I don’t have a chance to adjust my vision before he violently rips the tape from my mouth, and I start screaming. Aiden doesn’t get angry or tell me to shut up. He moves to the kitchen on the other side of the room and grabs a little black bag and a chair from beside a small kitchen table, placing them across from me. The kitchen is one wall of cabinets and a peninsula that juts out, dividing it from the living room. Aside from the table and chairs, the space is barren.
He sits and pulls a cigarette from the pack with his teeth, lighting it and taking a long inhale, the kind that tells me he has absolutely zero fear of anyone hearing me scream.
“You about done?” he asks when I quiet down. Even though I hate myself for it, I start to cry, panic beginning to take over as he unzips the bag and pulls a needle from it. I immediately think back to the box I found in his house, and everything turns static as the fear of what’s in that vial hits me.
“No… Please, no… Don’t do this…” I cry out. He has no way of knowing that the last time I saw a needle like that, it was in my sister’s arm.
“Don’t waste your fuckin’ tears,” he bites out as he pulls one of those clear vials from the bag.
My body starts to shake violently, and I thrash against my restraints.
“I don’t want drugs. Please don’t put that poison in mybody!” I sob, out of control, yanking again, but all it’s doing is cutting off my circulation. I almost think I see a flicker of remorse, and then his expression is ice again.
“This won’t kill you, so stop fucking screaming. I can’t get the information I need from you if you’re dead.” He says it like it’s obvious he isn’t going to kill me, but I imagine other scenarios, where I’m drugged and raped…just like Nic.
“Time to help you out with that little lying problem you seem to have.” He fills the needle and taps it twice.
I scream at the top of my lungs, Nic’s last moment vivid in my mind as Aiden ignores my plea and sticks the needle in my thigh, emptying it without any remorse or hesitation.
It burns.
“What did you give me?” I sob, mascara stinging my eyes.
“Sodium pentothal,” he bites out. “A perfectly concentrated dose.”
Fucking truth serum.
“Now we’re going to wait for it to kick in, and then we’re going to have a fucking chat, little goddess. An honest one.”
My tears slow as I watch him sit calmly. I don’t feel out of it, or tired like I expected to. More high-strung, like I have a million thoughts running through my head all at once.
I clamp my mouth shut, hell-bent on not speaking to him.
“This is my cabin. The club’s cabin. It’s right smack in the middle of the forest. The closest neighbor is miles away. The closest town is even farther.” His tone is restrained. “No one will hear you.”
Aiden leans back in the chair, one arm up over the back of it, the other at his lips as he takes the final drag of his cigarette.. His long legs are stretched out and relaxed, and he never takeshis eyes off me. He takes in my dress, my wild hair, and the makeup on my face, which I stupidly wore forhim. To get closer to him.I had no idea what I was wishing for.
“Your tears are your admission of guilt,” he assesses.
“My tears are because you dragged me out here like your prisoner and fucking drugged me!”
Aiden is completely calm as he moves closer. Too calm. He’s in no hurry, and that tells me there’s no chance this will be over fast.
I silently pray to the universe to save me.I can’t die like this…
His hand grips my face faster than I can comprehend, tilting my chin up, while his other draws a blade from his side and holds it to my throat. My mouth pops open under his grasp, and then he’s practically feeding me his smoke from his last inhale. I choke on it as his grip tightens, wincing under his hold.
“Youaremy prisoner. You wove your way into my club and my home like a little fucking spider.” He lets go of my face yet holds me still with only the blade. “A poisonous little spider spinning her web.”
I feel the knife against my skin, and I’m too terrified to breathe. Aiden’s become the man I assumed he was as he uses the blade to guide my chin up farther.
“From this point forward, you don’t speak unless I ask you a question. Understand?”
I gulp back a sob and nod, remembering how easily he shattered that man’s hands in the trunk of the cab. I will my body to stop shaking as he assesses me, and the blade moves down to slide over my collarbone.
“I’ve killed so many men I’ve lost count,” he says, calm onceagain. “I don’t even remember them all, and I don’t give enough of a fuck to try.”
I try to suck in a breath as he continues. “Taking the life of a betrayer means absolutely nothing to me. The moment the life drains from their eyes, I forget all about them.”
