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The screech of unoiled metal hinges echoed somewhere in the distance and I stilled as a frisson of fear raced through me. My blood rushed icy cold through my veins and I found it terribly hard to breathe.
Why had I been bound face down? Why wasn’t I on my back?
I wouldn’t be able to see who was coming.
I pulled even harder on the chains and cried out as the leather pinched the skin of my wrists just a tiny bit. There wasn’t much give. I could only move about an inch.
That was especially concerning.
I needed to get out. Now.
I tried harder. Still nothing.
Was he going to take out his revenge on me? Would he kill me?
I heard the sound of footsteps coming closer, reverberating against the tile or stone or whatever he was walking on. It was so loud that it was competing with the pounding roar of blood in my ears, and I turned my head to try to see who was coming as the door to my dark room squealed open behind me. I couldn’t turn it enough to see who was coming though. I didn’t need to look to know it was him. My breath was unsteady. I couldn’t seem to draw in enough air.
Fuck. Shit. I was fucked.
“Sophia,” he purred.
“Let me go,” I demanded.
“No. I don’t think I’m going to do that.”
There was something different about his voice. It was darker. Rougher. Grittier. I didn’t know what to make of it.
“What do you want from me?” I asked. Maybe he would be willing to negotiate. Maybe if I tried hard enough, he’d let me go. I could get his money back and we could pretend like none of this ever happened.
“I want answers,” he replied.
The warmth I was used to was gone from his voice. I almost didn’t recognize him and that terrified me to the core.
“Dean, please. Let me go. Let’s talk about this,” I whimpered. I played up my fear and let it slip in the way I spoke, allowing my words to shake with emotion. None of it was faked though. My fear was real this time.
“Oh, you’re so good at that, aren’t you?” he murmured. The question sounded almost like a purr, which was deeply unsettling when it was twisted together with the foreign hardness in his tone. For a moment, I didn’t even know what to say.
“What? What do you mean?” I exclaimed, growing more nervous by the second.
“Why do you do it, Sophia? Is someone making you do this?” he asked gently and there was the tiniest flicker of the man I’d known from before.
Please. Come back to me, Dean.
“It wasn’t personal,” I answered quietly. I swallowed, trying to figure out what I should tell him and coming up with nothing.
I’d never thought about what I’d say if I ever ran into one of my marks again. I didn’t know how to answer his questions in a way that might appease him. I didn’t know if I could say anything at all to make him feel better. I was usually good at piecing together a story on the spot, but this time nothing came to me.
He was silent for a long time and I struggled in the chains that bound me. The quiet all around me was oppressive and it made me entirely too uncomfortable. The clanking of the metal didn’t make it any better and my fear got the best of me.
“What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?” I blurted out, unable to bear the silence any longer.
This time, my terror was absolutely genuine. It was clear that Dean was a very different man from when I’d last left him. Maybe my betrayal had broken him. Maybe he’d never be the same again. Maybe I was going to die today. How would he do it? A bullet to the back of the head? A knife slipping across my throat?
“I’m not going to kill you, little girl,” he assured me.
I stiffened at the pet name. He’d never called me anything like that before and I didn’t know how I felt about it.
