My ankles were tied tightly to the chair I was sitting on. My feet actually tingled, as if on the verge of being numb. My upper arms were also tied to the back of the chair, though at least this provided some freedom of motion in my arms.
I heard laughing. And then I heard nothing.
I wondered if I’d imagined the whole damn thing. I was still struggling to wake up; I felt like the kid who had fallen asleep on the couch and didn’t want to get up, except instead of my whole body, it was just my eyes struggling to open fully. For what felt like an eternity, I struggled with this.
And finally, I had the strength to lift my head and my eyes opened.
And that was when I saw my worst nightmare come to life.
Eduardo was sitting across from me, seated in an office chair he had rolled to the side. The place looked empty. There was a window near me, but the blinds were drawn, and even if they weren’t, I didn’t dare do anything with him just feet away from me.
“Hello, Rachel,” he said, a wicked grin forming on his face.
I felt nauseous. The only reason I didn’t throw up was because I didn’t have anything to throw up, but I felt weak and terrified. And there was nothing I could do.
Nothing you can do. So what are you going to do?
“Don’t you think this is a much better place for us to be meeting than the grocery store? No more public venues. Just you and I, private, as I’ve always wanted.”
He chuckled to himself before he let out a long sigh. I tried to display no reaction, to give him nothing, but I was sure that he had to sensesomething.Still, I knew that if I couldn’t do anything, that was what I had to lean into. I would at least not show fear and not show my terror if I couldn’t kick him or punch him.
“What, cat got your tongue? Has it gone mute since the grocery store? Or maybe it got used to suck off one of the Black Reapers?”
He laughed again, but there was more anger to his voice than last time. Something just in saying the words “Black Reapers” must have felt like poison to him.
“Fuck, that pretty mouth of yours. I’ve missed it so much. Have you missed mine?”
“What the hell do you want, Eduardo?” I said.
I was surprised at the fire I had. I’d thought I’d be coughing up embers, but it instead felt like I had the force of a volcano behind my words.
“You took my dignity and my spirit a decade ago. You’ve probably done the same to many women since. And yet now, after all this time, you have me again? Don’t you have better fights to pick with the Black Reapers?”
Eduardo smiled. Notably, he did not laugh.
“Oh, don’t you worry, dear; I will take care of those fucking idiots in no time.”
It was like he couldn’t even think of them without so much anger rising in him.
“But you, dearest Rachel. Why, you were the best there ever was. The best lips that ever sucked me off.”
I wanted to fucking vomit.
“If you think you’re sticking your dick in my mouth, then I’d like to remind you that I have teeth and you will be bleeding out on the ground the instant you try that.”
“Ah, such a move would cause you to bleed out from the bullet to your skull—”
“You think that fucking scares me?” I spat. “You think after being through the hell of the last ten years that I’m afraid of death? Death is the absence of all of that nightmare, Eduardo. You’d be doing me a favor.”
I wasn’t suicidal. But I was certainly willing to take a bullet before I’d let him rape me again. And judging by the look in his eyes, he fucking knew it, too.
“Harsh, but perhaps fair,” he said. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go down an old path again. No, I suppose I’ll just have to take you in a new place.”
God almighty, how fucking sick was this bastard?
“And besides, you really can’t tell me you wouldn’t want me inside of you,” Eduardo said, seeming to get more and more delighted with every taunt he delivered. “That day, so memorable. So delicious. So—”
“It’s not going to happen, Eduardo.”
