SSA Walker didn’t bother trying to explain himself. He simply glanced at me, then walked through the shed. “Come with me.”
I stomped after him. “I need an explanation, SSA Walker! What you did back there goes against every rule we have!” I followed him to the car he’d been allowed to borrow for the duration of our field time. Once we reached the car, he finally turned to face me. He stared down at me, his face blank, zero emotion showing as he eyed me.
A sense of dread filled me as warning bells started ringing louder than the gunshot had been. Tingles of fear ran up my spine, making my hair stand on end. I took a step back and reached for the gun I had replaced in my holster. Before I could brush my fingers against the cool metal, SSA Walker reacted.
Faster than I could blink, his fist aimed for my face. Unlike with Morris, I didn’t have time to dodge the blow as it connected with my temple. Stars exploded behind my eyes before my world went dark.
Chapter 31
Parker
Igroaned as I came back to consciousness. My head was throbbing worse than I had ever experienced before. No migraine had ever felt so terrible. It was as if my head were literally splitting in two like a watermelon that had been dropped onto the floor.
I tried to roll over as my stomach heaved with a sudden need to be sick. I could only manage to turn my head to the side as all the contents of my stomach left me. I let out a whimper and tried to lift my hand to grab my head, but couldn’t make my arm cooperate.
Cracking my eyes open, my vision swam, making me squeeze them closed again. My stomach roiled with pain as well as the stench of the vomit coating my shoulder and hair.
“You’re awake.”
I heard footsteps, the sound loud enough to make me whimper again. My whole body shivered, and I realized I was freezing. It only added to the pain. I hurt everywhere. My head, my ribs, my back. My entire body was so sore that it was hard to focus on only one source.
I tried to lift my arm again, but yet again, I was unable to move. I forced my eyes back open. Blinking through the pain of the light hitting my eyes, I waited until my vision cleared enough to see where I was.
“I thought you’d never wake up. I couldn’t start without you.”
The voice was familiar, but I had to force myself to think past the throbbing ache in my skull. “Walker,” I rasped out weakly.
Slowly, my last memories returned. I remembered the fight with Morris, which explained the pain I was feeling all over my body. But it didn’t explain my head. It took several more seconds for what happened next to come back to me.
Walker had shot Morris after he’d already been subdued. I had been furious. I followed Walker outside and then…
I shifted my head slowly, turning to find where his voice had come from. “You hit me,” I whispered.
The man walked forward, closer to my line of sight. He still looked the same, completely unbothered. His black suit jacket was slightly rumpled. As I looked closer, I could see smears of blood on his white dress shirt. I had been covered in Morris’s blood from the fight after I broke his nose.
I tore my eyes away from the man and looked down at myself, only to realize that I was almost completely naked; my bra and my panties were the only things that remained. A shiver wracked my body as a new fear rose inside of me.
“What are you doing?” I rasped out through my sore throat.
“I’m finishing what I started.”
I looked up at him in confusion as he stepped next to me. “Where are we?”
“A place I found while we’ve been in this godforsaken town. Don’t worry, no one will find you before I’m done.”
“Why?” He wasn’t supposed to be a monster. He was one of the good guys. Like me. Sure, he was pushy and tried to put somekind of weird claim on me, but he was law enforcement.Like Morris.A voice whispered in my mind.
I shook my head until the pain came rushing back at my sudden movements. Again, I tried to lift my arm. It wasn’t until then that I realized why my limbs weren’t cooperating with my brain’s signals to move. They couldn’t.
My chest started heaving as my breathing came in rapid pants. No. This wasn’t happening. “Why?” I cried out. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Instead of answering me, Walker lifted his hand and ran a finger over my chest and down my body slowly. “No,” I whispered brokenly. His finger stopped at the top of my panties. Then he leaned over me.
“You look exactly like her.” He ran his nose over my neck, breathing me in before he lifted his head up, disgust showing on his face. “I’ll have to clean you up first. Vomit doesn’t do it for me.”
Walker stepped away, out of my line of sight. I looked around frantically, wondering where he had taken me. All I saw were wooden planks that made up the walls. A cabin? But where?
I gasped as a bucket of cold water was tossed over my face. The instinctive action had me inhaling water. I immediately began choking, coughing desperately to expel the water I’d sucked into my lungs. The coughing brought every pain that had faded to a dull ache in light of my situation back with a vengeance.
