“This is going too far, Tanner,” she cried out, staring around frantically, seeing nothing but the darkness, hearing nothing but the sound of her own heart beating, her own gasping breaths.
She was not going to lose it, she promised herself. She hadn’t lost it yet, and she wasn’t going to start now.
But it was so dark. Her breathing hitched in her throat. With the lights out, it was like…She shook her head as she inhaled roughly.
She was not buried alive. She was in a bed, a very comfortable bed. The cavern was at least ten or twelve feet high, she remembered. She had plenty of room. Plenty of air.
And she was buried alive.
“Tanner. Tanner, where are you?” She screamed out his name as she struggled to get herself out of the bed.
Suddenly, the mattress wasn’t a mattress, it was a coffin, enveloping, smothering. Her feet tangled in the blankets, tripping her, tossing her to the cold, hard floor as her fingers clawed at the stone.
She could feel the rock biting into her knees as she tried to find her feet, only to collapse again as her legs refused to hold her up.
It was fear, that was all, she told herself frantically. Her mind had been screwed with too many times, the dark used against her in too many ways. She had survived it then without giving away her secrets; she could do it now. She was stronger than this, she told herself. She could survive this.
But she knew her father’s weaknesses. She had no idea how far Tanner would go, or if he would even return. He could have left her there to die in the dark. To smother in her own fears.
“Tanner, don’t do this to me,” she screamed, shuddering, feeling the chill of the air wrap around her. It was cold. So cold.
It was too dark. She had to find light. There had to be light here somewhere. Appliances. Where was she in the room? Where were the appliances?
Inhaling roughly, she tried to push back the fear. It took what seemed forever, each second filled with the sound of her heart thudding and her gasping breaths.
She could do this. This was a cavern; it wasn’t a coffin. All she had to do was get her bearings.
Still kneeling on the rough floor, she reached out around her, feeling the stone slowly. Methodically. She had to take this a step at a time. She had to be patient.
She was whimpering. She heard her own panicked gasps as her hands found the footboard of the bed. Okay. She was at the bottom of the bed.
She knew this cavern. She had spent days pacing it off, getting to know her territory. All she had to do was make her way across the room to the counter. There was a light inside the dishwasher.
She looked around desperately, realizing that
the digital light that had been on the dishwasher before was no longer there.
There was no power.
No power.
“Oh God, Tanner, please don’t do this to me. ” She couldn’t scream now. Her voice was weak, and she hated the pleading sound of her voice.
She was not going to do this! Scheme clenched her fists as she bent over, pressing her clenched fingers into her stomach as she fought to hold back the bile boiling there.
She wasn’t going to be sick either.
She should have known she couldn’t trust him. She had been close though, so close to considering it. He had seemed so concerned, so furious for her sake that Chaz had tried to kill her.
And as she had suspected, it was all an act. Just an act. A trick to get the information her father wanted. He needed to know what was on that fax. He had worked decades for that information.
“I don’t know anything. ” She keened before slapping her hands over her mouth to hold back the sobbing pleas. She had stopped begging years ago. She had learned to accept that her father was a rabid psychopath; no amount of pleas would change whatever he had planned for her. And no amount of pleas would change whatever Tanner had planned.
But she did know something. She knew too much. She knew David Lyons, Callan Lyons’s son, would be kidnapped. She knew that the first Leo still lived and where he could be found. She knew the rumors of the Breeds mating rather than just loving were true. She knew enough to ensure that her father faced Breed law rather than just federal law.
She couldn’t breathe. Her hands moved from her lips to her throat as she gasped for breath.
It was so dark. She rocked forward slowly, fighting to hold on to her composure as she felt the coffin surrounding her, smelled the scent of her own fear and urine around her.