Code Name: Genesis (Jameson Force Security #1)(56)

I disconnect the call, driving like a bat out of hell… knowing the clock is ticking way too fast.





CHAPTER 26




Joslyn


I come groggily awake for what feels like the third or fourth time, struggling to keep my eyes open. Wherever I am, it is almost pitch black around me. I can tell I’m in a chair with my hands tied behind the back. Moving my legs is impossible. It feels like my ankles are tied to each of the front legs of the chair with rope.

I’m also really cold, and I think my clothes have been removed.

In front of me is a thin, bright line running horizontally where I believe the floor meets the doorway. I’m feeling incredibly tired, my eyes wanting to drift shut again. The darkness presses heavily upon me, making me want to give back to sleep.

But then I hear something. Or perhaps I just feel a presence.

Horrible wrenching sounds—like metal is being ripped apart—screech through my ears, then white light floods the darkness.

It’s so bright that pain shoots through my head, and I have to snap my eyes shut against it. I can feel a thin veil of warmth hit my body, so it must be sunlight. When I manage to flutter my eyelids open, a person is silhouetted in the doorway.

Without a doubt, it’s him.

He stands there facing me. Even though I can’t see the details of his face, I can’t bear to look at him. My head drops and I take in my body, noticing I am indeed naked except for my bra and panties. My legs are spread slightly due to the fact they are tied to the front chair legs.

No clue what he has done to me.

I try for an internal evaluation to see if I’m feeling pain anywhere.

I’m not, except for a dull headache. I don’t feel anything throughout my body as I try to flex muscles, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t rape me. Still, I have to believe if he had, he would have just left me naked. At least that’s my hope, but I can’t dwell on that now. I have more important things to worry about—like staying alive.

My stalker steps forward, then reaches out and flips a switch. An overhead light comes on directly above me, illuminating a bare bulb hanging from a socket. The man pulls the door shut behind himself, the hinges sounding like groaning steel. All of a sudden, I realize I’m in a metal shipping container about the size of a standard bedroom.

“Where am I?” I ask, my tongue thick and heavy in my mouth. It’s an effort to form words.

The man is standing just beyond the scope of light. I have to admit, he’s more terrifying standing in the shadows than if he were right in my face. He gives a dark chuckle. “Why, you’re at my home.”

“You live in a steel box?” I snap.

He laughs again, totally amused by my defiance. “Of course not, my beautiful girl. I live in a house. But you are on land that encompasses my home, so that might be the better way to say it.”

“What did you do to me?” I ask, concerned at how much of an effort it is to talk. My words are heavy and slurred, and I struggle to make sure they sound coherent.

My kidnapper takes a step forward, then another. I shrink back as far as I can. When he comes into the scope of light, I realize he is more terrifying close up than when he was in the shadows. It all comes back to me—the normalcy of this man. How common he appears. He could be anybody. The fact he does not resemble a monster makes him all the more frightening.

He squats before me, placing his hands on my thighs just above my kneecaps. Bile rises in my throat from his touch. “I gave you Midazolam. It’s a short-acting sedative that should wear off soon.”

“Why? I got in the car as you asked. Why did you have to drug me?”

Snorting, the bastard shakes his head. “I really couldn’t have you struggling against me. You put up a hell of a fight the last time we met, so it’s with my deepest apologies I had to do that.”

A sharp, hysterical laugh bubbles up. “Apologize? You’ve tried to kill me once already. You’ve kidnapped me. And now you’re apologizing?”

His expression goes horrified at my accusation. Shaking his head, he says, “No, no, no. I didn’t try to kill you that first time, sweet girl. I just wanted you unconscious so I could… do things to you. I didn’t want to hit you on the head—maybe risk brain damage. And let me remind you that you willingly got in my car. I didn’t kidnap you.”

That’s just semantics, but then it hits me what he said. I did get in the car with him willingly, but that was because he has Lynn.

Terror jolts through my body. I jerk hard against my bindings, scanning wildly around the interior of the shipping container. I scream, “Lynn. Lynn, are you here?”

The man squeezes my legs reassuringly before he stands. “Calm down, Joslyn. She’s not here.”

I snap my head around, glaring with disbelief. “Where is she? What have you done to her? You promised you would let her go.”

“I didn’t need to let her go,” he drawls with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Because I never had her in the first place.”

My brain turns fuzzy again, trying to understand the meaning behind his words. “What? I don’t understand.”

The asshole bends and puts his face near mine. The smell of stale coffee hits me hard. His grin is leering. “Of course you don’t understand. Because you’re stupid, Joslyn. I never had Lynn. Did you ever stop to think that maybe I sent you a fake photo? That I had doctored it up? Did you not once consider that if I was good enough to hack into city cameras so you and your merry band of fake detectives couldn’t find me, that I could doctor up a single fucking photo? You’re so goddamn gullible, Joslyn, and you made this so easy. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you wanted me to take you.”