The man shakes the gun back and forth as he mimics his head movement. “Ah, ah, ah. Don’t lie to me, Miss Perry. You’re up here all alone. And that’s going to make what I have to do so much easier.”
A shudder rolls through me despite my best efforts to keep it at bay. “What do you have to do?”
“Get answers.”
I take a half step back toward the open door behind me, and his sinister gaze darts from there to me and back again.
“I don’t suggest you try anything stupid, Miss Perry. You may be trained to write newspaper articles, but I’m trained in other things.”
The threat that hangs there in his voice is enough to freeze me on the spot.
If I could get to one of Connor’s tools near the new cabin, I’d at least have a weapon, something that could inflict some sort of damage on this man that might give me at least a few minutes to get away before things go very south.
He’s big.
Which means he’s probably slow.
I’d have the upper hand if I bolted now. If I made a run for it, I could disappear into the trees. I could vanish and wait it out until Connor gets back…
But this man isn’t going to give me that opportunity.
The way he tracks not only my every movement but also everywhere I look tells me he doesn’t miss a thing.
One lunge from him and his big hand would be on me. All he would have to do is close it around my throat to kill me in seconds.
This door may be open to the mountain just behind me, but somehow I’m still trapped like a caged fucking animal with a sadistic owner.
A grin spreads across his face. “You know, I love it when my targets are feisty. It makes this so much more enjoyable. Why don’t you come the rest of the way in and sit down?”
He rises from the chair, and good God is he big.
At least three inches taller than Connor.
He looks like someone out of an old cartoon from the 80s, those ones with the superheroes who had the giant swords and protected their realms.
Only, this man is no hero.
He’s the villain in the story, and I’m suddenly the damsel in distress.
And no one’s coming to save me, so I’m going to have to figure out a way to save myself.
19
RAVEN
The plastic zip ties bite into my wrists where they’re binding me to the old chair, and I shift restlessly on it, trying to find a position that won’t make them dig into my sensitive skin.
But the man in front of me knows what he’s doing.
It certainly isn’t his first time tying someone up.
He knows how to inflict pain with something so damn simple.
I glance down at the ties around my ankles that keep my legs pinned to the legs of the chair. The fucker’s probably been kicked in the nuts a few times while tying up helpless victims. Enough to learn his lesson that he has to keep me fully restrained or he would pay the price for it.
God knows the second I get the chance, I will do whatever it takes to bring him down and make him pay for this…
And I don’t bother hiding my disdain for him and what he’s doing, either.
