Lucy

 

My head hurt. It throbbed and pulsed, the headache I was feeling worse than any hangover I’d had before in my life. I brought my hand up to the side of my head, pressing against it as though I might be able to ease some of the throbbing, but it was useless. It went on silently, pressure building in my ears and my sinuses.

 

I swallowed heavily, then forced myself to sit up. The throbbing got worse, but I did my best to push it aside and ignore it.

 

Taking a steadying breath, I looked around.

 

Where am I?

 

I didn’t recognize the place. It was dark and small, and with a quickening of my breath I realized there were bars surrounding me. I tried not to panic, but it was near to impossible. A quick search revealed the bars definitely had me completely caged in and the only door to them I spotted was closed.

 

How did I get here?

 

The thought was followed by memories of the cabin. It had been perfect, so beautiful my heart almost hurt. Everything I could have asked for and so much more. It was bigger than our place in the city, but not by much. There was a mud room, which added to the square footage, but it was mostly just this room in the back with tiling, a drain, and a haphazard shower. There wasn’t a garage, which I knew would irk Max, but he’d get used to it. Or maybe he’d get creative and build his own.

 

I knew my mother would love it. She was so reluctant to leave the city, but once she saw the place, I just knew she’d want to spend all her time there. The prospect of it elated me.

 

Of course, it wasn’t officially mine yet, but that was why I was there. The realtor had agreed for us to meet there to sign the remaining papers so we could get it taken care of and I could get a moment to look around. I hadn’t seen it in person before, having found it online.

 

I was so eager to find a place since Max had said yes that I didn’t want to risk him changing his mind, so I did it the fastest way I knew how.

 

The plan had been a means to an end at the time, but I couldn’t have imagined that I would fall in love with the place, too. But I had. It was so perfect. I waited a long time to meet the realtor, but they never showed. Finally, I had to call her on my cell. I tried her twice before I got ahold of her.

 

“Where are you?” I asked her, still smiling as I walked through the house for the thousandth time now. “Am I just really early?”

 

My question seemed to have confused her. “Ms. Gilles? I’m not quite sure what you mean. I wasn’t aware we had an appointment?”

 

I had frowned as I answered, “Of course we do. I called you yesterday to finish the paperwork…”

 

She apologized and told me she must not have gotten the message and promptly blamed her new and inept secretary. She explained that she couldn’t meet me then, but would make room sometime next week.

 

I agreed and we hung up, but I was disappointed that we couldn’t finish things right then. I was just about to head back out when I felt a hand clamp over my mouth. I didn’t even have the time to think about it, much less scream, before I grew dizzy. The room went black, and I remembered falling, but never hitting the ground.

 

And then I woke up here.

 

If I hadn’t been panicked before, I definitely was now. It took everything I had to keep from hyperventilating. Where was I? What happened? Whose hand had that been, and why did they do it?

 

Questions I didn’t have answers for. I got up from the cot I had been lying on and went hurriedly to the door. I tried it, but I knew before my hands wrapped around it that it was a lost cause. It didn’t budge; locked.

 

Doing my best to stay calm, I looked around, debating whether I should cry out for help. The thought disintegrated when I saw a figure in the corner on the other side of the bars. He was tall with a wicked, mad-looking smile. Scars crisscrossed his face, marring his features and making him look like Frankenstein’s monster.

 

He was terrifying, and it was all the worse because I knew who he was and what that meant.

 

I wasn’t getting out of there, not on my own. My only hope was Max, but there wasn’t a lot of hope in that because I realized the only way Max was going to get me out was to break me out—or to give this man whatever he wanted.

 

I tried not to think what Blade wanted.