Page 160 of Kissing the Villain

“As far as we need to go.”

58

ALEX

Rough fingers sliddown my thighs as I drifted in and out of consciousness. A man lifted me in his arms and cradled me against his hard chest with his hand on the back of my head. I couldn’t find the strength to move an inch. My eyelids felt heavy as he carried me down a flight of stairs.

The man laid me on a soft bench. Leather mixed with the saltiness of the sea filled my nostrils. Someone sat beside me and brushed my hair off my face. Gentle, in a loving way.

“Close your eyes,” he whispered.

Okay.

We moved forward, and the man placed his hand on my back. He made slow circles to put me at ease, his feather-light touch sending a shiver down my arm. I rested my head on his thigh as he coaxed me back to sleep.

What felt like a few minutes passed before we stopped moving. A door opened, and I heard water splashing from a distance. The man with solid arms carried me toward the marina. Fear rocked my body, sending a ripple of nervous energy down my arms. Several pairs of shoes tapped the cement behind us. Instead of heading toward the dock, we took a set ofstairs that tunneled underground. We stopped at the bottom of the encasement.

“Where are you taking me?” I choked out.

No answer.

The sound of heavy footsteps filled the silence that hung in the air between us like smoke. We stopped in front of a brick wall. A man wearing a black cloak with a hood pulled over his head removed a brick from the center of the wall, revealing a hidden lock. He slipped his hand into his pocket, produced a skeleton key dangling from a silky red string, and slid it into the lock.

“Where am I?” I attempted to roll onto my back to look up at the man cradling me, but as I moved, he tightened his grip, smashing my face against his hard chest. “This is some Skull and Bones meets Harry Potter shit,” I muttered. “Are the Death Eaters on the other side of this wall waiting for us in Diagon Alley?”

A man laughed behind me.

I struggled to break free from the man restraining me, but it was no use. The harder I fought him, the more he tightened his death grip. As the man in front of us removed the key from the secret lock, another person helped him push the wall inward, revealing a private entrance hidden beneath the town.

“What the fuck is this place?”

Of course, no one answered me.

Dead silence.

We entered a cramped passage that smelled like mildew, salt, and earth. No one even breathed as we rounded a corner, then another. I tilted my head to the side to look at the stone walls with iron lanterns built into them, the dim light casting a soft glow. Symbols were etched into the walls. They looked like markings you would see in a Masonic temple.

Except these were scary.

Skulls with knives driven into the bone. Knight helmets with blank faces and the eyes of a demon. A knight in full armor holding the Scales of Justice. The weight was unbalanced, dipping to one side with a giant serpent holding it down, slithering up the arm of the knight.

A few minutes passed before the man in front of us opened a door. He set my feet on the ground, and I staggered to the side. I couldn’t maintain my balance, and before he could grab me, I fell on the hard floor.

My curls hung in my eyes as I leaned forward, groaning in pain. Someone moved behind me, fisted my hair, and forced me to look up. Straight ahead, two thrones sat atop a dais. A man dressed in a long black cloak sat on his throne with a hood covering his face. I knew he was watching me, studying every move I made.

I blinked a few times to clear the sleep from my eyes. Five men in black cloaks hid under their hoods. The man before me rose from his throne, tall and imposing, his cloak fanning around his ankles. I stared at him, attempting to glance at his face, but his hood covered his eyes.

He stepped off the dais and moved in front of me. The man behind me forced my head down, holding my hair.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, my voice sounding distant.

The robed men surrounded us, creating a circle to trap me inside. My breath caught in my throat. With my heart hammering out of my chest, I could hardly function, on the verge of a panic attack.

Were these men going to kill me?

Rape me?

Torture me?

---