Page 29 of Snow Bound (Odyssey #1)

T he crack of the door slamming in the quiet room was like a shot, and Anna jumped.

Grant walked across the room, his footsteps deliberately heavy, and stopped in front of her. “ Ms . Goodwin . So glad you could join me.”

Her head swiveled around as though searching for him in the darkness. “ Mr . Snow ? Oh , thank goodness. Thank goodness you’re here.”

Her voice was drenched with gratitude, and a kind of manic energy that he knew was at least partly real. “ I don’t know what happened. I was at the party, and when I went to the bathroom two men grabbed me. They brought me here and tied me up. I’ve been here for hours.”

“Is that right?”

She struggled against the cuffs holding her to the chair. “ I can’t get free. You have to untie me before they get back.”

“No, I don’t think I do,” he drawled, and she froze.

“What do you mean?”

He wanted to grin at the tremor in her voice. She was getting into it, using her natural apprehension to fuel the scene. He hardened his voice. “ That’s a stupid question, and you’re not a stupid woman. If you pretend to be, you’re going to make me angry.”

She licked her lips. “ I ... I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“I sincerely doubt that, but I’m happy to make it clear to you. The men who brought you here did so at my request.”

The shake of her head was frantic, disbelieving. “ What ? No .”

“Yes. They’re ...associates of an associate, you might say. I paid them very well to bring you here, and they’re very discrete. No one else knows where you are.”

“But...but why?”

“Another stupid question.” The words fairly vibrated with controlled rage. “ Ask another and it’ll be your last for a very long time.”

Her breath hitched on a sob, hastily controlled. “ I just want to know what’s going on.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” he asked smoothly and jerked the blindfold down.

She blinked rapidly, ducking her head away from the bright lights he’d arranged around the room. He supposed in a real interrogation the lights would’ve been more directly in her face, blocking her vision of the rest of the room. But he wanted her to see, clearly, what was coming.

Her head whipped around, eyes widening as she took in the basement.

The hard-packed dirt floor, the bank of monitors that reflected her own image back to her from various angles in crisp, high-definition detail.

The second table set up to her left, a large white sheet covering the array of tools and toys he’d laid out.

And the hook that hung from the ceiling.

Her eyes widened at that, and he saw the first hint of real fear in her eyes. Then she blinked, and it was gone.

“Mr. Snow , please.” She jerked her arms, tugging at the leather cuffs. Her big brown eyes were wide and pleading, mascara already smudged from the blindfold.

“Please?” He scoffed. “ So polite you are, Ms . Goodwin . So lady-like.”

He paced away. “ Where was that politeness, that decorum, when you were helping yourself to millions of dollars of my money? Hmm ?”

He watched her lick her lips on the monitors. “ I don’t know what you mean.”

He whirled to face her, his face suffused with rage. “ Don’t lie to me, you little bitch.”

He stalked toward her, watched her eyes go wide.

He bent down, pushing up into her face so she was forced to lean back.

“ I know everything, Anna . I know how much you’ve taken, when it was taken, how it was taken.

I know the name of the bank you wired the funds to, the account number.

And I know that you withdrew it all, yesterday afternoon, in the form of a cashier’s check. ”

She swallowed, the gulp audible in the small room.

“What I don’t know,” he said, his conversational tone a sharp contrast to his previous snarl, “is where it is now. That’s what we’re here to find out.”

She swallowed again. “ I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No?” He straightened. “ Then this is going to be quite difficult for you.”

He turned away and walked to the blank monitor. “ Let me introduce you to my associate, Mr . Rogan ,” he said and turned it on.

Anna’s eyes went wide as the screen flickered to life. Michael sat behind his desk at the club, hard-eyed and grim. He wore a white shirt, open at the collar, and a dark jacket. One hand lay on the desk in front of him, the other held a crystal tumbler with a few fingers of amber liquid.

“Mr. Rogan ,” he went on, watching Anna carefully, “is one of my investors.”

Anna’s eyes darted from the monitor to his. “ But ...he’s with the mob.”

Michael’s dry chuckle came through loud and clear. “ I see my reputation precedes me.”

“Regardless of his other interests—and I don’t care what they are— Mr . Rogan has invested in my business. And investors expect to turn a profit, don’t they?”

He narrowed his eyes when she stayed silent. “ Don’t they, Anna ?”

She cleared her throat. “ Yes , I suppose they do.”

