Page 126 of Sinful Promise

The night was so perfect. Like I had walked straight into a fairy tale, and now I’m ending it by being tied up in a basement with no idea if I’m ever going to see anything other than these four concrete walls ever again…

A faint groan sounds from the corner where Danil is lying, which snaps me back to the present.

“Danil?” I whisper.

I squint over at him and when I catch his legs moving slightly, tears spring to my eyes and start streaming down my cheeks.

He’s alive.

“Danil.”

A choked sound escapes me as Danil moves a little more, and his answering groan has me crying in relief.

If he can make noise, it means he’s alive.

“Emily…” he groans.

I sob. “I’m here. I’m right here, Danil.”

I desperately try to slide my hands free of the restraints so I can reach for him, but it’s no use. They’re so tight, and the skin of my wrists feels raw from pulling against the rope.

“I can’t get my hands free,” I whimper.

“It’s okay, Em,” Danil croaks as he tries to push himself into a seated position.

He hisses in pain as he does so and when he turns his head toward me, there’s dried blood down the side of his neck.

I try to keep my face neutral because I don’t want to panic him, but it looks bad. There’s a lot of blood caked onto the side of his head, but it doesn’t look to be bleeding anymore, which I have to take as a good sign.

He groans. “I’ll get… I’ll get us…out.”

“You need to conserve your energy, Danil.”

“It's…going to be…okay.”

I barely catch Danil’s words over the sounds of the footsteps once more.

My eyes flick to the door. “Oh, no.”

Whoever was out there before must have heard us and decided to come and investigate.

This is all my fault.

“Danil, I’m sorry?—”

The door slams against the wall, and the room floods with light.

I flinch as the brightness hurts my eyes, but then the basement is cast in shadow once more as two figures appear in the doorway, blocking out most of the light.

“Someone’s awake,” one of them grunts.

The other man steps into the room. “Time for us to continue our fun.”

Danil grunts as he tries to move, but his hands are also bound behind his back with rope.

The two men are enormous, so even if he could get his hands free, I doubt he would be able to fight them off for long.

The wicked gleam in the eyes of the slightly taller man has me fighting the urge to vomit.

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