Chapter Six #3
“Doubtful,” I mutter.
“Well, maybe the universe will throw you a bone. And besides, he's got to be better than Travis. I saw the video he and Millie posted, by the way. How are you feeling?”
“It’s stressful for sure. I’m not sure whether to take any legal action or not, but overall the support online seems to be okay. The odd few comments are negative.”
She nods before getting distracted by another customer .
Before she has the chance to return and pepper me with more questions, I pick up the black coffee and head home.
◆◆◆
“Hey, I brought you a coffee from Squeeze the Day,” I call out, stepping down into the basement.
“Rule number two, Killer: don’t give your hostage anything hot that they could throw at you.”
His voice is husky and sends an unwelcome shiver down my spine. Each syllable reminds me he’s real and he’s here.
“Well, it’s a bit cold now, to be honest. But it would ruin my outfit if you threw it at me, so I’d appreciate it if you drank it instead.” I wink.
“Just a thought.” He takes a sip.
“What’s rule number one?”
“Don’t come within touching distance.”
I laugh. “Well, I’ve done that a few times. But I think I’ll be fine. We’ve accepted the fact that you don’t mind being chained up for some reason, and besides”—I shrug—“you like me.”
“Rule number three.”
I roll my eyes before taking a seat in my usual spot opposite his bed.
“Go on.”
“Never trust your hostage. They will do anything and everything to get out of your grasp. That includes gaining your trust and appealing to your better nature.”
“Sure. If I end up making a habit out of holding people hostage in my basement, I’ll be sure to follow those rules.”
“You know who I am, yet you’re not scared of me. Why is that?” he asks, sipping the coffee, and for a moment, I think I see him wince, but his usual smirk pulls in and hits me like a truck. I might not think he’d physically harm me, but this man has a whole arsenal of weapons at his disposal.
“Oh, I’m terrified of you. It’s why I want Danny out. He deserves a good life. He’s smart, he’s incredible with computers and could be doing something with that.”
“You don’t seem scared though.” I see he deflects my comments on Danny.
“No? Maybe I’m good at acting.”
He takes another sip and leans back. His shirt is still off despite it not being that warm down here.
He isn’t wrong about hostages doing whatever they can to gain favor.
He’s noticed me checking out his broad chest with splattering chest hair.
His shoulders and biceps aren’t just from lifting weights.
This is a man who has worked out for years.
The scars on his chest and one down his forearm only make his body more intriguing.
My mouth waters at the thought of touching him freely.
If I’d thought about this differently, I might not have needed to abduct him at all.
I could have seduced him, learning each contour of his body while I did it.
But I can’t—even the thought is preposterous.
This situation is hard enough now, but at least I’ve been upfront.
He knows what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.
I don’t have the strength to emotionally manipulate someone.
Especially not him, who I’ve learned can be kind when he wants to be.
He’s gracious and easy to talk to. And his body runs circles in my brain night after night.
You know when you take one look at someone, and you can just tell they would know exactly what to do?
Too long, I’ve worked to get myself off in bed with a partner.
Focusing so much to keep in the moment. Nothing stills my brain.
Whether it’s a lack of skill or something wrong with me, finishing during sex has always been a difficulty.
“Nah, I think you’re curious.” That damn smirk is back.
“Curious?”
“Yeah, curious. I have a theory.”
Of course he does . I lean back into my chair, attempting to appear relaxed.
“I’m not what you expected,” he begins.
True.
He doesn’t wait for me to respond. “I’m not a mindless killing machine.”
Maybe not mindless.
“I’m not angry or demanding.”
I keep my eyes fixed on his despite the overwhelming urge to look away.
“I understand why you’ve done this. Hell, I would do the same thing if it was my brother. Well, a hypothetical brother that I actually like. Not my idiot older brother.”
I ignore that comment even though hearing a small tidbit about his life seems to warm my chest. “Then you know why I have to keep you here.”
“I do.”
“So you’ll let Danny go?”
He shakes his head but has the decency to look sad about it. “I said I understand. I’m empathetic to your cause. But this is not going to turn out the way you want it to, Olivia. It’s just not.”
He leans forward with his bare feet flat on the ground.
His elbows are resting on his thighs as he leans forward.
Like a doctor breaking the news to a patient’s relative, he’s bringing himself down to my level, speaking softly as if not to frighten me.
But I am frightened, despite what he says.
I know he’s working on me. Seeping into my thoughts and my body, too.
It hums for him. Every time I’m close to him, I feel like I’m charging up; my battery always feels overflowing when I’m near him.
The excess energy needs a release, and I don’t know how to get rid of it.
“Okay. So abducting you isn’t going to work. What will? There must be something you want. I can take his place. I can—”
“No.” His deep voice is sharp and raised.
“But— ”
“No.”
“I kidnapped YOU. I’m in this already whether you like it or not.”
“Do you think I...your brother would want you in this life? You’re not a bad person, Olivia. This is not the life for you,” he says like he knows me.
“There are things about me you don’t know.
Things I’ve done,” I lie. Honestly, I’ve had a relatively drama-free existence up until a week ago when I got this crazy idea.
Now, I’m having threats to my business, and my favorite juice bar employee is trying to set me up with the guy I have chained in my basement.
“Can’t be worse than holding someone hostage.”
Why does it feel like he’s holding all the cards when he’s the one in chains?
