Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance

by Laura Christopher

  "That's a Hartman," he said, mirroring what I had just been thinking. "Jack, my younger brother, he calls me confused because of my accent."

  "Confused?"

  "Yeah, It’s always the same. Women asking if I'm Australian or British" just as I had back before we had gotten in this current situation "Jack always turns around and tells them, 'He's American but just a confused one' thinks he is so funny with that one."

  "I mean, it is pretty funny." A smile tugged at my lips, thankful that we were still blindfolded, and he couldn't see it.

  "Of course, you would agree with him," groaning. I heard his chair scrape a little louder as he continued to try and get through the cable tie, or the rope "bloody typical."

  "How is that rope venture going over there?" Because it sounded like it was not going anywhere from here.

  "Terrible" he admitted "It will break either this cable tie or the rope, I don't care which but one of them is going to fucking break whether they like it or not"

  "Fighting words there."

  "Hel...." The words died in his lips as the sound of a door slamming somewhere nearby made us go silent.

  A breath stuck in my throat. They’re here.

  "Don't say a word, Sneaks," Noah whispered before they entered the room, we were tied up in. A squeak from the door gave it away before it slammed shut behind them.

  The atmosphere instantly changed as soon as they walked into the room. Iciness crept in all around, hugging us like an unwelcome relative.

  The footsteps, two sets of them, echoed throughout the room. The overwhelming sense of someone looking down on me made me want to cringe as the steps came to a halt, right in front of me.

  A dense paper bag was dropped on top of my legs. Unable to move my hands from behind my back, I had no idea what it was. Suddenly I could feel them as they moved to stand behind me. I was surprised when something cold and hard ran down my forearm. As a breath caught in my throat from fear, I recognized precisely what it was, a blade.

  The hard blade began to run along my wrists now, digging into the skin painfully with just a fraction less of the pressure needed to break it, to spill more of my blood. Panic flared, and I daren't move. Fear that the blade would be pressed against my skin hard enough to cut me and cause more pain. Making me bleed even more than the cable tie ever had.

  Feeling a rush of fresh warm liquid begin to drip down my fingers as the knife toyed with the cable tie, I gasped. They were pulling open the wounds that had healed somewhat since we’d been tied to the chairs.

  A sharp pain radiated from the cuts already on my wrists as it was tugged against them.

  I could almost hear my heartbeat pumping out loud as if my heart was outside of my chest.

  Every part of me was focused on that cold blade as it continued to run back and forth.

  Was this it?

  Was I about to die?

  A scream stuck in my throat; no sound able to come out. This man, this person was toying with me, trying to break me.

  My brain ran a mile a minute, trying to come up with something, anything to say, to do.

  Stay quiet.

  That is what Diablo, Noah, had told me to do.

  Do not say a word, just stay quiet, Val, stay calm.

  Wrapping my lips around my teeth, I flinched as the blade finally began to cut straight through the cable tie. My hands instantly fell apart, and the relief was like nothing I had felt before. They were so sore, and I dreaded if I ever got to see them again, what they would look like. Without a doubt, I knew that if we did miraculously make it out of this somehow, I would have to look down at them and see those scars, probably for the rest of my life.

  "Eat," the same robotic voice from when they had brought us here made me jump slightly. "Quickly."

  My hands instantly dove into the bag on my lap, ignoring the pain of my sore throbbing wrists and the fact that they were probably bleeding over everything right now. My shaking fingers were greeted by a sandwich cut into two rectangles. Eating quicker than I thought possible, my mouth salivated at the plain cheese sandwich I was destroying.

  The same instructions were being given to Noah, I guess, but I was too engrossed in my own food to care right now.

  All too quickly that was gone, I found a bottle of water at the bottom of the bag. Not proud of how fast or noisily I drank it, some missing my mouth entirely and poured down onto my chest in the process. Once the bottle was empty, I gave an almost satisfied sigh dropping the bottle onto the now empty bag on my lap.

  Out of politeness and how I had been brought up, I almost thanked them but thought better.

  If they were feeding us, that was a good sign. They wanted to keep us alive. Maybe we had more time than I had thought. Perhaps we could genuinely get out of this.

  If they just wanted to kill us, we would already be dead, but if they were keeping us alive. Feeding us, there must be something more to this. There must be something they wanted, and if my gut feeling was right, it had to be money from Noah's family. It was the only explanation.

