TouchNode | Complete

17 | Auburn Burn

Hello darkness, you're not much of a friend.

"Don't even think about it."

A harsh voice cut through the fog in my brain like a razor. My body jolted awake, and I swung myself off the flat surface where I lay to the ground. Frigid concrete greeted me, knocking the remaining haze from my senses.

High pitched screams echoed around me, alternating with the leather straps striking flesh over and over. The scream was distinctly female and rallied heavily against my nerves. Flipping over, I forced my arm underneath my side to sit up. As I straightened, my eyes shut automatically, staving off my urge to vomit as the room tilted and pitched.

Scooting across the floor, my fingers reached out before me, touching polished concrete that was frozen silk under my fingertips. Blindly I felt over it, opening my eyes once I found the wall nearest to me and rose to stand.

Piercing light beamed down from the raised ceiling, bathing the quasi torture chamber in unforgiving hues of yellow. My eyes immediately sought out the flat surface I had fallen off of, nearly gagging at the sight of dried blood caked around the rim of an oversized veterinarian table. Beyond it, a soaring warehouse space emptied excepting my singular table, a set of cuffs dangling from the ceiling and a stack of broken wood pieces in a far corner.

Dreading the possibility of others in the space, I glared around the pillar on trembling legs, hoping to see no one. Lady luck was not on my side today. Liam O'Donnell waited at the far end of the warehouse, a cell phone held against his ear with his gaze trained directly on me. Ice stopped the warm blood in my veins at the sheer determination in his gaze. An obsessive smile crossed his mouth, drawing upwards until two rows of gleaming white teeth reflected the ceiling fluorescents.

The smile melted away, and his lips moved, forming angry words to whomever he spoke to on the phone, and then he tapped the screen. A smug grin appeared again as he stuffed the device into his front pocket and made long strides in my direction. The soft clinking of his dress shoes on the floor echoed through the cleared space between the resounding strikes from another room.

My breath shorted in my chest as he neared, sending my brain into overdrive. Clumsily I stepped away from the pillar, wildly dragging my gaze around the space to find a weapon. I crashed heavily into the side of the table and nearly tripped on the edge as I dragged my hands on the surface to round it. Casually, Liam followed.

Our steps were synchronized, his: full of confidence, and mine: full of fear. We awkwardly danced across the open floor of the warehouse. Something seemed to snap inside Liam; his head tipped to the side and his eyes narrowed into menacing slits just as he roughly grabbed my body to his.

Gripping my wrists behind my back, Liam leaned over me. Fear forced me into absolute silence. I eyed him nervously, blinking vulnerable eyes up at him. His free hand came towards my face, curling to softly press against my cheek.

"Fear?" His eyes widened slightly, then drifted decidedly down my features. "That's not what I expected."

My nostrils flared as I breathed, trying to determine if his words were a joke or not. Liam simply continued to watch me. The hand he held to my face opened to cup my cheek.

"An SUV plowed through an intersection and into the side of my vehicle!" I shouted, twisting my trapped arms. "What else did you expect?"

"Surely... surely you see that I had to do that?"

"Surely?" I tested the word he'd used with disdain. "How would your decision be required?"

"Ballarina and Carter were never, ever going to let you go. And even if they did, what possessed you to think I'd let Euphrates take what is rightfully mine?" A chuckle shook his shoulders but didn't reach my ears. "You are so beautiful, and so naive."