Page 16 of Trapped (Snowbound with a Stranger #2)

The Incarcerated Man

Paul Baron

Stretching my neck, I let out a long breath. Who knew how long I’d been locked in the shitty little room and tied to a chair, but to me, each passing minute seemed like an hour, the protracted potency just another measure of how much I’d fucked up.

All the years I’d worked in the same unit as Hawkins, presiding over him and giving orders to the spineless son-of-a-bitch, and I’d never seen the enemy right under my nose. Sure, I hadn’t adored the guy, and after the case I’d brought against him, I definitely didn’t trust him, but I’d never had any idea how low the bastard would go. It hadn’t been until the imbecile had snatched me away at the crack of dawn that I’d realized his true nature, the recognition far graver than anything I’d anticipated.

Hawkins was the worst kind of asshole—the treacherous, slimy variety who was prepared to sell out his colleagues. For all I knew, he was also selling state secrets to the highest bidder, although who that buyer was still wasn’t clear to me.

“Nothing’s clear.”

Kicking out at the gloom ahead of me, I stared around my cell for the thousandth time. There was literally nothing to see in the enclosed, shadowy space, but I looked anyway, just in case I’d missed something important. The walls stretching up high around me on all sides were my only company, aside from the reek of stale urine that seemed to have taken permanent residence at the back of my throat. Of all the interrogation locations I’d simulated for my commanders in the past, it was surely one of the most miserable.

Not that anyone had tried to interrogate me. That was the weirdest part. Bundled into a van in the small hours, I’d had little interaction with my captors. I only knew Hawkins was the worm responsible for my predicament because he’d introduced himself. Grimacing at the memory of the event, my head lowered.

“Who are you?”

The door opened, illuminating the newcomer in stark light and making it damn near impossible to distinguish their features. I guessed it was a man from the stature of their silhouette, but anything else was difficult to ascertain.

“Paul Baron.”

His knowing tone was instantly recognizable, though initially, I couldn’t say why. I met a lot of guys, mostly the good kind who’d have your back, but you never really knew anyone properly, did you? Not until the shit hit the fan. I had few friends, and even fewer whom I truly trusted. Hawkins was about to remind me why.

“So, you know who I am.”

No surprise. The bloodied lip one of his goons had given me had dried, making the tissue painful when I finally spoke, but somehow, the ache added impetus to my snarl.

“Try answering my question.” Asshole.

I held back the final word, although I didn’t know why. Wasn’t I the one bound in the virtual darkness? Wasn’t I entitled to the use of profanity?

“Sure.”

The loser swaggered into the room, flicking on the switch by the door as he went.

Sickly illumination flickered into life overhead, rousing the strip lighting I hadn’t even known existed until that moment. My eyes, deprived of light for so long, blinked at the glaring brightness, and as the light spread out across the space, I was forced to look away.

“That’s what I came here for.”

He was right beside me then, having snuck up on me as I learned to contend with the light, but I still didn’t raise my head to see his face. I wanted to know his identity, but I still had my pride.

“I want to make sure you know whose guest you are, Baron.”

He spat out my name as though it was a dirty word, his obvious disdain for me ratcheting my curiosity. Naturally, I’d considered the possibility that I’d been taken by someone with links to my profession. Based on the murky waters I swam in, the risk of a shark attack was always an omnipresent threat, but it wasn’t until that moment that the idea cemented.

Shit.

My stomach lurched at the disappointing reality. Someone I’d put my faith in had let me down in a huge way, and I had no choice but to deal with whatever their demands were. Though, why they’d have taken custody of me was still a mystery.

“Go on, wise guy.”

Unlike most of my peers, I wasn’t usually the alpha male type, preferring to stay in the shadows rather than the spotlight, but I’d had just about enough of his shit.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Look at me, you fucking idiot!”

He shoved me in the shoulder, almost knocking the wooden chair over and compelling my gaze toward the peeling ceiling on reflex.

“Look into my eyes and know who owns you!”

“Hawkins?”

Even I could hear the confusion in my voice.

What the fuck was the over-promoted gimp in charge of my commanders doing there? He didn’t have the balls for a show like that, did he?

“Surprised?”

The smug expression lighting up his gnarly face begged to be ripped from him, but with my hands bound to the sides of the chair, I was in no position to help.

“What is this about?”

Ignoring his question, I turned away from him, scanning the inside of the place he was holding me for any clues about our location, but inside, the unresolved question plagued me.

Why had Hawkins—my subordinate—dragged me to the dank, dark place?

Whatever the answer, I was relieved at the discovery of his identity. Hawkins was a known quantity. I’d read his file and had actually been on the panel that had interviewed him for the job. Knowing my so-called enemy buoyed me.

“Good.”

The asshole actually had the audacity to laugh.

“What the fuck is this, Hawkins?”

He’d intentionally ignored my question.

