Page 97 of Silver Hunter

“Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be, Grace.”

He yanked me so hard, my bladder let go. I made a noise in the back of my throat, thrashing in his grip as piss ran down my inner thigh. He clicked on a car key and the trunk lifted open. Police sirens sounded too far away in the distance.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“Get in, Gracie.”

I stopped the pee and tried to buy time, kicking him in the crotch. His elbow responded by slamming into my gut, and I bent in half. Wheezing air fizzed out my nose as he lifted me off the ground. My bladder let go again, flowing down my ass and onto his arm, but I had no strength to stop it. He threw me inside the trunk with a grunt. My lungs crushed inward. I fell onto my face before twisting to my side.

“I should have done this before.”

The asshole ripped the duct tape off without warning, covered my face with a cloth, and finally faded from my view.

* * *

I woke up,feeling like I’d rolled down a hill over a thousand rocks and landed in a pit of spikes. My skin hurt everywhere, and my limbs felt like they’d gone through a chopper. I lifted my hand to my head and immediately sat up on a king-sized bed.

“I’m free.”

Visible cuts marked my wrists and feet. Wooden beams stretched horizontally, forming the scaffolding of a cottage that barely held on its foundation. Dated furniture hung crookedly, and dust covered everything.

I coughed. The faint sound of running water sounded from the outside. I hopped off the bed and hurried to the window. I pulled the drapes apart, flicked the latch, and lifted the window’s lower part. The crisp forest air carried the smell of pine and wilderness past the steel bars. Beyond, darkness swallowed the outside world.

“Fuck.”

The door opened, and I whipped around to face my twin, Chad Hartley.

“Glad to see you up. We have a lot to do.”

Chad closed the door behind him and removed a banana from his back pocket. He was wearing the same pair of stained jeans and the same checkered shirt as last night. Or was it still the same night? It was dark outside, but I wasn’t sure how much time I’d lost.

“Are you hungry?”

“No,” I lied.

He waved the banana in his right hand, while I eyed the glass of water on his left.

“Want this? You get it after you clean up.” He pointed to a door I assumed led to a bathroom. “And you will eat dinner with me in thirty minutes. I’ll push it down your throat if I have to.”

“Why bother to feed me?”

“You’re gonna be the mother of my child, and he’ll need nutrition. You’re too thin as it is. Go.”

He pointed with his chin, and I hurried for the bathroom. The door had no lock, and he’d nailed plywood over the only window.

“I can’t hear the shower running.” He banged on the door and I jumped, hurrying to turn on the water.

“And wear the clothes I brought. They’re on the back of the door.”

My gaze was drawn to a white nightgown on a hanger, a set of panties and a bra strung over the hook.

“Fuck you, Chad,” I whispered, and quickly stripped.

The shower was one of the fastest I’d taken in my life. I didn’t bother for the water to warm or steam to rise, left my hair out of the shower’s way, and washed myself with soap. The wounds on my wrists and ankles sizzled with pain. I lifted my foot. A cut near my ankle was getting infected. I rinsed, turned off the shower, and hopped back into my dirty dress from the party just as Chad pushed on the handle.

I threw my back against the door.

“I swear to God, if you don’t start treating me with respect, I’ll kill myself before you see you me again. I’m not done. Where’s the toothbrush?”

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