But she didn’t trust the other one either. Jack Tracey. That one was nowhere to be seen so maybe this one was the kidnapper?
“You’re scared,” the man noted, as if it hadn’t occurred to him that she might be less than pleased about being kidnapped.
“Ya think?” she responded before she could stop the words. His frown drew down his eyebrows, and he stepped closer to her.
“Nope. Not happening. Stay away from me,” Ashley said, pushing her hands out in front of her to stop him. “Listen, I’m not going to be doing weird, freaky sex stuff with you, so just get that out of your head right now. It’s obvious we’re related, somehow, and the fact that you kidnapped me is messed up. I’m not in the mood for fending off a sex maniac so just take your gross ass on somewhere else. I will brain you if you try anything.”
His only response was to smirk at her even more.
Fucking asshole!
The man kept stalking forward, pushing past her hands, forcing Ashley back until she was plastered against the wall, feeling along it for a way out. When she couldn’t find anything, she decided to do the next best thing in a situation like this and grabbed the first loose stone that she could find to arm herself with.
Instinctively, Ashley raised the rock, lifting it far above her shoulder and grimaced aggressively.
“I’m not playing around, buddy. I’m not destined to be any man’s sex slave, especially not to someone who could be my twin. That’s just fucking gross.” Ashley growled out the words, hoping for intimidation, but the way he pulled his lips in between his teeth, as if holding back a laugh, told her she’d failed miserably. “Fuck you.”
“But you just said you wouldn’t,” he responded nonchalantly, and her fury rose.
“Stop correcting me,” she hissed, brandishing the rock at him, her empty hand pushing at him, but he didn’t back up at all.
He’d sounded just a little bit proud when he said that she was scared. Yeah, that didn’t sit right with her, nor did the way he seemed to be on the verge of chuckling as she stood there. She wanted to tell him that he was laughing at a woman used to breaking up fights and he didn’t have any weapons at all, but she didn’t. She had a feeling he’d just have some smartass response that would only piss her off even more.
After all, being the daughter of Ned Bennet happened to have one perk in this world—the fact that Ashley had seen many a fight and happened to know exactly how to win them.
Yes, that probably qualified her as white trash, but she would rather be white trash than fucking dead.
And, right then, it seemed a lot like she would be fucking dead if she didn’t do anything. Especially because there was little to no fear in the man’s features, and he just kept standing there, acting like he had nothing to be concerned about.
Men who acted like they had nothing to be concerned about were the ones you had to watch out for. They were the men who would take advantage of all opportunities, the ones who would take things for granted. The men who would assume consent.
Ashley was more than ready to fucking kill the man.
“Sister,” he said, which wasn’t a word she wanted to hear from a total stranger, and certainly not from someone who currently had her trapped in a dungeon.
“Excuse me? Are you insane? I’m not your sister. I don’t have any siblings,” Ashley spit out, her eyebrows lifting as he smirked down at her again.
His only response was to perk up his eyebrows.
Mr. Silent-but-you’re-my-sister simply crossed his arms over his chest, smiling smugly down at her. Ashley glared back at him. This was definitely some kind of weird cult shit. Did cults often go around kidnapping people only to call them sister? Not that she knew of. But some of them did call each other brother and sister. She knew talking to him might open her up to manipulation, but she couldn’t help having questions.
“What the fuck do you mean ‘sister’?’” Ashley asked, raising the rock in her hand a little bit higher and trying to steel her jaw to look tougher than she was.
The door gently blew open from a breeze and the light spread over them. Ashley gulped at what she saw. Yeah, those broad shoulders weren’t sculpted from fat. That was pure muscle, which meant that he was strong, and being strong meant that he could probably catch her in a single stride and probably force her to do all sorts of weird crap.
And if there was one thing that Ashley currently wasn’t into, it was weird crap. Especially the weird crap that would happen in the middle of a medieval type of location.
“Start talking,now,” Ashley commanded, if only to take control of the situation and prove to this freak that she was not afraid of him. Not in the slightest. Even if she was.
He simply chuckled and continued to stand right in front of her, forcing her to look him in those familiar, icy blue eyes and hold his gaze.
“Put down the rock, sister,” he instructed, but Ashley wasn’t about to do that. Mainly because the whole putting down the rock thing seemed, at that moment, to be a little detrimental to her health…
Despite her thoughts, she found herself dropping the rock and simply staring at him, her body seeming to wait for the next command.
She could only think of one reason for that.
“You drugged me, did some kind of mind control bullshit on me while I was all drugged up,” she accused, but the bastard only chuckled again. That chuckle was starting to get on her nerves.
