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My eyes did crack open then. If the man who took me had turned the cameras off, how did the stranger talk to me or see me? Dammit! I had been hallucinating.
“There we go. They’re on. Let’s see what happens.”
“I’m telling you, you lost service. My connection fucks up all the time. You’re freaking out over nothing.”
My captor didn’t speak right away. “Okay, we’re up again. Yearly viewers are returning. Gotta go. I’m waiting for the bidders.”
Sickness swarmed as anxiety surged. Movement had my head rolling to the side just as my captor turned to stand over me in his mask. My body shook uncontrollably as I met his eyes. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to. He was ready to continue, and me, I wasn’t being rescued.
Chapter 3
Jase
“Come on, you son of a bitch. Let her off the table and put her back in the room. Come on, come on.”
I kept looking between monitors. Now that I was in the zone, I must have been breaking a record with how fast I was dropping bombs on these viewers who kept trying to join the chat. It wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t necessarily easy either.
“Take her off. Call it a night. Give me some time here.”
A curse left me as the man paced between the metal table and the computer. The spiked hammer was clasped tightly in his grasp, and I hated that I’d even let it get this far. I should have started searching out his true information hours ago. I shouldn’t have given the situation the benefit of the doubt. There had been too much risk, and once again, I made the wrong call. Now an innocent woman could end up dead because of it.
Again, my stare went back to her. How had I fucked up so bad again? Had I learned nothing? Was I so far removed from reality that I’d let anyone get this hurt, consensual or not? True, I never thought it’d get this far. A beating or superficial cuts, but a fucking hammer? I was sick over what I’d seen. This was real. No one voluntarily brought that sort of misery on themselves. This red room was legit.
“This can’t be right.”
The voice had me jerking my attention back to the monitors as the man leaned closer to his computer. Even with facial recognition, an identity still hadn’t come back for either one of them. The woman said her name was Kody Marshall. Had I been able to focus on anything else, I would have pulled up everything I could on her. As it was, my hands and concentration were the only thing keeping her from getting tenderized like a slab of meat.
“What the fuck!” I glanced up just in time to see the computer chair go flying across the room. Kody screamed and suddenly everything went dark. All the monitors turned into black screens and our connection was lost.
“No, no, no.” Dread was heavy in my gut as I went back to his system. What had he done? Where had he gone? Did he simply turn off the connection or did he plan to abandon everything digitally linked to him? Sweat began to cover my skin as I repeatedly searched him out. Minutes passed. Longer. I pushed from my own chair, raking my fingers through my hair as I gripped on.
What if I had killed her? Sure, she might have died anyway, but she’d only have been broken tonight had I not sabotaged the chat. That would have given me an extra day to try to find her. What if he didn’t get back online? What if he started over somewhere new?
Fuck, I was so confused on what to feel. Should I have tried to save her earlier? Should I have left it alone until the goddamn recognitions came back? Who’s to say they even would? I had to figure out the location his connection was coming from. I hated that I didn’t have it yet. Especially now. If he killed her…If he disappeared…how was I going to find him? I wouldn’t think that way. I wouldn’t stop. This man was going to suffer far worse than she had.
My phone ringing had me lunging to my desk.
“God dammit.” I pushed the button putting it to my ear…but I was already trying to see if the connection had returned. “Rian.”
“Well, you don’t sound asleep.”
“It’s late. What do you want?”
He paused. “I don’t like how we left off earlier. I wanted to check on you. Today was a big day and—”
“I told you I’m good. Really, I am.”
“Are you…what’s that sound? You’re typing awfully fast. Are you writing a novel?”
My breath held. I should have known to wait. Rian missed nothing.
“I’m a little busy.”
“Busy doing what? You didn’t—You wouldn’t.”
The monitors came back to life, and I quickly hit mute. I took a deep breath, slowly pushing to my feet. The sickness returned, but not because Kody was still on the fucking table. She was free in the dungeon, taking the beating of her life.
“Jase?”
