Chapter 172
Aubrey
My head is throbbing as I awaken with a sharp jolt. My head is slumped forward on my chest. And lifting it takes a huge amount of effort. The cool, musty air of a dimly lit room
presses against my skin, and I feel the cold, rough wood of a chair beneath me. I try to move, but my hands and feet are bound tightly, and I can’t seem to find the source of the pain in my head, only that it’s throbbing to its own beat, making my eyes pulsate.
Stretching my fingers I try to get the blood flowing through my hands. I try to move, but the tight ropes around my wrists bite into my skin, pulling a sharp breath from my lungs as I try to twist my wrists free. Each movement, the rope bites in deeper chafing my wrists and burning the flesh. My heart pounds in my chest, and I look around, trying to gauge where I am and where they’ve taken me now. The room is dark, with dim light filtering through cracks in the walls, so I know I am not in the same place as before. It smells of dust and old wood and when I sniff the air, I can just make out the salt air of the ocean which is the only indication of where I am. So I know I’m at the docks. Only I’m above ground this time. It’s some sort of storage room–bare, save for a few crates stacked in the corners. I can barely, I have to be able to smell the ocean so strongly. I can barely make out the shapes of old, neglected furniture scattered about as my eyes adjust to the lighting, a small desk with papers. The pounding headache isn’t helping, and the blood is making my eyes sticky with each blink of my eyes, making me worried that I
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may have a concussion.
288 Vouchers
Peering around the dimly lit room, my eyes search for a sign of Rhett’s presence and I sniff the air for his scent. Yet I can’t smell much besides the dust and my own blood. Shifting my weight, the worn wood of the chair creaks beneath me as I try to twist, scanning every corner. He is nowhere to be seen. A strange sensation begins to creep into my chest – a sense of relief so profound it’s almost sickening. It washes over me, filling the hollow space where fear had taken root. My gaze continues to dance around the room, and then I see her.
Bianca.
She stands near the corner of the room, her slender figure silhouetted against the light sneaking in through the cracks of the beams, making the walls. Her back is turned towards me, a mobile phone nestled between her shoulder and ear. She leans against the rough wall, an aura of cold indifference radiating from her. Then her laugh pierces through the silence – a shrill, discordant sound that bounces off the walls and echoes in my ears. It’s a laugh devoid of warmth or joy, sending chills down my spine.
“Yeah, I’m stuck babysitting her,” she says into the phone, her words dripping with a satisfaction so palpable it’s as if she’s savoring a sweet victory and my torture. I’m unsure if being stuck with her is worse than rhett, she hates me, so will gladly kill me if given the chance. Rhett wont, not now I have his blazing mark on my neck.
“She’s out cold for now.” She speaks as if I’m some
inconvenient burden that she has been stuck with, the feeling is definitely mutual. “But I’m telling you, once Rhett is done with what he’s got to do, we’re going to make our move, and I will make him get rid of the bitch before their mate bond
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causes issues.” The last word lands like a punch to my gut. As I suspected, she sees me as a threat to her and Rhett. Quite frankly she can have the bastard, they deserve each other. I want nothing to do with him, so her worry is unwarranted.
She pauses then, listening to whoever is on the other end of the line.
