Hooked: A Dark, Contemporary Romance (Never After #1)(47)

His eyes flick from my face to where I’m bound to the wall, the grin dropping from his face. “Playing the victim is a terribly unbecoming trait.” His voice is flat, and the hollow tone makes my chest compress, realizing the warm charm I was used to has disappeared entirely.

I huff out a breath, disbelief squeezing my middle. “You have me chained to a wall,” I state.

He nods. “A temporary tactic, I assure you.”

My eyes narrow, anger bubbling in my gut. “You drugged me.”

He flips his knife through his fingers, the move so practiced and smooth it sends a spike of fear bolting through my chest.

“Would you have come willingly?” His brow lifts.

A ball lodges in my throat, my insides fracturing from the strength it takes to keep from letting tears escape. “I would have gone anywhere with you.” My voice breaks. “Please, I—”

I lose the battle to my emotions, and wetness coasts down my face, the tears hot against my chilled skin.

He crouches down, blade hanging between his legs, his gaze stripping me bare and burning me alive. “Your father took something,” he pauses, his eyes briefly closing. “Something irreplaceable from me.”

My heart stalls, and I sniff, trying to stop my nose from running with my tears. “My father? I don’t—”

He shoots up from his position, pacing across the room until he meets the chair, his hand wrapping around the back and flinging it toward me. My lungs seize, stomach dropping to the floor as the wood splinters next to my head, my hair blowing from the force of it smashing against the wall. He stalks back to me, lunging forward and gripping my jaw tightly in his hands. “Don’t play innocent, you vapid, stupid girl.”

My heart claws at my chest, hiccups stuttering my breath as his insults and small pieces of wood slice like paper cuts along my skin. Looking straight into his eyes, I search for a sliver of the man I thought I knew. The man who I gave everything to.

But he’s long gone.

Or maybe he never existed at all.

He’s right. I am a stupid girl.

My tongue swipes out, getting caught on the rough, chapped edges of my lips, and I speak slowly, trepidation filling me from the inside out. This man—Hook—is a stranger. And something whispers in the back of my head to tread carefully. To do whatever it takes to just stay alive.

My father will come for me. He has to.

“James,” I speak slowly. “If my father… if he did something.”

His sharp laugh soars through the air, his grip tightening until my teeth cut into skin. “You showed up at my bar,” he hisses. “And then you distracted me when others needed me most.”

I attempt to shake my head, but his grasp is strong, his eyes wild as they stare into mine, before flicking to the chains at my side.

My insides are twisted in tight coils, nerve endings frazzled and frayed, and I watch this stranger as he rages at me with the fire of a thousand suns. He looks like he wants to kill me.

My fingers press into the ground at my sides, my heart beating in my throat.

Leaning his head to the side, his eyes close in a slow blink. And when they open, the fire has been doused.

He’s a blank slate. His gaze just two vacant holes, rimmed in blue.

The grip on my jaw loosens, his gloved fingers caressing my skin like a lover, before his focus flicks to the bindings on the wall.

I inhale, holding it in my lungs, afraid to even breathe, worried that it might set him off again.

He stands, pulling something out of his pocket.

My body cowers, chest squeezing as he nears. He hovers above me, his spicy scent invading my nostrils, and making me hate myself for the way my heart skips at the smell. A jostling sensation on my wrist, and then a click, followed by pinpricks of pain lancing down my arm as blood flows freely back into my hand.

He’s unlocking my chains.

“I find it’s rather erotic having you cuffed to my walls,” he says as he moves to the other side. “But you’re no use to me damaged.”

I pull my arms to my chest, my fingers rubbing against the raw skin of my wrist.

“At least not at the moment.”

His face comes within inches of mine, my stomach compressing at the sudden movement. “If you act out, I will retaliate.”

Heartbreak sits heavy in my gut, rising up and coating my throat like bile. “What could you possibly do that you haven’t already done?”

His eyes dance over my face, almost as if he’s memorizing the lines. The sudden switch of his demeanor makes unease weave through my every cell. He leans in, pressing his lips to mine. My body freezes in place, eyes widening.

His thumb caresses my cheek. “You will eat. You will drink the water we provide.” His fingers reach around to the nape of my neck, squeezing slightly. “And you will not do anything reckless, or I will chain you to the ceiling and rain your blood onto the floor.”

Betrayal lodges deeper with each word he says until it fills up every pore and marinates in my blood. “I hate you,” I whisper.

He smirks before he forcefully tosses my head away, my hands catching my body as I tumble sideways, my elbows cracking as they hit the ground.

Standing up, he runs his gloved palms down the front of his suit. “Do not make the mistake of thinking I’m someone you can disrespect.”

Nausea sloshes through my gut.