Free What He Reveals (What He Wants, Book Eight) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford Page A

threw
me off balance, making it impossible to stand.   Not that it really mattered.   I wasn’t sure what I was going to do even if I somehow could stand up – I was handcuffed, and
even if I wasn’t, Audi James was twice my size.   I had no weapon, no escape route, no way to protect myself.   I had no
idea where my cell phone was – it had been lost somewhere while those men
had been carrying me here.   I
didn’t remember if I’d dropped it, or if they’d taken it from me.
    “Just relax,” Audi said soothingly.   The light clicked on overhead.   “You don’t have to be scared.   This is going to be just as you
imagined it would be.”
    I didn’t know what he was talking
about.   He was obviously mad.
    I took in a shaking breath and tried to
calm myself.   It was apparent my
screaming wasn’t going to help anything – this place was a complete maze,
and I’d heard people screaming and begging as I’d moved through it.   More screams weren’t going to alert
anyone that I needed help.   No, I
needed to save my strength, and think about what I could do to get out of this
mess.
    Audi James crossed the room and placed
the metal thing he’d been holding down on a dirty footstool that was sitting in
the corner.
    It was a knife.
    In the dim light, it didn’t shine as
brightly as it had in the hallway.   I was far enough away that I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like a
butcher knife.   The blade was sharp
but seemed almost darker than the rest of the knife, like perhaps it had been dulled
and then sharpened recently.
    I wracked my brain for anything I could
use from all the case studies I’d read, anything where the victim had gotten
away from a captor.   I remembered a
case from Georgia, where a prisoner had escaped from a courthouse after killing
two police officers and a security guard.   He’d gone on the run, sparking a manhunt that spanned three
counties.   He evaded the police for
a while, then broke into a house and took a woman hostage.
    She’d been held captive for five days,
knowing that he’d killed those people, knowing that the police were closing in
on him.   He’d had a gun and he was
desperate.   She’d been able to save
herself and convince him to turn himself in by talking to him, getting to know
him, making him connect with her.
    Try
to make Audi see you as human, I told myself.
    “What are you doing?” I asked.   I tried to keep the fear out of my
voice, but it was difficult.   My
voice trembled and my whole body was shaking.
    “Getting ready for the experience,” he
said.   He reached up and opened two
tiny trap doors that were built into the ceiling.   Two shackles dropped down, their chains clinking as they
fell.
    Audi James turned to look at me, and I
forced myself not to look away.   His eyes seemed to turn to black as they met my gaze.
    This
is what evil looks like, I thought to myself.
    He’d killed those girls.   Nora.   Dani.   Katie.   And
now me.
    “Why are you doing this?” I asked as he
walked over to me, the sound of his heavy work boots echoing off the concrete
floor.
    The side of his mouth twitched for a second.   “Are you gonna be a screamer, Sweets?” he asked.   “Are you going to scream real loud for Daddy?”   He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of gum,
popped it into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.   His eyes took me in, racking up my body, sizing me up.   “You’re thick.   You gonna struggle?”
    “You don’t have to do this,” I said.   “If you killed those girls, you should
turn yourself in.”
    “I didn’t kill no girls,” he said, his
voice sharp with anger.
    “No, of course not,” I said quickly.   “I’m a lawyer.   I can help you show everyone you didn’t
do it.   But first you have to let
me go.”
    He grinned again, then leaned down so that his face was right up against mine.   His breath smelled like strawberry gum,
and even though it wasn’t an unpleasant odor, it made