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When Atom gets up, I tense, ready to fight if I have to. I might have told—no, begged—the Devils to kill me, but I still won’t go down without a fight. But he doesn’t come near me.

The sound of what I assume is the food bag and his own box of food being moved around fills the air, and then darkness.

I blink my eyes open to confirm the room is dark, except for the glow coming from the TV. The volume has even lowered, and I cast my eyes down to see that the closed captions are on.

It’s weird to have a Hound be considerate of me. Or anyone, for that matter. It could be a trick.

But right now, I don’t have enough energy to keep my shields up. I’m clean. Warm and fed. A tactic that no kidnapper has ever played on me before. And maybe they should have, because before I know it, before I can prevent it, I’m out, and I don’t wake again till the morning at the sound of the door shutting as Jumper comes in with breakfast.

This time, I’m there when food is tossed around, Atom giving me first choice before he takes the other muffin in the bag.

No one talks. Just grunts and looks between the men. Again, another conversation without actually speaking.

Once I’m done eating, I go to the bathroom, using my finger to brush my teeth after rinsing it with water. I see only a few strands escaped my braid last night. I don’t think I even moved in my bed, considering I woke up in the same position I had fallen asleep. Either I was too damn tired, or I really was drugged.

After using the bathroom, I come out and see the room is vacant. Not a thing or a person left in it. But the door is open, and any hope that I was left here is short-lived when I hear the telltale sign of a motorcycle starting up.

I walk out and see Atom, holding my helmet out for me and waiting.

I let out a breath and reach up to run my fingers through my hair, then stop short when I remember I can’t. Instead, I take the damn helmet, secure it over my head, and get on the back of his bike.

And just like last time, I lean as far back as I can get away with and let him take me to God knows where.

Which is apparently back to Manhattan, Kansas. But instead of following the rest of the group when they peel off to head to the clubhouse, he keeps going. We stick to the outskirts of town, but we eventually pull up to a suburban development. A couple more twists and turns, and then we’re pulling into a driveway. We wait for a garage door to open before he parks inside. He turns off the bike, gets off without bumping me in the slightest, and closes the garage door on his way into the house.

I sit there for a moment before following him. The garage door opens to the laundry room and then to the hall that leads to the living room. I look left and see the front door but don’t make a run for it. No point, I already know.

Where am I going to go?

I have no money, no cell phone. I need to get to my place and get my stuff before I can make my big trip to Boston. But till then, I need to play nice and wait out whatever Atom brought me here for.

“Down, Rex.”

I follow his voice and turn to the living room to see Atom stooping behind the kitchen cabinets on the far side of the room.

Walking over, curious, I pause when I see a cat jump onto his back.

“Dammit, Fido, get off me.”

I come fully into the kitchen and see Atom fighting with not one but two cats. All while trying to put some kind of cat food in a bowl as they climb him like a damn tree, jumping from the counter to him and back to the counter again.

“Figured you for a dog person.”

“Yeah, well, I guess neither of us is what the other expected.” He finally gets the food set down, and the cats run to it. He straightens as he tosses the empty cat can into the trash. “Want me to show you to your room?”

My room.

And just like that, I realize not running for the front door the moment I saw it was the biggest mistake of my life. Because Atom isn’t just transporting me.

He’s keeping me.

Chapter 6 - Atom

“Anything new?”

I shake my head as I fiddle with the transmission I’m working on.

Same answer I’ve given my boss every day for the past ten days. I’ve gotten nothing from Natalie. I should have suspected as much. Especially that first day I brought her back to my place.