I curled into a ball and kept my hand pressed over my belly, ignoring the presence that moved into the room. My eyes felt puffy, and tears had dried on my cheeks. I had no intention of turning to face them and show my weakness. They’d already taken too much away from me. But it was a strange time for someone to be in here with me. I must be sometime before midnight, if my sense of timing was right. Though with no access to a clock, I’d had to rely on the movement of the sun to give me any kind of clue as to the passage of the hours each day.
I guessed it had been nearly a week since I’d been taken. I’d stopped eating after the first day, and then taken my first meal two days ago. The time between had stretched interminably while I’d shifted in and out of consciousness. Fitful sleep, broken by visits to the bathroom. Or more fruitless attempts to feed me, until I’d learned about my baby. Then time was broken up by frugal meals. Now I had no idea what would happen next. I could only pray some arrangement could be reached. Pray that we’d be rescued…my child and me.
“Sleeping well, Sasha?” a voice said from behind me, and I felt my blood run cold.
Raoul!
What was he doing here? I kept my back firmly turned to him. And then I felt his hand on my shoulder. I resisted, but he was pulling me to face him.
“What do you want?” I eventually responded. I tried to keep my voice firm, but even to my own ears, my fear was evident. Raoul gave a cold laugh, and I felt something press against my cheek.
Oh my God!
“I thought you might wish to make amends, pretty thing,” he said. The edge of something sharp was tracing over my skin. I tried not to move. Not to breathe. He had a blade to my face.
“Please…” I began, swallowing hard. In the moonlight, his eyes glittered. Although his face was half shadowed, I could still see him lick his lips. He ran a fingertip along my jawline and down my throat. It turned my stomach.
“Please…” he mimicked me. His voice was low, and that scared me. He wasn’t supposed to be in here with me. He’d snuck in, and his intentions were rapidly becoming clear. Especially when his fingertip reached the top button of my simple dress, and he flicked it open.
“Raoul, don’t…” I said, though I knew it was fruitless. The blade pressed more firmly, and my words halted before I’d finished the sentence.
“Be quiet,” he said, the warning clear in his tone, though he pressed the knife deeper still. I was afraid it would draw blood. “Another word, and I will mark your lovely face,” he continued. His other hand was moving down the front of my dress, unbuttoning as he went. I could feel the cold air against my skin.
“Your uncle,” I said. “He will find out.”
Raoul gave a chuckle. “Only if you say something, pretty. And if you say anything, I will cut you. Or perhaps, I will cut that baby from you.” He dropped the hand holding the blade and pressed it against my belly. I sucked in a breath.
“Please!” I sobbed the word yet again. The man was an animal. “If you hurt me, he’ll kill you!” I couldn’t be sure, but I didn’t have anything else to bargain with.
Raoul grabbed my jaw, and in the darkness, he met my eyes. “He will not,” he said fiercely. “I am the son of his sister. I am untouchable!” His grip was enough to bruise, and I shrank back from his ferocity. “Tomorrow, you will leave this place,” he said. “If I am to have you, it must be now.”
His words filled me with dread. How could they be so sure their ransom demands would be met? Unless they had no intention of handing me over at all. It made no sense. Was I to be some sort of leverage against Prince forever? Would they keep me locked up? To have my child in captivity like a caged animal? Would they sell me off after all? The uncertainty of my situation was mind-numbing.
Raoul released my face and began to fumble with the lace of my bra, fingers prodding and poking as he grasped the soft flesh of my breast. The tip of the blade was still pressing sharply against my lower belly, and now I was almost too afraid to breathe in case the movement caused the razor-sharp blade to slice into me.
This is it…I thought to myself.
And then I was a small girl again, and Joe’s blunt fingers were fumbling over my resisting body. The man who’d abused me as a child suddenly reappeared in the black heart of the man who was about to rape me now. I want you to be very quiet, Sasha. Once again, I was Snow White, locked in a glass coffin. Once again, I was frozen with fear. There’s no use in fighting.
There’s no use at all.
Chapter 9
Prince Walker
Iwas spinning about and racing for the door before the others realized what I was about to do. I grabbed a set of keys from the table I passed on the way. Decker had left his there. I knew exactly where I was headed.
“Walker!” I heard a sharp shout from behind me. It was pointless. Nothing they could say would stop me. I’d reached the front door of one of the SUVs by the time Andy caught up with me.
“Prince, stop! You can’t do this,” he said urgently. I was sliding into the driver’s seat. A quick glance behind me set my mind at ease. One of the thick canvas bags had been packed on the back seat in preparation for our early morning departure. It was filled with armaments. I’d go in with guns blazing after all.
“They’ll fucking kill you, Prince!”
I’d turned the key in the ignition, and my foot was on the gas. I aimed one look up at him as I revved the engine. For a moment, there was a slight pang of remorse at the expression on his face. He only wanted what was best for me.
But I couldn’t wait another minute. Sasha was there at the mercy of those murderers. Not just Sasha, but our unborn child, too. There was no time to fuck around anymore. No time to waste. I had to go in. And I had to do it now.
My mind kicked into survival mode as I gunned the engine down the track we’d arrived on, and he jumped away from the car before I took him out with a side mirror.