“And when someone like Mr . Rogan discovers that someone has been stealing those profits? Well , let’s just say he found that to be a bit upsetting.”

“A bit,” Michael drawled and drained his glass.

“We can do this the easy way,” Grant went on, “or the hard way. Tell me where the money is.”

“I don’t know.” Her voice broke on the last word. “ I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t know there was any money missing, I? —”

“You’re my accountant, Anna , and you didn’t know millions of dollars have gone missing from my accounts?” Grant shook his head in mock disappointment. “ If that were true, I’d have to fire you for it.”

“I’m sure I can find it.” She strained forward in the chair, the words coming out in a rush. “ I’ll go to my office right now and start looking. If you give me a day, even half a day, I’m sure I can?—”

“Enough!” Grant shouted. Anna jerked back, stunned into silence as he glared at her. “ Still playing the innocent, Anna ?”

He began to pace, stalking across the small space between her chair and the bank of monitors while he raged.

“ It’s a good act, I’ll give you that. There’s no possible way it could be her, I thought.

Just look at her, the picture of innocence, with those big brown eyes and that shy, cautious smile. You certainly made a fool of me.”

She stared at him for one long, frozen moment, then her face changed. He could only watch in fascination as her eyes went sly and her mouth slowly curved into a half-smile of cool triumph. She sat back, relaxed, all her agitation vanishing in a blink.

“Well, you’re only a man, after all,” she purred, angling her head slightly. He was stunned to hear the faintest of British accents color her voice. “ So really, it wasn’t hard.”

He turned to the monitor to stare at Michael , who looked as stunned as he felt. For a brief moment, their eyes met through the camera, then Michael’s eyes began to gleam, and pure delight bloomed in Grant’s belly.

“Looks like it’s going to be the hard way.”

It was all Anna could do to keep the dizzying excitement from showing on her face.

When the blindfold had first come down, she’d had a moment of panic, and her struggle in that moment had been absolutely real.

The dank basement, bright lights—video monitors, for sweet Christ’s sake, that showed her face, her body, from every angle—the mysteriously sheet-covered table.

But it hadn’t taken long for her to remember where she was, and who she was with. This wonderful, amazing man was making one of her fantasies come true, and she’d be damned if she’d waste it.

She forced her body language to stay relaxed—as relaxed as she could bound hand and foot to a hard chair, with a very large butt plug up her ass—and let out a husky laugh.

“ What did you expect, Grant ? Your security is a joke, you work your employees like dogs for shit pay, and your instincts are clearly lacking.”

She smirked as his eyes narrowed, and kept smirking as he stalked toward her.

“Tell me where it is, or I’m going to hurt you.”

She let out a mocking gasp. “ Oh , I’m so scared!” she trilled, then laughed in his face. “ There are those terrible instincts of yours again.”

“You’re not going to tell me?” His smile was grim. “ Fine . Have it your way.”

He reached into his pocket, his hand fisted around something and drew it free. She watched, fascinated and aroused, as he hit the button and with a quiet snick of steel, the blade popped out.

She managed to sneer. “ Careful you don’t nick yourself, darling,” she said, the British accent giving the words an extra bite. “ I wouldn’t want you to bleed to death, while I sit here powerless to help.”

“If anyone’s going to get nicked, darling ,” he snapped back, “it’s you.”

He lifted the knife towards her, the tip gleaming in the light.

It took all of Anna’s willpower to stay still while he drew the flat of the blade over her collarbone, the curve of her breast. She forced the shudder back, staring defiantly in his eyes as he slid the point into the deep v of her neckline.

“Don’t move,” he growled and dragged the knife down.

She held her breath as the fabric parted under the blade with barely a whisper of sound. It was sharp, she realized dimly. Very , very sharp. He slit it down to her navel, and only the blessings of Lycra kept the dress clinging to her breasts.

“Hmmm.” He eyed the rest of the garment critically. “ Maybe I’ll come from below for the rest. Wouldn’t want to accidentally disembowel you, would I ?”

He crouched in front of her, his smile sharp as the blade, and set the knife to the slit in the dress.

She held her breath, sucking her belly in to keep it away from the knife as he slit the skirt almost to the waist. Then he folded the knife, slipped it back into his pocket, and grasped the two sides of the skirt in his fists and yanked.

It tore easily, leaving the dress hanging off her arms—and the rest of her bare but for the panties and stockings.

She shivered in the cool air and knew if she looked down, she’d see her nipples were hard.