His grip still firmly in my hair, he drags me back out and to a staircase. I thought we were on the bottom floor, but apparently, there’s a basement. There’s only one basement I’ve ever been in and it became my home for the majority of my life. Behind brick and steel.
“Are you going to walk down these stairs like a good girl, or do I drag you down like a dog?” Cade spits.
I glance downwards. So many steps that they descend into pitch-black.
The trepidation of what’s down those stairs has me scratching at his outstretched arm, still fisted in my scalp.
“Fine, your choice.” He proceeds down the stairs, and I’m twisted so much my feet don’t even find the first steps. I start tumbling.
“Fuck!” Cade yells as my weight falls and his fingers entangled in my hair pull taut, and he stumbles too.
We both fall down the stairs in a pile of thumps and cracks and gut-wrenching pain.
I don’t know how far down we get when I feel his arms come around my waist and I’m glued against his body, falling as one entity. Edges of countless steps crash and bash into every part of my body as we tumble down. Grunts are pulled from both of us as we spin and fall and thud.
One of his hands comes up to the back of my head and holds it to his chest. I land on top of him as he crashes to the floor with a sickening thump. A growl rumbles from him.
Adrenaline is pumping so thickly through my veins I can’t think of anything other than feeling for any broken bones. It felt like we fell down a hundred steps.
Everything hurts, throbs and pounds, but I can move all my limbs, my neck and head move fine. Only then do I try to push up from Cade’s body and look down at him.
By the minimal light emanating from the top of the steps, I can just about see his face screwed up with his eyes squeezed shut and teeth gritted.
I’m stunned. I don’t know what to do or say. I should use this moment of freedom to make a run for it. But I can’t. Looking athim beneath me, hurt and vulnerable, wondering why the hell he clutched me to him like that, taking the brunt of the fall…
It churns something in my stomach.
It’s swiftly dissolved when Cade hisses, “Fuck’s sake, Elodie, we could have fucking died!”
The venom coming from him has me snapping back to my hatred. I try to get off him, but he’s back on me, whipping his eyes open and his hand that was cradling my head fists a bunch of my hair again.
I yelp and tears spring to my eyes as the throbbing in my head increases.
“That was your fault!” I cry.
He manoeuvres himself from under me as I continue to fight his grip. He brings us to our feet and yanks me forward. It’s completely opaque down here, the darkness feeling foreboding instead of comforting. It smells damp but… sterile. Like rubbing alcohol. The sound of a door clicking open, along with a depressurizing hiss, echoes around us, bouncing off walls that sound far away.
“Maybe this will teach you some manners.” His voice is deathly calm.
Something cold and rough comes around my neck. I cringe away, try to fight it, but Caden secures it and releases me. Then a hand shoves me roughly in my back, and I’m thrown onto the floor. I gather myself quickly, turn in what I think is a half-circle, and run forward. I smash my nose into a solid wall as the clicking echoes again.
“Caden!” I pound my fists into the wall. It’s cold and smooth, like glass.
I’m rocked by a vibrating shock in my neck that flings me down to the ground with a scream. It travels down my spine and leaves me stunned. A shock collar.
“If you want to act like a dog, you can be treated like one.” His voice is muffled behind the glass.
He shocks me again and my neck cramps with the speed at which I flinch. I claw at it, unable to find the buckle.
“Caden, let me out!” I find my way back to the wall.
“You can stay in there and think about your behaviour, Elodie. I haven’t got time to coddle you. You’re a grown woman. You can have a good life here. But if you try to make my life hell, I’ll make yours ten times worse.”
My panicked breaths and driving fists on the door are all I can hear, the fear rising so sharp in my throat I start coughing.
“Also, don’t bother trying to get the collar off. There’s a lock on it.”
“Caden, let me out right now, you piece of shit!”
