“You eat when it’s time,” he responds coldly. What the hell is it with this man and time? Like we have anything else to do all damn day and need to be on a strict schedule.
“I can walk by myself. Get your perverted hands off me,” I hiss through my teeth.
He responds by squeezing my arm tighter and jerking me down the hallway until we reach the kitchen. I immediately notice only two plates are set at the table.
“Where’s Ty?” I ask, walking to one of the chairs.
“Don’t worry about him. He’s been taken care of.”
My stomach drops and nausea surfaces as the contents of my lunch threaten to come up.
What the fuck does taken care of mean? I’m afraid to even ask, but I do anyway.
“What’s that mean? Is he gone?”
Eric sits in the chair across from me, not looking in my direction.
“Eat. Then I want you back in your room.”
“I thought I was allowed to go anywhere,” I say, having no appetite. I can tell Eric cooked tonight and though it doesn’t look bad, it’s nothing compared to Ty’s Southern recipes.
“The rules have changed.”
It’s after nine p.m., and as I pace my bedroom, I can’t stop thinking about Ty and what they did to him. It’s all my fault; I should’ve left him alone and stopped trying to get too close. Being trapped here with nothing to do and no one to talk to is fucking lonely, and when Ty gave me an opening for some kind of friendship, I took it and demanded more.
Now he could be dead because of me.
My head’s still pounding, and I can’t sleep, so I tiptoe to the kitchen to find some medicine. When I finally do, I swallow down two pills with some water and reluctantly go back to my room. Deciding a hot bath might help, I grab some comfy clothes and one of the plush robes I hung up on my door, then head to the bathroom.
Just as I start to undress, a hard body presses against my back as an arm tightly wraps around my waist and a hand covers my mouth. I immediately try to scream and twist around in his grip, but he’s too strong and squeezes me into his chest. Eric’s probably twice as strong as I am, but I’m not about to go down without a fight.
“Maddie, quiet,” a whispered voice says in my ear, one that I recognize. “It’s Ty. I need you not to scream, you hear me?”
Ty? What the hell is going on?
I wiggle against him, trying to look over my shoulder to see for myself. When I’m met with his intense brown eyes and feel his facial hair scratch against my cheek, my body relaxes in his hold.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he reassures, slowly removing his hand. When he’s confident I won’t yell, he turns me to face him. “I have a plan, but I need you to trust me. We’re getting you out of here tonight.”
His soft non-threatening voice is different from his normal commanding tone, but I like it. When I trail down his body, I notice he’s dressed differently too, similar to what Liam wears when he’s out on a job. Bullet-proof vest and a duty belt around his waist.
“Are you an undercover cop?” I ask quietly.
Ty slowly reveals a grin. “Not exactly, but I was undercover. You need to trust me, okay? Stay in your room and start packing your stuff. I’ll be back for you shortly.”
My heart rate quickens. “What does that mean? If you’re not a cop, then…”
“I’m a friend of Liam’s,” he tells me. “Tyler Blackwood. I know all about you, Mads.”
At the sound of my nickname, my eyes widen in shock. “Oh my God.” Blinking, I try to piece this information together. What? How? When? He must’ve been working for Victoria long before I was kidnapped.
“Is Liam okay? Does he know what’s going on?” I ask.
“He’s fine as far as I know. I texted him a couple of days ago to let him know I was getting you out, but that’s it.” He inhales sharply, then looks at his watch. “I reset the cameras, and in a minute, they’ll restart so I need to go. You’ll hear some noises, and then all the lights are going to go off.”
“Wait, what?” I panic.
“Stay here until I come back for you, got it? I need to take care of Eric and then handle Victoria so she doesn’t send backup.”
This is too much at once, and I feel like I’m going to let him down.
Ty opens the bathroom door, then turns. “Pack your stuff. We have five minutes or less.”
Then he walks out.
Frantically, I grab the suitcase and backpack I arrived with, then shove my clothes and books in them. In the midst of it, I hear shouting down the hallway and crashing as if they’re fighting. My nerves are shot, and I’m terrified of how this plan will affect Liam, but what other choice do I have? I put on my shoes and a sweatshirt, then impatiently wait for him to return.
Abruptly, everything goes quiet, and then moments later, the power goes off.
I see brightness as my bedroom door opens and blow out a relieved breath when I see Ty with a flashlight.
“Ready? We gotta move.”
Gulping, I put on my backpack, and Ty takes my suitcase. “The truck is out back. Let’s go.”
Ty leads us through the house, and my erratic breathing and the hard pounding of my heart are all that can be heard. What did he do to Eric? Where are we going? What happens if we get caught?
He throws my bags inside, then opens the passenger door. “Buckle up. We’re about to race the fuck outta here.” Ty winks, then rushes around to the driver’s side.
“I see your mind’s spinning,” Ty says after five minutes. “I know this is a lot to take in, but since Victoria was about to send a replacement for me, I had to execute my plan a little earlier than anticipated.”
“And what was your plan exactly?” I ask nervously.
“Well, basically this, but I had hoped to get Eric on board. However, since the bastard’s head was so far up Victoria’s ass, I realized there was no way it would happen. So, I took matters into my own hands.”
I’m too afraid to ask him what he did exactly, so I don’t. The less I know, the better in case this doesn’t work out. All I need to know is how we’re getting out of this.
“How do you know Liam?”
“I actually met him through Mason. I was his boxing trainer in Sacramento before I moved to Vegas and met Liam at the gym one day,” he explains, then something clicks in my head.
“I knew I never told you Mason’s name!” I point at him. “You slipped!”
We both laugh, but I feel better knowing I wasn’t going as crazy as I thought I was being stuck there.
“So, how’d you become one of Victoria’s guards anyway?”
He looks over and smirks. “Now that’s a story for another day. Right now, we need to get into a different car since this one has a GPS tracker.”
I nod, understanding. “Can you at least tell me why then?”
“I knew Liam was in trouble with the O’Learys, and when I offered to help, he told me to stay out of it.”
“Which clearly you didn’t.”
“Nah, not my style. I told him I’d figure out a way to help him but didn’t tell him what I was planning in the event they found out. That way he wouldn’t be forced to give up any information on me. I knew what Victoria wanted from him and how she was playing him. I fuckin’ hate them all, so I was ready to go undercover to get information that’d help Liam out of his fucked-up deal.”