Page 112 of Exile and Embrace

My heart races even as I try to stuff down the fear.

There isn’t time to be afraid. Adrenaline courses through my body, but it’s going to wear off soon.

“I’m not your fucking property.” Pain circles through my head, making stars dance across my vision. “I never have been, and I never will be. I’d die before I’d be with you again.”

I have to do all that I can to get free or die trying.

Though, I know it’s useless.

I have no way of knowing how many men are guarding the apartment. I don’t know if someone is waiting for me on the other side of the door—if I could get past Declan in the first place.

Finn is my only hope, and I don’t know if I can rely on him anymore.

I’m dead.

Declan laughs and lets go of me, rising to his full height. He kicks my thigh hard before turning and striding out of the room.

Tears roll down my cheeks, the cut from yet another slap to my cheek stinging.

I can’t count how many times Declan has hit me in the last couple of hours alone. My cheek is swollen and cut, and my lip is cracked, though it stopped bleeding a while ago.

I don’t know how long I’ll be alone for, and I don’t have time to cry.

I look around the dust-covered room, searching for something to help me cut the ropes.

There isn’t enough slack in the binds to work my way loose, and there isn’t anything close enough that I can use.

“Fuck.”

I groan and tilt my head back, closing my eyes and trying to chase away the helpless feeling.

Declan and his father might kill me, but I’m not going to make it easy on them. They’re going to have to work to get rid of me.

Finn would want me to go down fighting.

I open my eyes again and look at the base of the window. There isn’t any broken glass. Even a small piece of it within my reach would have been enough to saw through the rope.

When I squint, I can’t even see so much as a nail hidden beneath the layer of dirt on the cracked tile.

Disappointment eats at me as I search for anything else.

On the other side of the room, there is a nail sticking out of the wall, but I have no way of getting there.

Declan must have thought of everything before he brought me here. And there is only a short matter of time before he comes back into the room.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when he does.

None of my bones is broken yet, and I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Heavy footsteps thud down the hallway.

A shadow darkens the doorway as Finn’s father stops and glares at me. He hasn’t said anything to me since he arrived this morning.

It’s shocking to see how much he looks like Finn. They have the same dark hair and green eyes, but while Finn keeps a closely groomed beard, his father is clean shaven.

Seamus Byrne is the kind of man that most people would cross the street to avoid.

Tattoos of Celtic runes cover his arms and most of his neck.

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