Tall, Dark & Furious (Pyte/Sentinel 6)

“Three hundred and fifty-four to be exact,” the man said with an amused smile.

Okay...

“What I meant to say is that there is no way that you built this cellar. So, you’ve got the wrong house,” Samantha rushed to explain when black spots started to dance around her vision. Passing out right now was not a good idea, she told herself, fighting it with everything she had as she looked him over.

He didn’t look a day over thirty and she already knew that her grandmother had never hired anyone to work on the basement because there had never been a need. So, he’d either just carved his initials into the rock before she’d spotted them or he was insane.

She was gonna go with insane, Samantha decided, slowly exhaling as the black dots multiplied and threatened to drop her on her ass.

He sighed heavily. “Look, I don’t have time for this. My mate’s being a bitch and won’t get off my ass until I check on something. Unfortunately, you walked in on something that you shouldn’t have seen. Granted, we would have taken care of you before we left,” he said with a careless shrug of his shoulders as she fought to process what he just said.

She tried to take a step back only to have her arms yanked roughly behind her back and her hands tied together. Someone kicked out her legs, causing her to drop to her knees on the stone floor, sending sharp pain through her knees and legs.

“I’m sorry about this, little human,” the man said as he pulled back his large fist.

“No!” she cried out seconds before she was struck in the temple. She fell back, slamming her head against the stone floor with a sickening crack as her world went black.

Chapter 2

“Put your shoulder into it!”

The harsh demand slowly brought Samantha back to consciousness. She cringed as throbbing pain shot through her head. Keeping her eyes closed, she slowly took several deep breaths as she fought against the nausea that was threatening to take over. When that didn’t work, she carefully turned her head so that the throbbing part of her skull was pressed against the cold stone floor.

She laid there for several long minutes as she waited for the throbbing pain to subside. When she tried to move, it was only to find her hands and feet bound. It took a minute before it all came back to her and when it did…

Her eyes flew open to find a young man with sandy brown hair kneeling in front of her. She had to squint against the bright ceiling light above her head that let her know that someone had switched out the fuses and turned the power back on.

“She’s awake, Richard,” he announced, looking over his shoulder at the red-headed man who was now shirtless and covered in white dust.

Richard wiped his brow with the back of his hand and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll have to kill her when we’re done here,” he said in a bored tone that terrified her more than if he had yelled it. He was so damn calm about it, letting her know that killing her wouldn’t be a problem.

She felt her heart pound against her chest as she opened her mouth to plead with him only to discover that her mouth had been taped shut. Frustrated tears rolled down her face as she struggled against her binds.

“Don’t waste your energy,” the young man in front of her said. “You’re not going anywhere.” He looked back at the men tearing the basement wall apart before looking back down at her and drew out a large buck knife from the sheath on his leather belt. “If you want, we can get this over with now,” he offered quietly.

Samantha quickly shook her head. She didn’t want to get this over with now. She didn’t want to get this over with at all. He shrugged as he got to his feet. “Suit yourself,” he said, returning to the group of men as they tore several rocks away from the wall, revealing a large black hole.

Her eyes darted to the cellar doors only to find them closed. Not that she really thought Charlie would defend her, but it would have been a nice distraction that she might have been able to use to her advantage. A loud grunt had her looking back at the men as they removed a large rock, making her wonder what they were looking for.

One of the men looked over at her as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. “What do you want to do with her body?”

She whimpered against the tape.

Richard gestured lazily to the hole they were clearing. “We’ll put her in there with him.”

Her eyes widened in horror as she looked at the hole. This really could not be happening. They were wrong about a body being in there just like they were wrong about this basement. They’d never been here before. It was impossible. They’d realize their mistake soon and hopefully, leave. But she knew that once they discovered their mistake, they’d simply kill her and throw her in that hole they’d just made.

Oh, god...

She was staring at her tomb.

This time when the darkness threatened to take over her, she didn’t fight it. She welcomed it, praying that when she woke up, this would all just be a bad dream.

*-*-*-*

“There he is!” someone shouted, once again rousing Samantha from a peaceful bliss that she never wanted to leave and threw her back into this nightmare.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain tearing her head apart and watched as several large men slapped each other on the back and laughed as they pointed at something inside the large hole. It took her a moment before realization hit and when it did, she tried frantically to break free from her bonds.