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Relax!?
“Ask again why I’m afraid of you.” She couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“This is just so you don’t hurt me or wreck us. That’s it. Judging from the state you were in just a week after you were fired, if I left you, you’d die in a ditch or be raped in an alley.”
“How do I know that fate doesn’t await me with you?”
“Guess you’ll have to start being nicer to me.”
He took the second length of rope and pulled her wrists down and tied them to her ankles. The rope was long enough that she could sit up properly in the car, but not long enough for her to hold her arms up to get the attention of other motorists.
Five minutes later he started the engine. It was fully dark now.
“Just let me go.” She tried her best to stay calm, but the act was failing miserably.
“No.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Don’t be silly. Why would I kill you?”
She snorted. “Why would youkidnapme?”
“Because you clearly can’t take care of yourself. Now I’ve got a place for you where you’ll be fed and safe instead of out on the streets like a crack addict.”
“Are you going to keep me tied up?”
“No. I told you, I have work for you. You’ll be doing work.”
“Like hell, you cretin. I’m not your slave.”
He glanced in the rear view and pulled onto the interstate. “Let me ask you something. Do you have any friends you can stay with?” He had to know the answer to that, given how he’d found her—assuming he hadn’t followed her the whole week. He was just tormenting her.
“No. I have, orhad, coworkers.”
“Why don’t you have friends? Could it be your charming personality?”
Veronica stared out the window into the night as it blurred by. So much for her lady or the tiger choice. She tried not to cry when she answered. “I worked long hours, so I didn’t have time for much of a social life. What time I did have was spent with coworkers, and I never let them get too close.”
“Why not?”
“I got into financial trouble and lost my penthouse. Status is a big deal in my circle. I couldn’t let them know I was living in such a bad apartment. They aren’t the kind of friends that would let you crash at their place, anyway.” The walls around her personal bubble had dissolved in light of being kidnapped. Now, talking—making him see her as human—felt like her only shot at survival. He hadn’t taken her to help her. He’d taken her because he wanted her. He’d come in like some barbarian and scooped her up as if she were the spoils of war.
“Are you still living in the apartment?”
She shot him a look. “No, I’ve been abducted.”
A small grin inched up his face. At least it didn’t look like a serial killer grin. She hoped.
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I was evicted about a month ago. The day I got fired I had three days left there.”
“So where were you living when I saw you tonight?”
“A hotel. Not a really nice one, but not seedy enough that I felt unsafe sleeping.”
“I see.”