  Suddenly the bag was snatched out of my lap and my hands were grasped in a pair of cold leather gloved ones, but instead of pulling them behind my back, they were being held in front of me as a new cable tie replaced the old one. This time though, it was even tighter than before, and I couldn't help the wimpier that left my mouth as it was tightened to the extreme, my hands began to throb from how tight it was.

  "What are you doing?" Noah shouted out after hearing me. I could hear them moving around him, a hiss of a threat with words that I could not understand. Hating not being able to see, I bent my head down and almost managed to free my eyes from the rag, but just as I was about to, my head was ripped backward. A large hand wrapped around my throat tightly, a leather glove was the only thing that separated our skin from touching.

  "Don't even think about it," a deep British voice growled into my ear, a non-robotic voice. The fingers lingered a second too long, and then I was suddenly released.

  My breathing spiked, and I could still hear Noah struggling with what I am assuming was the other one.

  Had the third one entered the room too?

  There had been three before, right?

  The lack of proper sleep and decent food was making me nothing but confused.

  "You two need to play nice," the one further away spoke, the one who must have been with Noah. They were using the robotic voice distorter again. "Any more issues, and there will be some time outs, and I know our friend would love some alone time with you, Silver."

  How original.

  He was calling me after the color of my hair.

  I hadn't heard that one before.

  The squeak of the door, followed by it slamming shut, left us both in silence.

  The only sounds were our heavy breathing.

  Both of us stayed silent. Fear seeping into our bones.

  Chapter Five

  Valentina

  “Are you okay?” Noah sounded worried, the words falling out of his mouth only moments after the door had closed behind them.

  It had only been a couple of minutes and yet somehow, I felt like that hand was still wrapped around my throat “Yea... Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “What happened?” I could hear the metal legs on his chair scraping along the floor as if he was trying to close the distance between us.

  “They put a new cable tie on, tighter. My hands are going numb” I would bet if I could see them, they would also be turning blue from the lack of blood flow.

  Cursing under his breath, he almost whispered to low for me to hear him, “We gotta get out of here, Sneaks.”

  “No, shit.” We had already been here too damn long as it was.

  Flinching as a warm hand pressed against the side of my thigh, “It’s just me” he’s warm breath blew across my face. “Give me your hand.”

  “Why?” With trepidation, I held them back.

  “I think if I rub my cable tie against yours, one of them will break, and
then we can get free, Maybe.”

  “What if they come back in?” What would we do?

  “Then, we are going to have to fucking fight Sneaks.”

  “With you stop calling me that,” I wanted to scream, even now he insisted on it, “and if we’re still tied up, how are we going to fight them?”

  “Nope,” he sounded far too calm. “And we just will.”

  “You are infuriating. You know that?”

  “Hands, now,” his demand was followed by another touch of his hands against my leg. “This is probably going to rub against your cuts and hurt. It could make it even tighter.”

  Not daring to say another word, I just moved my hands towards where I thought his where. And let me tell you, that is a lot harder than you think it is when your eyes are covered.

  Awkwardly letting him rub his hands against mine, I stifled a laugh.

  “Really?” His voice went up an octave.

  “I didn’t say a word”

  Sighing, he moved over hands into a new position. “You didn’t have too.”

  Relieved that he didn’t call me that stupid nickname, I couldn’t help but sniff. “We absolutely stink, huh?”

  “Well yeah, when you gotta pee, you gotta pee.”

  “I need to shower, for an entire day straight.” Maybe even two.

  “Let us just concentrate on getting out of here first, can we?” Sighing, he tugged my hand forward, making me almost cry out “Then, we can think about a long hot shower, together.”

  Not saying a word, I let my annoyed groan speak for itself.

  “Be just like our elevator trip, just with a happier ending.”

  I could almost imagine him sending me what he thought was a seductive wink. This guy was something else.

  “Did you get hit on the head repeatedly as a child or something?” Unable to stop myself from asking, I regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth. Now was not the time to be trying to wind him up. We needed to work together.

  “No”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You’re the most…”

  “Don’t even finish that sentence, Diablo, I swear to god I will..”

  “Shut up,” suddenly a noise made me suck in a breath. One of the cable ties had broken. Moving my hands, I was disappointed that it was not mine.

  Within seconds, warm hands removed the cloth from over my eyes. A bright light made me blink them closed instantly from the assault. It was just too bright.

  “They look so sore,” warm fingers gently ran over my wrists as I began to slowly blink my eyes open, adjusting to the bright yellow light hanging in the middle of the room. Swinging slightly, back and forth repeatedly.

  My eyes roamed around the room. This plain white-tiled room had nothing in it, apart from us and a drain in the center. What the actual hell? There was not one single thing, apart from us and the chairs we were tied too.

