Chapter 29 Grace
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
GRACE
My head is pounding.
It’s the first thought that fills my mind when I wake—followed immediately by a flood of horrible memories that do nothing to help the state of my head.
I try to open my eyes, but it feels like someone’s attached a ten-pound weight to the tips of my lashes.
When I manage to part them a crack, there’s nothing to see.
I’m sitting in the pitch dark, with no way to gain my bearings.
“Oh God.” I reach a hand up to clutch my racing heart. “Please let this be a dream…”
Even as I say it, I know it's not. Everything that’s happened in the past few weeks has been leading to this moment. Now I’m at Seven’s mercy—stuck in his twisted web—and there’s no way out.
After a few minutes and several deep breaths, I’m able to calm myself enough for my brain to work. I know I have to get my bearings if I have any hope of surviving.
I reach out through the dark, and my fingertips brush against something hard and cool. I reel back with a gasp, my throat constricting as panic courses through my veins. I shuffle backward on my knees, but instead of a wall, I connect with more metal bars—like the ones on a prison cell.
Or a cage.
I lower my body to the ground, using my palm to feel around the perimeter of the space.
The base is circular, held together by dozens of thin metal bars spaced no more than an inch apart, and they arch up to a domed ceiling that’s barely tall enough for me to stand on my knees without hitting my head.
Sitting back on my heels, I wrap my arms around my body, a shiver running through me as I realize I’m still in my tiny gold bikini.
Unfortunately, my towel is nowhere to be seen, so I’m left completely exposed.
What’s worse, there seems to be something strapped around my throat—something that feels suspiciously like a leather collar—but I’m not mentally prepared to explore that quite yet.
“I’m so fucked.” I close my eyes tight as my arms curl around my stomach. “So. Fucked.”
“Not yet. But you will be.”
I choke on my scream, jerking backward and slamming my shoulder hard against the iron bars. I wince against the sharp twinge of pain, which is for the best, because at that moment, Seven flicks a switch, and the floodlights buzz to life.
I blink hard, my eyes burning as I try to adjust to the change. The first thing I noticed is that I am, in fact, in a cage. It’s positioned in the center of a medium-sized room, with the walls and ceiling padded in stark white material that makes the bright lights even more jarring.
The second thing I notice is Seven. He’s standing at the opposite end of the room, leaning casually against the wall, twirling a large knife between his gloved fingers. I can’t see his eyes due to the red mask strapped to his face, but based on my body’s reaction, I know he’s hungrily taking me in.
“Seven…” I swallow hard, acutely aware of the collar tightening around my windpipe as I do. “Please, Seven. Don’t do this… If you care about me at all, you’ll let me go.”
He snorts, pushing off the wall and stalking slowly to the cage, and an excited shiver runs the length of my spine as he nears. He stops just in front of the bars, crouching down so his masked face is at the level of mine.
“I’m doing this because I care about you.
” He tilts his head, reaching out to stroke the bars sensually.
“I want to keep you safe. The world out there is so ugly, so dangerous. Why, you’ve been attacked twice in the time I’ve known you.
Everyone keeps trying to take you from me.
My Grace. My angel.” He shakes his head slowly.
“You’re safe now, with me. I’ll keep you safe, and happy, and bred.
You’ll never have to want for anything ever again, my sweet, darling girl. ”
“What—what about my freedom? My friends?” The blood drains from my face as realization sets in. “What about my life?”
He just laughs, the sound low and cruel, sending shivers throughout my body.
“This is your life now, sweet angel. You are mine, and you should get used to it. Which reminds me…” He stands, turning and retrieving something from a leather duffel bag at the opposite end of the room.
He cups the object in his hands, hiding it from me as he walks back to the cage, crouching down just like before.
Unlike the first time, he opens a small hidden door set into the bars, just large enough for him to fit his hand through. And lying in the center of his palm is a box, no larger than one you would store a ring in.
“Go on,” he says. “Open it. It’s a gift. For you.”
Swallowing hard, I take the box from him, my fingers trembling as I pry the top open to reveal its contents. Only, when I do, I really wish I hadn’t looked.
Because inside the box lies my IUD, wrapped in a tiny red bow.