Page 52 of Burning for You
Caro
I’m old enough to be his mother?
That enrages me more than being locked up in yet another shed.
I shake and kick the door. It looks like a flimsy old slab of wood, but with whatever Jesse has fixed on it, the door doesn’t budge.
I take stock of what my options are right now. Jesse said I killed their father. Who the hell are these brothers? My assumption about Teller hiring them doesn’t seem to fit anymore. But my old enemy is in the picture; Levi twitched at the mention of his name.
Did Josh kill the brothers’ father to get their land, and Rupert took advantage of the situation to get back at me? Being Josh’s fiancé and business partner, in the Holts’ eyes, what Josh did, I did.
I feel chills at the thought. So Levi and Jesse serve their revenge on me, while Teller is enjoying my ordeal? Neither the brothers nor Teller has anything to lose, so there is a possibility that I might not come out alive, especially in the hands of Jesse Holt.
I have to get Levi on my side, seduce him until he surrenders to me—which I think won’t be that hard to achieve, judging by how he’s been around me. It’s the only way I can get out of this situation.
It’s getting dark now and I hear someone at the door, fiddling with what sounds like chains. As the door is pushed ajar, I see the barrel of a gun poking in.
Please don’t let it be Jesse.
But this isn’t my day. The older Holt brother stands stiffly in the doorway, gun in one hand and chains in another.
“What the hell…” I say as he drags me like animal control capturing a feral dog. He then forces my wrists together.
I thrash around but the big man effortlessly puts me in my place—which is on the cold concrete ground, lying face-down.
“I don’t trust you,” he says, putting his knee on my nape while chaining my hands behind my back. Then he drags me to the corner of the shed. I’m sure he’s going to fasten the end of the chains onto a loop planted on the floor.
“No!” I gyrate to resist him, but for that, he encircles my neck with the rest of the chains, shortening the leash. “Bastard!” I spit at him. “I’m not one of your cattle.”
“Oh well, you are now,” he says, wiping his chin. Then he squashes my jaw. “Our first new cattle in three months. My brother may be lenient with you, but don’t expect the same thing from me. I want you to die. Just remember that.”
Where the hell is Levi? Isn’t it time to talk? Surely, he wouldn’t let his brother do this to me.
“Who the hell are you?” I grouse.
“I’m Jesse Holt, and my brother is Levi Holt. We’re the sons of a murdered father. You are the murderer!”
“You’ve got the wrong person! I don’t know any of you, let alone your father.”
“Sweet dreams,” Jesse says and leaves.
“Wait!” I shout. “Jesse!”
With the way Jesse has shackled me, I’m forced to lie on my right side, my cheek pressed against the floor. I can’t sit up, I can’t roll on my back.
I tug at the chains, but I’m only hurting my wrists and my neck.
“Shit…”
Hours go by with no sign of Levi. What the hell is going on? Has he changed his mind about talking?
The night is falling, and with every darker shade the room plunges into, my heart rate shoots up. I hyperventilate as the bleakness takes me back to that fateful night of my accident.
“Hey! Get me out of here!” I cry out.
Now rain starts battering the land around me. For the first time, I truly feel the enormity of my situation.
There are small leaks everywhere, and a few of them are right above me. I’m not a virgin when it comes to facing nature’s force. I’ve spent nights battling the Amazon rain, got attacked by leeches, woken up with a snake inside my sleeping bag, and almost died of snail poison. But what Jesse Holt is putting me through is one of the worst forms of torture. Water torture. The Chinese invented it to break their victims’ spirits. Jesse is doing exactly that to me.