Page 33 of Mysterious

My mouth drops open, but at first, no sound comes out. Too bad because I want to tell him to fuck off in the worst way. I’ve got a splitting headache that’s suddenly making the back of my head pound like a kick drum, and I feel sick to my stomach, as if I haven’t had enough food in me for far too long.

“Use your words, Mia. You know I can’t give you what you want if you don’t use your words.”

God, he sounds like some asshole step-parent who thinks that’s the way you talk to a child. But I’m not a child, and he’s definitely not any parent of mine, step or otherwise.

I try to wet my lips, but my tongue is like a giant cotton ball. It takes me a few seconds to get enough saliva, and finally, I can say something to this jackass. “Fuck off. Where the hell am I?”

He grins like any of this is funny, and I slowly turn my head left and right to look around. Is this where he works now? It looks like a factory with cement walls and floors.

Then I look down at my body and see my hands and legs tied to a chair that reminds me of the ones we used to have in our dining room when I was a little girl. I try to move my right hand, but it’s securely tied to the arm of this old wooden chair.

“Don’t try to move. You’re tied there, so if you try too hard, you might fall over and hit your head. We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself,” he says as he stares at me like he’s enjoying this.

“Where am I?” I snap, getting angrier by the minute.

“Somewhere safe. Now which do you want, orange or apple juice?”

“Fuck off and I don’t want anything from you! Where are the two guards who were with me? What did you do to them?”

Michael shrugs. “Their services weren’t needed any more, so I relieved them of their duties. If they didn’t bleed out, they’re probably reporting back to your new head of security that they lost their client. I imagine he’s going to be more than a little pissed since you and he are an item now.”

The thought of Brett and Kip hurt makes my chest hurt. “What did you do to them, Michael?” I sob.

“I needed them out of the way, so I shot them. For what it’s worth, I didn’t aim for their heads or any major organs. I just needed them indisposed. Assuming someone found them and took them to the hospital, they’ll be fine after some orthoscopic surgery. The knee is a tricky thing, Mia. You know that. Remember when you hyperextended yours a few years ago when you were rehearsing a new routine? We almost had to reschedule that tour because of that little mishap.”

I hate the way he talks like he had anything to do with my business. He was the man in charge of keeping me safe for far too long, and he didn’t even do that job well, but he sure as hell didn’t have a say in whether that tour would be rescheduled or not.

“Wedidn’t almost have to do anything.Ihad to make that decision. You never had any part in that.” I practically spit out the words as I continue to attempt to get these ropes around my wrist loose.

“Don’t bet on it, princess,” he says, sneering like he knows so much more than I do about everything. “I’ve been in on everything that happened with you for years.”

“What are you talking about? You’re suffering from delusions of grandeur, Michael. You were the guy who oversaw my security, poorly, I now know, and you were the person I turned to because I thought you were my friend. Come to find out you were a piss-poor version of that too.”

He jumps up out of his chair and lunges at me, sticking his face directly in front of mine as he presses his palms down on my shoulders. The weight makes my body instantly hurt all over and all I want to do is cry. I won’t let him see me give in like that, though.

“I did everything exactly as you wanted me to. Everything, you bitch! You didn’t want to feel like you were trapped in your own house, so I made sure you didn’t feel that way. You didn’t want to have to feel like your security took away from your precious, little life, so it never did. You were the reason you weren’t safe, not anyone else!”

Turning away so I don’t have to look at his ugly features anymore, I say, “I didn’t know any better. You did. You’re a grown man who is supposed to know how to protect a client.”

Finally, he leans away from me, removing his hands from my shoulders, so I turn back to face him and add, “If more had to be done, then it should have been.”

He smiles as he backs up toward his chair, but it’s not a smile of sweetness or happiness. “Oh, you have the answers for everything.”

I say nothing, unsure if his anger will escalate if I do. My mind races with questions about how long I’ve been here, if anyone knows I’m missing, and if anyone is looking for me.

Most of all, will Liam find me in time to save me from this madman?

“As for my being your friend, you knew I wanted more. You wanted it too, you little cock tease. I never knew how much until you showed up at my door that day and saw me with Tracey. Didn’t like seeing me like that, did you? Poor little Mia missed her chance. You should have taken me up on my offers all those times.”

His cruelty comes through loud and clear in every word, but I can’t stop myself from setting him straight. “I never wanted you. That’s not how I ever saw you. I thought you were my friend. So much for that, I guess.”

Rage flashes in his eyes, and he barks, “I didn’t want to be your fucking friend! I never wanted to be put into that box, and you knew that, you fucking tease!”

“What exactly do you think you’re doing with this whole thing here? Are you planning on asking for a ransom for me? You’ll never get away with this, Michael.”

Instead of enraging him further, that makes him smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not alone in this, so I’ll get away with anything I do. You can choose to behave yourself, or you can choose to get hurt. It’s entirely up to you.”

Never once in all the times I turned to this man for all those years did I think he could ever hurt me. Now I truly don’t know for sure.

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