I dashed to the kitchen where the small window over the sink was located. It led to the fire escape. My best chance was to run, not fight, not in this small apartment. I jumped onto the tile counter, flung the window open, and I got most of my body through before he reached me.
“Jesus, stop running!”
He grabbed me by the arm, but I managed to twist away from him and get free. It was a small window, not meant for a big man like him to squeeze through, and I could barely make it out myself. It would definitely slow him down.
I sprinted down the pathway and pushed down the ladder so it lowered to the next level of the building. Without glancing behind me to see if he’d figured out a way to follow me, I just kept going, moving as fast as I could. Any neighbors who looked out the window and saw me running, caked in blood, would probably call the cops at any moment.
I hurried and climbed down the ladder until I reached the very last rung. I was ten feet off the ground, and I’d have to let go and land on the concrete before I could escape. It was a long fall, but I could handle it as long as I didn’t lock my knees. With no money and no phone, I’d need to get a taxi and ask for a ride to Damien’s. He could pay the fare when I got there. I glanced at the ground one more time and saw nothing but bird shit stains between the cracks. Then I looked at my hands before I closed my eyes and found the courage to let go.
The fall was only a second or two, and it wasn’t a hard collision. It was actually soft.
Because the asshole caught me.
I stared at him blankly and couldn’t process how this had happened. How did he get to the bottom quicker than I did? Why wouldn’t he leave me alone? It only took me a few moments to start pounding my fists into his face. “Bastard! Leave me alone!”
A needle slipped into the back of my neck, and then there was a hot injection of fluid.
Oh no.
He let me hit him as he carried me away. “Relax.”
I kept fighting, but I felt my mind begin to slip away. I was growing weak, tired, so fatigued I couldn’t think anymore. My body suddenly drooped, and I collapsed against his shoulder. “Leave me alone…” I closed my eyes and went straight to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of my captor’s voice.
“I got her.” His voice was deep, masculine, and quiet. He was much calmer than he had been earlier, borderline indifferent.
A man’s voice responded through the speakerphone. “Good.”
“Good?” His voice dripped with bitterness and sarcasm. “That’s all you have to say? The bitch is psycho. She tried to kill me.”
“I warned you, man.”
“No,” he snapped. “You said she knew a few moves. You didn’t say she would cut me into tiny pieces.”
The guy over the line chuckled. “Did she beat your ass?”
He took a long time before he responded. “She was just a pain… is all.”
I was aware of my body lying on concrete. All my muscles were sore, I could feel the ache in every single place. The muscles in my arms were so sore, I felt like I’d lifted a car off my body. I was an experienced dancer, but my thighs felt like I’d had the hardest workout of my life. My eyes slowly opened, and I saw the world tilted on its side. Everything was concrete, so it seemed like I was in the basement. Then I realized I was in a cage.
Made out of iron.
My eyes focused on the man sitting in the chair on the other side of the room. His phone was on the table beside him, screen facing the ceiling and bright. He rubbed his fingers against his temple as if he had a migraine, and the rest of the room was filled with various metal objects, like shackles that hung from the ceiling, metal shelving full of odd tools, and a couple drains in the floor that were stained a weird color.
His right arm was wrapped with white gauze, and I must’ve stabbed him pretty deep because the white material was stained a pink color as he bled through. He was in a black shirt and black jeans, the clothing fitting his muscular frame to show his undeniable strength. He was a large man, covered in muscles and ink, and it was no surprise he’d defeated me. “She came at me with a knife and started quoting some song by Beyoncé…fucking weird. Then I choked her out, and when I thought she was under, I put her in my truck…but she’d been faking and took off.”