also no longer in its ponytail anymore. They have taken everything that I can use as a potential weapon…or at least a distraction. I stand up and walk around the room starting to pace. I don’t know where I am or how long I have been here. I hope that nothing happened to David or Colton, or anyone else for that matter. I reach back into the thought box, as I like to call it, and turn the lock. I open my mind to unleash the thoughts to try and hear what everyone is thinking, but I can’t hear anything. Only static.
Shoot.
I pace around the room for hours, scraping my bare feet against the concrete, until I finally hear the sound of a lock turning and the door opening. Two men walk into the cell. One of them stays by the door and the other walks towards me. I back up as far as I can go. He continues to come at me, until he is standing inches from my face. I morph my face into a neutral expression, but inside I am terrified.
“This can go one of two ways. You can listen to everything we say and tell us what we need to know. Or, we can get more creative when it comes to getting the information out of you. It’s your choice.” I spit in his face. I’m not going to go down without a fight.
His hand comes up and smacks me across the face. I fly into the wall beside me and gasp as the pain spreads across my cheek.
“Who were you staying with?”
“No one.” He hits me again. I feel blood start to trickle out of my nose, as the right side my face numbs.
“Don’t lie to me!” He yells and fists the front of my shirt in his hands. Shaking me, he continues, “Tell me the truth. I want the names of the people you were staying with.” When I don’t reply, he pushes me back against the concrete wall. My head slams into it and my vision blurs. My body crumbles to the ground and I can’t think straight. I am in a hazy stupor of confusion that I can’t get out of.
I hear footsteps receding and the man mumbles, “We’ll come back later with Dravin. She’ll be more likely to talk then.” A door opens and is bolted shut again. I try to move, but a blinding pain shoots through my head.
I black out.
I feel someone nudging me. “Wake up.” My body is shaking. I can’t get myself to open my eyes. My ears are ringing and my face is throbbing. I feel someone grab the front of my shirt again and lift me up, my feet dangling off the ground.
“I said wake up!” He starts shaking my body. My head lolls back. I feel like it weighs a ton. He slaps me on my other cheek this time, causing another fit of pain to spread across my face. I open my eyes and glare at him. I can see two other men in the room. There’s a man standing in the middle of the room and another at the door. Is all this protection from me?
The man standing in the middle of the room, watching me, is incredibly handsome; tall and lean, standing around David’s height with Colton’s physique. His skin is tanned and his hair is slicked back into a ponytail at the base of his neck. Piercing brown eyes stare into mine.
“Thomas, put her down.”
I fall to the ground with a thump; my knees tuck under me and my arms take most of the fall. Pain shoots up them. I try to recover quickly, not giving them the satisfaction of seeing me in too much pain.
“Now, Ryanne. I need some information and you’re going to give it to me. You’ve been here for almost two days without food or water. If you cooperate, I’ll think about giving you some. If you don’t…well, you don’t really want to know what happens then,” he says. I can’t see him, but based on his tone of voice he is smiling.
“Now,” he says calmly, “Where were you staying at? We already checked your home and you haven’t been there for a while. We looked around the area where you were captured and there was nothing there. Where were you?” They didn’t find the house? That means Claire’s enchantment worked. I am finally able to sit up, but I refuse to talk. “Nothing? Fine.”