The sound of metal on metal rattles through my aching skull. My brain is coming back online, but it’s doing it slowly, so it takes me a second to register my arms stretched above my head and enclosed in what I’m going to assume are handcuffs based on the sound. The last thing I remember clearly is hiding in the closet, after that it’s all blank.
My shoulders ache, and my arms have gone numb. I can’t really feel my hands except for that cold metal bite around my wrists digging into my skin. I already know there’s no point to it, but I shake my hands, trying to see if I can get loose.
My muscles are weak and shaky, and my eyes fly open. I lift my chin to look down at my stomach—the baby.
The fucking baby.
After all this time, I can’t believe this motherfucker got his hands on me. He’s a lot more patient than we gave him credit for, I’ll give him that. Looking back, I realize he’s been in control the entire time. We’ve been playing checkers while he plays chess, lying in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike.
I’m so fucking fucked.
I’m covered in blood, and it’s a rusty brown color now, which lets me know I’ve been out for a little while. Long enough for the blood coating my skin and lingerie to dry. I let out a breath of relief, noticing that my lingerie is still on. At least there’s that.
Lifting my head again, I look around the room, but my eyes swirl in their sockets, and dizziness threatens to pull me under again. Dropping my head back down to the pillow, I guess I should be thankful that I’m not waking up on some cold concrete floor, naked and alone.
Well, I’ll take the alone part if it means I don’t have to face down the guy who’s been terrorizing me for months. He can go ahead and stay away. I don’t have shoes on, and I don’t remember leaving my apartment, but I wiggle around anyway to see if I can feel anything I can use to get out of this or call for help.
After all this time, I have to admit that I’m a little bit excited to see who this person is who’s caused so much damn trouble for me. Maybe excited isn’t the right word—but relieved, I guess, to have the mask come off. It won’t be a faceless person in a dark corner anymore that my imagination can turn into all sorts of nightmares. Nope, finally, I’ll be able to bring that figure into the light. So, the question is, who could possibly have so little in their own lives that they get joy from fucking with mine?
Footsteps sound outside the door, and I snap my eyes closed, evening out my breathing even as my heart races. I go as still as I possibly can as the door swings open, creaking before it hits the wall. Whoever is stepping inside this room right now gives no fucks about keeping me knocked out.
‘Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.’ A chill skates down my spine and makes the hairs on my body lift in warning. That voice. It’s familiar, and I really, really hope that when I open my eyes, I’m wrong about what I think I’m going to see.
Unfortunately, when I flutter my eyes open, continuing the ruse that I’ve been asleep this whole time, my worst fears are confirmed when cool blue eyes and dimples fill my vision. ‘Simon.’
He smiles at me, flashing those dimples and a toothy white grin that’s so big it comes across as psychotic. Then again, he really is a psychopath, so maybe it’s just that knowledge that makes me see his smile as maniacal.
‘In the flesh, baby. Did you have a good nap?’
A cold chill sweeps across my skin, and it’s not from a draft or an open window. Oh no, it’s because of the way Simon is looking at me like we’re just another couple relaxing on a Sunday afternoon, even though at best we’re bar friends and nothing more. I’m at a loss. I don’t know what I should do here.
Do I go along with this fuckery and hope that I can keep whatever demon’s running around inside of him at bay until Ronin or one of the other guys shows up? Or do I fight back and try to make him see reason by throwing the truth in his face?
It’s a tough choice, and knowing that I don’t have my phone on me and also knowing that up until now the guys haven’t had a whole lot of luck in flushing Simon out, I can’t count on the fact that they’re going to come for me anytime soon.
That thought has my lungs constricting in my chest so that I feel like I can’t breathe, the panic threatening to overwhelm me. But it’s not just me anymore, and I have to get out of here alive. I’ll do anything, say anything to survive this.
Deciding that my best plan of action is to try and play along and see what kind of information I can get out of him, I force my lips into a smile. If Simon is any good at reading body language, I’m sure he can tell that the look on my face is more grimace than grin, but it’s the best I’ve got right now under the circumstances.
‘It would’ve been better if I wasn’t handcuffed to the headboard,’ I tease lightly, careful to keep the fear and attitude out of my voice.
‘You know that you sleepwalk,’ he supplies as if it’s the truth. Simon says it like it’s common knowledge, like he knows me well and we’re so familiar with each other that I’m being silly with my request. ‘It’s only a necessary precaution to keep you safe. Caroline suggested it, and I’ve got to say that I agree.’
He comes to sit on the edge of the bed, and the mattress dips underneath his weight, shifting my body closer. My feet aren’t tied down, and for a second, I wonder if I were to kick out if I could do enough damage to him to get myself out of here. The problem is I’m still handcuffed to this goddamn headboard, and without the key or the use of my hands to try to find the key on an unconscious Simon, pissing him off by attacking him isn’t going to get me very far.
And hold the fuck up. Did he say, Caroline? That’s gotta be a coincidence, right? He’s not actually in some villain league with the snotty bitch from the Shadow Phoenix release party all those months ago, is he? A vague flash of hazy memory surfaces of her holding a cloth to my face, then it vanishes back into the headache.
‘Remind me who Caroline is again? And why are you letting her have a say in what goes on in our bedroom?’ The words taste like acid on my tongue, burning and so very wrong, but at this point, I’ll say whatever I have to, so he keeps talking.
He leans forward, his fingers skimming the edge of my forehead and along my temple. I wince at the contact and tense every muscle in my body to keep from jerking away. Simon is leaning so close that I can see the green flecks in his blue eyes.
‘You must’ve hit your head harder than I thought. You know Caroline is my sister, baby. It was her idea to set us up. Don’t you remember?’
I shake my head because, at this point, I’m at a loss for words.
‘After that party a few months ago, when you came into my bar crying because you were looking for your perfect match and couldn’t find him, do you remember?’ He watches me carefully but doesn’t wait for me to react before continuing to explain his deranged version of events. ‘I always thought that you were stunning, the kind of gorgeous that was out of reach for someone like me. My sister pointed out that sometimes the perfect person is the one right in front of our faces that we just don’t see and that instead of letting you go, I should make you mine. From then on, it became my mission to make you see me.’
Holy fuck. I’m about to be made into a skin suit, aren’t I?
‘I bet you’re thinking that we had run-ins before that night, right? I was your favorite bartender, after all, the one you ran to and told all of your problems. I wanted you for a long time, and I even tried to give you hints, but you never looked at me the way I looked at you. You slipped through my fingers no matter how obvious I was,’ he chuckles like someone has just told him a joke or something. He isn’t acting at all like we’re casually discussing my kidnapping and subsequent torment.
‘With all of my ex-girlfriends, if they tried to leave me or fight, I had to let them go. Disobedience wouldn’t do.’ The way he’s talking and replacing words like murder, kidnap, and victim with less threatening versions like girlfriends and let them go has me so horrified that I can’t even process the things he’s saying. Not fully. Are his so-called ex-girlfriends his murder victims? And if so, what the hell did they do to get murdered, and how can I avoid that shit until Ronin gets here?
‘I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here with you,’ I murmur, doing my best to soften both my voice and my expression. ‘Now that I’m awake and in no danger of walking off, do you think you could take off these handcuffs?’ I have to pretend that I’m talking to Ronin so my disgust doesn’t come across. The last thing Simon deserves is me speaking to him with anything other than hatred and venom.
For a second, I think he might actually give in until his eyes light up with this wild sort of excitement that makes my blood run cold. His hand falls onto my ankle and starts to slide up my leg. ‘What if we leave the handcuffs on for a little while longer and now that I finally have you in my bed, we take the next step in our relationship? I’ve been dying to taste this pussy for so long it’s damn near criminal, and once I’m done fucking every other man out of your memory, then the handcuffs can come off.’ He delivers that last line with a voice so cold it gives me chills. The carefree demeanor from before is completely gone now, and I have a feeling I’m seeing a little bit more of the monster peeking out—the beast that he really is.
Oh, he wears the mask well, but I’ve got a feeling that once the mask slips all the way off, not many people live to tell the tale.
