Page 87 of Cruel Riches

I swallowed hard. “Thank you,” I muttered, cheeks flushing hot with humiliation.

With a satisfied gleam in his eyes, he turned back to the table to start packing things away. I eyed the black knife roll as he cleaned my blood off his chosen blade and slipped it back into its pocket. If only I could grab one of those knives…

A sudden sound in the tunnel outside made Nate whip his head around to face the door. Probably a rat skittering through the darkness.

I tried to take the opportunity to edge sideways and grab one of the knives from his torture kit, but he looked back around again too fast.

Shit.

Nate rolled up the black fabric and held it in one arm along with the bag. “Come on. Let’s go.”

His free hand went to my left arm, and I hobbled out the door beside him, wincing at the throbbing pain in my leg and chest.

As he pulled me through the dark warren of passages, the pain started to fade. My mind had returned to the knife roll, blotting out everything else.

I had to figure out a way to get one of the knives, because they were my best option for escape. But how? Nate saw me as a deranged killer who could snap at any second, so he always had his guard up around me.

A dark seed planted itself in my brain a moment later. There was one weakness Nate had that I could exploit. It was a weakness most men had.

Sex.

I could try to seduce him as a distraction technique. All I needed was a few seconds in the dim cell to grab one of those weapons from the kit, and I could easily get those few seconds if Nate was panting for breath as he busied himself with his pants after an orgasm.

In normal circumstances, I’d rather eat rusty nails than have sex with a despicable asshole like him, but right now I had to push aside my hatred for the sake of the greater good. It was the same thing that occurred to me earlier—once I was free, it wouldn’t matter what I did to make it happen. Not even if I fucked Nate fifty times.

I furrowed my brows, trying to figure out a way to carry out my new plan. It wouldn’t be easy, because I wasn’t exactly at my peak physical form right now. My body was covered in grime and my hair was so oily that I could probably use it to fry several pounds of bacon. Nothing about that screamed ‘sexy woman’. Especially to a guy like Nate, who could snag literally any woman on the planet.

There was also the fact that he would get suspicious if I made it too obvious. I had to make it seem as if it was happening organically. Like it was a totally inevitable occurrence.

When we were back at my cell, Nate shoved me hard in the lower back, sending me down to the mattress. “Maybe I should use the tube next time,” he mused, rubbing his jaw as he stared down at me. “You won’t even be able to scream then.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What’s the tube?”

“It’s an idea I had a while ago. Know what a gastroscope is?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“It’s a tube doctors put down the esophagus so they can view the stomach. Usually it would only cause a sore throat afterwards. But not if you pour acid down the tube or fit it with some sort of cauterizer that burns every inch on the way down.”

My stomach lurched with horror. Then an idea flashed in my mind. Strangely enough, this was actually a chance.

Take it,my mind screamed.

“Well, even if you do that, I guess I should consider myself lucky in one way,” I mumbled in a resigned tone, looking at the floor.

Nate frowned. “What?”

I raised my chin and met his eyes. “You’ve tortured me in so many ways already, but you haven’t forced me to have sex with you, and you haven’t alluded to it, either. So I’m lucky in that way.” I looked back down at the floor. “Unless I’m wrong, and you plan to do it at some point.”

“I don’t.”

I looked at him again. “Why?”

“Are you seriously asking that?” Nate’s eyes narrowed. “You should be fucking grateful, you stupid bitch.”

“I’m just saying, you want to hurt me, and that’s a way to hurt me really badly,” I murmured. “So I’m surprised. That’s all.”

Nate’s nostrils flared. “I have plenty of ideas for hurting you, and none of them include that,” he said, voice dripping with hatred. “I don’t want to put my cock anywhere near your disgusting body. You’re fucking trash.”

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