Page 1 of Redd

Prologue

Fingers grazed my neck, touching me so gently I would have missed them if I wasn't sitting in a state of panic, waiting for the tide to change.

The tension in my muscles, the swelling of fear as it grew in my chest, it took the shape of crashing waves; sweeping my body and tossing me against invisible rocks and sharp coral knives.

Where the hell am I?

“So, this is her?” a man asked, lifting a thin strand of hair off my neck and letting it drop free. A cold sweat had glazed my nape, forcing the hair to stick like paste against the surface.

His large palm slipped down over my head, fingertips nestling deep into my hair. My back stiffened, his touch forcing me to sink down lower on my knees as he pet me like a lost dog at his side.

Sucking in a thin gulp of air, his fingers tickled against my nape. “Such a pretty little thing.”

He was standing slightly behind me, his presence a dark shadow holding me stagnant. The sound of his voice was deep and harsh, filled with a million threats I had no doubt he would unleash if he deemed it necessary.

I knew nothing about him, and yet, trapped within his tone, was everything I needed to know.

He was the guy in charge, he was the one who harnessed the control of what was going to happen; when it would happen, why it would happen.

I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to acknowledge the truth of what was going on. But there was no way to ignore it, he was in control of everything, evenme.

Stilling on my knees, afraid and blindfolded, confused and bound; I nervously wondered how I ended up in this place with this man looming over me like a hawk taunting its prey.

He would touch me ever so slightly, just to let me know he was still there, his voice would be close then far away, just so he could watch the chills scale up and down my limbs as I shook wildly inside my own skin.

The guy was doing it on purpose, and I didn't have to see him to know it. It was a feeling, it was the sound of a smile on his face as the words left his lips, it was the playful tone in his voice as he spoke about me like I wasn't there listening. He was enjoying this game way too much, and I despised it.

“Yeah, she's the one you wanted,” another man said from somewhere in the room.

Ticking my head a hair, I tilted my ear in the direction of the new voice, trying to put a face to his sound. But I didn't recognize him. I didn't recognize either of the men who spoke, and that scared me to death.

The blindfold tightened around my temples as the man in charge tugged on the knot. “How much do you think she's worth?” The hard soles of his shoes tapped against the floor as he walked around me, clicking with an echo as if he was strolling through a gallery, observing all the fine art.

I was suspended before him, a living painting of a woman that he scrutinized and deciphered with every move.

His pace was slow, each step a knot in my heart, each thud a fracture in the muscle, making my body grow weaker and weaker with fear.

But I didn't slink down and cower, I refused to shatter in my own darkness without seeing the faces of the men who had me in their grasp.

“Do you think she's worth the debt he owes?” he asked, continuing to prowl around me.

The heaviness of his feet vibrated up through my calves, sending voice-fed blades through my gut. Every word slashed my chest as if he had cut my heart out and stomped it to death on the floor.

What debt? Whose debt?

What the hell is he talking about?

I was supposed to be in bed, I was supposed to be safe and protected inside the walls that I called home.

But I wasn't.

I was here, in an unknown place, with two men I couldn't see and didn't know. I remembered laying my head on the pillow, I remembered pulling the blankets up high and snuggling into the warmth.

My eyes had closed, and I was pretty sure I had drifted off to asleep, but I couldn't really say for certain. Then it happened. I heard the gentle patter of quiet feet across my carpet. My eyes popped open, hyper aware of the presence hovering over me.

I didn't move, I felt frozen like a small child trying to stay invisible and protected under their blanket wall.

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