Page 158 of When Darkness Calls

“Liz?” He asks, and she sucks in a breath.

“Cade?” The annoyance is slowly shifting into fear.

“Yeah…what’s up?”

“You aren’t standing in the dark laughing at me right now, are you?”

“Uh…” he looks at me mirroring my confused expression. “No…What’s wrong?”

She chokes with a sob. “Dee—She left like thirty minutes ago. I thought she left with Grayson to get food, but she hasn’t come back, and—”

“I’m right here,” I seethe.

Cade swallows, shoulders tense. “Stay right. Fucking. There. Do not move. I’m coming to get you.”

He ends the call, and he turns to me. There’s a look in his eyes I haven’t seen before. If looks could kill right?

I think we’re both ready for some fucking blood.

forty-seven

Dani

My head is fucking pounding. I try to lift my arm, but I can’t move. Panic seizes me. I’ve always hated feeling like I couldn’t move. It’s a simple thing that always has me on high alert, itching to be free. I sob, jerking hard on the rope wrapped around my torso and my wrists tied to the back of the chair.

My breathing quickens, each gasp of air growing shallower. I’d think I was getting lightheaded if I didn’t start out feeling that way.

I shake my head, forcing myself to gulp down a deep lung full of air, exhaling slowly through my nose.

It’s hard to see. The light that’s hanging above my head is a blaring white that’s blinding. The intensity makes my headache worse, causing spots to erupt in my eyes.

“Oh, look. She’s awake.”

The cold voice echoes through the empty room.

I wince at the sharp noise as it hits my eardrums.

“Thank, fuck. I thought you killed her before we got to have our fun.” The second voice had that familiar quality that had the hair on my neck rising.

I think it’s ski mask guy.

“Well, good morning, sweetheart. Have a great nap?” The second guy laughs.

“If you’re going to have a James Bond moment, at least speed up the stepping into the light shit, Ethan. I know it’s fucking you. Issac, too.” My voice is rough, the words slurring from the pain in my skull.

They rush out of the shadows, Issac with a knife and Ethan’s dark, lifeless eyes burning through me.

“What gave it away?” Issac asks. He looks…like fucking shit. His eyes are bloodshot, pupils blown wide. He wipes his nose, sniffing hard.

“It honestly doesn’t even matter. I just want to know what you’re getting out of this before I die.” I swallow, keeping my tone even, bored.

“Revenge, money, drugs, sex. It’s the whole package. We get paid, we get laid, and we can choose whoever the fuck we want,” Issac replies with a crazed laugh. Ethan remains quiet though.

“And you? You’ve been following me for a year.”

He shrugs. “You were a cunt last year. You got my friends killed. Those friends of yours,” he tsks, chuckling. “Are you sure we’re the bad guys here?”

I nodded, with faux dejection. “Start from the beginning.”