Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“Go ahead, keep this little charade up as long as you like. Starve yourself for all I care, but soon, you'll discover this isn't a joke. I'm willing to do anything I have to do to reach my end goal. When it comes time for us to leave this place, we'll take you elsewhere. I can keep this going for months—until your baby is born, even.”
I grit my teeth against the simmering, indignant rage burning a hole in my stomach. How dare he? I can't lash out. I can't show him the anger because losing control also means risking the fear coming forward. I won't do that. He won't get the satisfaction.
All I can do is concentrate on keeping my face blank and my voice flat. It takes everything in me to keep from shaking as he studies me. “We both know this won't be going on that long,” I mutter through clenched teeth.
Cocking his head to the side, he inspects me like a bug under a microscope, “Do we? Eventually, you're going to figure out this wasn't a decision made on the spur of the moment. We could leave this very minute, and any work Callum has done to locate you would be for nothing. I could move you again and again, from location to location, and there is nothing you, or even him, could do about it.”
He's telling the truth. I know it, and can feel it in every word he speaks. He didn't go through all this trouble for nothing. He moves closer until his polished shoes nearly touch my feet, and I force the fear down until it's nothing more than a tight knot in my belly. I don't know everything. However, I do know he needs me, alive and well, if he intends to get whatever it is he wants from Callum, and I hold onto that knowledge knowing it'll keep me alive.
“Make no mistake, I'll take that baby from you the moment it draws its first breath, and you'll never set eyes on it. You'll never know what happened to it, and you'll get to spend the rest of your pathetic life wondering and worrying.”
My chest is so tight, I can hardly breathe. Panic snakes around my body, tightening around my ribs until I'm sure the pressure will crack them. “He's going to kill you for this,” I whisper, looking up at the man looming over me. “I hope you know that, you worthless piece of shit.”
Any last hint of the human mask he wears slides away to reveal the cold lizard underneath. “Don't think I'm above closing your mouth the same way I closed your friend's.” As if on cue, the man standing at his elbow cracks his knuckles.
Stupidity is what I would call my next move, but I'm already past my breaking point. A bubble of laughter escapes my lips. It's the most bizarre, unthinkable reaction possible, but there's no helping or taking it back once it's out.
“I'm sorry,” I manage before another laugh bursts out of me. “It's just... What is this? Did somebody script that for you? And you,” I add, waving a hand to the thug. “How many times did you practice cracking your knuckles to get it to happen just like that?”
Jack nods only once, and like magic, pain explodes across the left side of my face. The force of the slap makes my head snap to the side, and I cover my cheek with my hand—it's hot, burning, followed by the acidic taste of blood in my mouth. I shouldn't do it. Shouldn't say anything else, but I never did know how to keep my mouth shut.
“Pathetic. You can't even do it yourself,” I mutter, glaring at Jack while his image blurs, thanks to the tears in my eyes. “What kind of man makes his goons do all the work?”
I should have expected it this time, but I'm surprised when my head snaps back again, the pain blooming on the right side of my face now. The force of the second blow makes me fall backwards and onto the cot, squashing the bag of cold food beneath me.
“That's enough,” Jack grunts. “We can't have her bruised and bloodied. Gag her and tie her up.”
My head is spinning, but somehow I manage to get the words out, “You need me, and that alone is what will keep me alive, because if you wanted me dead we both know it would've already happened. You want something out of this, and you're going to use me to get it.”
“There's a huge difference between keeping you alive and keeping you content, and you're going to discover exactly what that difference is,” Jack sneers, his looming image hanging blurrily above me. By the time the world starts to come back into focus, all I can make sense of is the tearing sound of tape. I struggle against the man's grasp as he easily flips me over, pulling my arms behind my back and pressing a knee into my lower back to keep me in place. I'm dizzy, and my face aches. Although I still fight, because not fighting means giving up, and I refuse to do that.