Page 125 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

Maddie woke up sore, confused and aware of several facts. One that they had her. Two they had tied her up and she was god knows where. And three that she wasn’t wearing anything except her knickers. That they had stripped the dress off her after they’d knocked her unconscious and that only her hair was maintaining any kind of modesty, any kind of protection.

She snarled knowing they’d done it to shame her, to make her feel even more vulnerable, to dehumanise her, only they didn’t know who they were up against, she thought because that shit didn’t work on her. She was Blackops trained. She was better than that. And anyway it wasn’t like she’d not been tortured before was it?

But that didn’t stop her from bringing her bound arms up to at least provide some sort of cover, some sort of dignity.

Someone walked in the room and she waited for whatever they were about to do.

“Hello Maddison.” The man said and she scowled beneath the cloth sack. Did they think that shit would work she wondered, did they really think they could intimidate her?

“What do you want?” She snapped and she heard his laugh.

“You always were a tough thing, weren’t you.” He replied putting his hand on her leg and she kicked back.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” She snarled.

“You’re not in a position to be making demands here.” He said.

She shook her head.

“This is how it’s going to go, we’re going to rough you up a bit and then you’re going to answer my questions and if you give us what we want I will let you go.”

“And if I don’t?” She asked.

“Then things will not go well for you.”

She snorted. He really did think he could intimidate her didn’t he?

“Get up.” He said and she took a deep breath before standing, using her arms to get herself up before moving them back to cover her chest once more.

He was staring at her, she could feel it even if she couldn’t see it. He grabbed her arm yanking her forward a few steps and then he walked around her like he was appraising her. She could feel her hair was covering at lot of her but she still felt how exposed, how naked she was.

The man made no attempt to take the sack from her head and she waited, wondering what exactly he was going to do but he simply stood there, waiting and then she realised what he was doing.

He was going to keep her there, standing, waiting, unable to sit, unable to move, unable to sleep. It was literally page one of the torture handbook and she smirked because she knew it wouldn’t work. Sure it would put her through hell, sure she would be weakened from it but she wouldn’t talk. She’d played this game before, she’d played it what felt like nearly a dozen times and every time she had won not them.

She stumbled slightly and he laughed before poking her with something that sent a sharp shock of electricity through her making her whole body feel like fire was burning it. He was using some sort of cattle rod, she realised, shocking her like she was an animal, a beast.

She took a deep breath and mentally steeled herself. It hadn’t helped that she had drunk so much, that her body was dehydrated and that her head was spinning from more than just being knocked unconscious.

She stood for what felt like hours, stumbling every so often and hearing his laugh before he shock her to keep her focus, keep her on edge. And every time it worked, every time her body responded instantly, jerking, as the fire burnt through her.

She gritted her teeth. He hadn’t even asked her anything, she thought, hadn’t even questioned her, but she figured he was waiting for that too, waiting till he thought she was weak enough to submit, weak enough to break. Well, she thought, he’d be waiting a hell of a long time for that as she stumbled slightly again and felt the shock of the rod against her side once more.

“What is this?”

“Footage…”

“From who?”

“Bystanders by the looks of it. We’ve already got the PR guys spreading rumours it’s part of a new film. The public are lapping it up.” Brandon said and Cole narrowed his eyes passing the phone back to him.

One agent was dead, others were injured and Maddie was gone. He scowled. How had they not seen this coming? How had any of them missed this?

“Do we have anything?” He asked and Brandon shook his head.

“We’ve got everyone we can on it.”

“So why do we have nothing?” Cole half yelled and Brandon shook his head.“

We’re doing everything we can.” He stated and Cole got up pouring himself a coffee and putting it down before he even took a sip. “We’ll find her Cole.”

“We don’t know that and we don’t know why they took her in the first place.” Cole snapped.

“The same reason they’ve wanted her from the start I’d guess.” Brandon said.

“She said it herself, she said it over and over that she didn’t know anything.” Cole replied.

“Clearly the target thinks otherwise.”

Cole scowled again. The girl was tough, he knew that, she was Blackops for fucksake but something about the situation made him not just angry and not even just worried for her, but guilty, because they had known this, he and Brandon, they’d seen the intel, the information they’d kept from the rest of the team. They knew there were moves going on in the background to take her and he’d not done enough, not kept her safe enough, hell he’d pretty much gift wrapped her for them.

“We’ll find her.” Brandon stated and Cole shook his head.

“Stop saying that.” He replied coldly. “And actually do something.”

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