54. CHAPTER 49
SAYLOR
My head is pounding before I open my eyes. I’m in a bed, but there’s no noisy machines like before. The sheets are soft. That’s the first thing I notice. My cheek is pressed against a pillow, and there’s a blanket over my body. It’s way too quiet. Did Axl not come back yet?
I move my legs, but there’s something weighing my right leg down. My ankle throbs from something cuffed around it. What the fuck?
My eyes snap open. The room is dim with the curtains closed, and I don’t know where I am. All I know is that this isn’t the hospital. I toss the blanket off my legs. I’m still wearing the hospital gown, but the cuff around my ankle is connected to a chain that’s secured to the floor.
“No.” I cry to myself. How the fuck did I get wherever the fuck this is?
I tug at the chain, already knowing that it’s not going to budge, but I have to try.
Then I start looking around for something I can reach and use as a weapon.
It’s like a hotel room. I can get to the bathroom and to the bed, but there isn’t much besides that.
There’s a cabinet with a digital keypad on it, and the door to the room has one too.
I sit on the edge of the bed and try to think. My head won’t stop pounding, and I try to remember every detail about how I got here.
A mask. I remember there was a mask. My heart was pounding because for a second, I thought it was Axl coming back for me. The mask looked like his with red slashes.
It’s coming back in pieces. The man pinned me down, and I couldn’t get my arms free. I kicked and tried to use my elbows the way Axl taught me, but then I think he injected me with something. I can’t remember anything after that.
I don’t know how long ago that was. There’s no clock in this room.
I pull back the drapes of the floor-to-ceiling tinted windows.
It’s light outside, but that doesn’t tell me much.
I’m on what looks to be the third floor of whatever building I’m in.
Even if I could break the glass, there’s nowhere to go.
I let the drapes fall back and sit on the edge of the bed again. My ankle is already sore from the cuff, and I’ve only been awake for a few minutes.
The keypad on the door beeps. The small light switches from red to green, and I’m on my feet before the door opens.
I grip some of the slack in the chain. Maybe I can use it to defend myself, because I’m not going to sit here and take whatever it is they have planned.
I know Axl will find me, so I just have to hang on until he gets here.
Fuck, I don’t have my phone. He can’t track me. But he’ll know I’ve been taken, and he won’t stop. I know the man I love, and he always shows up for me. I just have to survive until he can find me.
A man steps through the door. He’s wearing a Talon mask. The same one from the hospital, like Axl’s with red slashes across the eyes. He’s dressed in all black, and his build is close enough to Axl’s that my chest aches for a second.
It isn’t Axl. I know it isn’t Axl. Nothing in my life has worked out that way. And Axl wouldn’t fuck with me like this. He’d make me kneel for him and beg for him, but he’d never do something like this after all that’s happened.
The man closes the door behind himself. The keypad beeps again. The light turns red and locks us in.
I back up against the window, gripping the chain. He doesn’t rush toward me. He doesn’t speak. He just stands by the door, watching me through the slits in the mask, tilting his head like he’s deciding what to do with me.
I don’t say anything to him either. I’m too focused on what he’s going to do next.
Then he reaches up and pulls the mask off.
I can’t fucking believe it.
Ryan. He’s a dipshit, but I didn’t expect it to be him, which makes this much worse.
“Disappointed to see me?” he taunts.
My grip tightens on the chain. “Where the fuck am I?”
“It doesn’t matter. You won’t be here for long.
” He tosses the mask onto the cabinet and rolls his neck.
He’s looking at me the way he has always looked at me.
Like he’s going to hold me down and take what he wants.
My guess is that he doesn’t give a fuck about his Talon oath of abstinence, not with the way he’s licking his lips.
“Why won’t I be here long?” I keep my back to the window, focused on his every move. “Because you’re going to kill me?”
“Why would I kill you? If you’re dead, you can’t fight me when I fuck you. And fuck, I love a fight.”
He steps closer, and I raise the chain. He stops but not because he’s afraid of me. His lips are twisted into a cruel grin. He’s fucking with me.
“Axl’s going to kill you. And whoever else you have out there. Just let me go.” Goddamnit, I need a fucking weapon.
His head falls back, and he laughs like a fucking lunatic. “Axl’s dead, bitch.”
My lungs stop working. The chain goes slack in my hand because my fingers have lost feeling.
“You’re lying.” Tears sting my eyes, hoping with everything in my body that this is just another trick.
“We blew up the compound. I wish you could’ve seen how beautiful it was.
” He pushes off the wall and takes another step toward me.
“We got lucky with Dane Sinclair there too. Boom!” He makes an explosion gesture with his hands.
“Dane, your boyfriend, and that stupid fuck Priest are all gone, sweetheart. Three birds with a few well-placed stones.”
No. He had to be lying. I can’t lose Axl. Not after all we’ve already lost. I can take whatever these sick fucks throw at me. They can never break me. But losing Axl, I can’t survive that.
“I don’t believe you.” My voice is shaking, and I don’t want him to know he’s affecting me. But I can’t stop it. “He’s not dead.”
“I hate to break it to you, but he is. We blew that place to hell.” He grins at me again, far too proud of himself for whatever he has planned. Then he nods toward the door. “Your brother must actually give a shit about you, because he won’t let me play with you.”
He lunges and grabs the chain in my hand with one hand and my throat with the other. “But he has to sleep sometime.”
My brother being my only ally here makes me sick to my stomach. His fingers tighten on my throat, and I claw at his hand. My feet barely touch the floor, and the cuff digs into my ankle from the angle. His face is inches from mine, and I can feel his breath on my skin.
