“I don’t trust anyone.”
Romeo closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath as consciousness slipped fully out of grasp.
Chapter Nine
Pain woke Romeo fromunconsciousness.
Not from his hand, or even his temple where the rock had made contact, but his throat.He swallowed hard before he’d even opened his eyes and found pressure digging into his Adam’s apple.His cough didn’t ease it.It made him more aware that something pressed against his throat.
Romeo reached for the tightness as his eyes fluttered open.His clumsy finger got caught on the thing around his neck.It was cold, hard, and linked.
“Shit,” he murmured, stroking his fingers against the thick chain.He followed it around until he pushed at the padlock at the back of his neck.
Chad had put a collar on him.
The chain was too tight to slip his fingers beneath, it dug into his flesh and made panic rear up.He fought with the instinct to thrash and pull and took a calming breath through his nose as he glanced around.
He was in the outhouse, and the chain that was attached to him was also padlocked to the middle column of his one-piece gym.The smell of earth surrounded him, and his jeans were covered in mud, some dried, some still wet.He turned his head, and his temple throbbed.
Chad had tricked him.
Chad had hit him with a rock.
Romeo had underestimated him.
“More than a magpie,” he murmured, shaking his head.
The pain in Romeo’s hand began to sting.It burned, like a rash, the fire spread down his arm.The wound was messy, and a twitch of his thumb made it bleed.
“Chad...”
“I’m here.”
Romeo shifted his back against the bench press he was propped up against.Chad sat on a chair facing Romeo, breathing hard.Mud was up to his knees.There were smears of it on his face and sweat on his forehead. He wiped his arm across his brow.
“You’re heavy,” he said with a snort.
