Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

“I just want to find out where Juli is,” I demanded.

But I needn’t have bothered, I guess. Her father stormed toward him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt.

“Did you take my little girl?” he boomed.

The pansy-ass shrank away from him, shaking his head and looking completely lost. “W-what?” There was no way he was acting; the dude seriously had no idea what was going on.

“Fuck,” I uttered, my stomach pitching with utter fear. “He doesn’t know where she is either.”

I’d kind of been counting on him having her, so we could beat her whereabouts out of him. But her ex didn’t know where she was either. And if he didn’t have her, then who did?

I glanced around me blindly, suddenly very helpless and vulnerable.

Two days later, I’d probably gotten a total of four hours of sleep altogether. And Julianna was still gone. That was the point when I finally broke down and cried.

JULIANNA’S CHAPTER | 33

Sitting on the damp floor with my back to a crumbling wall, I tugged off one of my gloves with my teeth, then picked open a scab on the tip of my finger. I’d spent all day yesterday trying to claw my way out of this concrete tomb that seemed to be some kind of small underground storm shelter. The only thing I’d managed to accomplish, though, was to give myself two hands full of broken fingernails, ground down to tattered bloody stubs.

When fresh blood welled through the dirty flesh, I stuck my thumb into my mouth, sucking greedily so I could at least wet my tongue.

There’d been a small puddle in the corner just under the air vent in the ceiling where water had probably leaked in when it had rained. But I’d already drank that dry, knowing it’d probably make me sick but needing it anyway.

I almost wished for an insect to crawl by so I could eat it. I was literally starving to death down here. I’d screamed myself hoarse on day one, but even if I hadn’t, my throat had dried up too much to make much sound by now, anyway.

So I sat here in my ten-by-ten-foot prison, drinking blood from my own fingertips to hydrate myself and trying not to freeze to death in the process. I guess the only consolation was that I’d been taken while wearing my winter coat, where by some quirk of fate I’d had some gloves and a knit cap stuffed in my pockets. But no matter how much I bundled up, the cold crept in and settled straight against my bones.

Weak, tired, cold, starving, stiff and sore, I bent my knees up to my chest and hugged as much body heat back into myself as I could.

I didn’t know who’d taken me. One moment, I’d been trudging to my car through the crisp morning air, eager to get to campus so I could see Colton again; the next, a splitting pain seared through the back of my head as someone hit me with something. And after that, nothing. I’d woken up here, freaking the fuck out.

What’s worse, no one had come to visit once. I had no idea who had taken me, or why.

There was a door on the slanting roof above me and even a latch to open it, but someone had removed the steps that should’ve led up to that door, and no matter how much I jumped or tried to climb, crawl, or claw my way up to it, I couldn’t reach it. I’d cried so many frustrated, mad, frightened tears in the past few days, I probably could’ve drunk my dehydration away with them.

Closing my eyes as the metallic flavor trickled across my tongue, I rested my cheek on the wall and went to my happy place. It was with Colton, always Colton, with him either grinning at me from the other side of the bar at Forbidden as he commenced to flirt his way into my pants, or smiling with sated satisfaction in my bed with his bare chest still gleaming with sweat, or watching me with that knowing twinkle in his eyes from across the classroom in philosophy. It didn’t matter where we were, he was always there, watching me, wanting me, loving me.

I choked out a sob and wondered if I’d ever see him again. But those thoughts led to the worst panic. The thought of never getting out of here alive, never seeing Colton or my dad or best friends again, it all made my chest heave and body shake. So I shut those thoughts down and returned to just images of Colton’s face and the way he never failed to look at me with an impatient hunger.

I love you, I whispered inside my head, wondering if maybe he might hear it in his head if I thought it loud and hard enough. I love you, and I’m right here. Please find me.

A tear trickled down my cheek, making me grit my teeth. Dammit, no more tears. I couldn’t waste anymore moisture coming out of me. I needed to survive, prove my hearty ancestors proud, and make it through this.

I would overcome.

I just didn’t know how. And I felt so lost and alone and hopeless, another tear tracked down my cheek.

“Someone,” I croaked the word aloud, though my rasping voice barely lifted above a whisper. “Help me.”

As if answering a prayer, footsteps approached outside, making a crunching sound, like maybe boots plodding over gravel. Then metal scraped against metal. It was dark in my pit, but the air vent allowed just enough daylight in that I could see the inside of the door latch turning until it began to swing open. But the amount of brightness that flooded the cellar caused me to shrink back in my corner and hold up my hand to shade my eyes instead of scampering forward for help.

It was probably just as well I didn’t surge forward, anyway, because I soon discovered my captor—not a savior—had arrived.

“Hey,” a male voice said. “You still alive down there?”

I didn’t answer, wondering what would happen if he thought I was dead. Would he come down personally to check on me? Maybe I could overpower him and get out. He’d hit me from behind to capture me, he hadn’t tried to physically manhandle me; it was possible he wasn’t that big of a guy. Or would he shut the door, never to return, so that I really did die down here?

I was too afraid to move, yet too afraid not too. My breaths started to heave, so I slammed my hand to my mouth and bit my knuckles, hoping to keep quiet. A second later, the beam of a flashlight invaded my dark corner and hit me right in the eyes, causing me to clench them shut and cower my face into my knees.