Hold for four seconds.
Out for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
I lose track of how many repetitions I run through before I can regulate myself. But when I’m finally breathing steadily, I scan the room. This time looking for anything I can use to get out of here. That’s when I realize my tiger isn’t the only thing I can’t access. I don’t have my enhanced senses either. I can’t pick up any sounds no matter how much I strain my hearing.
I clamber onto my knees and try to stand slowly, but I’m met with a cold metal bar before I can reach my full height. I push against it, but there’s no give. When I move a step to the side, I’m met with another bar. Shuffling forward, I don’t need to go farto realize I’m in a cage. Methodically, I work my way around the edges, applying pressure but finding no weak spots.
Bile swirls in my stomach as resignation dawns on me.
I’m a sitting duck with no way out, and no one is coming to save me. No one even knows where I am. I sink back down, leaning into the corner and closing my eyes. If conserving my energy is all I can do, then that needs to be my focus.
Light spills into the room I’m in, and the dull thud of heavy footfall approaches me. Two… no, three men descend the staircase. I wish I could wrap my arms around myself, but I don’t even have that façade of safety. All I can do is wait.
Brett and two others. A bulky blond Caucasian and a man who looks strikingly similar to Brett, just shorter and leaner. He must be Michael.
Brett crouches down to my level and smiles at me. It’s nothing like the smile he gave me when we met at the restaurant; that smile had been friendly and charming, disarmingly so. In contrast, his expression now is closer to a predatory baring of teeth than a genuine smile. The corners of his lips curl upward, but there’s no warmth, no sincerity. His eyes glint with a cold, calculating intelligence that sends a shiver down my spine and fills me with an immediate and visceral wave of fear and revulsion.
“Hello sister,” he says, grinning at me. “Congratulations are in order. We’ve decided to bring you in as a part of the family business.”
Family business.
The phrase conjures images of the files I spent days poring over. Icy dread, sharp and paralyzing, settles into my veins, constricting them and stealing my breath.
“Please let me go. I’m yoursister,” I plead, my voice a hoarse and rasping sound. Brett laughs as he pushes himself upright, and the cruel, bitter sound pierces through the last remnants of hope I was clinging to.
“You’re nothing,” he spits from above me. “You’re a whore’s daughter. How could you ever think we would want a relationship with you? The operationmyfather ran was burned to the ground, but we will rebuild. And you will play an integral role in that. The first of our newest batch of assets. We need to get you up and running as soon as possible. Demand is at an all-time high, and the list of proclivities you will need to meet is unending. Horrifying what some of these men want, really.”
He laughs, that sickening sound hammering into me. Nausea rises in my throat as one of the other men—a stocky blond—joins in. He watches me with a practically salivating gaze. I don’t want to think about what they are planning. I don’t want to know how bad this is or give them the satisfaction of watching me break apart.
I need a plan.
Something.Anythingthat will delay this.
Long enough for someone to realize I’m missing. Long enough for someone to start looking into things. I was due to meet Pippa tomorrow, or is it today? She’ll know I never would have stood her up, and I told her I had made contact with my biological family. The dogs are home, and they’ll start howling. The noise should alert my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Montgomery, that I’m not there. Sofia knew I wanted to meet my biological brothers, even though I hadn’t told her I was actually going to do it. They’re all intelligent women. They’ll figure it out.
Ryan will… I can’t think about Ryan right now. I just need to survive until someone comes for me.
“Nothing to say?” Brett taunts when I remain silent. “You were full of chatter before. Maybe she’ll make it easy on you, Phil.” Brett knocks his shoulder against the blond man standing beside him, who grins at me.
“Let’s hope not,” Phil replies as he pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the cage door. “Come here.”
I remain frozen in the corner of the cage. I don’t have any hope against the three of them with my tiger unavailable and my hands tied.
“I could offer you a trade,” I suggest, the words tumbling out, tasting like ash in my mouth even though I know I have no intention of ever following through on the offer.
“You have nothing to offer us that we can’t just take,” Brett replies. “You have no leverage.”
“And I have such fun plans for breaking you in,” the blond adds. His blue eyes gleam with a sickening perversion and raw, animalistic lust that makes my skin crawl.
“My mate won’t want me back unless I’m untouched,” I blurt out. “But he would trade others for me. Five for one? It’s a good offer.”
“You said she wasn’t mated,” the third man, I assume to be Michael, says. His first words since entering the basement betray an anxious energy. He’s not enjoying this like the other two men, I’m sure of it. He’s obviously far from innocent, but maybe his motives are different. Maybe he doesn’t take joy in hurting women the same way his brother and the practically salivating blond do.
“She’s not,” Brett growls before wrenching the door to the cage open. The air expels from my lungs as he reaches in and yanks me out by my ankle. I kick out, but he puts his weight on my legs, and I have no leverage for movement with my arms cuffed underneath me.
Buttons scatter across the bare concrete floor as the blond rips my blouse open. His sweaty hands roughly tilt my head to scan for the mark I haven’t let Ryan give me yet. His eyes gleam silver as he examines me. Hot, rancid breath on my skin has bile rising up my throat and tears stinging my eyes.
