There was no fixing this.No pretending it hadn’t happened.
She squeezed her eyes shut beneath the blindfold, breath shallow, trying not to cry again.She’d already sobbed until her throat burned and her head throbbed.Tears didn’t help.Begging hadn’t helped either, no matter how many ways she tried it.
She owed people money.Bad people.Was this their way of making her pay?
Footsteps sounded close.It wasn’t her imagination.Her heart slammed so hard it hurt.
“Please,” she rasped, the word breaking as it left her mouth.“Please.I won’t tell anyone.I swear.Let me go.I won’t say a word.I’ll disappear.Please.”
Hands grabbed her arms, rough and efficient.She yelped as she was hauled upright, joints screaming in protest.Her feet barely touched the floor before she was shoved down into a chair, the sound of her bottom smacking against the wood echoing too much in the open space.
A heavy chain was draped around her waist and tightened, snug and final.
She shook, head dropping forward, breath coming in sharp, panicked pulls.
The blindfold was ripped away.
Bright light meant to disorient, not illuminate, exploded in her eyes.She cried out, squeezing her lids shut as nausea rolled through her.When she forced herself to look again, vision swimming, she saw it.
A phone mounted on a tripod, framed carefully.Waiting—norecording.
Footsteps retreated behind, fading into silence, leaving her alone with the low hum of electronics and the sickening cling of understanding settling deep in her gut.This wasn’t about killing her.This was about knowing she was being watched, and that someone, somewhere, had decided her breaking was the point.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chloe was dreamingabout water.She wasn’t drowning.Instead, she was warm, buoyant, and held aloft instead of being pulled under.She floated on her back beneath a light-blue sky, arms spread wide, the sun kissing her face.There was no noise or fear.No crushing weight pressing in on her.For once, her body forgot to be vigilant.
Then her phone vibrated on the nightstand.
The sound punched straight through the dream, yanking her back into the dark with a sharp inhale.Her heart skidded, instantly awake in that way it had learned to be lately.There was no gentle transition or groggy confusion.Only alertness and bracing for what came next.
Kayne shifted beside her, a low murmur in his sleep, his arm tightening reflexively around her waist.The solid warmth of him reassured her, even as dread crept up her spine.
The phone buzzed again.
Chloe slid carefully out from under his arm and reached for the phone, already knowing deep in her bones that this wasn’t a newsletter reminder, a late-night shipping update, or anything harmless.Her instincts had stopped believing in benign.
