Just long enough.
Long enough for her limbs to go heavy. For her thoughts to smear at the edges. For the floor to feel impossibly far away. Enough to make fighting useless, her body betraying her even as her mind screamed.
She remembered realizing—too late—that this hadn’t been a showing at all.
It had been a trap.
“Easy,” he’d murmured. “I don’t want you hurt. Not yet.”
Not yet.
Her stomach clenched.
However, throughout all that terror, she remembered the light most of all.
A bright beam that forced her to turn her head away. That trained her not to look at him. That taught her without saying a word that she wouldn’t be allowed to see him unless he wanted her to.
Just like what had happened when that man had broken into her house.
It almost seemed like . . . like he’d done this before.
Her chest tightened as she shifted, the concrete biting cold through her clothes. She didn’t know how long she’d been down here. Time felt warped, stretched thin and tangled.
When would he come back?
The thought terrified her.
However, the thought of himnotcoming back at all terrified her more.
She pressed her forehead against her knees and swallowed hard.
She didn’t want to die down here. Not alone. Not without anyone knowing where she was.
Miles’s face surfaced in her mind—her boyfriend’s crooked smile, the way he worried over her, the way he drove her crazy with his humming all the time.
Tears burned behind her eyes.
If she survived this—if—she would never tease him for worrying again. They’d been dating for more than a year, and he wanted to marry her. She kept putting him off, saying she wanted to focus on her career.
That was a mistake.
She clearly knew that now.
Her breathing slowed as she forced herself to listen instead of spiral. The hum above her. A drip somewhere to her left. The faintest scent of coffee lingering on the air.
And then . . .
Footsteps.
They sounded from somewhere above. The movement was measured and unhurried.
Kate’s heart slammed into her chest hard enough to hurt.
Whatever game he was playing . . . she was already trapped inside it, an unwilling pawn whose choices had been taken away.
CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR
