Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Concrete floor I had already established. Walls were also concrete. The ceiling was wood. There were no windows. There were no lights. I saw nothing close to me. No furniture or other life-form.
Why wasn’t there saliva in my mouth? I had never wanted water this bad in my life. I had seen something about this. Dry mouth, headache, confusion. I should know what this was. I felt like it was right on the tip of my tongue, which was currently stuck to my teeth.
Footsteps echoed from somewhere in the darkness, and fear had me scrambling backward on my butt, using my legs to push me. If I trusted that I could stand without falling flat on my face, I’d get up and run. I wasn’t alone, but this felt bad. Something very wrong was going on.
A light appeared, glowing around a figure as it drew closer. I held my breath, waiting.
Please be Perry. Please, please, please.
I would even take Alec right now. Just someone who wasn’t going to kill me.
The sound of a key clanging against metal startled me.
When the lantern light was feet away, I could see a man. A tall man with slate-gray eyes, black hair, the face of a god.
I sucked in a breath, staring up at him. The man from Hobby Lobby. The one who had needed directions to the paint supplies. The voice I had heard in my ear before…
“What did you do to me?” I asked frantically. My own voice sounded unfamiliar. Hoarse and weak.
He tilted his head to the side, as if to study me, before pulling out a metal chair that I hadn’t been able to see in the shadows. When he sat down, he placed a brown paper bag he had been carrying in his other hand on the floor beside him. Still, he said nothing.
Serial killer. He’d put something over my mouth and nose that made me pass out. What was that called? I’d seen it before in movies. Chloroform or something like that.
He’d taken me from the parking lot to do what? Kill me in his basement?
Opening the bag with one hand, he kept his eyes on me. He reached in and pulled out a bottle of water. It wasn’t a big bottle. One of the small ones my second graders often had in their lunch boxes. He held it up for me to see, then tossed it my way.
Desperate for something to drink, I grabbed it and twisted off the top, then downed it with little thought to what might be in it. I didn’t care. It was cold. Tasted like clean water. I continued until every drop was gone.
When I looked back at him, he made a tsking sound and shook his head, as if I had made a mistake.
Oh God. Had he drugged it? Was I going to black out again? Would he rape me? Cut me up? Hang me on a cross and torture me? Shove things in my mouth and down my throat until I choked to death?
I wished I hadn’t watched all those crime shows now. I understood the saying ignorance is bliss at this moment.
He reached into the bag again, pulled out something wrapped in foil, and began to open it. The familiar paper holder that Sam’s Club served their hot dogs in appeared, along with the yummy goodness I had told him about when we spoke in Hobby Lobby.
I watched as he held it up and took a bite. The fact that I thought his jaw and neck flexing was sexy wasn’t lost on me. He might be a psycho, but he was a gorgeous one. With really hot neck muscles. My mouth watered, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I wanted that hot dog or the man eating it.
When he swallowed, he shrugged. “Not bad.”
Not bad? It was freaking delicious. And I hadn’t eaten in…well, I wasn’t sure what time it was. Where was my phone? I reached around for my purse, and of course, it wasn’t there.
“What did you do with my purse?” I asked him, sounding more like myself now that my mouth wasn’t one big cotton ball.
“Upstairs. You keep a lot of shit in it for such a small space. Why do you have so many two-dollar bills in your wallet? And what is with the seven different lip balms?”
He had gone through my purse. Why was that so shocking? He’d also abducted me. He could have seen me naked for all I knew. My arms wrapped protectively around my body as if I were naked right now. I didn’t like the vulnerability this situation had me in. Even if my captor was the most stunning man alive. He was mentally unstable.
“Kids like two-dollar bills. I’m trying to get sixteen for my class this year as a surprise for the day we start working on counting currency,” I explained. “And I like lip balm…and I never know what mood I will be in from day to day. One day, I might want the lavender vanilla, and the next, perhaps I will be in a Creamsicle kinda mood.”