AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A small rush of relief flooded my chest and I leaned backward as the static sensation swept up my throat. I was not a violent man, and I had never harmed someone like this before, never mind killed them. But in those few seconds, when Eli threatened Callie and her baby, I understood what I was capable of.
What I would do for Callie.
“You’re all fucking psychos,” Eli coughed. Blood poured from his nose and several splits along his face.
“Where is she!?” Sawyer roared, suddenly leaning past me and punching the wall a hair's breadth away from Eli’s face.
“She’s close!” he yelped. “She’s at a hotel nearby. I swear!”
32
CALLIE
Eli had been gone for so long that the room had grown as dark as the world outside. The only light came from the electronic clock on the sideboard but it served as nothing more than a beacon highlighting how fucked I really was.
My earlier struggles as soon as Eli had left knocked the chair onto its back, and I was unable to right myself or roll to the side. Both my arms had long gone cold and numb from being bound and trapped to the wooden slats. Pain flared hot through my left shoulder for the first hour or so but eventually, even that went numb.
Eli went to meet Sawyer and never came back.
I had no clue if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but with only my thoughts for the company, I was spiraling down into darkness I couldn’t escape. My mind ran on its own, taunting me with horrors. What if Eli got hit by a car and died, never meeting up with Sawyer? No one would know I was here. Would housekeeping come looking for me, or had they been paid to stay away?
What if I was trapped here forever and left to die? What if Eli got what he wanted and abandoned me here?
In the end, I resorted to doing the only thing I had power over. I screamed. I screamed as loud and as hard as I could through the tape, with all the air I could drag into my lungs.
No one came.
I screamed out all my rage and hurt, screamed out my upset, and screamed until my throat was burned raw. I screamed until there was no air left inside me and only this, by some stroke of luck, did someone finally enter the room.
In the darkness, it was hard to track the shadow as they stormed into the room, highlighted by pale yellow light streaming in from the hallway. A switch clicked, and a small lamp flooded the room with warmth. Then two hands grabbed my shoulders and hauled me and the chair upright.
Through tears of relief, I breathed hard through my nose and sought out my rescuer.
Only, he wasn’t my rescuer.
His eyes weren’t the first clear thing I saw. Instead, it was a lanyard with the PRISM logo stamped on the bottom right corner. This wasn’t someone from the hotel. This was someone who worked for Eli.
“Thank god,” he said with a groan, patting my cheek. “You wouldn’t stop fucking screaming, it was driving me insane. You know there’s no one else here, right? Eli bought out the entire floor, so you’re screaming to no one. Just me and I don’t give a shit.”
His dark green eyes were light with amusement as he patted my cheek. All I could do was glare at him, spitting muted curses behind the tape keeping me unable to speak. Just as I cursed out his entire bloodline, white-hot pain shot down both my arms and I choked. Throwing my head back, I twisted in my seat and yelped as the fire seared from my shoulders all the way down to my fingertips. Unbearable heat built up inside me, followed by the most painful pins and needles I had ever experienced while blood rushed back into my numb arms.
“The fuck is wrong with you now?” The man grabbed my jaw, pulled my head forward and looked me in the eye. “Nothing you can do will make me untie you, understand? You’re here until the boss gets back. Honestly, I don’t know what you did but…” He shrugged and released me, straightening up with a sniff. “He’s pissed. And you don’t want t?—!”
Suddenly the stranger was gone, whipped away from my vision by a blur. I blinked and strained through my tears, trying to see what the hell had just happened. Grunts reached my ears; then suddenly, a warm palm cupped the side of my face.
I looked up, and Liam was right in front of me.
What the hell?
“Hey stranger.” He smiled so wide and warm that my heart punched painfully up into my throat and I couldn’t take in enough air to sob.
He was here. He was, somehow, right here.
“I need you to stay still, okay? I’m going to try and take the tape off.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Every detail of his handsome face was utter perfection and I tried my hardest not even to blink so that this mirage wouldn’t fade. Liam’s hand on my cheek was so gentle that tears flooded my eyes. I watched him for as long as I could and he slowly began to unwind the tape from my mouth.
“God, it’s even in her hair,” Liam muttered as he moved around me. Despite the initial sting of individual hairs being snagged in the tape, the pain faded as Liam stepped away and Sawyer melted into my vision.
