Because Austin made one mistake. He doesn’t know what I’m willing to do to get back to her. And he definitely doesn’t know what happens when someone takes away the only person in this world who ever made me feel like I had something worth living for.
The banging eventually stops, leaving behind a silence that feels almost unnatural. My entire body stays tense as I wait for whatever comes next because I know Austin isn’t finished. People like him don’t walk away from something like this. They don’t spend hours planning, kidnapping someone, and draggingthem into some abandoned building just to suddenly decide they’ve had enough. He has something else planned, and I need to figure out what it is. Fast.
The silence stretches long enough that I start listening for anything that might give me a clue. Any movement or footsteps, anything that tells me what I’m about to deal with. That’s when I hear it.
A loud squeaking noise echoes through the building, slowly getting closer in my direction. The sound is uneven, almost broken, like one of the wheels on whatever he’s pushing is struggling to turn properly. I stop moving against the restraints but continue searching the room with my eyes, looking for anything I can use, anything that could give me some kind of advantage.
There’s nothing, at least, nothing within reach or sharp enough. Nothing that could help me get out of this fucking chair.
That realization pisses me off more than anything.
I’ve spent my entire life making sure I’m never helpless. I’ve always been the person who steps in, protecting everyone else, and figuring a way out when things go wrong. But sitting here, tied down and completely at someone else’s mercy, there is nothing I can do except wait.
And I fucking hate it.
Austin comes back around the corner, and the first thing I notice is the smile on his face. He isn’t angry or nervous. He’s acting like he believes everything he’s doing is something Maddie would actually appreciate and nothing he’s doing is wrong by any capacity.
He’s happy, giggling to himself like some fucking psychopath as he pushes a medical cart toward me, the same squeaky wheel spinning loosely every time he moves it forward.
Sothat’swhat I was hearing.
My eyes immediately drop to the cart, and the second I see what’s sitting on top of it, my stomach twists. There are medical instruments laid out across the surface, things that belong in a hospital and should only ever be used by trained professionals trying to save someone’s life. But mixed in with them are things that have absolutely no medical purpose. Things that don’t belong anywhere near a person unless the intention is to cause pain.
Austin didn’t just decide to hurt me. He didn’t lose control and grab whatever he could find. He thought about this. He collected these things and prepared for this moment.
What the fuck does he plan to do to me?
I force myself to look away and stare down at my lap, refusing to give him the reaction he’s clearly waiting for. I’m not going to let him see fear. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he got inside my head.
The truth is, I’m terrified. Not because I’m afraid of what he can do to me. No. I’m afraid because I know what he has already done to Maddie. And if he’s capable of planning something like this and enjoying it, then I don’t even want to think about what he could do to her.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m going to do to you?”
His voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I lift my eyes to him but don’t say anything, I just stare.
Austin studies me, waiting for some kind of response. He wants me to ask and give him the opportunity to explain his twisted reasoning. He wants to feel like he’s in control of this situation, but I refuse to give him anything.
A slow, unsettling smile spreads across his face.
“No?” he asks, almost amused. “Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.”
He laughs as he steps closer, lowering himself until his face is inches from mine. His laughter is loud and completely wrong,the kind of laugh that doesn’t belong in a situation like this. I can feel the spit from his mouth hit my cheek as he talks, and the disgust that rushes through me nearly makes me gag.
Fucking disgusting. I can’t even wipe it away.
My hands are tied behind my back, leaving me completely unable to move, and there is something humiliating about knowing he can do whatever he wants while I sit here unable to stop him.
Austin stands back up and walks toward the cart, picking up one of the instruments sitting on top.
A scalpel.
He holds it carefully between his fingers, turning it toward the light and watching the reflection move across the blade. The look on his face makes my skin crawl because he doesn’t look at it like a weapon. He looks at it like a painter looks at a blank canvas, excited to create his next masterpiece.
“First, I’m going to cut you up with this extremely sharp, painful little scalpel I’ve got here,” he says, walking back toward me. “I want to see if that’ll loosen you up.”
He holds the blade near my face, close enough that I can see every detail of the metal, but I don’t move. I don’t even fucking blink. The last thing I need is this asshole thinking anything he’s doing is affecting me.
His eyes stay locked on mine before he slowly lowers the scalpel and turns back toward the cart. “If that doesn’t work…”
