It didn’t even matter how nicely trimmed his short dark hair was, how expensive the gold necklace around his neck looked, nor that his thick fingers had clean, trimmed nails.

This man was a savage, and there was no way I was going to test him.

“Sorry. I’ll be quiet,” I whispered.

The words almost choked me but they shouldn’t have.

It wasn’t like I was a stranger to apologizing for things I hadn’t done.

Just like I wasn’t a stranger to hoping my words would appease men who were eager to hurt me.

He glared at me. “If you’re looking for a way out, you’re not gonna find it. So stay quiet, and don’t make me come up here again,” he said.

“I won’t,” I responded.

He looked at me, practically daring me to contradict him, but I didn’t.

Instead I waited, my heart rate increasing as the seconds ticked by.

And then, finally, he closed the door.

I let out a shuddering breath, the jiggle of my breasts less noticeable under the loose but somehow still too tight T-shirt than it had been in the paper gown.

Just something else to add to my discomfort.

No bra.

Underwear.

No socks.

Weirdly, that might have been the most troublesome thing.

I never,everwent without socks, and I missed them.

I drifted over to the dresser and opened the drawers, not surprised to see everything neatly arranged.

I found socks, nice black ones in the top drawer, and considered for a moment.

Which would be worse—no socks, or someone else’s?

My nose crinkled at the thought of wearing someone else’s socks. That reaction made the decision for me.

I laughed at myself, then turned in a semicircle.

And just like that, realized I had reached my breaking point.

I saw people die today.

I had been kidnapped.

Thrown into a trunk like cattle.

And it was this, the thought of wearing some stranger socks that might be the thing that sent me over the edge.

Laughter started to bubble up in my throat, but I ruthlessly pushed it down.

There wasn’t a single thing funny about this, but I could barely contain the urge laugh. At least until it hit me that this might be the last time I would get to laugh.