Simon starts to climb onto the bed, and I can’t keep my cool composure anymore. I start to thrash and kick at him. ‘No, Simon! I don’t want this, please don’t do this,’ I beg, dropping all pretense of being okay with this fucked up situation. ‘If you want to be together, don’t force it. Just unlock the handcuffs, and I swear I’ll stay here with you.’
My whole body is trembling, and the fire of adrenaline licks through my veins. The voice in my head is screaming at me to get out, to run, to escape the predator staring back at me through Simon’s blue eyes.
‘Stop fucking fighting me,’ he snaps, gripping both of my ankles and holding them down while he crawls over my body. He sits down on my hips, pressing his weight on top of me and pushing me down into the mattress. At this angle, there’s really nothing I can do to hurt him. He has me totally immobilized, and my heart pounds so frantically in my chest that if he doesn’t kill me, a heart attack just might. He leans forward so our noses are almost touching, and I’m staring straight up into the eyes of a bonafide demon.
‘If you didn’t plan on going anywhere, you wouldn’t be struggling. I’m going to break you in, make you see that I’m all you need. There have been others before you, but none of them fascinated me the way you do.’ He runs his fingers down the side of my face and across my jaw. I grit my teeth together and twist my head out of the way so that I’m not looking up into his scarily emotionless face anymore.
His grip tightens, his thumb on one side of my jaw and his fingers on the other as he forces my face back to his so I can’t look away. Once he has my attention, his hand slips down to my neck, his fingers on either side as he squeezes so tightly my air is cut off. I can’t claw at him or pull him away, and as tears leak out of my eyes, I wonder if this is it.
Is this the moment it all ends? This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. As darkness seeps in from the corners of my vision and my lungs scream for air, I’m struck by how unfair this is. I have a new life inside of me that never even had a chance if it all ends here and now. The only weapon I have at this moment is Simon’s attention on me and the knowledge that, for whatever reason, he’s intrigued. He’s gone to all this trouble to capture me, to chase me for months. I have to believe he wants to play with his new toy for at least a little while before he gets rid of me.
Then again, maybe I’m underestimating the amount of crazy that lives inside Simon. He is a serial killer, after all.
He loosens his grip just enough that I manage to suck in a gasping breath. ‘Why do you suppose that is?’ He asks, looking thoughtful.
‘I don’t know,’ I choke out, my voice raspy.
‘I’m going to find out. I’m going to take you apart piece by piece until I know exactly what makes you tick. By the time we’re finished, I’ll know every little detail of how you entranced me. The parts of you that make you irresistible.’ Simon looks at me like he can’t wait to dismantle me. At any other time, if it was Ronin looking at me like he wanted to tear me apart, I would happily fall to my knees before him, strip off my clothes, and submit to any and every depraved thing he had in mind.
The problem is this is Simon, and the way he looks at me makes me think he literally wants to take me apart piece by piece, with the set of knives he ordered from an infomercial, in the serial killer room of horrors I’m sure he has outfitted around here somewhere.
‘Well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? By the time we finish in this room, you won’t want to leave me ever again. There will be no more thoughts of bodyguards or internet boyfriends. You want to have a baby? It will be mine as long as you behave long enough to give birth.’ He doesn’t even try to mask the threat in his words with the pleasant tone of voice he was using before. Right now, it seems he has no issue letting all the crazy hang out, and my stomach clenches as a wave of nausea crashes through me. I grind my teeth together to keep from throwing up.
My head is swimming, my stomach churning, and my body is trembling so hard at this point that it’s basically just having convulsions. My breath is coming out so quickly that I’m panting. If I don’t do something, he’s going to rape me. I know it as surely as I know Ronin is hunting for me right now.
Simon leans back and slides down my legs, so he’s sitting near my ankles. He still has my legs trapped underneath him, so there’s nothing that I can do to fight back, but that doesn’t stop me from bucking my hips and trying to shift him off so I can kick at him. All he does is smirk at me before pulling his T-shirt off and over his head and tossing it onto the floor.
His eyes are heated as he looks down at me, and it’s all I can do not to gag. Fuck, I think he likes when I put up a fight.
