“You know you can save us both. Just say your safe word, and I’ll say mine as well,” Beckett moans in my ear as I feel little droplets of his blood dripping from his hand.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I don’t know my safe word. I won’t read it until the final round.”
He gasps. “Fuck.”
I feel him loosen his grasp, and I try to scramble away. My hair starts to slip through his fingers, almost to the end before he tightens his grip again.
Beckett’s decisio
n has been made. He’ll do this for as long as he can, until he’s pushed to a limit that Langston would kill him for crossing.
We both look at each other through the smoke. It’s the last moment that we aren’t truly enemies. From this moment on, we will hate each other. We will never be able to look at each other the same.
I’m done begging. And he’s done talking.
He yanks me hard until I fall to my knees, and then he resumes dragging me. Once again, I try to dig my nails into his hand, but I end up just grabbing onto his wrist to keep him from ripping my hair out as he drags me.
Suddenly, he stops.
I know why.
Fear builds inside me like a windstorm. If only I had magical powers that would allow me to release the storm inside me on this room. I could destroy everything so much easier that way.
I know Beckett has to release my hair to grab my arms, my legs. So I wait patiently for my moment.
He releases.
I try to run. I scramble onto my feet and start to dive.
But he’s smarter than me. He anticipates my move and kicks my feet out from under me. As I’m falling, he grabs one arm and twists it behind my back so forcefully that he’s about to pop my shoulder out of its socket.
I can feel the tears welling, the pain radiating through my arm and down my spine.
“Give me your other hand,” he growls.
No. I won’t give in.
“Break my arm if you have to, but I won’t ever submit to you.”
My other hand reaches out, trying to find the chains I know he plans to tie me to. Maybe if I grab one, I can use it as a weapon against him?
I find a chain.
I sling it as hard as I can at Beckett’s head.
I feel the weight hit him.
But he’s like me. He must be used to the pain. He doesn’t even react.
Instead, he once again kicks my feet out from underneath me. I reach out with the hand he isn’t holding to try and catch myself from hitting the ground.
No.
I feel the cold metal clamping around my other hand.