The darkness in his eyes returned. He lifted the phone and, with terrifying ease, snapped it in two, letting the broken pieces fall to the ground at her feet.
Holy shit.
He really was a lunatic.
Roam stepped away from her, moved to face me, and his expression completely changed. Now light and easygoing, he checked his watch again and said, “It’s time to make a move. Let’s go.” He peered down at me and uttered a cool, “I’m going to ask you for your phone now, and in the hopes of avoiding any awkwardness between us, perhaps you’ll use better judgement than your friend and simply tell me where it is.”
With a quiet sigh, I gave in. “My purse, in the zipped pocket.”
A skull-faced goon retrieved it, and Roam surprised me by placing it in his pocket intact.
With a bored glance at the display of his cell, he spoke impassively, “Don’t take this the wrong way, princess, but I don’t trust you. And because of that small detail, I can’t leave you here as you are. My boys are going to zip-tie you to—” He looked around the room before settling on my dining area, pointing to a specific chair. “—that.” Just when she looked to protest, he cut her off with a severe look. “And you are going to let them, or we”—his tone lowered—“are going to have problems.”
Anika held his gaze a long moment before her chin lifted and she moved, sitting herself down in the chair, allowing the thugs to circled her wrists and feet with thick black cable ties.
When Roam was satisfied that she wasn’t going anywhere, he didn’t even spare me a glance as he began to walk out of the kitchen and toward the front door. “Come along, Ms. Leokov.”
Anika and I shared the same look of utter hopelessness. She attempted a smile, but it came across desolate. And when Roam’s goons surrounded me, I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Without looking back, I walked the hall, out the door, and approached the indistinct black SUV Roam was waiting by. He held the door as I climbed in. He took the seat beside me, and not a moment later, the car was moving.
And when Roam turned to me with something in his hands, I balked. Wearing a cruel smirk, he uttered a deliberately unkind, “I’d like to say I’m not enjoying this, but knowing how much you hate me right now… knowing you’re hostile… knowing you’re at my mercy—” He placed the canvas sack over my head, leaned in close, and when he spoke quietly into my ear, I got chills. “—it makes me harder than a fucking rock.”
My stomach twisted, and Roam chuckled low, knowing exactly what he was doing to me.
With every second that followed, it became harder and harder to breathe. But I wouldn’t let it show.
No.
I had bigger things to worry about.
31
Anika
It had been over an hour since Roam had taken Nastasia. As I stared blankly down at the front steps, I contemplated how I was going to do this.
Carefully, I guess.
The second the car took off, I began tugging and pulling at the bindings around my wrists and ankles. I fought against them to no avail. With gritted teeth, I struggled until I thought I might dislocate my thumbs, and even then, I bit my lip as hard as I could, let out a long, indignant groan, and wrenched my wrists against the ties. A pain unlike any other shot through my arms. My mouth opened, and I let out a frustrated scream, panting as I considered my position.
A chill from the cool tiles had me looking down.
I’d lost a shoe in my struggle. A thought hit me, and I stilled.
Placing the ball of my foot to the floor, I groaned as I pushed myself back, and when the chair moved, I stopped breathing.
Yes!
Between pushing off with my bare foot and rocking backward, my entire body burned from the effort I put in. It took an age, but I managed to schlep myself into the center of the hallway.
The breeze coming from the open doorway had goose bumps lining my arms. Perspiration lined my brow as a feeling of weakness flowed through me. I lowered my face, huffing and puffing as I took a much-needed break. Taking a deep breath, then another, I nodded to myself and straightened before steeling my will, gritting my teeth and pushing off again and again until I worked toward my goal.
Nearer and nearer I shuffled, and when I made it a foot away from the front door, a feverish laugh left me.
I was so close.
Another shuffle. More struggling. Heavy breathing. And then I was there, staring down at the front steps, my body shaking from a mixture of fear, exertion, and adrenaline. But...