  Moving my gaze to Noah, I was shocked as to how disheveled he looked. Hair pointing in every direction. Stains on his pants from our lack of a bathroom. Eyes so wide yet tired at the same time. I bet I looked a mess as well.

  “We need to get out of here, Noah,” finally looking down at my wrists, I gasped. I didn’t know what to make of them. Cuts that looked like a blade could have caused them circled them both. A mix of fresh and dried blood covered most of my forearms and hands. They looked terrible, and I knew that without a doubt that I would be living with these marks, these scars for the rest of my life. No matter how long or short, that may be.

  “What, no, Diablo?” His tone was teasing, but his eyes showed me he was not being his usual devilish self completely. They were full of fear. Much like I am sure how own were doing right back at him.

  Raising my eyebrows, I almost smiled at him.

  “Get me out of these,” I nodded down to my hands. Good god, did they look bad, really bad. Worse than I could have ever imagined.

  “We gotta get you to the hospital or something, Sneaks. These could get infected,” his voice somehow sounded small.

  “Let’s concentrate on getting out of here, alive and then we can think about things like hospitals… and showers,” I was more interested in the shower than anything else. My own smell was making me gag, let alone his.

  Smirking up at me, he clutched the plastic that had been around his own hands and pushed it between my own cable tie and skin. Pinching it in the process as the tie was so tight around them.

  “Sorry,” he sighed as an involuntary moan left my lips. “This is probably going to hurt a lot.”

  “Just do it.” The sooner he did, the faster my hands would be free from it.

  “Fine,” rolling those stormy gray eyes again, he pulled the tie back and forth. My skin was screaming in pain, but I clamped my mouth shut. There was every chance that they weren’t out of the building and would hear us. Deep breaths. In and out. In and out.

  “Come on, you son of a bitch” he growled, and with one final tug, he snapped the cable tie clean in half.

  A small sob escaped my lips from both the relief of being freed and the pain that came from it.

  “Shhhh,” a warm hand ran up and down my forearm delicately as if he was trying to soothe me.

  “Thank you.” Tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t look at him. Scared that if I did, I would burst into tears, instead, I just inspected my poor wrists that were now bleeding again.

  “Don’t thank me yet, Sneaks” Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “We have got to get this rope off next, and it is really thick.”

  “I swear if you make a dick comment, I will leave your ass here.” My threat seemed to not register, though, as the next words that came out of his mouth only infuriated me.

  “Well, my work here is done,” he smiled wickedly at me. “You’re already thinking about my dick. Happy days”

  My tears had dried up as anger took over as this ridiculous man who I was stuck with “You’re incorrigible.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Seriously?” What is wrong with him? “Get behind me.”

  “With pleasure, but please tell me why?”

  “You can untie my back first, and I will untie you, then we go for our feet.”

  “Good plan.”

  “You’re welcome,” laughing as I mimicked his words right back at him.

  How either of us were laughing at a time like this was anyone’s guess, but we had to get through it. We had no choice. My ass was not dying here. Allie wouldn’t let me live it down.

  God, I hope she is okay. She must have been out of her mind with worrying about what had happened to me when she realized I was not going to meet her in that lobby. How long had she waited before realizing I was not coming?

  After less than three minutes, we managed to get untied and stand up for the first time in days. It felt odd. As though my feet needed a moment to remember what they needed to do in order to hold me upright, let alone move.

  “Now what?” Turning my gaze to Noah, my eyes lingering that little too long on his face. I’d briefly forgotten how good looking he was. Even now, he was as hot as hell. Not fair, I tell you, not fair.

  “Now, we get the hell out of dodge, baby.” His voice sounded bright, but the expression on his face was anything but.

  “What did you just call me?”

  “Come on. We need to move.”

  Laying his palm on the round door handle, we both held a breath as he tried to turn it. They had left it unlocked.

  “Are you sure this isn’t something to do with your brother?” I mean, what kind of kidnappers leave the door unlocked? Not very good ones.

  “No, my brother is a lot of things, but he would never harm anyone, your wrists. He would make someone bleed if he saw that”

  “Wait,” my hand grabbed his bicep, god, how was it so hard? “We need to find something, a weapon.”

  “Right, but what? There is literally nothing in this room unless you want to carry a damn chair out of here?”

  C
lutching at straws, I offered the only thing I could see that could be of use, maybe. “The rope? I don’t know.”

  “And what whip them to death? You’re a kinky little thing, aren’t yah?”