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I slipped my arms behind my back again, pretending like I was still bound as the car cut off, and the front door slammed.
He took his sweet time coming back for me, and the heat of the trunk was making sweat slick almost every inch of my damn body.
“Ready for some fun?” he asked as he popped the trunk and grinned down at me.
I let him pull me out, even yank me against him and lead me around the car. I didn’t have a good grasp of the exits, about the easiest exit. I needed to be careful, and patient, even if every ounce of me wanted to just fucking run and scream for help.
Through the garage, we moved into a small hallway, then into the common area of the house where the living room, dining space, and kitchen all sort of blended together.
It was a nice space.
Too nice.
Way too nice for a single guy just out of prison without much money to rub together.
No, this place had been carefully cultivated for months or years with its simple, neutral decor mixed with bold statement pieces.
It was almost, I don’t know, feminine.
As if to prove my point, my gaze slipped toward the front door where I found a purse on a mail table.
This was a woman’s house.
Who? His new girlfriend and current or future victim?
If her purse was here, where was she? Was she going to be involved in the torment that Kyle had in mind for me?
Even as I was considering surprising him by breaking free and making a run for the door, though, I was suddenly shoved into the first room off of the next short hallway.
And there she was.
The owner of the purse.
But not his new victim.
Oh, no.
His old one.
Bayleigh.
She looked like the girl in the picture her sister Everleigh had brought to me, except her hair had gotten longer. And instead of looking hurt and devastated, she looked absolutely horrified and terrified.
Damnit.
God damnit.
I could have prevented this.
If I had just kept my damn mind on the job, I would have made sure that this poor woman would never know terror like this again.
But no.
I’d gotten distracted.
And now we were both paying for my fuck up.
It also meant this was no longer just about me and my escape.
It was hers.
I couldn’t just run. That would leave her at his mercy. Even if it was just for a few minutes, that was too long.
Everleigh had told me that Bayleigh had barely been able to function as it was, even after therapy and time to heal and start her life over.
Even five more minute with Kyle could have irreparable impacts on her.
“You two are going to be such good friends,” Kyle said, and a low whimper escaped Bayleigh, muffled by the duct tape on her mouth.
Protectiveness, raw and all-consuming had me slipping my hands back into my zip ties, knowing they were loose enough to slip back out of, and then allowed Kyle to drag me forward and shove me down on the bed.
Bayleigh was attached to the metal headboard, so Kyle attached me to the footboard.
“You sit tight for a minute,” he said, giving us each a smirk. “This bitch made me thirsty,” he said, turning and walking out of the room.
The door was left open.
He could come back at any second.
It was risky.
But as soon as I heard his footsteps retreating, I slipped one of my hands out of the zip tie, then reached up to pull the duct tape halfway off.
“Bayleigh,” I whispered, watching as her red-rimmed eyes widened. “You don’t know me. But I know your sister. And I know all about this asshole,” I told her. “I am going to do everything in my power to get us out of this. I won’t let him hurt you again,” I told her, watching as the tears pooled and slipped from her eyes. “I just… I need him to get close,” I said as I reached to show her the bottle.
I tended to slip a little dye in my bottles and stain the cork so I could tell the contents apart without having to write on it what was inside.
This was a deep, purplish-blue shade.
Blues and purples, as a rule, were poison.
The darker the shade, the more deadly.
A light blue or purple might be something like Peruvian Lily, which would cause stomach distress, but overall just be an annoyance.
But dark?
Dark could be anything from oleander or foxglove to wolf’s bane or larkspur.
Deadly if you ingested enough and didn’t get immediate medical attention.
If I had any say in it, he would writhe in agony until he died right there on the bedroom floor of the woman he’d victimized so horribly.
I just had to figure out how the hell to get it into him with only one good hand.
An idea formed, dangerous and terrifying.
