Page 41 of Merciless Sinner

Run!

I yank the door open and run outside down the path.

He comes after me, the sound of his heavy footsteps making my heart gallop like it’s going to leap out of my chest.

I push all the strength I can muster to run faster, but shit, I’m not fast enough.

Virgo’s arms secure around me, lifting me into the air as if I’m weightless. He literally picks me up while I’m running so that my legs are still moving against the air.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” he growls, flipping me around and hoisting me over his shoulder caveman style. “Did you seriously think you could escape? I knew what you were up to from the moment you left the room.” The taunting in his voice makes me feel completely foolish.

Completely and utterly foolish. Then angry.

The bastard would have only seen me leave the bedroom if he were watching me through his cameras. That means he must have access to them on his phone or something like that.

“Let me go, you asshole.” I thrash against his grip, trying to break free. I know it’s useless, but my pride is hurt. It wants to keep believing I can fight this giant of a man and gain my freedom. Or maybe I just need to know I tried.

“It seems you’ve forgotten our contract.” He marches back up the stairs with me while I continue to pound my fist on his back. “Maybe prison life would have been better for you. Perhaps I should send you straight back there.”

His threat makes me stop moving and sever the faux bravado I had pumping through my veins.

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” I feel even more foolish for having to ask the question.

“When last I checked, we had a legally binding agreement, and you just broke it. I’m within my right to do whatever I want.” He scowls. “Where were you going, Olivia?”

Olivia. There’s that name again. The name I can’t get used to in a life that doesn’t belong to me.

It belongs toher,and I almost hate it. All of it.

We’ve made it into the kitchen.

I expect him to continue to the bedroom, but we turn left instead, and he walks down a dark corridor I haven’t been in before. I don’t even remember seeing it on my tour. Granted, the house is huge, and I’ve barely been here for two days. I haven’t completely gotten my bearings yet.

Virgo switches on the light, and my heart stops its rapid beat when my gaze lands on a set of chains hanging from the wall.

The only other items in the room are a metal table and chair that looks awfully similar to what you’d find in an interrogation room at the police station. Having spent hours in one days ago, I’m well versed in the setup.

“What are you going to do to me?” I yell.

I get my answer quickly when he carries me over to the wall with the chains, turns me around in some Rambo-style grip, and secures the chains around my wrists above my head.

Like yesterday, when he had me up against the wall, he did it so fast, I was attached before I knew I was. Now I’m hanging from the wall with my feet barely touching the floor.

“You bastard. You’re crazy. You can’t tie me up in here!” I shout against the cold chains rattling around my wrists.

Virgo stands back and simply stares at me. When a few long moments of silence pass, panic starts setting in. I stop moving against the chains and hold his stare.

“Say something!” I shout.

“Strike two.” His voice is flat and emotionless, his face as unreadable as the plain walls around us.

“Strike two? I didn’t do anything wrong before.”

He steeps closer and catches my face. “Your first mistake was planning to escape. That means you were looking for your first chance to screw me over when I could have left your ass in jail to rot. Your next mistake was running. If you fuck with me again, Iwillsend you back to Monte Carlo, hand-delivered to the police.”

“Please don’t do that.” I can’t imagine him going through all the trouble to find me only to send me to prison for something I didn’t do, but he might.

He inches toward my ear, his hot breath caressing my skin. “Why shouldn’t I?”