Take (Deliver 5)

“Everyone dies. Some more painfully than others.”

His cold, callous tone validated her assumption. This wouldn’t be a quick execution. He intended to make her suffer.

Terror trickled down her spine, freezing her in place.

Don’t just stand there. Move. Run. Fight, for fuck’s sake.

She unlocked her legs and bolted toward the door.

Two steps was all she managed before the lamp turned off and pitch-black darkness swallowed the room.

Her heart rate exploded as she strained her eyes. How the fuck did he kill the light?

She couldn’t see her hands in front of her face. The exit hovered somewhere to the right, so she crept in that direction, listening for his footsteps amid the eruption of her gasps.

She tried to move slowly and soundlessly, so he couldn’t track her. Then her scalp tingled. The air shifted against her, around her. Panic kicked in, and she burst into a blind sprint.

Heart racing, she made it a few more feet before something thumped up ahead. The sound of the door closing, of air being pushed out as it sealed. Then the lock slid into place.

She froze, her lungs shriveling with ice. Energy bounced against her, a disturbance of atmosphere. He was close, but where?

“Turn on the light.” She swerved backward, spinning, her bound arms throwing her off balance as she swung at nothing.

He made no sound, yet his presence squeezed in on all sides, taunting her with her fear of the dark.

Her hair ruffled, and she pivoted. Was he circling her?

She whirled back, disoriented. Where was the door? Straight ahead? Behind her? She darted forward, and her throat slammed into an iron bar of muscle. His arm. He fucking clotheslined her.

Pain exploded in her larynx, and she staggered backward, expecting a hand to fly out of the blackness. But it was his boot that hit next. Directly in her stomach.

The excruciating impact sucked the wind from her lungs and knocked her flat on her back.

She landed on the mattress, gulping for air, and in the next heartbeat, he was on her. Powerful legs straddled her hips. His hand collared her throat, and the other pinned her arms above her head.

He was too heavy, too strong. Too fucking close.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, who your friends are, or what you think you know about me.” His calm breath feathered her face. “You have no opinions here. No privilege or power. Apparently, you didn’t learn that the last time.”

Her heart crashed against her ribcage as she bucked and twisted beneath his weight. “The last time?”

“Four years ago.”

Oh God, he knew her past. He’d done his research.

“That’s right.” He flexed his thighs against her writhing hips, holding her to the mattress as his hands moved along the rope on her arms. “I know all about Van Quiso and his training.”

“Don’t do this.” She didn’t need her vision to know he was tying her to something on the wall. All-consuming fear jangled her insides, violently shaking her. “Let me go!”

“Try not to shit yourself. If you make a mess in my bed, I’ll make you sleep in it. Not because I’m into that kind of thing. It’s fucking disgusting.”

Her jaw fell open, and a stunned whisper tumbled out. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“We’re not going to get into that. Right now, we’re focusing on what’s wrong with you.” He put his mouth at her ear. “It’s safe to assume Van Quiso did a number on your head. But instead of learning from the experience, you went and got yourself captured again. Let’s be honest, Kate. That was really careless on your part.”

“Careless?” she shrieked. “You kidnapped—”

He clamped a huge hand over her face, covering her lips and part of her nose. “Another outburst, and my next strike will break something important.”Kate wrestled for air beneath the press of Tiago’s fingers on her face. He already kicked her hard enough to turn her stomach black and blue by morning. If he adjusted his grip by a millimeter, her airway would be completely closed. She had no choice but to heed his threat.

Commanding the rigidness to leave her body, she sank into the mattress and blinked in the darkness.

He released her mouth, then her hands, but his weight remained on her hips.

With her arms stretched toward the wall above her head, she yanked hard. No give. Just as she assumed, the rope was tied to something immovable.

“Now, where were we?” His deep rumble penetrated her chest.

“You were pointing out my faults.” She bared her teeth, not that he could see her with the lights off.

“So I was. Among those faults is this withering scorn you carry around.” He gripped her jaw, gave it a painful squeeze, and let go. “You’re sick of being the underdog, the victim. So you charged in here wearing a cloud of righteous anger, because fuck the man, right? And by man, I mean every prick who’s treated you unfairly. The father who abandoned you. The brothers who bullied you. The roommates who didn’t protect you. The scar-faced bastard who tried to sell you to some fat fuck with fetishes more unspeakable than his own. Then there’s me. You don’t even know what I have planned for you.”