Page 64 of Point Proven
“Call… Call it off… Call it off…” Tearing myself from his arms, I fell from the cot, crashing against the cement floor with an agony-infused yelp. My nails dug into its rough surface, and I continued clawing as I kicked myself back against the wall. “Call it off. Call it off. Call it off. Call it off?—”
“Rest and heal.” Picking up the gun, he placed it back into his holster before grabbing anything that could be used as a weapon.
Or so he thought.
Reeling forward, I slammed the back of my head against the wall as hard as I possibly could. Warmth pooled immediately, trickling down the wall before staining the cement. Pain erupted up my neck, setting fire to the base of my skull as I did it again.
And again.
Andagain.
Leaning forward for another attempt, pressure halted my movement, squeezing into my arms. That hold intensified, lifting me from the ground before my back slammed into the thin mattress. Iron pressed into my wrists, each click solidifying the handcuffs he’d put on me, latching its twin onto the opposite metal railing.
“S-Stop!”
The sensation of confinement swallowed me, my panic attack igniting with no chance of salvation. Ripping against the cuffs, their sharpened edges dug into my sensitive flesh as my cries intensified.
“N-No… No. Please don’t shackle me and leave me here. S-Stefan…Stefan!”
Shoving the table away from the cot and out of my reach, he ran a trembling hand through his hair. “I’ll… I’ll send a nurse to fix your head.”
“Stefan!” I screamed, my vision blurry as I looked at him helplessly. Back arching, I thrashed against my newfound imprisonment. “Please… Please let me out! Let me out!Stefan…”Throat aching, I whimpered, my entire body assaulted by an endless wave of tremors. “I’ll be good… We can… We can leave… and go… go somewhere else together… Together… Please don’t leave me down here…”
Stefan bit his lip, staring at me once more before turning his back to me. Swinging the gate open, he stepped through, latching it behind him as my pleas intensified.
“Please,Stefan! PLEASE!”
“I’ll be back soon. Get some rest.”
Without hesitation, he flipped the lights off, darkness swallowing everything whole. But it didn’t silence me, and I continued screaming until the air in my lungs vanished, until I was spitting up blood while every ounce of hope evaporated from my body.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SIMON
Swiveling side to side in my chair, I cracked my neck, fingers positioned over the keys I knew too well. Already coded to destroy their fucking comms and cameras, I glanced at the screens protruding over the van. Courtesy of Levander, this baby had technology far superior to the pitiful one Thorne had made me work with foryears. Compared to that, this was a fucking dream.
“This shit is fucking sweet, Lev!”
His voice crackled through the earpiece. “Glad you’re enjoying your upgrade.”
“Bitch about it again, Simon, Idareyou,” Thorne hissed, his breathing audibly strained because of his inability to stay out of the mess while we handled it.
“Do it! I’d love to have angry sex when this is over.”
Oren.
“Fucking…” Groaning, I ran a hand down my face. This was it. Either we would rescue Liam, or we wouldn’t, and that anxiety wasn’t something I could swallow right now. My hands were sweaty, keyboard already slick with the substance.
“Yeah,fucking,” Oren replied, his cheeky laughter billowing down the line. “Sorry you all have boring sex lives?—”
“My sex life is anything but boring, asshole,” Matt sharply answered, his huff evident of his annoyance.
“Mmm, I don’t know. Thorne says you’re vanilla in the bedroom.”
Thorne inhaled deeply. “That isnotwhat I said. I said he is thefurthestthing from vanilla in the bedroom.”
“Can confirm,” Lev chimed in without missing a beat.
