Despite the pain already pulling through her shoulders, Rose chuckled, shrugging as best she could at the awkward angle. “You never introduced yourself, and a girl’s got to have something to call the man who so rudely interrupted her Christmas plans to spend the day in bed reading and eating way too much chocolate.”
None of the men spoke, but she would have sworn she felt amusement buzz between them. Too bad it didn't stop them from hoisting her up higher until she was left swinging from her bound hands. The plastic cut easily through her skin, and she could already feel wet, sticky blood dribbling down her forearms.
Good thing she wasn't squeamish.
Part of Ridge’s training had been learning first aid skills. Not just the regular kind, like bandaging and CPR, but more detailed skills like suturing. On herself. Ridge wasn't going to cut himself to have her practice, and there was no one else around to do it on. While her brother regularly left their cabin, she was never permitted to.
So she’d learned how to stitch up her own wounds, ones Ridge also made her inflict on herself.
If she could do that when she was eight years old, she could handle whatever they had planned for her. They wanted to hurt her, okay, they could have at it. They wanted to make her bleed, okay, she’d bleed a river for them. In the end, it wasn't going to get them what they wanted.
As though to disorient her, the men moved around the room. They clunked things, she knew to try to make her on edge, toconfuse her, and to amp up her fear about what was going to happen next.
But Rose kept her attention focused on only one thing.
Mr. Bedroom Man.
For some reason, he was her anchor in this crazy place he’d brought her to. She didn't like him, he’d brought her here to hurt her, but she felt some connection to him that transcended understanding.
Darkness lived inside his head, and she was only now realizing how dark her own mind had become without even realizing it. There was no trust between them, but the darkness bonded them in some sick and twisted kind of way.
For that reason alone, she didn't break her gaze away from his.
Not even when one of the men slipped up close behind her and tugged her pajama bottoms down enough to bare her backside to the room, and she sent up a silent plea that it was physical pain they intended to inflict on her and not sexual.
Chapter
Five
December 26th
9:40 A.M.
They were really doing this.
The acceptance in Rose’s eyes almost had Steel backing out.
There was no judgment there, she hated him, but she had made her peace with her fate, and she wasn't going to beg him not to hurt her, plead with him for her safety, or even her life. She was going to take whatever hell he and his team dished up without complaint.
Then he wouldn't put it past her to kill him if given half an opportunity and not lose sleep over it.
Unfortunately, the time to back out and choose a different path had passed. He and his team were committed, the opportunity of turning Rose Gardner into an ally was lost to them forever. It was continue with this plan or lose what could be their only chance at getting their hands on the man who had so carelessly and callously played God with their lives.
If it were only him, he might back out, sedate Rose, and take her back to her home, leave her in her bed with the safety ofknowing that she had never seen his face and had no way of identifying him when she went to the cops.
But it wasn't just him.
Already once before he’d led his men into a situation that had changed their lives forever. Steel had failed them that day, and he couldn’t fail them again. Couldn’t take this chance away from them, even though he knew not a single one of the men dressed all in black surrounding the small woman with the dark red hair and defiant eyes, felt entirely comfortable being in this room with her.
She was an innocent.
They’d sworn an oath to protect the innocent.
Not only was the little ladybug innocent, but she was like them. She’d been warped and twisted into something she didn't want to be, but didn't know how to escape. Darkness lived inside her soul, making her a kindred spirit.
Perhaps that was why Steel didn't move a muscle as Rose locked her gaze onto his.
Neither of them flinched as Dragon moved in behind her and tugged down her pajama bottoms enough to bare her backside to the camera Blade was holding.
