Page 155 of Whispers and Wildfire

He crouched and tilted his head, gazing at me with those dull gray eyes. “You’ve been quiet, just like I told you.”

I decided more silence was likeliest to get me a drink of that water, so I just nodded.

“Good girl.” He held out the bottle and put the straw to my lips.

It took an enormous amount of self-control not to fight back in defiance. To spit on the bottle instead of drink from it and refuse to cooperate with anything he said. But that wasn’t going to get me out of there. I had to stay in character—be the damsel in distress. And my mouth didn’t have any spit.

Lifting my head, I winced at a stab of pain in my neck. I took a small sip from the straw, hoping it was water. It didn’t taste like anything else, so I took another.

“Is that better?” he asked, his voice eerily soft.

I nodded again and laid my head back down on the mattress.

He smiled, as if he were pleased with himself. Or me. It was hard to tell.

What I needed to do was turn this thing around somehow. Keep him feeling like he was in control but get him to give me something I wanted. The bathroom was a good enough place to start. It wasn’t merely a want, it was becoming a desperate need.

I raised my eyes to meet his. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Roswell?”

He lifted his eyebrows.

“I feel shy about asking this, but…”

“It’s all right. What do you want to ask?”

I lowered my gaze, as if I were embarrassed. I was about to say,I need to use the bathroom,but at the last second, I decided to phrase it as a request. “May I please use the bathroom?”

“Of course. I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared up the stairs. I knew it wouldn’t be my opportunity for escape. I wanted him to think he could trust me—that he could give me more freedom.

But I also knew what he’d done to his other victims. He’d killed the last one.

Was that why I was there? Was he planning to kill me?

He came back down, quiet as ever, and knelt beside the mattress. Using a small pocketknife, he cut through the duct tape, freeing me from the chain, but kept my wrists and ankles bound.

“I’ll help you up.” He took my hands and hoisted me to my feet.

With my ankles tied, I couldn’t walk. He seemed to have already thought it through and picked me up like a baby, with one arm behind my back and the other behind my knees. I wasn’t overweight by any means, but I had some curves, and he carried me to the bathroom like it was effortless.

Definitely stronger than he looked.

He set me down in front of the doorway. “I took the door down. Maybe in our next place, if you’re a good girl, you can have a door.”

It was a half bath with a pedestal sink and toilet. Nothing I could use to hit him over the head. No surprise there. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into everything.

My bladder screamed at me, but I also had an idea. I didnot want this guy pulling my pants down. But letting him would go a long way toward convincing him I wasn’t a flight risk.

“Roswell? I, um… I need your help.”

His face lit up with a smile.

Bingo. The damsel was exactly who he wanted me to be.

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