I prayed books would save me today. I needed a break.
Admer was in the back office when I entered. He was crouched near the back wall, doing something with a box of books, which happened to be the new release I’d been waiting to hit the shelves for quite some time. Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
“Ah, good morning,” Admer said in that strange tone he always seemed to use, the one that made me believe he thought he was so superior than me. “I need you to help me carry a few of these out to the front desk so I can scan them into the system before they go on the shelves tomorrow.”
Shoving my purse where I usually did, I crossed the small room toward him. No mention of the initiation or the tether right off the get go; this day was looking more promising by the second.
“Why don’t you just carry the entire box to the desk?” I asked, thinking it seemed like a simple enough strategy to get them all there quickly.
Admer froze and turned slowly to glare at me over his shoulder.
“That would suffice, wouldn’t it?” he asked. A small smile twisted his lips, but it wasn’t one I wanted to reciprocate. It held a sense of eeriness within it. “I’m a little out of sorts today.”
He began placing the books carefully back into their box. Taking a few from his arms, I did the same. The bell at the front desk rang.
“Could you go help them while I finish this up?” Admer asked.
“Sure,” I said, placing the last book I held back in the box.
Something was off with him, I knew this; I just couldn’t decide what.
“Hey, can I help you?” I asked the sweet-looking old woman who stood at the front desk with a smile.
“I’d like to try a peppermint tea, please, and I don’t know how to work that crazy contraption you have over there,” she said in a sweet voice.
“I can help you with that.” I walked over to the machine.
This was the type of old woman I hoped I’d be like when I grew old—the sweet, grandmotherly-looking kind who everyone adored instantaneously.
After helping her make a peppermint tea, I walked with her back to the front desk so I could ring up the three books she had tucked underneath her arm. I had to fight to keep my jaw from dropping when I saw the covers of the novels she’d unabashedly handed to me. They were of half-naked couples in erotic positions. The type of books that you used the words lustful and steamy to describe, and it still wouldn’t touch how hot the sex scenes between the pages were sure to be.
“Okay, that will be $13.38,” I said, hoping my cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“Don’t be embarrassed, sweetheart,” the woman said as she dug around in her oversized purse before finding her wallet. “I’m not. I’m old, not dead. I enjoy a nice erotic read every once in a while. Let me let you in on a little secret… It’s those types of books right there that have kept my marriage alive for so many years, because if I don’t want it, then he doesn’t get it. Those books make me want it.” She winked at me, and I thought my face would literally catch on fire right there in the store.
“I’m sure,” I said, raising my eyebrows all the way to my hairline.
The only other customer came up behind her to wait in line, and I saw her lips form a shocked smile that mirrored exactly how I felt.
“How much did you say it was?” the old woman asked as she glanced into her wallet.
“$13.38.”
“That’s what I thought.” She handed me a ten and three ones. “Hold on, I think I have the change.”
I waited, replaying what she’d said to me in my mind, while she counted out the thirty-eight cents.
“Here you go.” She smiled. “Have a good day…and remember what I said—best way to keep a marriage alive!”
“Oh, I will,” I assured her, feeling the flush from my cheeks creep all the way down my neck.
After the old woman had turned and walked away, the lady who was behind her in line leaned over the desk and gaped at me.
“Did I hear her right?” she asked. She was about my mother’s age with thick, curly red hair past her shoulders and wide-set brown eyes. “Did she really just tell you that dirty books are the key to a healthy marriage?”
I nodded. “She sure did.”
“Wow.” She smirked. “That is hilarious!”
Nodding, I laughed aloud. “That was hands down the craziest piece of advice I’ve ever gotten from an old lady.”
“I bet,” the redhead said as she placed her books and one wooden farm animal puzzle on the desk for me to ring up. “I think I could say the same.”
I rang her stuff up and placed it all in a green grocery bag for her.
“Thank you. Have a good day.” I smiled, handing it to her.
“You too, sweetheart,” she said. “Maybe you won’t get any more advice today you’d rather not have mental images to go with.”
Oh, man. Why did she even have to go there? I hadn’t.
After the redheaded lady left, Admer came out from the back, carrying a box of books. He sat them on the desk beside me.
“Why don’t you scan these into the system for me?”
I grabbed the first one out. “Okay.”
