Page 38 of Trapped

“Who are you?”

The door opened, illuminating the newcomer in stark light and making it damn near impossible to distinguish their features.I guessed it was a man from the stature of their silhouette, but anything else was difficult to ascertain.

“Paul Baron.”

His knowing tone was instantly recognizable, though initially, I couldn’t say why.I met a lot of guys, mostly the good kind who’d have your back, but you never really knew anyone properly, did you?Not until the shit hit the fan.I had few friends, and even fewer whom I truly trusted.Hawkins was about to remind me why.

“So, you know who I am.”No surprise.The bloodied lip one of his goons had given me had dried, making the tissue painful when I finally spoke, but somehow, the ache added impetus to my snarl.“Try answering my question.”Asshole.

I held back the final word, although I didn’t know why.Wasn’t I the one bound in the virtual darkness?Wasn’t I entitled to the use of profanity?

“Sure.”The loser swaggered into the room, flicking on the switch by the door as he went.

Sickly illumination flickered into life overhead, rousing the strip lighting I hadn’t even known existed until that moment.My eyes, deprived of light for so long, blinked at the glaring brightness, and as the light spread out across the space, I was forced to look away.

“That’s what I came here for.”He was right beside me then, having snuck up on me as I learned to contend with the light, but I still didn’t raise my head to see his face.I wanted to know his identity, but I still had my pride.“I want to make sure you know whose guest you are, Baron.”

He spat out my name as though it was a dirty word, his obvious disdain for me ratcheting my curiosity.Naturally, I’d considered the possibility that I’d been taken by someone with links to my profession.Based on the murky waters I swam in, the risk of a shark attack was always an omnipresent threat, but it wasn’t until that moment that the idea cemented.

Shit.

My stomach lurched at the disappointing reality.Someone I’d put my faith in had let me down in a huge way, and I had no choice but to deal with whatever their demands were.Though, why they’d have taken custody of me was still a mystery.

“Go on, wise guy.”Unlike most of my peers, I wasn’t usually the alpha male type, preferring to stay in the shadows rather than the spotlight, but I’d had just about enough of his shit.“Let’s hear it.”

“Look at me, you fucking idiot!”He shoved me in the shoulder, almost knocking the wooden chair over and compelling my gaze toward the peeling ceiling on reflex.“Look into my eyes and know who owns you!”

“Hawkins?”Even I could hear the confusion in my voice.

What the fuck was the over-promoted gimp in charge of my commanders doing there?He didn’t have the balls for a show like that, did he?

“Surprised?”The smug expression lighting up his gnarly face begged to be ripped from him, but with my hands bound to the sides of the chair, I was in no position to help.

“What is this about?”Ignoring his question, I turned away from him, scanning the inside of the place he was holding me for any clues about our location, but inside, the unresolved question plagued me.

Why had Hawkins—my subordinate—dragged me to the dank, dark place?

Whatever the answer, I was relieved at the discovery of his identity.Hawkins was a known quantity.I’d read his file and had actually been on the panel that had interviewed him for the job.Knowing my so-called enemy buoyed me.

“Good.”The asshole actually had the audacity to laugh.

“What the fuck is this, Hawkins?”He’d intentionally ignored my question.

My patience was running thin.I’d been awake for hours, blindfolded and manhandled on my way to wherever the hell he was keeping me.His game of riddles was as irritating as it was perplexing.

“This is phase one.”

He winked at me as though the whole enterprise was an elaborate game we’d agreed to play, but nothing could have been further from the truth.Whatever it was, I hadn’t concurred with a single moment of it.

“Do you have any idea how much fucking trouble you’re in?”Straightening as far as the ropes allowed, I blew out a breath.“Abducting a senior officer isn’t usually a fast-track to promotion.”

“Senior?”he sneered.“Older, you mean?”

“What?”I had barely ten years on the idiot.“You mean, more experienced and completely justified in dropping you in the shit once I get out of here?”

Hawkins snorted.“What makes you think you’re getting out of here?”

My blood chilled at his casual inference.It was the first moment since I’d figured out who he was that I’d realized I might be in real trouble.Hawkins was known to be all mouth and no trousers, but he’d never achieved anything as well-organized or impudent as kidnapping a senior colleague before.The concrete box I found myself in was new territory for us both.

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