Page 18 of Trapped (Snowbound with a Stranger #2)

Escalating Peril

Erin

The dark prison of the hood was whipped from me in a heartbeat, leaving me flinching in the stark, peach-colored light that met my eyes. Sitting on a hard-backed chair, I appeared to be at the far end of a large room with a wall of men separating me from the only discernible exit.

My gaze darted down my body, noting I was still dressed in the same ensemble I’d been wearing when I’d gone to bed with Eli at the cabin, though without any footwear, my feet were freezing. The worst part of my predicament, though, was less about where I was and more about how I was. The cuffs I’d been forced into had been unceremoniously removed before the hood, but each wrist had been compelled onto an armrest instead, where they had been fastened with ropes. I’d gone from one type of incarceration to another, with only seconds of fleeting freedom between.

“There.”

A middle-aged guy smiled in front of me, conveying the same smug tone I’d heard give the order to take me from the helicopter. He’d given the commands, and based on his conceited demeanor, he appeared to be in control.

“That’s better, isn’t it?”

He’s Hawkins.

The guy eyeing me was the same one Eli had identified back at the cabin.

“Who are you?”

I blinked up at him, unwilling to dwell on any of his unimaginative features. A brief glance had told me everything I needed to know. His face was long, his nose pointy and unappealing, and his hair was brown and thinning, despite the way he seemed determined to comb it over his balding head. Worse than that was the sinister air he had about him. Just being around the guy made my skin crawl.

Nothing like Eli.

His name echoed in my head like a prayer while I risked a thought of the man who’d both rescued and restrained me. Where was he? How was he doing?

Brows knitting, I remembered the kicking he’d taken at the cabin. I could only hope his wounds were superficial.

“Aren’t you delightful?”

Hawkins’ condescending tone washed over me as he walked closer. His turning toward the minions gathered behind him gave me the opportunity to assess his physique. Unlike the impressive, muscular frame Eli sported, Hawkins’ stomach was more ‘portly’ than ‘six-pack’.

“Please.”

I didn’t want to beg the bastard, but I had to know something about what was going on. Why had he snatched us from the woods, and, having brought us to wherever the hell we were, what was he going to do with us? Anxiety scratched at my stomach at the final query, cementing how absurdly vulnerable I was. Things had seemed precarious in Eli’s care at times, but those uncertainties were nothing compared to the desolation stretching inside me then.

“Wh-where am I?”

After so long deprived of any vision except the black suffocation of the hood, my eyes seemed sluggish to respond to any of my commands to examine my whereabouts. Frustratingly slowly, they perused the mustard décor of the space, revealing a dated and confused style that seemed to match its owner. Hawkins—if that was who he was—wouldn’t have looked out of place on a 1970’s cop show, except I was under no illusions about which side he was on. I’d seen the way his men had waded in to hurt Eli and knew nobody with integrity would have behaved that way.

“So many questions and a pretty face.”

He flung the hood he’d pulled from me at one of his goons.

“No wonder he found you so fascinating.”

“Where is he?”

It was clear we were both talking about Eli, although neither of us mentioned his name.

“Ain’t that sweet?”

He motioned to me as he glanced back at his men.

“She’s worried about lover-boy.”

“I’ll give her something else to focus on!”

A younger, more muscular guy clapped his hands together excitedly.

“Just say the word. She might be old, but she’s still fit.”

A rumble of laughter reverberated along the line of men as though the moron’s threat was in any way amusing, and I recoiled as far as the chair would allow. There I was, worrying about how Eli was faring, when it seemed I should have been more concerned about my own wellbeing. The parade of excited faces behind Hawkins clearly only came to heel for two things. One was the kind of violence they’d unleashed on my lover, while the other was something I was trying to not dwell on, though tied to the chair, there’d be little I could do to prevent any inappropriate behavior.

“No, thank you, Hadden.”

Hawkins shook his head with feigned disgust.

“The lady will be busy with me for the time being.”

The trepidation in my tummy twisted at his words, and I couldn’t decide which outcome sounded like the worst threat—the idea of being at the mercy of the mindless pack, or being, as Hawkins put it, ‘busy with him.’

“Please.”

Forcing my eyes north, I searched his face.

“I don’t know you. I don’t know why I’m here.”

Hawkins’ expression softened.

“You haven’t done anything wrong, if that’s what you’re worried about. Not unless you count going to bed with Eli Rosen.”

“You kn-know Eli?”

I tried to keep my voice even, but even I heard the waver.

“Oh, yes.”

Hawkins grinned, revealing a line of crooked, yellowing teeth.

“He and I go way back. It was him I was after, but stumbling across you is an exceptionally pleasing sweetener.”

