Page 96 of Moonlit Temptation

I peer up at the person in front of me. He's the tallest of the three people, leering over me while the other two hover by the front door.

“What's going on?” one of the other people ask.

“Found us a little bonus present,” the tall guy in front of me says. He sounds entirely too joyful for the situation, and it makes something inside me curl up in fear.

“What do you want?” I flatten myself against the wall, trying to appear as small as possible. I creep further away, bracing myself to inch up another stair and get further away.

“Everything,” he says.

43

EVANGELINE

“Stop moving,”he commands.

Quicker than a snake, he lashes out, palms my head, and shoves it into the wall. Pain burst behind my eyelids.

“Fuck, man. C'mon. She's not part of the mission tonight,” one of them says.

“You said there would be jewels and cash here. A shit ton of valuable shit,” the tall guy shouts at one of his accomplices.

“There is,” the shortest one grumbles, voice pitched low.

“Where?” the tall guy snaps.

The shortest one shifts from foot to foot, pointing a finger at me. “Ask her.”

I blink several times, trying to get my vision to clear. I hit the wall hard, but I don't think I'm seriously hurt. I know I can't outrun them, not when they're boxing me in on the staircase like this.

“So much for the place being empty. We pulled you in and this is the thanks we get? A botched fucking job. The boss is gonna love this,” the tall guy says, leering at the other two.

“Well, it looks like we're fucked then, eh? Best get on with it,” the shorter guy says.

I try to swallow my whimper, my mind going straight to the worst scenario. “Please don't kill me.”

The tall one grabs me by the top of my hair, and my hand flies to grab onto his wrist, like that's going to stop him. My fingers dig into the leather gloves he's wearing, and I have half a thought to sink my nails into his skin. They can extract DNA from underneath my fingernails. I've seen it on those crime shows.

But then he tugs, like he knew my attention drifting for a second. I arch up to try and lessen the strain. His face is less than a foot in front of mine, and backlit by the lamp from the hallway, he looks like some kind of demon sent from hell.

A black ski mask covers everything but his eyes. Dark pools of inky black greet me, his pupils blown so wide, I can't tell where they end. His gaze promises me pain, so much more pain.

I flinch, but it only pulls my hair harder.

“We're not going to kill you.” He pauses and cocks his head to the side. “Well, at least not until after we get what we want.”

“No cleanup,” one of the two grunt behind him.

I can't see his face, but I just know he's grinning behind that fabric mask. I can feel the cruelty roll off of him in waves.

“You two, go get what we need from this floor. And you, answer our questions and I'll make it quick and relatively painless for you.”

I lick my lips, my temples throbbing. “Okay.”

He lets go of my hair and backhands me. It was so quick I didn't see it coming and didn't have time to brace for anything.

My head snaps to the side, and I can feel the sting radiating throughout my cheek. Tears prick at the corners of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I won't give him the satisfaction.

“That was just for fun. Now we can get started,” he says.

---