Page 48 of Cruel Deception
“No. What do you expect me to do here, rot in silence while you vanish?”
“A prisoner isn’t expected to do anything but exist. Suffer quietly. Don’t make me lock you in.”
I blinked fast. “Would you really kill me one day?”
His silence screamed louder than a yes.
I stepped closer. “Will you at least help me find my mother? She’s with the Chicago syndicate, I know she is. Please, Cassian. Help me, and I’ll give you everything. I’ll be yours. But I need to find her.”
He looked at me like I was something he already owned. “I owe you nothing. You, Charlotte, owe me everything.”
He got off the bike and grabbed my wrist.
“No—” I pulled back, trying to wrench free, but his grip was iron.
He threw me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing.
“Let me go! You bastard, put me down!” I screamed, kicking, clawing. But he didn’t flinch.
He carried me through a narrow corridor in the east wing of the penthouse—one I hadn’t noticed before—and stopped at a heavy steel door, hidden behind a false wall.
He punched in a code. The lock clicked open.
He shoved the door wide, carried me in, and tossed me down onto cold concrete.
The cell.
The door slammed shut behind me.
I scrambled up and threw myself at it. “Cassian! Cassian, you son of a bitch—OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”
Nothing. No voice. Just retreating footsteps.
I pounded until my knuckles hurt, until I was gasping for breath, until I couldn’t scream anymore.
Then I heard it.
A scream.
From the back of the room.
I spun around. The space was narrow, domed like a thumbprint, with stone walls and no windows low enough to reach. In the distance, separated by one thick wall, I heard the clank of chains, followed by another scream—desperate, raw.
My blood ran cold.
Someone was locked up here. Someone else.
“Hey—HEY!” I pressed my lips to the cold wall, voice cracking. “Can you hear me?! I can help you—just talk to me.”
But all I heard was rattling. And the low, inhuman sound of someone breaking.
Then came the words.
“Free me... Free me... FREEEE MEEEEE!”
A woman’s voice—shattered, like her soul had long since left her body.
I backed away, chest tight, eyes burning.
