Page 82 of Right With You
“Hello?” I asked at a far too reasonable volume considering the absolute panic raining down on me, pulling on the cuff around my hand with absolutely no success. “Hello?!”
I leaned away from the heater, bracing the cuff around my wrist so it wouldn’t bite into my skin so hard, and prayed the other side would give.
No luck.
My hand ached. I couldn’t slide it out of the cuff, which was essentially a given, but I had to try. The metal ripped into my skin, and I could already see a dark bruise forming around my wrist. I couldn’t really afford to break my hand to get it out though, could I? I wouldn’t be able to do my job—either of my jobs—if I did that.
Yeah but if you’re about to get murdered, the broken hand won’t matter much!
I shut my eyes and tried to calm myself for a second, brain scrambling for anything that might help.
Wasn’t there some trick about forcing your hands down… wait, no. That was for zip-ties if both of your hands were together.
Helplessness and panic welled up again and I screamed. “Help! Help me! Heeeeelp!!!”
The door banged open, and I scrambled back in fear, then swallowed hard at the sight of Callum.
Callum?
“You need to shut your mouth, or I’ll have to tape it shut, okay, Leesy?”
Bile crawled up my throat at the hard, satisfied look in his eyes as he used his old pet name for me.
“What is this? Why am I here and what are you doing?”
My voice sounded scared and small. I hated it, but I couldn’t pretend I had the wherewithal to face down a man I knew was violent from a mattress on the floor of an empty room with one hand cuffed to a radiator.
He dropped to a crouch and his face took on a sympathetic expression. “Oh, Leesy. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get through this and everything will go back to the way it was.”
“The way it was?” I asked, horror filling me.
He nodded. “Yep. As it should be. You being mine and us living happily ever after.”
The horror ebbed ever so slightly in favor of resounding disbelief and anger. I yanked at the handcuff, pain slicing through my wrist, and only barely resisted flinging out my free hand to try to push him further away from me.
“We’re not going to be together. Ever again. I’ve told you that before, and if it hadn’t been clear to me before, which it was, it absolutely is now.”
He squinted at me, his handsome face looking as put together as ever. He wore a medium blue shirt and khaki slacks like he’d come from, or maybe was going to, the office. What the heck was happening?
“I’m sorry you feel that way. This rich Euro-trash boyfriend of yours has made things confused, but I’ve got a way to solve that problem, and when this is all over, we’ll both be happy.” He tilted his face and got this soft, affectionate look I couldn’t stand.
He’d never been soft or sweet with me. At one point, he’d been charming and flattering, playing on my need for attention maybe, and any other vanities he could detect. In retrospect, I could hardly remember how he’d gotten so deep under my skin I didn’t know how to get out.
“I’ll never be happy with you. I’ll never forgive you for this, and you’re going to jail when this is over, not anywhere with me?—”
The pain in my cheek bloomed hot and loud with the contact of his hand. For a second, I could hardly breathe—like somehow my face getting hit had knocked the wind out of me. Tears pricked my eyes instantly, and I ducked away from him, instinctively putting as much distance between us as I could.
“You’ll learn. And until then, you’ll be here.”
His formerly calm façade had broken and here was the man I’d seen peeking out more and more toward the end of our relationship.
“They’ll get their money, I’ll get a little bonus, and you’ll be back where you belong. It’s all just a matter of time.”
He stood and marched toward the door, turning back right before he exited with one hand resting on the knob. “We don’t want the duct tape, do we?”
I shook my head, tucking down again. I definitely didn’t want my mouth taped. Just the thought sent a bolt of panic down my spine.
He smirked. “That’s what I thought.”
