Page 5 of King of the Unsightly

I turned to face Jared, but the room spun around me. “What the f—” I didn’t even hear my head hit the bar top before it all went black.

An endless sea of darkness encompassed me. My body stiffened from the metal pressed against my wrists and ankles. Someone had gagged my mouth and bound my eyes in cloth.

I thrashed and thrashed again, attempting to rock the chair, but the more I tried, the more hopeless it felt.

A rush of cool air caressed my exposed arms, and my heart slammed against my chest like a frantic lion trapped in a cage with every intention of breaking out.

Sleep paralysis. Yeah, that explained everything. I passed out at the bar and now I couldn’t see or move.

A vivid nightmare. That’s it.

Light footfalls echoed around me, and it pushed me over the edge. No, nope. Jared wouldn’tdo this to me.

My hyperventilating escalated as the smell of rust and bleach assaulted my nose. It all felt way too real.Too familiar.

The echoes rang louder and quelled my thundering heartbeat.

Yeah,I was going to die. Crazy ex mutilated and dumped ex-lover in the forest because he couldn’t handle seeing her in public, hot and semi-happy-ish.

An icy hand touched my face. It took me out of my thoughts, and I flinched so hard I shook the whole chair. If I could see myself now, I bet I looked like one of those shaky chihuahuas that needed to keel over and die.

They removed their hand from my cheek, and chills edged down my neck. I couldn’t stop trembling as the sudden presence of others surrounded me.

“Where’s the old hag?” a gruff voice demanded, cutting through the stillness of the air.

The erratic beats of my heart started again, pounding harder against my chest.Thump, thump, thump, thump—like white noise—blocking out everything so I could slip into oblivion, or so I really fucking hoped. Anything was better than this.

If the man expected me to answer ... he had me gagged and blindfolded—I couldn’t speak or defend myself even if I wanted to.

The room fell silent again, but I knew people still hovered around me.

The cold draft surged stronger through the room. The autumn breeze nipped at my fingertips and sent goose bumps all over my bare skin.

They tore the cloth from my face; light blinded me until my vision refocused.

I gawked in horror at the man looming over me.His alabaster hair shone like the moon descending to earth, lighting the grungy warehouse in his wake. The men and women surrounding him paled in comparison. Overshadowed by hisotherworldly brilliance—it was disturbing. He resembled the God of Death ready to reap the carnage he had instigated.

Only one thought occupied my mind.

What does a man like this want from a broke, slightly delusional girl like me?

A gnawing pain cemented itself within my stomach the moment when our eyes met.

I knew instantly if I didn’t find a way to escape those amethyst-colored eyes fixated on me, I would probably die in the most gruesome way possible. And I really wanted to live and not end up as an episode ofDateline.

“Anyone care to explain this?” the man asked again without raising a single decibel, but it carried throughout the room regardless and resounded off the steel walls.

One of the bulky men with slicked-back brown hair and yellow, slitted eyes carried himself with an immovable stance like a gargoyle; his massive build and crinkled face looked just as menacing. The blonde woman beside him had a similar, formidable pose but she also remained stiff as a board.

My gaze went back to the man with alabaster hair as he crossed his arms; his black tuxedo shifted as he lifted his sculpted jaw. His face pinched into a grimace.

No one dared to respond to the man who made the earth tremble with two simple questions.

The eternal silence ate away at me until Jared’s grating voice scraped against my ears. “Ryas said she was the one who had it.” He paused, fidgeting before he worked up the courage to speak again. “You promised you would let her go when you got what you wanted.”

Of course Jared camouflaged himself in the corner.I swear if I died because of that cheating bastard I would rise from the depths of hell and haunt his pathetic ass until he croaked.

I gave Jared the nastiest glare I could conjure despite my circumstances, but he avoided me like a spineless prick.Typical.

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