My fears are confirmed when he opens his mouth, and another unhinged raving falls out. ‘You know, one of the things that first caught my eye about you was your fighting spirit,’ he muses, sliding a knife out of the pocket of his jeans. My eyes lock on it, and I can’t look away as he sets it on the mattress beside him. It doesn’t look like he’s going to use it right this second, and I’m not sure if he’s displaying it as a threat or because he plans to use it while he’s stealing possession of my body.
Shit, he really is a demon.
‘Yeah, I hear that a lot,’ I snap, over trying to play nice. It’s clear to me that that’s not going to work here. To be honest, I don’t know if anything is going to work. If that’s the case, I might as well fight like hell.
A shadow creeps over Simon’s eyes as he leans forward and backhands me so hard that I see stars. The taste of copper floods my mouth from where I bit my tongue, and I have to blink rapidly to clear my vision. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to get rid of the ringing in my ears.
I think it safe to say I pissed him off.
‘I won’t hear about other men while you’re in my bed,’ he snarls, standing up and ripping open the button on his jeans. I take the opportunity to thrash around and kick out at him again, but then I feel the cold, sharp steel of his blade pressing against my thigh, and I go still.
‘Keep it up, and I’m going to have to find myself a new plaything before the end of the night,’ he threatens.
Desperate, I blurt out, ‘Please don’t do this, Simon. I’m pregnant.’
His eyes narrow, and the point of the blade he has pressed against my thigh digs in deeper, causing hot blood to trickle down my skin. ‘What did you just say?’ he asks, his voice so low and dripping with venom that I’m immediately sure that I made a grave mistake with my confession.
I also know that he heard me, and it will do no good for me to repeat myself.
He sits back onto the bed, crawling up my body again and taking up the same spot where his hips pressed mine down into the mattress. The bloody knife is still clutched in his hand, and his knuckles are white where he grips the handle. He doesn’t say anything else for a few minutes, staring down at my flat abdomen like it’s personally offended him.
My panic is overwhelming, and I wonder if I’m going to pass out from a lack of oxygen as I imagine a hundred ways he’s about to hurt the baby or me. The knife glints as he shifts, and it catches the light, and I wrack my brain for every prayer I’ve ever heard in my life, hoping and wishing on everything I am that he doesn’t use it to stab me.
Finally he lifts his head, all traces of anger gone from his face. He almost looks happy, and I swallow hard knowing that in this situation, that’s definitely not going to mean anything good for me.
‘It’s fine. This is fine. I know exactly what to do.’ He murmurs. His eyes are unfocused, and I squirm underneath him. The hard metal encircling my wrists cuts into my skin, but I barely feel it. The adrenaline makes my limbs numb and tingly. I’m terrified for my baby, even more so than for myself. I’m fresh out of ideas for how to get out of this, and all I can hope at this point is to hold on long enough for someone to find me.
That hope comes to a screeching fucking halt as Simon pulls back his fist and slams it right into my stomach. The knife he had clutched in his hand clatters to the floor, and I gasp for air, thankful that he isn’t stabbing me. I only have a second for that thought to flit through my mind before his other fist is buried in my stomach, and every hint of breath is forced from my lungs.
My instinct is to roll onto my side into a ball to protect the baby in my womb, but with Simon pinning me down and my hands restrained, there’s nowhere for me to go and nothing for me to do except lie here and take it. I scream so loudly that my throat feels like it’s shredding, but I don’t stop. Maybe someone will hear us and burst in or call the police.
‘Shut the fuck up!’ Simon yells, sparing my abdomen while his fists pummel my face instead. I can feel dizziness and blackness trying to pull me under, but I know if I lose consciousness, that will be it. There will be no getting out of this alive.
Stopping my scream long enough to heave in another lungful of air, I call out one last help me before he lands a blow on my temple. As I lose my fight and succumb to unconsciousness, I swear I hear the door crash in, even through Simon’s neurotic ranting and his fists returning to my stomach.
It may be the hallucination of an almost dead girl, but the spark of hope that ignites inside of me that someone has come for me—that Ronin has come for me—lets me drift off to the nothingness with a sense of peace and calm that even if I die here right now, Ronin will finally have the justice he so deserves. I’ll wait for him in the afterlife so we can start our eternity together, beautiful and everlasting as it should be.
