Took all my focus to make myself walk. When I finally got to Cassie's door, I stopped.
My head was killing me. Each step closer deepened the headache overtaking my skull. I reached into my pockets and felt for the phone. With any luck, the bastard was going to get less than pristine images, and I didn't give a shit.
She can't see it coming. You've got to be quick, savage, merciless...
She's not your fucking girlfriend! She's his slave and your bargaining chip. Act like it.
I shook my hand to stop it from trembling before I gripped the door knob to her room. It turned, and I popped the door, peering through the darkness. A second later, I was in, and it clicked shut behind me.
“Cassie? Where the hell are you?”
My fingers ran over the soft lumps on the bed where I expected to find her sleeping. Too soft.
Fuck! Something wasn't right.
V: Naked (Cassie)
I waited in the little bathroom, clutching the heavy toilet seat tight to my chest. It was hard to keep my breath in check, holding it to my body so he wouldn't hear.
Evan walked right past me. His eyes scared me.
I only saw a tiny flash of light in them before the door clicked shut behind him. Pain was mixed with determination in his pupils, spilling out into the worried creases on his strong face. It was enough to tell me something monstrous was planned.
Jesus, my instincts weren't wrong. This was it.
Was he going to drag me off to the other man he mentioned tonight? Or was he going to show me what being a slave really meant, a harsher captivity worse than sweeping floors and folding shirts?
No. I won't let him.
I gripped my little weapon tighter. It had taken a long time to pry it off its bolts with my bare hands. The heavy seat was warm against my palms, mirroring my fear, my horror at the predator storming into my space.
He was out there in the darkness, standing over my bed. Before he came, I piled up the pillows beneath my blankets, making him think I was there for him.
“Cassie?” He reached down and ran his hand over the softness. “Where the hell are you?”
It's now or never. Get up! Go!
“I don't have time for fucking games. Show yourself right now!” He spoke louder into the darkness, his voice growing ragged with my deception sinking in.
I wasn't concerned about being quiet anymore. I ran forward, toilet seat over my head, ready to smash it on his skull and put him out cold. It was my one and only chance to get away from him.
Evan turned. I came to a dead stop just a foot away.
I froze. I literally fucking froze when I saw the anger, the desperation, and the violent fire in his face. His whole appearance was a paradox, one my brain refused to process.
I couldn't believe a man who looked so intense, so handsome, wanted to do me harm. And not just any harm, but the worst a girl could imagine. He meant to enslave me to a stranger I didn't even know. I was his property to be traded. Nothing more.
The freakish disconnect between his looks and his intentions turned my blood to ice. So did the terrible desperation on his face, as if somebody were holding a gun to his head, making him do these awful things.
“Cassie! Stop!” My name left his lips like a bullet this time. “Put that fucking thing down. You can't hurt me.”
No. No! I can't let him get to me. I can't spare him any mercy when he isn't giving me a shred!
Instinct hit like lightning. The spell broke, and I lunged forward, screaming as I hurled the toilet seat at his skull.
I was fast, but he was faster. My swing missed. The weight swung my body like a ragdoll, almost sent me crashing to the floor, before I picked myself up again.
The second I stopped and gawked at him cost me dearly. He rammed himself into my body like a freight train, and I was knocked back across the bed, struggling to get in one last blow before he pinned me down, before it was too late...
“Bitch! You're trying to kill me?” His voice was strained, as if he couldn't believe it, even though I moved like a hissing, deadly tigress beneath him. “Never thought you had it in you.”
I swung the toilet seat just as he spread his palm over my face, pushing my head deep into the mattress. He covered my eyes.
Blinded. Crazed. Fucked.
The seat flew out of my hands and I heard the deafening crash on the floor, porcelain splintering into a hundred shards. For a second, his hand tightened its grip, and then relaxed.
In one swift motion, he clutched at my shoulders, and gave me a hard shake. “Goddamn it, Cassie! What the fuck were you thinking?”
It was my turn to gawk in disbelief. How could this monster look so hurt by what I'd done? Did he really think I wouldn't try to protect myself, try like hell to fight him and escape all this?
I wasn't done.
I kicked and screamed. Or rather, I tried to, thrashing and bellowing like a mad woman as he held me down.