Page 1 of Seizing Rain (Seas of Seduction 1)

It was outside my door when it happened, a bold move, a brave one, perhaps even a stupid one. Were they to wake up Niall who slept soundly within our home, the outcome would have been different.

The one night he isn’t up would be the one night they’d come. He often waited up for me, anxious to have me home after a long day of searching for loved ones lost. It made him paranoid and rightfully so, but it also exhausted him so I can’t blame him for wanting sleep.

Even though my life is over.

I’m now a statistic.

How ironic.

The girlfriend of one of the country’s best detectives is now a missing person. I knew it the moment that cloth covered my mouth and the putrid, burning smell of ammonia and other chemicals rubbed against my nostrils and lips while fogging my mind and hazing my vision. My tongue fell lax, a heavy piece of lead in my mouth, I soiled myself, releasing the contents of my bladder. At least it spilled through my clothing and onto the shoulder of the man who tossed me over it.

That’s the last saving grace I got before I fell unconscious. Into a sleep so deep even dreams couldn’t penetrate it to save me.

I’m awake now, rocking side to side, fighting the urge to vomit as I get the feeling back in my body. I find it hard to breathe through the burlap sack over my head. I can see some light through it, the fading red of a cigarette that hisses as my enemy brings it to his lips. His silhouette is just visible through the tiny holes in the itchy material that reeks of damp.

I don’t speak. I want to. How I want to scream and kick but from the feeling of the way I’m rocking and the sound of wood hitting the surface of flowing water, I’m in a boat and not a sturdy one. I’m not a strong swimmer, one could say I can only just stop myself from drowning and that’s with the use of my hands. Right now, mine are bound behind my back in ropes so tight I worry I’ll lose my fingers.

There’s no way I’m swimming my way to freedom, though perhaps drowning will be better than whatever they have planned for me.

It’s freezing. My legs are sodden, from my own piss and from water which has me believing I was dropped in at some point. At least my trousers are still in place and I don’t ache yet so hopefully that means I haven’t been molested. The thought that I will be has me shivering from fear instead of cold. Right now, as disgusting thoughts suck all hope from my mind like the point of a black hole, I find it hard to hope for anything bright.

“Stop snivelling!” a male voice hisses and his foot hits the back of my leg.

I yelp and pull my legs in tighter, my knee hits a discarded bottle which rolls to my face. I squeal when water sloshes over the side of the wooden rowboat and drenches my torso and face.

The men laugh.

This is funny to them. I am nothing to them and I have never been more terrified.

“She’s not bad. Why do cops always get the good-looking birds?” The man smoking grabs a handful of my sodden breast. “Fucking pigs.”

“Don’t touch me,” I plead, trying to roll away as he fondles me over my shirt.

His large, heavy hand squeezes harder, making me choke on bile as the pain becomes all I can think about. “I’ll do whatever the fuck I like.”

I close my eyes and let tears slide down my cheeks. How long have I been with them? How long do they plan on keeping me alive? What do they want with me?

Questions that I daren’t ask flood through my mind, wave after wave of incoherent ramblings, desperate to spew from my lips.

I shiver, biting hard on my trembling, plump flesh to stop my teeth chattering. The more invisible I make myself the less likely he is to touch me again, I hope.

Why couldn’t Niall have been awake?

Now he’ll have to watch my capture through the CCTV system, knowing we were metres apart when this happened. He’ll never forgive himself. He won’t stop looking for me. I know him. He’s tenacious but we both know if he doesn’t find me today he likely never will.

Well, not unless they want something, but even then, the chances of me returning alive are slim.

I try to recall everything Niall has ever told me about this. I listen avidly, of course I listen but right now as my brain tries to recover from the drugging and the shock, I can’t recall a single piece of wisdom.

All I can do I squeeze my eyes shut and wait, wishing they’d knock me out again.

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