Page 56 of Keeping What He Wants

Chapter Nine

Ella opened her eyes when a single drop of water hit the center of her forehead. Her first thought was that she wasn’t dead. Her second thought was that she felt like dying. She groaned as she tried to move. Her hands were still cuffed behind her back, and she’d been lying on them for God only knew how long. She tried to sit up and realized she was in a puddle of water. She frowned and took in her surroundings.

Nothing looked familiar. She was in some dank warehouse handcuffed to a stake in the concrete. Her clothes were wet. Her stomach ached, and she really wanted to go home.

“Hello?”

A man came around the corner with a mask covering his face. “It’s about time you woke up. I thought about drowning your ass in the water to save us all the trouble.”

She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Never mind.”

“Look, I’m sick. I have a stomach bug, and it’s very contagious. Just being around me means you can get it too.”

The guy’s eyes widened. “Are you fucking with me?”

“No.” Ella groaned. “My stomach hurts. Will you please take these cuffs off?”

He rushed toward her, and Ella waited while he undid the cuffs. “I told him that you needed to be in the bathroom.”

Ella gave him a pained face. “Where is the bathroom?”

He pointed.

Ella went to the small room and closed the door. She didn’t have much left in her stomach. After cleaning herself up, she stared at herself in the mirror. If she didn’t get her wet clothes off, then she’d get even sicker. Her skin was clammy though that could have been from the water. She felt warm which meant that she probably had a fever.

She stood at the sink a moment before her stomach lurched and she vomited again. Yeah, if they didn’t kill her, the damn bug would. She’d had to admit three patients due to dehydration with it. Two more had asked her for something to kill the cramping. She wanted to huddle up in a ball on the floor. Of all the fucking times in her life to get kidnapped, she also had to get sick too.

Ella washed her hands and flushed the toilet. When she stepped out of the room, she didn’t see the man that had greeted her before. There was a set of dark gray overalls to the right, and she took the liberty of changing into them. She didn’t care if there was anyone hanging around to watch. She wanted something warm to wear and something that didn’t smell.

Afterward, she glanced to each side of the large room, looking for anyone lurking in the shadows. There was a security camera hanging up above her, and she supposed that that was how they kept an eye on her. She didn’t like the idea of trying to make a run for it if she didn’t know where she was running.

At the moment, she wasn’t in any immediate danger. She needed water though. Her throat burned and she felt dehydrated. She took in her surroundings. The warehouse had been abandoned for a while. There was no indication of where she might be. The windows were blacked out, and she assumed that if she made a run for the door, there would be hell to pay. So she didn’t try.

Not yet.

Her stomach ached painfully enough to cause her to double over. The cramping was the worst part. She’d gotten a good look at the man’s face: He was skinny. Shaved head with deep blue eyes. He had stubble on his chin like he didn’t have time to shave properly. He wore a black t-shirt and jeans. She didn’t know his name, but she assumed he was the boss. Or at least the one in charge.

A high-pitched scream came from across the warehouse, and Ella sucked in a shallow breath. She glanced around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. A discarded chain sat off to the side, and she picked it up. She didn’t have much strength. With her stomach aching to the point she wanted to rip out her intestines, she wasn’t sure how much she could really defend herself.

The door opened, and Ella watched as five men entered the warehouse. Her previous assumption of the main kidnapper being the boss proved to be wrong. Another man, one dressed in an impeccable suit with a black hat, appeared to be the one in control. Men followed behind him like an army. He stopped nearly a hundred feet away from her and stared at the chain in her hands. “He told me you were a fighter.”

She didn’t say anything. Who the hell was he talking about?

“I told him that you weren’t anything we couldn’t handle, but you sure gave my crew a mess to clean up.”

She blinked. “Mess?”

“Surely you remember. You woke up in a puddle of water because of it.”

She snorted. “Yeah, well, I’ve been dealing with patients all day. It’s part of the job to catch a virus now and then. Maybe next time you’ll go after someone that isn’t sick.”

“I’m not worried about you being sick. That doesn’t matter to me.” He reached for the gun in the man’s hand beside him. “Anything you want to say?”

“Who are you?”

He cocked the gun. “Who I am doesn’t matter either.”

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