CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(109)

Jack hadn't drawn more than a doodle since the fire.

He opened the last folder. He usually avoided looking at this particular  photo. It was a picture of him and Cindy. Her hair was as wild as ever,  and her arms were around his neck as she smiled into the camera he held  above their heads. They were in bed in this photo, and though it wasn't  immediately obvious, they'd both been naked. They'd just finished  having sex. There was a pink glow still on their faces.

It all looked so damned normal. Jack suddenly found it hard to breathe  as he stared, particularly at the smiles on their faces. He sighed.

He only looked at this picture to get his bearings straight. He needed  that right now. This smiling woman didn't exist. Jack had once thought  she was something that she wasn't, and when he told her about his family  profession, confessing his secret just as she had confessed hers, she'd  clearly panicked and become consumed with self-preservation.

The worst part about all of it was that even if she was lying, which he  knew she was, it was still his fault his family had burned alive. She'd  told him she was a pyro, and a few days later, he told her he was from a  family of hunters. He'd been so stupid. He thought sharing something  like that would make her feel better, and prove he trusted her.

What the hell had he expected a pyro to do? Did he honestly think she'd  be okay with the fact that her boyfriend had confessed to having the  means to put her away for life if he wanted to? Christ, his father had  always said not to trust anyone with powers. Wars were started by people  like that and hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed or  murdered each year by paranormals.

Despite all that, Jack had placed his trust her, and once he did,  everything had gone to shit, and that hurt so bad that he couldn't even  sleep most nights.

That was all on him. It didn't matter if he handed her over to the  collectors, it wasn't going to bring his father or brothers back. He was  still going to be alone.

Jack got up walked away from the tablet. He couldn't look at it anymore.  He was still hungry after his lunch had been ruined, and he was going  to have to see about tending to Cindy eventually, which wasn't just an  excuse to see her again.





Chapter Seven

Cindy realized she shouldn't have drunk the entire bottle of water so  quickly because now she really had to pee. Jack had been gone for  several hours already, so she was hungry again, too. Body functions had  to come first, and she wasn't about to wet herself because Jack had  thoughtlessly left her down here. It was like being torn between the  idea of humiliating herself, or risking Jack's wrath.

The risk of his anger won out. She didn't want to wet herself like a  child. Cindy slapped her palm on the concrete wall and yelled his name.

It took a few seconds, but eventually there was a response. He came  running down the stairs, his feet banging on the steps the entire way.  He could sometimes be as graceful and silent as a cat, and other times  it was like he was like a wild horse kicking around in a Swarovski shop.

His blue eyes were wide when he burst through the open door and looked  at her, then he scanned the rest of the room, as if he were expecting a  monster to pop out at him. Considering his line of work, maybe he did.

"What?" he demanded when it was obvious that nothing was there.

She stared back at him. He was completely disheveled, hair messed up and his shirt was wide open, exposing his perfect chest.

She'd forgotten about that little line of hair that went down from his  flat navel to his pubic hair, which, if his loose jeans had ridden any  lower, she'd definitely be able to see a lot more of right about now.

Her blood was starting to feel warm in her veins, and it had nothing to  do with her powers. She felt her clit respond as her nipples hardened.  She completely forgot about needing the bathroom.         

     



 

Jack's fingers snapping in front of her face pulled her out of all the bad thoughts she'd just been having.

"Hey, are you okay? What's wrong with you?" he asked, though he was  quickly buttoning up his shirt, which suggested he had an idea of what  her issue was.

Cindy frowned but really, all she felt was humiliation that her body could betray her like that when Jack had her in chains.

"I have to pee," she said. "And I'm hungry again."

Jack ran his hands through his hair. The act messed up the strands and  made them stick out at odd angles, which made him look even more  handsome.

He wasn't even trying to look good. It was just how it was. How the hell was he doing that?

"Alright, I'll be back down with a bucket and some more food. Guess I didn't give you a whole lot the last time."

Cindy hardly paid attention to the food comment. All she heard was bucket. "You can't be serious."

Jack stared at her. "What?"

She couldn't believe it. "A bucket Jack? Are you serious? That isn't even humane."

"Well, to be perfectly fair, you're not a human, so it doesn't matter."

That hurt so much it was like he'd physically slapped her. Again.

It must have shown on her face because Jack didn't say anything. His entire body was tense as he stared at her.

Cindy shook her head and turned away from him. "Fine! Whatever, it doesn't matter! Go get the damned bucket!"

She couldn't look up at him. She was shaking with the helpless fury that  consumed her. Her eyes burned as she sniffed and rubbed at her eyes.

It wasn't actually crying if she wiped the tears away before they could fall, right?

Jack quietly left her little prison, his footsteps light this time as they disappeared up the stairs.

He was gone for a little while. The worst part was that she now had to  go even more, and the idea of humiliating herself and going right there  made her all kinds of anxious, and made her situation seem that much  worse. Yeah, she was definitely crying a little now.

Jack returned, and she still didn't look up at him. She didn't want to look up at him and see the bucket in his hands.

He knelt down next to her, but he barely touched her as he grabbed onto  her chains and did something to them. there was a metal clicking noise.

She finally looked at him, and was stunned to realize he had keys in his  hands, which he was using on the locks that kept her chained to the  wall.

The chains themselves fell away, but the shackles stayed in place with their enchantments still working their magic over her.

She didn't understand. Her first thought was that the collectors had come for her. "What are you doing?"

That was when he pulled a whole different set of chains out from where  they'd been hanging on his belt. They were thinner, but still metal and  looked just as strong.

Right. Of course he wasn't actually taking her chains off. He was just putting her into a whole new set of them.

He clipped and locked one side of the chains onto one of her shackles,  and the other side around his own wrist so they were chained together.  "This chain is longer and lighter than those ones," he said, nodding  down to the heavy things on the floor. "It'll be easier for you to walk  around the house with."

"I...walk around?"

"Don't get any ideas," Jack said. "You're still chained to me, and if  you try something I will have to act. Now come on, I'll take you to the  bathroom."

"Thank God," Cindy said, and she immediately pushed herself to her feet.

Jack didn't seem overly worried about how she was running up the stairs,  probably because she was forced to stop halfway and stare down at him  when he yanked on the chain.

He just gave her a look when she glared at him. "I said it was longer, but not by that much."

"Well, I wasn't joking when I said I needed to go, and I need to go right now," Cindy replied.

Jack jogged up the stairs, and Cindy was still keeping pace with him.  Every step he took was one more step until she could get to the  bathroom.

"It's the second door on the left. Just don't get any ideas in there. I  already cleared it out of all my razors, and anything else you might  think of using as a weapon."

The last thing Cindy's as thinking about was escaping when her bladder  was about to explode. "Yeah, great, whatever, just stay here," she said,  and she tried to slam the door on him, but of course, the stupid chain  prevented that.

Whatever, it was mostly closed, the door wasn't slowly opening on her.  She had her toilet that was relatively close to the door, and she could  still keep it from opening back up with her foot. Cindy got to work  doing what needed to be done and felt so much better after. She sighed  and washed her hands when she finished. She stared down hatefully at the  shackles on her wrists, and she really hoped she would get them all  rusty just to spite the man outside.

"You almost done in there?" Jack asked.

She looked at the door, which was open just a crack thanks to the small chain that was in the way, leading to him.

"Almost," she said, and then she wet her face, her hair, and scrubbed  her arms in the sink, trying to clean up as much as possible without  taking her clothes off and sponge bathing herself.

She grabbed one of his towels beneath the sink and dried herself off.  She then sniffed under her arms. At least she didn't stink anymore.