Sweetener? Dread curled inside me.

“I’m not with him,”

I countered, vaguely conscious of guilt bubbling at the speed with which I was prepared to abandon the memory of the things Eli and I had created in the cabin.

“There’s nothing between us.”

My words echoed in my ears, furling my growing shame. It was true Eli had made no promises to me, and that if Hawkins and his mob had left us alone, we might have hiked back to normality and never seen one another again, but to dismiss the time we’d shared as nothing was a mistake. Eli had helped me to feel things I’d never known before. He’d helped me to discover new things about myself. That couldn’t be described as nothing. He was someone I sensed I’d never forget, whatever happened with the overweight, balding man who was seemingly calling the shots.

“That’s great news.”

Hawkins sneered.

“Then you won’t have any objections about getting to know me better, will you?”

The line of men behind him cheered as though he was a late-night comedy act in a cheap B-movie.

“But I don’t even know you!”

I don’t want to know you!

I never articulated the final line, but my eyes widened when Hawkins’ full attention landed in my direction.

“We can change that.”

He sidled closer, his curling lips and sashaying hips conveying that he probably thought he looked seductive, although little was further from the truth.

“Let’s have some alone time.”

Alone time?

My belly lurched at the hideous idea, but the rope at my wrists meant resistance was futile.

“Please.”

My voice lowered, as though I was whispering loving words to the moron.

“You don’t have to do this. Just let me go.”

His brow furrowed for a nanosecond before the deepening creases suggested his confusion had melted away to rage.

“Don’t start with that shit.”

He flicked his right wrist my way dismissively.

“It’s always the same with women. Cock-teasing, then playing hard to get!”

“Cock tease?”

I hadn’t even known who the slimy bastard was before he intruded on the plans Eli and I had made, let alone been thinking about teasing the asshole. Even if I hadn’t just spent the last day wrestling with my attraction to Eli, a guy like Hawkins would have been the last person I’d have flirted with.

“Need a hand, boss?”

the one he’d called Hadden called out from behind him.

“No!”

Hawkins snapped.

“Get out of here, all of you!”

He twisted around to face his minions.

“I want a tour of the perimeter and then two of you can go and entertain our other guests.”

The low-lying snigger that passed along the line convinced me that thinly veiled instruction was code for them to visit wherever Eli was being held, and the panic inside me intensified.

“Please.”

Somehow, despite my better judgment, I was begging the guy again, but whatever happened to me, I couldn’t just sit there and allow him to dispatch more punishment to Eli. Yes, I was bound and basically helpless, but it seemed like my last chance to make Hawkins see reason.

“Don’t hurt Eli.”

Nausea welled at the sly smile that painted Hawkins’ face.

“You really care about him, huh?”

The idea of caring for anyone appeared almost comical to him, but his question darted around my head. Did I care about him? In truth, we’d only spent a matter of hours together, and whatever he had or hadn’t unlocked in me, I wasn’t sure it was possible to develop true feelings for someone in such a short space of time. Yet the nagging doubt in my mind resumed, reassuring me that my sentiment for the man he seemed content to torment was not the issue. Whether I was falling for Eli or not was irrelevant. Hawkins had no right to treat him so badly.

He had no right to be doing any of it.

“I’m just saying he doesn’t deserve to be beaten.”

I turned my face away, aware of the heat rising from my neck.

“You have no idea what that fucker deserves.”

The severity of his tone took me by surprise.

“But I do, pretty. I know Rosen, and I’ve waited a long time to have him and my old boss at my mercy.”

My brow creased. Hawkins’ old boss? Had Eli told me who that was?

“I hadn’t expected to get you as part of the deal, but what the hell…”

He rubbed his palms together as though he was plotting something dastardly, and right on cue, as if he’d commanded the deed, both my wrists tugged futilely at the ropes holding me to the chair.

“You’re a little older than my usual type, but I reckon I deserve a little appetizer before the real fun begins.”

His hand stretched toward me, his chubby fingers grazing over my chest until they sensed the outline of my nipple through the layers of clothing.

“No!”

Straining against my binds, I called out at the shocking liberty, but my turmoil was only met with more vicious laughter from his cronies.

“Why are you still here?”

Hawkins spun to confront the cackling hyenas.

“Didn’t I give you your orders already?”

“Yes, boss. We’re going.”

The sheepish expression on Hadden’s face would have been more satisfying had terror not been skyrocketing through my system at Hawkins’ unwelcome advances, but I just registered it as he and the other minions shuffled out of the hellish 1970’s-style study. As the door slammed closed behind the odious bunch, I realized there were no distractions left to protect me.

Tied to the chair, I was suddenly the center of Hawkins’ entire world.