Chapter 30 Payton
PAYTON
The gag filled my mouth and sucked all the moisture into what felt like a rag tied around my head.
It tasted like oil and something I really, really did not want to think about.
Darkness shrouded my vision. I blinked several times, but it stayed.
My arms and legs were pulled back into odd positions, and my ankles and wrists chaffed when I tried to move.
I’d fought every step of the way, and Jack had eventually knocked me out.
When I came too and my head snapped up, his laugh had sent fear slithering in thick ripples down my spine. I’d never heard the man laugh before, but it couldn’t be anyone else.
A rough feeling latched onto my hair and yanked.
A bag lifted from my head, but the savage pull took several strands of hair at the same time.
I winced and blinked, scanning desperately for some spark of comfort that offered hope.
Blank concrete walls stood in front and to either side of me.
I turned to look over my shoulder and found the same back there.
Okay. Some sort of bunker?
He’d kidnapped me in New York.
I craned my neck to look up.
Solid concrete, the kind they poured as floors in the warehouses.
I only knew that because of a travel blog I’d done in the warehouse district of several major cities.
I worked my tongue around the gag, trying—and failing—to regain enough moisture to swallow.
My throat burned, and my jaw ached from being held open so long.
I rocked the chair side to side, and a firm hand clamped onto my shoulder.
Shit. I hadn’t heard anyone enter or leave the room, so of course, whoever took the bag off my head was still here with me.
Slow down and think.
The silent admonition to myself did nothing to quell the rising fear. I didn’t have a clue where he’d taken me.
Nothing about the room gave me a single fucking clue. It reminded me of an old basement, all the way down to a single pipe that ran overhead and leaked water down one corner.
The water puddled in that spot, but it was too dark for it to even reflect anything around it. Instead, it reminded me of an oily hole into hell.
Wait. I was already in hell.
Jack Wilson walked around me, his fingers gliding over my collarbone before he moved in front of me and let go.
His other arm was tucked into a sling, and burns covered one side of his face.
Definitely looked worse for wear. Good.
I’d spit in his idiotic face if I could. He probably knew it too, and that was why he left the gag in place.
Or maybe that was because I’d given him hell the last time he kidnapped me.
His stupid little soldiers had hated hearing me talk.
I almost grinned at that, but the pitching nausea in my stomach and the realization I didn’t dare throw up with the gag in my mouth kept me still.
I gave Jack a good once-over.
Aside from the sling and the burns, he glared at me with enough hatred to cause self-combustion.
Whatever had happened at the cabin, he hadn’t escaped unscathed.
That gave me hope. Mav, Reed, and Tarron hadn’t gone down without a fight.
Jack must have been standing too close to the cabin when it exploded.
Too bad it hadn’t taken him out. He deserved worse.
“Looks like we’re right back where we started.” He sneered down at me, the burns twisting one side of his face into an ugly mess.
I raised one eyebrow.
“Better this time since I killed your protectors.” He bent toward me, his injured arm tight to his abdomen. Cold, calculating eyes found mine. “No one will get in my way this time.”
He sounded like one of those desperate movie villains.
I was sure to get a full-on rant about his heinousness any second now.
He had me right where he wanted me, blah, blah, blah.
I rolled my eyes even though his words pierced me through and through.
Jack smirked and patted my cheek with a roughened hand. “And if daddy doesn’t pay up this time, you’ll be joining your so-called saviors very soon.”
It wouldn’t do any good, but I tried yelling at him through the gag. “I’m not that man’s fucking daughter.” My words came out more like, “Uh nuh ohg.” with a lot of muffled noises between. I slammed my body backward in the chair, hoping to knock it over and break free.
Jack grabbed me by the neck and held me in place. “Try that again, and I’ll chain you to the wall with a rope around your neck while you stand on your tiptoes.”
My stomach swooped and took a nosedive.
He’d do it.
The look in his eyes promised untold pain. I mouthed something at him again.
Laughing, Jack released me to cup a hand around his ear that hadn’t been burned.
“Sorry. I can’t understand you.”
