FIVE
Time has no clear meaning. No definites.
With no windows, no phone, no contact with the outside world beyond my tormentor, all I can do is try to count the number of times he comes and goes.
Ten.
That door has opened and locked ten times since I arrived. I think, at least since I woke up.
Ten opportunities to escape. Ten failures.
Because this guy is good. I didn’t give him any credit that first day. I underestimated him.
He doesn’t make mistakes.
I’ve never seen his face and haven’t heard his voice since the first time he visited me here. The occasional wicked chuckle accompanies his sick, demented torture, usually when he breaks out some sort of implement designed to inflict maximum pain.
Blow torch.
Tire iron.
Vise grip.
The familiar tools I’ve used a hundred times have been turned on me.
With anyone else, I would have been out of here within twenty-four hours. Because most people are morons when it comes to keeping someone restrained and contained.
But not this fucker. He knows what he’s doing, and he has medical training, that much is evident.
An IV keeps me hydrated, and he must be injecting some sort of nutrients or something to keep me alive this long, because he sure as shit isn’t feeding me. He’s also giving me some sort of drug I can only describe as diabolical. Whatever it is, it makes my limbs feel like lead, but allows me to experience the full pain of every single cut, burn, twist, and strike he inflicts.
It’s the perfect drug, the ultimate in torture tech. I wish I’d had it when I was still working.
Instead, it renders me immobile while this asshole works me over.
And with every moment that passes, the rage inside me builds. Rage at my brother, rage at this man, rage at myself for letting this happen.
I should have known I couldn’t walk away from that life. Even if I hadn’t fled with Jade, there’s no way Tarek would have let me lead a regular life. He relied on me too much to keep everyone in line, to do his dirty work, to ensure his empire was protected from every conceivable threat. And I did it for him, time and time again, giving away a small piece of my soul with every limb I severed and life I took. I did it because I loved him, because he was my flesh and blood, because I had never known anything else, any other way of life.
It was a downward spiral into Hell. Until the day Jade was brought to him…to me. I never knew something so pure, so innocent, so beautiful existed in this world. It never had in my world, the world that was created the first time I took a life and then was nurtured and twisted further by my brother.
I tried to leave that world. That was my first mistake. The second was believing I could ever truly hide from him.
For the millionth time, I twist my wrists, digging the leather straps further into my irritated flesh. Blood trickles down and pools under my hands, spreading across the steel below me. Any skin under the restraints was ripped away days ago from me trying to free myself. But the ties won’t budge.
No one is this good. No one except me.
He will make a mistake. Eventually. Even I did.
I just have to remain alert. Because not getting out isn’t an option. I have to get to Jade.
If that fucker lays so much as a finger on her…
Blind fury overtakes every fiber of my being imagining all the things that have been happening since I let her get taken.
I failed her.
But it won’t happen again.
Footsteps descend the stairs, and a shadow blocks the thin line of light at the bottom of the door.
He’s back.
Click. Click. Click.
The door pushes open, and he steps inside.
Click. Click. Click.
Once the door is secured, he makes his way across the bright room, casually, as if he’s on a morning stroll instead of entering to rip me to shreds while my heart still beats.
I’ve been watching him. He’s big and carries himself well. There’s no doubt in my mind he doesn’t need the medical tricks to inflict damage on me. I think he enjoys it, though. It’s a game. A sick, twisted game, designed to prolong my agony.
Removing flesh.
Burning my body.
It would be hard to do without this set up. Much easier for the captive to escape.
This gives him time. As much as he wants to practice his craft.
He’s a real sadistic fucker, and that’s saying a lot, knowing what I’ve done to people.
The flash of a needle in the bright operating lights catches my attention. A mere moment after it’s pushed into the IV in my arm, a heaviness descends on my limbs. I try to pull against the restraints, but my body is lethargic and useless.
He leans over me, and despite the mask, the smile is evident in his eyes. “Oh, what I have planned today…”
His head tips back with his laugh, and he reaches for a bolt cutter.
Shit.
This is gonna hurt.