Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(62)

Katt stopped behind her. "Hold up your head."

Her breath wheezed from her chest. "What do you want?"

He drove the toe of his boot into her hamstring. "Bitch, when I tell you what to do, you do it. Hold up your fucking head."

She bit off a cry of pain and caught herself before her face smashed into the yarn bin in front of her. Before she could raise her head, Katt grabbed her hair and jerked her up onto her knees. In her mind, he was a nondescript guy of average strength but in reality, he was strong. He dropped a scratchy rope over her head and yanked hard, tipping her over onto her side. The rope tightened painfully. Gasping for breath, she clawed at the thick braid of … yarn. The skeins he'd stolen...

Muttering beneath his breath, Katt dragged her across the store, using the yarn rope as a leash. She flailed blindly, grasping for anything. Her nails tore on the leg of a fixture as Katt hauled her away.

"First it was about money," Katt said. "But I figured I was never going to get my money back from you so I'd have to take something else."

"Don't … owe … " Lily tried to jam her fingers beneath the rope in an effort to create some space she could breathe through. Her throat burned over the words she managed before she gave up on speaking.

"Shut up." He dragged her past the spindle display, the unbleached yarns, the small selection of how-to books. The wall of needles loomed in front of her face. Desperate, she grabbed at the lowest display. Three packages of needles came off in her hand and fell to the floor.



       
         
       
        

Vision blurring, she scrabbled in the display one more time before Katt pulled her out of reach. The cardboard edges of a piece of packaging pinched her palm but she had it.

Finally, he pulled her into the tiny bathroom and dropped the rope. Her head bounced off the base of the toilet. She curled around her stomach protectively, wary of a kick, afraid he would see the needles she'd grabbed, but he barely paid attention to her. He backed away after tying her to the pipes beneath the sink. "You stay there. I'll be back."

He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the bathroom. Blinking through her dizziness, she clawed at the rope. There wasn't any slack at all. Smothering her panic, she shook the knitting needles free and blindly used the tip of one to start picking out individual strands. It was slow work, but eventually she loosened and broke enough yarn that the rope loosened. Heart racing so hard it was a wonder she hadn't passed out, Lily wrestled the rope over her head. The full sight of the silk wool noose twisted her stomach. Not a rope. A noose. He'd made a noose for her.

She was still staring at the fibrous snake when a crash sounded on the other side of the door. Lily jumped and whirled to flatten her back against the wall. Another crash followed. Then silence.

Swallowing down her panic, she fisted her needles. Fourteen inches of aluminum. Not a knife, but they'd do some damage.



* * *

With a sense of peace even he recognized as slightly off-balance, Jim systematically smashed every one of the store's security cameras before he removed his mask. He wanted her to know him when he crouched above her. Wanted to feel the gouge of her fingernails on his face if she decided to fight back.

But he wanted to savor the experience, too. So he sat on the sofa that faced away from the window, ignoring the stupid bird that kept throwing itself against the glass. Closing his eyes, he smiled at the memory of watching her come. And he made her wait, too. The longer she waited, confused and afraid, the wetter she'd be when he took his turn.



* * *

"She said she'd meet us at eight," Summer said after the server left their table for the fifth time.

Jude threw her a narrow-eyed look and checked his phone again even though he knew there was still nothing from Lily, no text or voicemail. Frustration burned in his stomach. "You shouldn't have set this up, Summer."

"She was fine. She'd have said no if she didn't want to come," his sister replied defensively. "I bet she got hung up at the store. I think the other employee had some kind of problem with her keys."

He jerked his head up, eyes narrow for a different reason. "What kind of problem?" 

Summer shrugged. "I guess the other woman lost her keys. She had to borrow Lily's."

"Come on." Jude tossed a twenty on the table for their drinks and the server's time and stood, already dialing Lily's number.

"We're leaving?" Summer rose with a frown. "What if she's just running late?"

The phone just rang itself to voicemail.