Page 44 of Trapped

“Please.”Forcing my eyes north, I searched his face.“I don’t know you.I don’t know why I’m here.”

Hawkins’ expression softened.“You haven’t done anything wrong, if that’s what you’re worried about.Not unless you count going to bed with Eli Rosen.”

“Youkn-know Eli?”I tried to keep my voice even, but even I heard the waver.

“Oh, yes.”Hawkins grinned, revealing a line of crooked, yellowing teeth.“He and I go way back.It was him I was after, but stumbling across you is an exceptionally pleasing sweetener.”

Sweetener?Dread curled inside me.

“I’m notwithhim,” I countered, vaguely conscious of guilt bubbling at the speed with which I was prepared to abandon the memory of the things Eli and I had created in the cabin.“There’s nothing between us.”

My words echoed in my ears, furling my growing shame.It was true Eli had made no promises to me, and that if Hawkins and his mob had left us alone, we might have hiked back to normality and never seen one another again, but to dismiss the time we’d shared asnothingwas a mistake.Eli had helped me to feel things I’d never known before.He’d helped me to discover new things about myself.That couldn’t be described as nothing.He was someone I sensed I’d never forget, whatever happened with the overweight, balding man who was seemingly calling the shots.

“That’s great news.”Hawkins sneered.“Then you won’t have any objections about getting to know me better, will you?”

The line of men behind him cheered as though he was a late-night comedy act in a cheap B-movie.

“But I don’t even know you!”I don’t want to know you!

I never articulated the final line, but my eyes widened when Hawkins’ full attention landed in my direction.

“We can change that.”He sidled closer, his curling lips and sashaying hips conveying that he probably thought he looked seductive, although little was further from the truth.“Let’s have some alone time.”

Alone time?

My belly lurched at the hideous idea, but the rope at mywrists meant resistance was futile.

“Please.”My voice lowered, as though I was whispering loving words to the moron.“You don’t have to do this.Just let me go.”

His brow furrowed for a nanosecond before the deepening creases suggested his confusion had melted away to rage.“Don’t start with that shit.”

He flicked his right wrist my way dismissively.“It’s always the same with women.Cock-teasing, then playing hard to get!”

“Cock tease?”I hadn’t even known who the slimy bastard was before he intruded on the plans Eli and I had made, let alone been thinking about teasing the asshole.Even if I hadn’t just spent the last day wrestling with my attraction to Eli, a guy like Hawkins would have been the last person I’d have flirted with.

“Need a hand, boss?”the one he’d called Hadden called out from behind him.

“No!”Hawkins snapped.“Get out of here, all of you!”He twisted around to face his minions.“I want a tour of the perimeter and then two of you can go and entertain our other guests.”

The low-lying snigger that passed along the line convinced me that thinly veiled instruction was code for them to visit wherever Eli was being held, and the panic inside me intensified.

“Please.”Somehow, despite my better judgment, I was begging the guy again, but whatever happened to me, I couldn’t just sit there and allow him to dispatch more punishment to Eli.Yes, I was bound and basically helpless, but it seemed like my last chance to make Hawkins see reason.“Don’t hurt Eli.”

Nausea welled at the sly smile that painted Hawkins’ face.“You really care about him, huh?”

The idea of caring for anyone appeared almost comical to him, but his question darted around my head.Did I care about him?In truth, we’d only spent a matter of hours together, and whatever he had or hadn’t unlocked in me, I wasn’t sure it was possible to develop true feelings for someone in such a short space of time.Yet the nagging doubt in my mind resumed, reassuring me that my sentiment for the man he seemed content to torment was not the issue.Whether I was falling for Eli or not was irrelevant.Hawkins had no right to treat him so badly.

He had no right to be doing any of it.

“I’m just saying he doesn’t deserve to be beaten.”I turned my face away, aware of the heat rising from my neck.

“You have no idea what that fucker deserves.”The severity of his tone took me by surprise.“But I do, pretty.I know Rosen, and I’ve waited a long time to have him and my old boss at my mercy.”

My brow creased.Hawkins’ old boss?Had Eli told me who that was?

“I hadn’t expected to get you as part of the deal, but what the hell…” He rubbed his palms together as though he was plotting something dastardly, and right on cue, as if he’d commanded the deed, both my wrists tugged futilely at the ropes holding me to the chair.“You’re a little older than my usual type, but I reckon I deserve a little appetizer before the real fun begins.”

His hand stretched toward me, his chubby fingers grazing over my chest until they sensed the outline of my nipple through the layers of clothing.

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