He straightened and grinned wide enough to show his canines. “Silence is golden, especially when there’s a bitch like you around.”
I glared at him, mouthing the gag with enough force that I might be able to chew through it with sheer anger.
His hand shifted, and a flick of silver was my only warning before he shoved a curved knife blade in my face.
“If you want to live, do not be more trouble than you’re worth. You’ve cost me too much already.” He ran the flat edge of the knife along my cheek.
The point neared my eye, and it took all my control to keep staring at him and not flinch away. “I’m tempted to punish you here and now.”
I tried to swallow, but nothing happened. My throat locked in place.
Goosebumps peppered my bare arms and grated against the fabric of my jeans.
My short, stuttered breaths flared my nostrils.
“I think I want my money more, so I’ll keep you in one piece. For now.”
He ran the knife back down my cheek, tapped it twice against the gag, and straightened.
The knife disappeared into a pocket, and he sauntered toward the wall directly in front of me.
Leave. Please leave. I needed to be alone so I could try to process what could happen next.
Did he still believe I was some arms dealer’s daughter? If that was the case, I was screwed.
I twisted my wrists in the ropes and zip ties that held me, keeping the movements slow and minuscule so that he wouldn’t notice.
The hard plastic cut into my skin.
Much more and I’d start bleeding. Jack was sure to notice that.
He stopped at the wall and leaned his back against it, grinning at me with that manic smile as he crossed his ankles.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret. If I don’t get my money soon, I’m going to take it out on you. I’ll draw out your death, making it as slow and painful as possible, for the inconvenience you’ve caused me.”
My blood pressure spiked, causing blood to whoosh in my ears.
The sudden jackhammering beat of my heart put new meaning to the phrase “heart beating out of my chest”.
I had no choice but to keep quiet and listen to his slow diatribe.
I latched onto one word: inconvenience.
I’d been that for a lot of people throughout my life.
Except for Dad and Lisa, I had never really cared what anyone thought of me.
Then there was Mav, Tarron, and Reed.
I loved them so desperately that it tore me to pieces to once again remember they were dead and would never come to save me.
I had to find a way to prove to Jack that I was worth more alive than dead.
To do that, I needed to be able to talk. I doubted he’d listen to anything I said.
He hadn’t before.
But I would not, could not, give up. I packed all the terror rushing through my body into a single thought. Protect my baby.
Tears threatened to blur my vision, and I widened my eyes, unwilling to let them fall and show Jack my vulnerability.
I also didn’t want to lose sight of him.
He was the danger here.
I strained my ears but there were no other sounds. No soldiers outside the walls.
No machinery. Nothing but the slow drip, drip of water in the corner.
Jack continued to slouch and stare at me with a perturbing coldness.
How did a man like him get away with killing the loves of my life?
Death was too easy for him.
I understood what he meant about wanting to cause pain and punishment.
I would wish him to the darkest depths of the fieriest hell if given the chance.
Better yet, life without parole in the harshest prison available.
Let him see how small a man he was in this great big world.
I stopped worrying the gag and resumed trying to free my hands.
I hadn’t mastered the ability to dislocate my thumbs, and I doubted that would even work with the zip ties, but I was willing to try anything.
Jack was right. Reed, Tarron, and Mav were not going to save me this time.
They were dead, and it was up to me to save myself.
Dad knew I was leaving on a trip.
He wouldn’t think anything about my lack of communication until I failed to check in next week.
Unless Jack had figured it out and sent the ransom note to the right man, I was one hundred percent on my own.
Me and my baby.
Fine. I’d handle it.
I lifted my chin and stared Jack down.
When he snickered and tapped his pocket where he held the knife, I rolled my eyes again, then lowered my cheek to my shoulder and started scrubbing at the gag.
“Leave that alone. I’m not about to hear your yammering for the rest of the night.” Jack stalked forward, knife once more in his hand.
I tried to mime not being able to breathe, but it didn’t translate well without my hands. I shook the chair side to side and widened my eyes in the universal gesture of pleading.
Jack snorted and returned to his post at the wall.
I took advantage of his turned back to look around the room again. Where was the fucking door?