Kings of Chaos (Dirty Broken Savages #1)(12)

But pain has never stopped me before, and it’s not about to stop me now. I grit my teeth through it and keep pulling until my left hand is free. It’s sore and red around the widest part, but it’s out.

Time for the right one.

That one’s harder, and by the time I have it halfway out, there’s blood pouring down my forearm, and it seems stuck. I rotate my wrist, letting the blood slick the slide of it, lubricating it enough that I can wiggle it free after a minute or so.

I pause when I’m done, holding my breath to hear if anyone is coming. The basement is silent, and I can’t hear anyone on the stairs or coming to the door. Above me, there’s the creaking of floorboards, but that could be coming from anywhere in the house.

There are at least three of them here now, and if they catch me, it probably won’t be pretty.

Stepping away from the wall, I hiss and shake out my wrists. I go over to the cabinets the big guy gestured to before. If he keeps his torture implements in there, then maybe there’s something I can use as a weapon or to get out of the basement in one piece.

I try every door, but they’re all locked up tight. No amount of tugging on the handles does anything to even budge them, and there’s nothing I can use to pry them open.

I’d rather find something I can use to defend myself with before attempting to escape, but I don’t have a lot of choice, so I try it anyway, creeping over to the door that leads to the stairs and testing the knob.

Of course the fucking door to the rest of the house is locked too.

Motherfucker.

They’re smart. Maybe they’ve had a prisoner break out of the shackles before, so now they aren’t taking any chances by leaving the door unlocked. Maybe they’re just good at this and not dumb enough to leave anything to chance. Either way, I’m not going to be able to sneak out of here that way. And there are no windows in the basement, so there’s nothing for me to break or try to force open and climb out of.

I’ll have to wait until one of the guys comes back and then fight my way out. Unarmed, since that one asshole took my gun. I usually like my odds in a fight, but there are three of them and one of me, and the one guy with the wild eyes definitely wasn’t fucking around.

He’d put me down in a heartbeat and probably get off on it. And Blue Eyes and Green Eyes would just let it happen.

I have to find some way to get an advantage over them, but I can plan that as I go.

For now, I settle back down to wait. I work my hands partially back into the cuffs, keeping them loose enough that I can get myself back out of them easily enough. At a quick glance, it looks like I’m still restrained and helpless in their little torture basement, but it won’t fool anyone for long.

Hopefully, it’ll be enough to make whoever comes down next drop their guard.

It’s been a long fucking night. Even before I got mixed up with these guys, there was that whole thing with hunting down the fucking liar who scammed me out of my shot at revenge. That all seems like it happened ages ago now. I can feel the exhaustion dragging at me, so I lean back against the wall and let myself doze off a little, but I don’t drop into a deep sleep.

As soon as I hear the door open, I snap awake, blinking in the darkness to try to get a glimpse of whoever’s coming down.

It’s not one of the three from earlier, but a different guy I haven’t seen before. He’s gorgeous like a model, and as soon as he sees me, he flashes a killer smile.

He looks like the kind of man who knows how hot he is, and the effect he has on anyone inclined to look his way. His hair is dark, but even in the dim light, I can tell it’s thick and soft. His eyes look like a warm amber brown, and I bet there are flecks of gold in his irises when the light hits them just right. He has on glasses, but they just make him look sexy and charming, rather than like a dork.

Everything about the way he moves screams confidence, and he swaggers his way over to where I’m chained up, grinning at me.

When he gets close, I can smell whiskey on his breath and the scent of sex clinging to his clothes and skin. He’s clearly been having fun tonight, and that annoys the hell out of me, but also makes something low in my body go tight for some reason.

But I shake that off and tense up, ready for the fight that’s coming.

“I heard we had a guest,” he says in a smooth voice, like he might be flirting with someone at a bar and not talking to a prisoner in his house. “So I had to come see for myself. How did you sleep?”

I lift an eyebrow at him. Unlike the others, he’s not making demands or threats. But if he thinks he can flirt the information out of me, he’s about to be extremely disappointed.

“I’ve got some complaints, actually,” I tell him. “The room service sucks, and there was no chocolate on my pillow. If this is how you treat your guests, I’m afraid I’m gonna have no choice but to leave a one-star review.”

One of the others, short tempered as they seem to be, might have lashed out at my smartass response, but Four Eyes only grins. Huh. That’s a good way to keep them separate in my mind since I don’t know their names and don’t want to know them. Blue Eyes, Green Eyes, Wild Eyes, and Four Eyes. The fuckers keeping me captive. The ones I have to get through if I want to get out of here.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he says, practically purring. “We usually try to keep our lovely guests so much more comfortable than this. Has Knox been down to see you yet?”