It wasn’t a dingy basement.
It wasn’t some filthy holding cell hidden deep in the Florida swamps.
Instead, it looked more like a cozy bed-and-breakfast.
Which somehow made it worse.
This room wasn’t designed to restrain someone. It was designed to make them comfortable. Give them a false sense of security. Of independence. Of autonomy.
Only to have all those things taken away.
I threw back the covers and slid off the mattress. Immediately, something tugged at my leg, the sound of metal scraping across wood filling the quiet room. I snapped my eyes toward my foot, and my pulse quickened when I saw a steel cuff circling my ankle. A chain stretched from it to a metal ring bolted to the wall.
That wasn’t the only new accessory, either. My clothes were gone, replaced by a plain white nightgown.
“If you behave, I’ll remove it.”
The voice drifted from somewhere behind me, and I spun around, the chain rattling against the floor.
A man stepped from the shadows near the fireplace.
Since I’d offered to use myself as bait, I’d considered who might be behind all of this. Imagined what he might look like. In my head, he was as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside. A monster who wore his evil openly.
But the man standing mere feet in front of me was nothing like that. He looked…ordinary.
Average height.
Average build.
Dark hair peppered with gray.
Black button-down shirt.
Black pants.
The sort of man I could have passed on the street and not given a second glance.
“Who are you?” I hissed out. “Why am I here?”
He tilted his head, studying me as if I were a new creature. “Did your husband not tell you? You were chosen.”
His eyes lit up with excitement as he said it, and a shiver trickled down my spine. There was definitely something off about him. Something dangerous and sinister.
“Chosen? For what?”
His lips curved in the corners as he moved toward me. I instinctively backed up, the chain clanging with every step against the hardwood floor. But there was only so far I could go before my back hit the wall.
The room that had seemed so large moments ago suddenly became a cage.
“For redemption, of course.” He lifted his hand toward me. I tried to avoid his touch, but I couldn’t, his fingers trailing a line down the curve of my face, making bile rise in my throat. “You’ve been blessed.”
“I’m chained to the goddamn wall. I wouldn’t call that blessed.”
Before I could brace myself, he landed a harsh blow against my cheek, the force of it knocking me to the floor. Pain seared through me, vibrating outward from my jaw as I struggled to catch my breath. A hand wrapped around my hair and I was yanked back to my feet.
“You will not speak His name with filth in your mouth.”
Gone was the gentle tone and kind smile. His face twisted with righteous fury, his transformation so fast it caught me off balance.