“I’m going to the back to make a few important phone calls about a shipment of novels that should have been here with those,” he said, and then he started back toward the office.
I flipped through the first few pages of the book, eager to read the first sentence. I’d always been a sucker for a good first sentence. My cell phone vibrated in my back pocket.
Pulling my phone out, I glanced at the screen. It was Vera calling. Looking over my shoulder toward the office, I noticed Admer had closed the door for privacy and I hit answer.
“Hey,” I said.
“Why are you whispering?” Vera asked.
“I’m at work.”
“Talking on the phone while on the clock…what a rebel.” She snorted.
I rolled my eyes and grinned. “Whatever.”
I missed her.
“So, how’s the beach life treating you? Did you end up telling Kace about the kiss with my hot fisherman fling?” she asked.
It felt like it had been forever since I’d last talked with her. So much had happened since then, and the majority of it I couldn’t even share with her. We were still worlds apart.
“I did.”
“And?” she pressed. “Did you take my advice and tell him when he was either half asleep or drunk?”
I shook my head and smirked into the phone. “No, I told him straight up.”
“And how did that go?” I could hear the grimace in her voice.
“Actually, it went better than I’d expected…at least the first time.”
“The first time? You told him about it more than once? Explain. Now.”
I took in a deep breath and thought of the best way to explain what had happened without telling her about anything she shouldn’t know.
“It happened again,” I said. Simple and to the point; can’t go wrong with that.
“What?!” she shouted in my ear. I pulled the phone away for a minute and scrunched up my face, bracing myself for round two. “Are you kidding me? You kissed him again! Did anything else happen?”
“Well, no,” I admitted.
“But it was about to, wasn’t it?” she asked.
I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Maybe.” I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“Woohoo, that’s my girl,” Vera shouted in my ear.
“Oh my gosh.” I laughed at her enthusiasm for my craptastic love life. “Shouldn’t you be scolding me instead of praising me right now?”
“Nah, I’m sure you’re doing enough of that all by yourself.”
She couldn’t possibly know how right she was.
“Okay, enough about me. How are the preparations for college coming?” I asked.
I glanced over my shoulder at the office door. It was still shut, so I placed my phone in
the crook of my neck and started scanning books into the system. There were still no new customers. Judging from the looks of the storm outside, I’d say there wouldn’t be any anytime soon. Thunder cracked right over the building, causing me to jump and nearly drop my phone.
“Eh, all right I guess,” Vera muttered. “Wish you were here getting everything ready with me.”
“I know,” I said. “You still have a few more weeks until school starts. Why don’t you come down for a weekend?”
I didn’t know if it was possible, but I thought I’d toss the invite out there on the off chance things with her Hotfoot spell had changed due to time or the initiation.
“I don’t know, just the idea of going back there sends that creepy-crawly feeling across my skin again.”
So maybe the Hotfoot spell was still in effect. The lights flickered from the storm outside gaining strength, and the computer screen flashed. Rain pelted against the front windows of the shop, and more thunder and lightning happened in rapid succession.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” I said, one hundred percent meaning it.
Another clap of thunder sounded. It vibrated where I stood and was so loud I swore Vera had to have heard it through the phone. I shifted my eyes away from the computer screen and to the door. Looking through the window at the waterfall of rain cascading over the small awning, I noticed a figure of someone dart from a parking space to the door. I couldn’t see their face until they entered the store, but when I did, my heart stopped.
Kace walked through the shop door. His jacket had been pulled up over his head to shield himself from the pouring rain. I watched as he attempted to shake off some of the water.
“Umm, Vera, I’ll have to call you back later,” I said, the words sounding strangled as they came from my lips.
“Okay, don’t forget,” she said, taking note of my weird tone.
“I won’t.” I pushed end and slipped my phone back into my pocket.
Kace sauntered into the store, dripping water as he went. My throat grew tight and dry with every step he took.
Awesome, as if my day at work couldn’t get any more awkward—now Kace was here too. I figured he probably wanted to talk with me, because I couldn’t see him as the type to be prowling for a new book to read.
I continued to scan the remaining novels resting at the bottom of the box and ignored his presence. It wasn’t that I was being a bitch; it was just that I wasn’t sure of what to say.
Guess this was my third slap in the face for the day.
“Hey,” he said as he neared the desk.
Looking up from the keyboard, I made eye contact. “Oh, hey.”
