Page 10 of Curvy Hostage Mate
“Protection? I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Chris,” he said. “I can’t remember if Kendra told you when we tried to break you out of the cell.”
He sounded so sincere, it was hard not to believe him. But if he couldn’t give me any evidence, I wasn’t going to fall for anything he said.
“Please,” I said. “I don’t remember you. But if you’re telling me the truth, then let me see my sister.”
My stomach sank as he shook his head. “I can’t. Not right now. I know you want to see her, but for now, I need you to stay here and sit tight, okay?”
Anger burned and boiled inside me at the words. I glared at him. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to claw out his eyes before walking out the door to find my sister. I wanted to hex him so he wouldn’t be able to shift until he took me to Kendra. But I couldn’t do any of those things. I was useless, as always. The fire began to dim inside me as I felt myself shrinking, drawing inwards.
Slowly, feeling just as helpless as I had when I’d been under Cain’s thumb, I nodded. Without another word, I turnedon my heels. I walked into the other room, slamming the door shut behind me.
The bedroom had no windows. Of course. I took a deep breath and collapsed on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, letting myself process everything that had happened in the last handful of hours.
I was free of Cain. That was good. I hadn’t in my wildest dreams thought that would ever happen. I had always assumed I would be stuck with him forever. But I was still a prisoner, still trapped, and apparently, no closer to seeing my sister.
I didn’t care what Chris said—I didn’t trust him. He had grabbed me and dragged me away without telling me anything. He’d kidnapped me, even if it had been from a horrible situation. Instead, he’d dragged me into an unknown one. He hadn’t asked if I wanted to be rescued, hadn’t given me a say in what happened next. He’d just dragged me to this random cabin and now refused to let me see my sister, assuming he actually knew where she was.
He was controlling me, just like Cain. I’d traded one owner for another. That feeling, like I was property, rankled me. You would think after several years, I would have gotten used to it by now. But no, it still made me angry every minute of every day. I had just learned to keep my mouth shut about it.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. When was the last time I’d had a say in my own life? I knew the answer without thinking of it. Years ago, the day those slavers kidnapped Kendra and me, I’d decided to take the long way home because I wanted to buy some herbs from a woman in town so I could fix a potion. When I walked into the house my sister and I shared, I saw Kendra tied up and gagged on the couch. I didn’t even have the chance to react when someone grabbed me from behind, theyarrow and vervain falling to the floor as the man yanked my arms behind me.
Ever since that moment, my life hadn’t been my own.
I rolled onto my side as exhaustion slammed into me. It couldn’t be that late, but all of a sudden, I could barely keep my eyes open.
I let my eyes flutter shut, promising myself that I would find a way to get out of here tomorrow.
Chapter 5 - Chris
I stared at the closed door, mind reeling as I tried to make sense of what I had just done. I’d taken Morgan. That hadn’t been part of the plan. I had just turned the entire mission on its head without a second thought. I had always been what you might call impulsive, but never to this extent.
Collapsing onto the couch, I rubbed my face as I tried to figure out what to do next. Morgan was right. Cain would come after her. It was a miracle I had managed to get her through the portal at all. Hopefully, they wouldn’t find her here, but I couldn’t guarantee that.
The longer I sat, the more it sank in exactly what I had done. What the hell had I been thinking? I had just kidnapped the one woman guaranteed to piss off Cain, and guaranteed to get him to pay attention to what was going on. He would know we were back, or at least have a good suspicion about it. And if he was as obsessed with Morgan as we thought, he wasn’t going to just let her go. We’d had a chance to get in there undetected and do some recon before pulling the trap closed. Not anymore.
In short, there was a strong chance that I had just blown the entire mission sky-high. But I couldn’t exactly leave Morgan there. Kendra wouldn’t ever have forgiven me if I’d given up the chance to protect her sister.
But was that really the reason I had done it, or was it because I was being selfish? I could tell myself it was the former all I wanted. I wasn’t sure if I could believe it, though. In truth, part of it was probably because I couldn’t stand the idea of not being in control. And seeing Morgan in chains walking past me without being able to do anything about it went directly against my nature.
As I mulled this over, a buzzing reverberated in my pocket. I pulled out a small contraption, a tiny, pocket-sized compact that Kendra had enchanted so Trent and Nolan, both of whom had their own, and I could keep in touch in the Underside. Effectively, it was a video phone, considering cells didn’t work down there. I flipped it open to see Trent and Nolan peering up at me from where a tiny mirror normally rested.
“Are you two okay?” I asked.
“In a manner of speaking,” Nolan said.
“What the hell happened? Where are you?” Trent demanded.
“Cain raised the alarm about an hour ago,” Nolan said. “All hell’s broken loose. He’s scouring the entire Underside for something. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” The tone in Nolan’s voice indicated that he already knew that, yes, I did happen to know something about that.
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “When we split up, I came across Morgan. I took a chance and got her through the portal.”
“You found Morgan? Seriously?” Trent asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“And you snatched her out from under Cain’s nose?” Nolan added, his voice slow, as if trying to figure out just how much of an idiot I had been.
