Free Exquisite Redemption (Iron Horse MC Book 3) by Ann Mayburn Page B

being angry, he stroked my face with a soothing affection I fought. It wasn’t real, this wasn’t real, he was just another guy. I’d thought in the past love and sex were the same thing, but they’re vastly different and I’d learned that lesson the hard way.
    Then again, maybe we were both insane, because him touching me felt like magic.
    Even though I longed to melt into his caress, then suck on his tongue to get more of his glorious taste, I stiffened when he growled out, “I will get us out of here.”
    I wanted to push out of his arms, to explore the room for an exit, but the thought of leaving him had as much appeal as letting go of a buoy and falling into a sea full of Clive Barker’s savage monsters, all whirling fangs and slashing teeth.
    Pulling my phone out of my boot, I pressed the on button and grimaced when I saw that I had no bars on it. Wonderful. I tried moving my arm around, hoping for a signal, but I knew wherever I was, I wasn’t getting service. As quickly as I dared, I shone it around the space we were trapped in, revealing we were in some industrial concrete room with a strong-looking black door. I quickly turned my phone off and put it away, not willing to alert anyone outside I had it.
    “No signal,” I whispered.
    “Nice hiding spot.”
    I took a deep breath as my eyes readjusted to the dark, hating the tiny bit of panic trying to invade my thoughts. “Thanks.”
    Before either of us could say anything else, the door to the room swung open and the lights turned on, blinding me. I raised my arm to cover the glare as I rolled away from Beach. I’d only been still for a moment and was just rising to my knees when Beach let out a pained groan.
    I would have looked to see what had him making that pained sound, but I was too busy being Tasered until I passed out, grateful to leave the nauseating pain of being conscious behind.
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 4

     
    T he painful throbbing of my head tore me awake and I tried to bring my hand to my face to brush away my annoying hair from my eyes, but for some reason my hands seemed to be stuck together. A humming rumble came from the floor beneath my ear and a metallic taste filled my mouth, my whole body aching like I’d just done a twenty-mile hike with my dad. It took me a few more moments to realize my hands were bound together and there was a strip of tape over my mouth. Unfortunately, I also wasn’t being held safely in Beach’s arms, and I instantly worried about him as a strong, breath-stealing pain filled my chest.
    My immediate impulse was to open my eyes and search for him, but this wasn’t the first time I’d been kidnapped so I managed to keep still. True, it was the first time I’d been for-reals taken, but my father had staged enough mock kidnappings that his insane training kicked in. The distracting heat of my anger threatened to overwhelm me and cause me to act rashly, but my mind had been trained by a master manipulator to deal with a crisis. The only thing that could derail me was my phobia, but the danger was so great that my well-honed survival instincts took over and I gathered myself.
    A calm washed over me, clarity returning as I dove into the deep parts of my mind where fear couldn’t touch me. I needed to evaluate the situation and know what I was dealing with. The feel of rough carpet beneath my face combined with the sensation of moving indicated I was probably in a car of some sort, maybe something bigger because I wasn’t feeling anything like a seat. The scent of cleaning chemicals and cigarettes was strong, but that didn’t help me out in any way. It was still dark, or I was in a space with no light because I couldn’t detect any illumination coming through my eyelids. This indicated I’d probably only been out for a little bit, or I was being held in a box of some kind.
    Panic tried to claw at me at the thought of being trapped in a small space, but since it was a vehicle and not a room, I was able to