Chapter 2

Stephanie

Carter's grip on my arm was like a vice. No matter how hard I pulled and tugged, he didn't even budge. The only sign I could gather that he was irritated was from the way his jaw clicked as I kept screaming Jake's name.

"JAKE!" My voice was getting hoarse from yelling so much, and no matter what happened, I wasn't certain even if he could hear me—what he could do.

My back slammed against the wall. Carter pressed up tight against me. I could taste his breath. "Listen, love, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." My blood turned to ice, and his pupils dilated, his arms skimming my arms and waist like a starved man that was hungry for food.

"Where are you taking me?" I stammered, my voice soft and breathy from my sheer terror, but Carter seemed to take that as a good sign that I was attracted to him. I was a deer in headlights. Each thought I had only left me with one glaring truth.

Do what it takes to survive.

"You will find out soon enough," he smirked, and I could feel him press himself against me. I knew exactly how much he was enjoying this, and I knew from watching enough stupid action movies I needed to find a way to stay here. To stop him from taking me to another location.

Even if a guard came by, surely that would be something…

Except a guard let Carter in and allowed him to take me out of my cell.

"Are you my lawyer?" It was dumb, but I couldn't think of another reason he would be here. Actually, I could, but I wouldn't let myself believe that was even possible. Perhaps I had misjudged Carter and he was here to protect me. But seeing the look on Jake's and Todd's faces told me that was far too naive. I needed to get to grips before everything spun out of control.

Carter laughed before biting his lip, looking down at me. "You might say that. Listen, love, time is pressing, and we need to move. Are you going to be a good little girl for me? Behave yourself?" He arched a brow as I tried to remember how to breathe.

Do I comply, making it easier for Carter to essentially take me out of jail—something I wanted to escape from? With him, I knew wherever he took me, I would beg to be brought back here.

I wasn't a fighter. I wasn't strong, and my fear was so potent it was choking me. What would I even do to get out of this? Also, where would I run to? Every door here is locked and guarded. It's not like I would make it to the street, to Jake or Todd, before Carter grabbed me, even if I did kick him in the balls.

It would probably make everything worse.

Despite this, I knew if I didn't try something, I would regret it forever.

Carter was looking at me with a laser focus that made me uncomfortable. I shifted against him slightly, and the brush of our bodies together was enough of a distraction to give me a three-second window to act.

I kneed him in the balls, and he dropped to the floor like a lead balloon.

"You BITCH! You will pay for that, love!" he roared as I ran as fast as I could down the dank, dark hall of cells. When I reached the end, I knocked, tugged, and screamed with all my might, but it wouldn't budge. It was like a vault—a thick metal door that would probably only open with three different sets of keys and a thumbprint ID.

I could hear Carter grunting as he got up. He didn't run to get me. Why would he need to? I was trapped at the end of the hall with nowhere to turn.

His steps crawled at an agonizingly slow pace, and all I could do was peer through the small glass window, hoping someone might walk past before he grabbed me. To even see Jake's handsome face one last time before he took me.

My heart pounded in my chest as Carter drew closer and closer. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise, knowing I only had mere seconds until it was all over. My last moments of freedom.

I heard him stop behind me, my eyes closing with dread as he brushed my long dark hair away from my neck. "The hard way it is then," he whispered at the same time a cloth came around my front and covered my nose and face. My eyes bulging, I caught a glimpse of Jake through the glass yelling at the guard before everything went black and my body fell limp into Carter.

He must not have drugged me enough for me to be fully unconscious. I caught the hall of the prison disappearing, the cold breeze of the night, before Carter opened the back of a van and tossed me inside, bashing my legs and arms. I could feel the bruises forming already.

He tied me in place so I would be unable to move before closing the doors and tapping the front as the engine roared to life.

"I had different plans for our first night together, but now…" He glanced down at himself—where I had kneed him—and my stomach twisted once again.

JAKE.

JAKE.

JAKE.

I screamed in my head, hoping on some level he would know I had been taken. Like we were connected and he could sense me drifting further and further away.

"I'm not the monster you believe I am, Stephanie. Jake has poisoned you with many lies. I was the one who helped with your sister's medical bills, your rent. All I wanted in return was dinner with you." He grinned as I tried not to squirm. He left out the part where he wanted me to smuggle legal documents from Jake's office so he could beat him in a case and bring an end to their petty rivalry.

"But that little stunt you pulled is going to cost you. I want you to know I would have been kind, gentle." His smile was anything but kind or gentle. His gaze lingered over my body as if he could see beneath the fabric of my dress and stripped me bare before him.

He didn't touch me, and somehow that was worse. I could see it on his face—his plans, what he wanted from me. He was going to have me suffer as much as possible to hurt Jake. To hurt me. To make whatever score he felt needed settling somehow right.

The van came to a stop, and I screamed and bashed against the side of the door as hard as I could.

One.

Two.

Three.

Carter held the white cloth over my mouth again, his hand holding it firm so there was nothing I could do. He leaned in closer, slowly, painfully slowly, until I could see nothing as my vision darkened but his wild eyes.

"Sleep, love. You must be exhausted, and I have many plans for us. Many that will require you to keep your strength up," he grinned, and this time I didn't have it in me to fight, to hold on. A wave of darkness dragged me off until all I could picture were those crazed green eyes and his wicked plans for me.

I wanted him to hold the cloth too tight, stop my air supply altogether, so I would never know what he was going to do to me.

Unlucky for me, I woke up several hours later in hell.