Page 93 of Taming Scarlet

I had to focus on him.

Julian, with years of active military service. A man who knew how to fight and to shoot and to track down people he needed to find.

And those were just people.

I was his girl.

He’d move heaven and Earth to find me.

I believed that down to my bones.

I just had to… stay calm. Stay sharp. Try to… distract Gene.

Because, let’s face it, men didn’t drug and kidnap women to have them over for a spot of tea and talk about their favorite TV shows.

Men drugged and kidnapped women to fulfill their sick fantasies.

I was not going to let that happen.

So I had to… I don’t know… act like I was shocked that he was binding me. Maybe even insulted. Act like I had no idea it was him who had been sending me gifts, that I would have been open to it had I known.

Stroke his ego.

Let him think that I could actually be interested.

Get him to untie me.

Then, well, just keep distracting him, or find an opportunity to hit him or simply run.

This was the city.

I wouldn’t have to go far to find someone with a phone to call the police with.

Resolve solidified, I carefully started to pull my knees to my chest, mindful of exposing more of myself. Then, carefully getting to my knees, feeling the gritty filth on the floor biting into my legs instead of my face.

But this way, I could look around the empty space.

It looked like… like a back room at some sort of restaurant.

There were long stainless steel counters, stacks of old milk crates, and a window that fed into the front of whatever this was. A restaurant or bar. Maybe even a coffee place. It was impossible to tell.

Wherever it was, it was abandoned, which was why it was so damn cold.

I rocked my legs, trying to keep my blood flowing, attempting to fight off the chill. I didn’t want to be trembling when he came in, to have him mistake my chill for fear.

There was fear.

Of course there was.

But as the moments stretched, it was anger that was overtaking me.

“My dove,” Gene’s voice said from the side of me, making me turn to find him coming in from the front of the building through a swinging door. “I didn’t think you’d sleep so long.”

Sleep.

Like I’d had a choice in the matter.

I fought back the venom I wanted to spit at him, and forced a smile to spread.

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