No more hope.
A door whined open, the flood of light from the top of a long staircase momentarily blinding her. She sat up, then crouched low at the end of the bench, trying to remain hidden, even though it wouldn’t do her any good. Lori’s brain was on overdrive. She wondered what she could bargain with, but she had no money, nothing of value, and nobody would notice she was gone. George would notice at opening shift tomorrow, but he’d write her off and have a “now hiring” sign up within the hour.
She peeked over the top of the bench and watched the black booted feet slowly descend, each step punctuated with a creak in the wooden stairs. Her mouth was dry, her hands trembling. Just before the man’s face appeared, she ducked back down, praying to stay invisible.
“What the fuck?”
A lamp flicked on, a soft glow lighting the basement. Lori let out a little gasp. Her instinct was to slap her hand over her mouth, but she dared not move and rattle her chains. She kept her focus on the cracks in the grey concrete, and watched a potato bug try to bury itself under the leg of the bench. She wished she
could disappear so easily.
Heavy footsteps came closer. She counted the steps, wondering if it was possible to die from fear itself.
“What have you done to yourself?” The deep voice was vaguely familiar, but she was too messed up to make sense of anything right now. “Lori?”
Her name registered, and that’s when she knew her kidnapper knew her, planned this for whatever twisted reason. It had to be Carlton. She wasn’t on anyone else’s radar.
When his hands wrapped around her upper arms, she screamed and struggled, kicking out her legs until they hit the wall. The chains rattled violently. Her eyes were tightly closed, as if not witnessing any more would somehow make things better.
“Help me!” she yelled. Maybe someone upstairs would have pity on her. Maybe a passerby would hear her screams.
“Damn it, Lori. Stop it! You’re only hurting yourself.”
“Help!”
The beast of a man holding her had had enough. He sat down on the bench with her on his lap, her arms immobilized at her sides. There was no use struggling, and eventually she lost all her steam.
“Look at your wrists, for God’s sake.” He ran the pad of his thumb along the raw areas, and she flinched on contact. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She wanted to ask questions, but didn’t dare open her mouth. Lori was certain she wouldn’t like the answers.
“Are you hungry?”
The last thing she cared about right now was food.
“Okay, first things first. I need to get these cuffs off and bandage up your wrists. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking using chains on you.” He stood up and positioned her on the bench. Her captor bent down on one knee in front of her. “Lori, look at me.”
She didn’t want to look at him. Witnessing the enemy was a surefire way to seal her fate. But disobeying could be worse in her predicament. Lori took a little breath and looked at the man in front of her. Her jaw dropped.
It was him.
Cherry pie man.
She’d been fantasizing about him all night before her shift ended. He’d been the first man to give her attention, and there’d been something dark and appealing about him. Oh, how she’d pegged him wrong. She tried to remember everything he’d said, she’d said, and how on earth she could talk herself out of this nightmare.
He touched her eye, a feather-light caress. “No man will ever hurt you again.”
She wasn’t sure what it was—the sound of his voice or the way he said the words—but she believed him.
Chapter Three
Okay, so maybe he should have anticipated her freaking out, but still, Chains wasn’t going to hurt her. She was precious to him, and he had no intention of her ever suffering again. Not at his hands or anyone else’s. She belonged to him now.
Her gaze roamed up the length of his body, and he saw the tears in her eyes, the confusion.
“You’re from the diner,” she said. Her voice sounded hoarse.
“You shouldn’t scream. There’s no one around for miles, and no one to hear you. It’s kind of pointless.”