“Let’s change the subject,” I say, done with this conversation.
“Okay. Tell me what was wrong yesterday.”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
He says nothing, sipping slowly on the coffee. Staring at me. Damn it, I hate awkward silences.
Eventually, I sigh, and his dimple surfaces under the scruff of three days with no shaving. It only encourages me to talk.
“It’s probably silly to you, my business.”
“Why would it be silly?”
“It’s online.”
“Explain,” he demands softly.
“I have a channel, which is like a video—”
“I understand what a channel is.”
“Okay, sometimes people don’t know.” I hold my hands up in surrender. “Older people, you mean.”
I blush. I mean he is older, but not old, as in he can’t understand what an online presence is. I remember trying to explain it to Gran before she passed, and she just thought I was scamming people.
“I didn’t mean that you’re old. You’re just older than me, and I can’t imagine your line of work would require you to watch many fitness videos.”
“You’d be surprised, but go on.”
Okay, that’s ambiguous.
“I create exercise routines, film them, and post them online. I have a subscriber list of around 400,000 people. The videos are popular, fun, and meant to be for everyone. I try to do inclusive exercises so that if you’re not fully mobile, there’s an option for you, too.”
“That doesn’t sound silly at all, Olivia.” His eyes are fixed on mine.
I smile awkwardly.
I don’t need his approval. I don’t need his approval.
“Well, there are some other people that are also in this line of work. One in particular is not very nice or kind. Her videos are all about aesthetics, appealing to a male audience, which isn’t in itself a problem, but, well...she fat-shames people.”
“And no doubt her videos aren’t as popular as yours.”
“No, although she is growing. It's not like she’s not doing well. She’s built up a good following of around 100,000 but she’s been doing it longer than me so I think it annoys her that I have more subscribers.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Well, she started dating my ex, and since then, they’ve been leaving comments about me on my videos, saying that I’m a thief and a fraud. That I had stolen all my workouts and passed them off as my own.”
He nods again.
“It’s not true. I work really hard to create content that will work well for people. I build my videos from the ground up...Actually, Danny had helped me set everything up at the beginning. He was amazing, really. So I haven't done it all myself, but I’ve worked hard nonetheless. ”
Another nod.
Maybe Jenny wasn’t wrong about the strong, silent type with this one.
“But yesterday...” I turn away as my eyes start to prick.
I take a deep breath, fiddling with my fingers in my lap.
“Yesterday, they posted a video, calling me out. And Travis, my ex, said that I showed him how I would copy videos. It’s a lie, but I don’t know where to go from here.
I don’t know if I need a lawyer or if I should message them or block them.
I just don't know what to do. And now I’m rambling to the man I’ve held hostage in my basement for the last three days. What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Well, aside from abducting someone rather than just asking them on a date, I’d say you’re just a victim of jealousy.” He winks.
“I . . . I don’t want to date you,” I splutter.
“We’ll circle back to that.” He smirks, and a flutter hits me in my core. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you broke up with him.”
“Correct.”
“Another guess would be that he didn’t have your drive or work ethic.”
“Correct.”
“Final assumption for him, apart from being an entitled, work-shy scrounger, was that he wasn’t exactly...fulfilling in the bedroom.”
He stares me down, forcing me to look him in the eye.
How does he know that? I feel the flush of my cheeks, my neck, my chest; everything must be crimson.
Was Travis good in bed? No. He was a racehorse. Slapping his pelvis against my butt cheeks at a ferocious rate with no skill or finesse. He thought the harder the better, which left me unsatisfied and, honestly...reluctant to do it a lot. At least it was always over quickly.
My lack of response has apparently already answered for me .
“Okay, so correct on three counts. Well done for dumping him. At least he’s this other person’s problem now.”
“Mmhmm.” That’s all I can muster up for a response.
“You could get a lawyer if you want a long, drawn-out case which will cost a whole lot of money, or you could post your own video in response...but that only makes people assume there’s some truth in it for you to respond to. Or you can do nothing and hope that it goes away.”
“Like I said, it seems like a lose-lose situation. And I don’t like losing.”
He smiles, and I shrug.
“What?”
“People don’t often surprise me. And you seem to at every turn.”
Warmth spreads in my chest, and I forcibly stop myself from overthinking this.
He’s saying what I want to hear to get out of here.
Obviously, he’s going to play to my weaknesses.
He knows he can manipulate me. I crave more praise from him.
Hearing it from someone so established, regardless of what he does, makes me feel so validated.
Silence fills the room. I’m not sure how to respond to that. I think it's complimentary. But it only makes me wonder what he thought of me before.
“I should get some work done. Did you read the books?” I divert the conversation to safer territory.
“Yes, they were very enlightening. I especially liked the highlighted sections.” He laughs.
“The what?” I frown, trying to remember which books I had given him.
“The highlighted sections in Black Silk . Very educational.”
Oh, shit. Black Silk is an erotic romance I bought after breaking up with Travis. I’ll tell you, he’s not wrong...it was enlightening.
“I . . . uh . . . that one wasn’t meant to get in there.”
“No doubt. I’ll take more of those if you have them. The non-fiction nearly sent me to sleep.”
He liked it?
“Umm, sure. I’ll bring some down later.”
He grins up at me, and I head up the stairs, my legs feeling heavier with each step.