Page 79 of Ruthless Prince

He chuckled and walked away. Elizabeth trailed behind him. Before she went up the steps, she shot a brief glance at me over her shoulder. Her brows were wrinkled, and her eyes were wide andsorrowful.

“It’ll be over soon, sweetie,” she murmured. Then she turned and scurried after herhusband.

The heavy door above the stairs closed with an almighty thud, and just like that, I was aloneagain.

15

Willow

My eyelids were sosticky and puffy from all the crying I’d done that I practically had to peel them open when I awoke to the sound of movement on the cellarstairs.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been down here. Time had a strange way of slowing to a painstaking crawl in situations like this. It felt like three or four days had passed, maybe even five, but that wasn’t possible because Elizabeth said she’d come down here every day to bring me food and water, and she hadn’t returned yet. I suppose she could’ve lied or been banned by Logan,though.

Speak of thedevil…

Logan had just entered the dungeon, holding a large black messengerbag.

Since my arrival in this hellhole, fear had settled into my guts like a wild jungle vine, waiting to curl itself around my insides and steal my breath. At the sight of my captor, it tightened its deadly grip, and my heart began to pound so fast it felt like it would explode right out of myribcage.

“Get up,” he said. As he spoke, he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit a candle on the sconce closest to him. The others had burned out a long timeago.

I shivered and rubbed my sore elbows as I sat up on my makeshift mattress, which consisted of my coat as a base and my folded sweater as a pillow. It wasn’t comfortable by any means, but it was still better than sleeping directly on the coldconcrete.

“Where have you been?” I asked, shakily rising to my feet. My voice sounded croaky fromdehydration.

A few hours ago, I’d considered drinking the water in the bucket, even though it was filled with soap and dirt from my own body. Despite my thirst, I decided against it in the end, figuring I could get sick. If that happened, there was a chance no one would notice until it was too late, and I couldn’t risk that. I wanted to survive thisplace.

Logan tossed me a bottle of water from the bag. “I was out,” hesaid.

“For threedays?”

His lips curled into a nasty smile. “You think you’ve been here for that long?” he said, shaking his head. “You’re losing italready.”

I twisted the lid off the bottle with shaky hands. “What day isit?”

“Sunday. You got here yesterdaymorning.”

My eyes widened as I gulped down the water. Logan was right. I was losingit.

“I know my mother said she’d bring you things, but the rules have changed,” Logan went on, kneeling to free my ankle from the tight metal cuff. “From now on, no one comes in here to see you exceptme.”

My shoulders sagged, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of showing my disappointment in any other way. “Okay.”

“Here’s your first lesson for today.” Logan stood and pointed to a spot on the floor below his feet. “When you hear me coming down the stairs, I want you to move. You get your ass over to this spot and kneel. Head down, wrists behind your back. You should be in place before I step into the room. Gotit?”

“No,” Imuttered.

“What’s that?” he replied, narrowing hiseyes.

“I said no. You can’t force me to be your little puppet,” I said, yesterday’s vows burning brightly in mymind.

I will not yield to this man, no matter what he does tome.

His eyes flashed. “You’ll do whatever I tell you to do,” he said. “I have ways of bending your will, but it would be in your best interests to simply obey me instead of forcing me to usethem.”

“Screw you,” I hissed. “Threaten me and torture me all you want. I still won’t answer toyou.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess. While I’ve been gone, you’ve been sitting here convincing yourself that you’re the strongest woman on the planet. You’ve been telling yourself that you’re still in control and you’ll never give in. Neverbreak.”