“No, you don’t,” he says, turning my way. “No one does. And no one ever will.”
The silence that follows only makes me that much more aware of my speeding heart.
Suddenly, he marches toward me and places a hand on the table. “You came here because of that note.”
“To protect my family.”
“Then you will do what I say,” he growls. “Got it?”
I look over my shoulder at the door I broke through once before, reminding myself of the fact that I don’t ever wanna be locked up somewhere that cold again.
Fuck.
I blow out a breath. “Fine.”
His hand reaches for my face, and he gently grabs my cheek and makes me look up. “I will give you a place to stay … give you food and clothes …” His hand travels down to my mouth, his thumb brushing across my bottom lip in a possessive, almost sexy manner. “If you behave.”
I swallow away the lump in my throat.
It feels so wrong to agree, but what other choice do I have?
He holds the key to my freedom, and there’s nothing I can do to steal it away from him.
Nothing except wait until the right moment, the right opportunity.
“Okay,” I say with a raspy voice.
He nods and then sniffs. Wildly. As if he smells something funky. “Come.”
He turns and walks off to the other side of the cabin, across from the room where I was being kept. I follow him inside and stare at the tub in front of me, wondering what the hell he wants from me. Because he keeps looking at me as though he wants me to do something here.
“What?” I mutter, but then it begins to dawn on me. “Oh, you want me to sit in there?” I laugh it off, but his serious face makes me stop. “You’re kidding, right?”
He looks at me like I’ve already lost one of the chances I had to behave. “Why would I be kidding?”
I shake my head. “Nuh-uh, I’m not getting in there.”
“It’s a bath,” he says.
“It’s empty. There’s no tap,” I point out.
His brows lower. “Not in that tub, no. But I do have a sink with running water. You can pour some hot water from there using this bucket.” He holds up a bucket as if he actually uses that thing, and it makes me want to laugh-cry.
“What about a shower then?”
He looks at me with a stone-cold face. Dead serious. “Take off your clothes.”
When I don’t move, he slams the door shut, the sound making me jolt up and down.
“Are you going to behave?”
He’s really going to make me do this, isn’t he?
Fuck.
If I want to have any shot at freedom, I’m going to have to follow his rules … for now.
I close my eyes. “Fine. But turn around.”