“Everything.”
“Be more specific.” I continued to hold the bars as a crutch, needing to do something with my hands. I’d tried to run from this man so many times, but now I was stuck in one place. The cage kept me inside, but it also kept him out.
“My client wants something from Damien. So, we’ll make a trade—you for him.”
So, I was being held hostage. All I had to do was wait until Damien came for me. “When my brother gets here, he’s going to kill you.”
“Unlikely.”
Was he stupid or arrogant? “Why do you say that?”
“Because I have someone else just as important to him. He makes a move…he’ll never get her back.”
I immediately realized I was a part of a much bigger plot. “I don’t understand…” If Damien would trade himself for me, what did they want with him? And where was Annabella? “What are you going to do with him?”
He lowered his arms to his sides and slid his hands into his pockets. He looked away for a second, as if he needed time to figure out how to phrase his next words. He returned back to me eventually. “You already know.”
I felt a shiver move down my spine, and there was this overwhelming feeling of hopelessness that exploded inside me. Damien was my brother, my friend, my family. I didn’t want him to sacrifice his life for me. The only reason I was in the situation was because of the decisions he’d made in his life, but that didn’t matter. He was my family…and I would do anything for him. “Why are you doing this? Just to make a few bucks?”
He shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“It’s not that fucking complicated,” I snapped. “If Damien takes my place and I get out of here, what do you think will happen to you?”
He raised one eyebrow slightly as if he didn’t understand the question.
“I’ll come after you. And I won’t stop until my knife is through your heart.”
Twenty-One
Heath
I set the tray on the ground in front of her cage.
Instead of being grateful for the meal, she stared down at it with disgust before she looked at me again. “Do you expect me to eat that?”
“Eat it. Don’t eat it. I don’t care.”
She looked down to examine the dinner I’d made myself upstairs, and she reached out to grab the glass of water sitting there, but the size and shape of the glass couldn’t fit through the bars, so she tugged and spilled liquid all over the floor. “How do you expect me to drink this?” She copped an attitude every single time she spoke.
I turned around and opened a cabinet to grab a straw. When I returned, I threw it at her. “There.”
She let it bounce off her dress and fall to the floor. “Are you at least going to give me a change of clothes?”
“Do I look like I have women’s clothes?”
“I just said clothes, asshole. Men’s or women’s, I don’t care. Expect me to eat when I’m covered in blood?” She lifted her arms and looked at herself. “Your blood? That’s fucking gross. At least let me wash my hands first.”
I was onto her game now. Never would I underestimate her again. She was trying to think of a way to get me to open that cage door, to get the hell out of there and kill me on her way. “No.”
“Then I’d rather not eat.”
“Fine.” I picked up the tray and carried it to the table. I sat at the table and picked up the fork to take a bite. “It’s a shame. I’m a pretty good cook.”
She stood with her hands gripping the bars. She still in the short yellow dress, thin straps over her shoulders. Her long hair stretched out on either side of her, so long that the strands almost reached her belly button. She must’ve been a size zero because she had such a tiny waist. Her tanned skin made the yellow color perfect on her, when it would wash anyone else out. She flipped her head back to get the hair out of her face then continued to stare at me.
She was such a pain in the ass, but I couldn’t deny that she was beautiful. Her concern about being raped wasn’t ridiculous because most guys probably would do that. Luckily for her, that wasn’t my thing.
She sighed loudly, wanting me to know exactly how annoyed she was. “Expect me to sleep in here?”
I nodded.
“On this little roll?” she asked incredibly. “I’m gonna throw out my back.”
I kept eating.
“And where am I supposed to go to the bathroom?”
“There’s a bucket.”
“Oh my god, hell no. I’m a lady, asshole.”
“Really?” I asked. “Because you don’t sound like one.”
She narrowed her eyes and let out a loud groan of irritation. “How long are you going to keep me here?”