Page 91 of His Puppet

He pulls a pair of scissors from the pocket of his slacks, and he smiles at me before cutting the first snip in the tape at my ankles.

“I don’t need to worry about you acting out, sweet girl. Do I?”

“Of course not,” I lie.

He glances up at me knowingly and cuts at the tape some more, going back to it while his thin skin stretches with a smile. “Good, good. I won’t have to have the men upstairs kill your abductor then.”

My spine freezes, and I go stiff.

He looks at me again and pulls off the tape. “Orfiancé, from what I hear.”

I consider keeping up this charade, but a dry laugh jumps out of me, and I just fucking can’t. “You think you could killBlade?” I smile mockingly, but inside I’m terrified of the possibility. I just can’t let him know what that would do to me. “You must not have done your research.”

He grabs my shirt and jerks me forward before throwing me to the bed on my stomach. I grind my teeth but don’t move. He starts cutting the tape around my wrists.

“I know all about him, honey. And I know that hedid,in fact, kidnap you. Your friend told me all about it.”

Ellison.

My eyes burn, and when he finishes cutting the tape and gets off me, I still can’t move. Fresh tears cloud my vision.

“Did Ellison go to you?”

“He did. He was a concerned friend who had information on my poor,stolenniece. And he gave it to me for a price.”

My chest aches, while my anger simultaneously builds. I push myself up and glare at him. “And how much did you pay?”

“Fifteen thousand to him. Another fifteen to the officers who took the call for the quarrel my associates caused this afternoon.”

I nod, hatred burning deep in my core. “I wondered why they were so slow getting to the scene.”

“Does that upset you, babygirl?” He smirks. “Do you believe you’re worth more than thirty thousand dollars?”

“I think I’m worth more than you could ever pay.”

He laughs at that and stands. Without so much as a glint in his eyes to warn me of it, he rears back and slaps me across the face.

I fall back on the bed, and before I can recover, he grips my ankles, dragging me until my head hits the floor. My shirt rides up, and the skin of my back burns on the carpet as he drags my body to the torture room.

I squirm and try to grab onto something, but he threw me off guard with his hit.

The scissors. I need to get the scissors.

I try to lift up and reach for his back pocket, but it’s too late. He spins toward me with a face full of rage that’s been festering for all these years. He hits me. Once. twice. Three times before my head lolls back and I quit fighting.

He drags me the rest of the way to the torture room, yanking the curtain aside and smiling when he gets me inside, surrounded by the locked cabinets with all his goodies. He grabs my hands and yanks me up, grabbing me underneath my arms when I almost fall.

My head spins, and blood oozes from my nose. It makes sense to me all of a sudden why he didn’t suggest I clean myself up. He wants to beat me before he rapes me. There’s bound to be more blood.

He shoves me against the wall, my face pressing on the cold brick, and he lifts my arms above me and fastens my wrists to the metal cuffs that hang me the perfect height for him.

I hear him unlocking one of the cabinets and then rustling through it, looking for the instrument that seems most pleasing to him at the moment.

“Just so you know,” I say, trying to stand on my tiptoes. “It doesn’t matter who you have working for you. Blade is going to cut off your fucking head, and I don’t even care if I’m alive or not to see it. That’s what I’ll be thinking about while I’m listening to your god-awful old man heaving when you're getting off later.”

Pain sears my back, and I gasp, pressing my head into the wall. He hits me again with a blunt object that I can only assume has barbed wire wrapped around it. He hits me again, and I scream as I feel my flesh ripping.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but your boyfriend can’t do anything behind bars. He’s been charged with your kidnapping and enslavement, and if you aren’t careful, the police will find your corpse next. He’ll have a hard time getting out of that one.”

---