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Chapter Ten
Kaja
He stepped out of theroom and pulled the door partially shut, leaving a gap so he could hear me.
It wasn’t total privacy, but it was better than nothing, and I was grateful to have my hands free, if only for a few minutes. I used the toilet and flushed and then stopped at the sink to wash my hands and splash some cold water on my face.
I felt completely drained from my rolling panic attacks in the cupboard. As soon as one had subsided, I remembered where I was, and another had started. I didn’t think I’d ever experienced anything as bad as that before, but considering I’d been strangled, kidnapped, and locked in a confined space, I guessed that was a normal reaction.
This man confused me. He was cold and violent, and yet even in the last few hours there had been moments where he’d seemed different. When he’d carried me in his arms and fed me from a fork, I’d got the impression he’d done this before—maybe not the kidnapping part, but the taking care of another human being part.
“Time’s up,” he said, throwing open the door again without even giving me a warning.
He was armed, and I couldn’t fight him. Being tied up again was inevitable. At least I’d had those few minutes of being able to do what I wanted without anyone watching me.
He wrenched my arms behind my back and bound my wrists once more.
“Photo time,” he said.
He maneuvered me in front of the white shower wall and held his phone up in front of me. I considered making a face or doing something that would make the photograph invalid, but there was no point. He’d get a photograph of me eventually. He snapped a couple of pictures, and I wondered if my bruises would show in them. I guessed he probably had someone who could hide them. It was nothing a little Photoshopping couldn’t fix.
“My name is Kaja,” I told him. “You never asked me.”
I thought that if I made him think of me as a human being and not just as Rasmus’s daughter, a thing to be used to whatever end he had in mind, he might start treating me with more kindness.
He glanced away. “That’s because I didn’t want to know.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me yours?”
He shrugged. “Why should I?”
“Why not, if we’re going to be spending so much time together.”
“Fine,” he said, taking another couple of pictures. “It’s Leo.”
“Leo what?”
