She stiffened.
Because she knew me.
And now?
She knew she wasn’t getting out of this alone.
Not this time.
Chapter 42
Evie
The first thing I noticed was the cold.
Not the slow creeping kind, but the deep, bone-aching kind that made it hard to move, hard to think. My limbs were heavy, my head foggy, the ache in my skull sharp enough to cut through the haze to bring me more pain. I tried to move, but my wrists were bound behind me, the rough bite of zip ties digging into my skin.
They were tight enough to cut off circulation, my fingers already tingling with numbness. My ankles were bound, too, pressed against the chair legs at a painful angle.
The last thing I remembered was riding. The hum of my bike, the wind in my face, the bitter taste of regret still thick in my throat. I had been pissed, reckless, needing space, needinganythingother than the suffocating weight of everyone treating me like a problem they had to fix.
And now I was here.
I nearly laughed. I washere,wherever here was, and somehow managed to become even more of a problem.
I forced my breathing to slow. Taking in everything. The cold, the damp, the faint scent of mildew and something metallic. A basement, maybe? A warehouse? Somewhere underground?
I couldn’t tell now, but I knew the floor was hard beneath my feet. Concrete. And the air was stale and unmoving, like thespace hadn’t been touched by fresh air in years. I blinked against the dim light, my vision finally clearing enough to make out the space around me.
There was nothing of use, no furniture to rub the zip ties off and no handy knife or gun lying around that I could get to.
Skipping Hero’s lesson about how to get out of zip ties seemed like a big mistake now, and he was going to be pissed to find out I didn’t know what to do.
The slow, measured scrape of a chair dragging across the floor grabbed my attention. A shadow shifted in the darkness.
“You’re awake.” The voice sent an ice-cold spike of fear through me. I knew it from somewhere. It wasn’t familiar enough, but itwasfamiliar.
And then his face came into view.
The one I had seen once before while it was attacking Aiden and me.
Jack Anderson.
My stomach twisted.
This wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t random. He had been waiting for me.
I shifted, testing the restraints, but there was no slack, no give. My ribs protested at even the slightest movement, pain radiating through my side as I tried to straighten in the chair. I bit back the groan threatening to slip free, keeping my breathing slow and steady.
“Where am I?” I asked, my voice rougher than I intended.
Jack chuckled, stepping closer, his figure finally coming into focus. He was dressed in a clean suit, the collar unbuttoned. I was surprised he looked so disheveled, like he hadn’t been planning this.
“Hello, Evie,” he murmured, crouching down beside me. “Always so direct. So sharp.Alwayslooking for answers.”
My jaw clenched. “Maybe you should try giving me one. I thought you were trying to help me.”
“Help you?” he asked, cocking his head. “Why would you think that?”