I spit in his fucking face.
His grip loosens just enough for me to suck in air before he slams me backward into the window. The back of my skull hits the glass, making my vision blur.
“Will it make you feel better if I wear the mask when I fuck you?” He wipes his face with his free hand. “You can pretend I’m that asshole like that dumb bitch did.”
“Fuck you.” Axl thought his dad had someone on the inside, but it was Justin. Justin used this asshole to set us up. That seems so long ago now with everything else that happened.
“That fire is going to be fun to put out.” He grips my ass and pulls me to him. I shove my hands against his chest, trying to push him back. “I bet you fight even harder than the others—”
The keypad beeps, and the door opens.
“Get your fucking hands off her, Ryan.”
Justin walks in, and Ryan drops me. I hit the floor and gasp, grabbing my throat. The chain rattles across the tile as I scramble back toward the bed.
Justin looks at Ryan with the same psychotic look he had back in Axl’s room. “I told you not to fucking touch her.”
“She spit in my face.” Ryan points at me. “Your sister has a fucking mouth on her.”
“And I’ll deal with her. Get the fuck out.”
Ryan holds Justin’s stare like he might fight him. There’s something going on between them. It’s obvious they haven’t decided which of them is actually in control of whatever their plan is.
Ryan picks up the mask from the cabinet and walks to the door. He looks at me one more time before he leaves. “I’ll check on you later, sweetheart.”
The keypad beeps, turning red again. It’s just me and my brother locked in here now.
Justin crouches in front of me. I’m on the floor with my back against the bed frame, still catching my breath. He reaches for my face and I jerk away from him.
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
“I just want to make sure you’re alright. He shouldn’t have done that. You’ve just barely recovered from the drugs I gave you.” His voice is calm, like he’s some devoted, protective brother. And not like he drugged me, raped me, and then chained me up in this room. “Does anything hurt, Sayl?”
“You want to know if anything hurts?” I practically spit the words in his face. “Everything fucking hurts, Justin. For once, do the right thing and let me go.”
He sits back on his heels and looks at me like I’m just some silly girl. Like I’m a child throwing a tantrum, and he’s waiting for me to tire myself out.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Why? Because Ryan will stop you? Because whoever is running this place won’t let you?” I search his face for anything I can use to get the fuck out of here. “You say you love me, then prove it. Let me go.”
“That’s exactly why I can’t let you go.” He stands up and clasps his hands behind his back.
“I’m the one who’s been here your entire life, Sayl.
Not your dead boyfriend. Do you have any idea what could have been done to you?
You would be very valuable working in a place like this.
” He crouches in front of me again. “I made sure that didn’t happen. And this is what I get.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? You didn’t protect me from anything.” I try to gather some of the chain in my hand. “You were the thing I needed protection from.”
His jaw tightens. “You have no fucking idea what is going on here, Sayl. You’ve been going to school, partying, spreading your legs for whichever bastard crossed your path—”
“Fuck you, Justin. I don’t want to hear your bullshit. Tell me where Axl is. I know he’s not fucking dead.”
He laughs, rising to his feet again and moving across the room to lean back against the wall, watching me. “Axl is very dead, Saylor. I’m who you have left.”
The words knock the wind out of me, and I can’t breathe. I pull my knees in tighter and grip the chain because it’s the only thing in this room I can hold onto.
He’s lying. He has to be lying.
“You can wish all you want.” Justin tilts his head. “We drugged you and took you out before the explosion and everything else went down.”
“So what now? I live here with you?” My voice sounds dead even to me.
“I know you’re angry. And I know you’re scared. But you’re going to see that this was the only way.” He pushes off the wall. “But soon life will be better for both of us. No more Talons. No more Sinclairs deciding your future. No more being somebody’s fucking Dove.”
He says it like he’s freeing me. Like I’m not a prisoner here.
“We’re getting out of here, Sayl. I saw an opportunity, and I took it. I have access to enough money now. We’ll go somewhere and start a new life away from all of this shit and anyone who knows us.”
“A new life.” I repeat it, because I need to hear how insane it sounds out loud. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I’ll never stop fighting you.”
Justin looks at me for a long time. His jaw works like he’s chewing on something he wants to say. Then he straightens up and walks to the door.
“You have no idea how much worse your life could be, Sayl. What do you think a place like this was used for before your dead boyfriend helped the Sinclairs take it down? You have no idea how high up this goes and all who are involved. Axl and those fucking Sinclairs don’t know shit.
” He punches the code into the keypad without looking at it.
“I could drop you off at one of the other locations worse than this one. I suggest you think about that before I come back. We can’t stay here long. ”
The door closes behind him and locks.
I stare at the door until my eyes blur. I wonder how many women before me have been chained in this room.
I pull the blanket off the bed and wrap it around myself because the hospital gown isn’t enough and I can’t stop shaking. I grip my ankle and run my fingers along the cuff. It’s tight enough that I can’t work it off my foot, but it’s loose enough that it won’t fully cut off the circulation.
I have to think of something. If Axl is dead, no one is coming. Priest and Dane Sinclair are also dead. Kynlee doesn’t know where I am. No one does.
But I refuse to die in this room. I refuse to let my brother win. And if Axl taught me anything, it’s that I don’t stop fighting until someone puts me in the ground.
Tears stream down my cheeks thinking about his body lying cold somewhere. I’m going to find a way out of this, and they’re going to pay for killing the man I love. I’m tired of fucking men taking every goddamn thing from me.