Five
Simone
Iwill not die here.
That was my only thought as I hurtled toward the ground for the second time in less than ten minutes. Unfortunately, my concern this time wasn’t carpet deodorizer or hand abrasions. What lay beneath me was shiny tile over concrete that seemed to be coming faster and faster.
And then I wasn’t moving anymore.
I gasped when I was jerked back, still holding my stupid trophy, physically unable to loosen my fingers enough to let it go, and looked up. Rubin had his hand manacled around my wrist like iron, holding me in place.
I had earned every inch of my size 22 jeans and most days didn’t have a second thought about it.
I didn’t think about now, either, because Rubin held me like I was nothing.
I followed the veins in his hand up his taut forearm, struck by how his arm seemed as solid and steady as the floor I was dangling over.
My capacity for awe had been left bleeding on the floor in the warden’s office, but something like it exploded in my chest.
I met his black eyes and got lost in his gaze for a moment, wondering how he did that, but the spell was broken by a sound. That inhuman moan that raised the hair on my arms.
Good sense told me not to look down, but when did I ever follow that? My stomach churned as I tore my gaze away from Rubin and looked toward the moans. People—if I could still call them that—were moving toward me with that disgusting, shambolic gait, inhuman eyes fixated on their target.
Me.
They gathered under me in a loose circle, that much more terrifying with how casual they were. On instinct, I lifted my knees, my abs straining with the effort, and bought myself five more inches that weren’t worth the sweat that rolled down my back.
I’d never thought I’d have occasion to feel like a rotisserie chicken, but that was exactly what I was as I dangled there.
I had one way out.
I met Rubin’s eyes again. Rubin, who seemed in no hurry to pull me up. I looked down again searching for an escape. I was ten feet in the air, but I was tall. Maybe if I stretched…and then assuming I didn’t break both of my legs, I could dart to the left, maybe make my way to…where?
I didn’t know. This was a jail after all.
No, there was no outlet.
I ran the numbers anyway, weighing two broken legs if I let myself drop versus two legs ripped out of their sockets if I stayed. And the third option, the worst one of all—and my only way out of this.
Up.
Rubin still held me like it was nothing, and even though his palm was slick, he was waiting. I begged him with my eyes, knowing he saw me imploring. Something he proved when his eyes narrowed and his lips twisted up in a cruel smile.
“Ask me.”
His voice was flat, monotone, and absolutely unrelenting.
It should have been simple. The words should have rolled off my tongue like nothing, but again, I couldn’t make myself say them.
And for the first time, I knew it was pride.
Even as I heard those things getting closer, I didn’t want to give him the victory.
It was stupid. Suicidal, really, given my current predicament. But still, I had once wanted to give Rubin all of me, back when I’d let myself believe there was some good in him, when I’d lie in the dark and allowed myself to think that someone like him might see me.
But now, those words…I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
I stared at Rubin, but stayed quiet.
Looked down when something brushed against my foot. I was just high enough that I was out of reach of one of those things that was directly beneath me. But if another, taller one came…
I looked back at Rubin.
He was still smiling. “Ask me.”
A cold hand closed over my shoe and pulled. I bent my knees again at the same time as I swallowed my pride.
“Please,” I whispered.
Rubin’s eyes flashed but his expression was stone. I knew what he was going to say before he spoke.
Knew the first price Rubin had put on my life.
“Ask.”