My patience was running thin. I’d been awake for hours, blindfolded and manhandled on my way to wherever the hell he was keeping me. His game of riddles was as irritating as it was perplexing.

“This is phase one.”

He winked at me as though the whole enterprise was an elaborate game we’d agreed to play, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Whatever it was, I hadn’t concurred with a single moment of it.

“Do you have any idea how much fucking trouble you’re in?”

Straightening as far as the ropes allowed, I blew out a breath.

“Abducting a senior officer isn’t usually a fast-track to promotion.”

“Senior?”

he sneered.

“Older, you mean?”

“What?”

I had barely ten years on the idiot.

“You mean, more experienced and completely justified in dropping you in the shit once I get out of here?”

Hawkins snorted.

“What makes you think you’re getting out of here?”

My blood chilled at his casual inference. It was the first moment since I’d figured out who he was that I’d realized I might be in real trouble. Hawkins was known to be all mouth and no trousers, but he’d never achieved anything as well-organized or impudent as kidnapping a senior colleague before. The concrete box I found myself in was new territory for us both.

“Come on.”

I tried to keep my voice even.

“You’re talking rubbish and we both know it. Of course I’m getting out of here. Untie me and give me back the mobile your guys swiped from me, and I’ll consider showing you leniency.”

My patronizing tone was a bit of a long shot, especially when I was the one bound to a chair, but it was worth an attempt. If there was any chance that Hawkins wasn’t experiencing a psychotic break and might be playable, then I had to exploit it.

“Yeah, sure. I’m just going to let you go after all this effort.”

He gestured around the grim, windowless room.

“Surely, you’re smarter than this, Baron?”

“So, what’s your plan?”

My heart raced faster at the question, the fact that I had to ask a greater admission of my plight than I cared to acknowledge. If Hawkins had genuine ill intent in mind, then the more I could get out of him in the comparatively cool and calm environment we found ourselves in, the better. Years of training lurched into action in my mind, my gaze flitting to his face to try and understand if his threats had substance.

“Now, why would I tell you that, old man?”

Eyes shining, the bastard lowered toward me.

“The only thing I’m prepared to share is that you have no agency in this place. Not that you were ever much of a fucking boss!”

“What?”

I stared at him blankly, unable to accept what I was hearing. I’d worked my backside off to be a good manager, offering him more training than anyone else on my many teams, yet still, the small, scornful toad had thrown it back in my face.

Rising to his full height, he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Oh, there is one other thing.”

The anger burning in my veins meant I barely had the inclination to respond, but if the wanker was about to leave, I reasoned it might be one of my final chances to garner his attention.

“What?”

The word was little more than a snarl.

“Thanks for lending me your phone.”

He grinned, revealing a row of wonky teeth.

“You’ve given me a whole new avenue to explore.”

Sirens flashed in my head at the odd disclosure of information. Why would he have told me something like that when he’d been so reluctant to share anything before?

“That’s my property,”

I reminded him.

“You have no right to seize it or keep me here like this.”

I lifted my hands as far as the bondage allowed, elaborating my point.

“Yeah.”

His brows knitted fleetingly.

“I thought about that, and I do have an answer…”

Lifting one finger to his lips, he tapped at his mouth in a theatrical display of contemplation.

“Ah, yes, that was it... I don’t give a rat’s ass, Baron!”

“You fucker!”

The fury barreled out of me, collecting in my clenched fists.

“What are you playing at?”

“It’s been good chatting with you.”

Sniggering, he turned.

“But you know how it is… places to be and people to see…”

“Hawkins!”

I hollered, watching in slow motion as he reached the door.

Instinctively, I knew what was going to happen next, as though it was a scene from an awful movie I’d seen one too many times before. As he hesitated, I realized that I had. I was only the latest man in a long line of poor fools to be held in soundproof boxes like the one encasing me. I knew what went on in those cells because I’d signed the authorization for more than one similar interrogation.

Pausing by the door, he glanced back, that same conceited smile etched onto his insufferable face.

“Don’t do this,”

I urged him between gritted teeth.

“Whatever it is you want, we can talk, and I’ll—”

“You’ll do nothing.”

He cut me off, his gaze narrowing.

“You’ve done quite enough, Baron. From now on, you’ll stay right where I put you and do as you’re fucking told.”

Yanking open the door, he swept out of the room, but not before he clicked the light switch back to its original position. The light was extinguished in one fell swoop, casting the cell I was stuck inside back into dejected darkness.

Staring ahead of me, I tried to recall how long ago the encounter with Hawkins had been. Time was impossible to measure without a clock or any natural light.

“At least an hour ago…”

I decided at length, although what good the conclusion did me, I didn’t know.

Hawkins hadn’t been back, and if truth be told, I had a horrible feeling he’d left whatever compound I was being held in. I didn’t know where he was, but the snarky, bold, and sarcastic mood he was in didn’t bode well for whoever he encountered next.