them is some bigshot on The Answer. Have you ever heard of him? People talk about him like he’s some legend. Just think. A little lady like you is going to kill him.”
I turn, glare at the man, and raise my hand. I want to slap him. Kill Jamie? The idea alone is insanity. I’d never hurt him. The man takes a step back. “I’m sorry, miss. I didn’t mean to offend.”
I have to save this. He can’t see I care. “Just open the door, please. I want to get this started.”
Once we dish them up, you have to carve them up.
As he opens a small door, fear coils around me. Fear tries to choke me, make me turn back, and run for the door. Wait, I should. Shouldn’t I? Now I know it’s legit. I should get out of here and make the cops listen. Jamie and Mom are alive. He just said it—a legend of The Answer. It has to be him, but for how long?
He gestures down a dark corridor. The air is stale. The screaming becomes louder.
I touch my pocket. “Dammit, I’ve forgotten my vape. I’m a vicious nicotine addict. Don’t judge me. Would you wait while I get it?”
The man shakes his head and points down the corridor. “You can get it after. You know the rules, miss. Until the big man has video evidence, you can’t leave. Call it insurance.”
I almost ask him, Wait, somebody’s recording this sick stuff? I should already know that, and he just said I can’t leave. I’m a prisoner again. I long for Jamie’s apartment, the door creaking at night, my man standing in the semidarkness. It was so much easier when I was his prisoner.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jamie
“What are you going to do to us?” Simone says as the masked man handcuffs her hands behind her back. The other man stands on the other side of the room, his gun at his side. The floor is wet from whatever happened in here before the screaming stopped. Now, it’s silent, except for Simone’s crying. “Talk to me!”
I subtly test the cuffs. They’ve only cuffed my hands. I’m leaning against the wall, making myself seem much weaker than I actually feel. The man with the gun has a mocking glint in his eyes. The other man leaves the room.
I test the cuffs again, feeling the metal strain against my wrists, but it would be too obvious if I put any real effort in. These are high-grade cuffs. Thick, but I feel the strain. The primal impulse to get back to my woman gives me extra strength.
“Don’t do that,” I snap when Simone starts staring at the ground, the slickness, the evidence of what happened here before. Her crying gets worse. “Close your eyes, Simone. Go somewhere else.”
A minute or so later, the door whines open. Another masked man walks in. “Take a smoke, L—”
“Don’t use my name,” the man with the gun snaps.
“Ah, yeah. My bad. Take a smoke, man. The next one’s a little lady all on her lonesome.”
“Think she’ll do it?”
“Who knows? If not, it’s a quick bang-bang-bang for all three.” He mimes, firing a gun.
“Amen to that. Easy work.”
They bump knuckles, and then the gunman leaves the room. The other man takes a pistol from his hip, glancing at us. He shakes his head almost sadly, passing the gun from one hand to the other. I watch him carefully, still pretending to lean against the wall, behaving like I’m broken. My body is covered in bruises from the rubber bullets. My face is cut up from what they made Simone do.
But I’m ready. The trick now is waiting for a moment and using it to complete efficiency. Being as cold and brutal as I have to be so I can return to my woman. That’s the only thing that matters now. Focus. Breathe.