“I went by your house, and Callie said you were here, so I stopped by. I hope that’s all right.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Water still dripped from him as he leaned against the desk in front of me. It slid down the sides of his unshaved face and dripped off his chin, creating a puddle. From the looks of him, you’d think he was torn up about us, but I knew about Kyra, so I knew better.
“Did you want to talk to me or something?” I asked, unsure as to why he was here.
Kace didn’t meet my eyes. Instead, he began to fumble with a few of the book lights neatly displayed in front of him. I wondered if he was nervous. Was this the official break-up talk?
I’d had this talk before with guys, but not many. Normally, I was the one breaking up with them. Or at least I thought so. Vera, on the other hand, might tell a person different.
My stomach tightened as I waited for him to speak. Thank goodness for the novels I was scanning into the system, because it served as something to distract myself with while I waited for his answer. If it hadn’t been for that, I was sure I would have looked like an idiot standing there.
“I just,” he started and then paused. His eyes came up to meet mine. They were dark and clouded by emotions I couldn’t read. “I don’t blame you for kissing Theo or anything else that might have happened between the two of you. You should know that. That’s not what this is about.”
His voice was so strange sounding, and the emotions swirling within the depths of his icy eyes seemed conflicting. What the hell was he saying? And why did he almost seem guilty about something? Surely, he wasn’t worked up over the whole Kyra at the beach thing this bad.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Kace’s eyes widened at something behind me. I turned around to see what had captured his attention so drastically, and that was when I felt the dampness of a rag being pressed firmly against my nose and mouth.
It only took me a second to realize what was happening. I’d call it the product of one too many thriller novels and crime fighting TV shows. Regardless, I knew what the rag pressed against my face was drenched in—chloroform. I just couldn’t make out who was holding it.
My theory was proved right as soon as the edges of my vision began to feather, and I blacked out.
My head pounded, and nausea rolled through my stomach. The memory of thinking a rag with chloroform had been pressed to my face just before I’d blacked out came back to me in a rush of emotion. My heart felt like it was going to explode as I remembered everything.
What the hell had happened? I’d been talking to Kace in the bookstore and then…this!
Had I been kidnapped? This was the type of stuff you saw on TV, not something that would actually happen and especially not to me.
After a long moment of freaking out mentally, I forced myself to sit up. Drawing my knees to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them and glanced at my new surroundings. It was then that I noticed I was on a cot of some sort. One thought became concrete in my mind though; I had absolutely no clue as to where I was.
All I knew for sure was that I was being held in a room of some sort. It was dimly lit by a single, exposed lightbulb, which dangled from the center of the room. The cot I’d been laid on was small and devoid of any sheets, blankets, or even a pillow. There were no windows, and the floor appeared to be made of dirt, the walls a grimy concrete. A slow trickle of water dripped from the ceiling in the corner, splashing onto the floor. All of this combined made me believe I was somewhere underground. A cellar maybe? I sat up a little straighter to look for a door, but didn’t see anything right away. The room was too dark.
A sudden sharp pounding in my head nearly took my breath away.
Closing my eyes, I pressed my fingers against my temples, hoping to massage away the ache building strength in my head as well as the debilitating dizziness that seemed to cripple me. The sound of shoes slapping against a set of stairs made me pause in my movements and open my eyes once more.
Every muscle in my body grew rigid, and I wrapped my arms around myself tighter. My heart pounded so hard in my chest that it actually hurt. I didn’t know who would be coming through the door that I had yet to find, but I could guess.
My mind ran through the images of my last known memory—Kace standing in front of me and someone coming from behind and pressing the chloroform-drenched rag over my mouth and nose. It had to have been Admer. He was the only other person in the store, and the only one who had been in the office.
But why?
Cell phone. I remembered shoving my phone in my back pocket when I’d seen Kace walk in through the shop door. Lifting my butt up off the dingy cot, I patted my back pockets but didn’t find any cell phone.
Of course, they would have taken the one essential piece of equipment that might have saved me from whatever they had planned.
A door made of metal creaked open on rusty hinges from the far wall. I hadn’t even noticed it was there. I tightened my arms around my legs, wishing I were anywhere besides here.
A sandaled foot entered the room, and then a voice echoed along the walls of the cramped room.
“I wasn’t sure when you’d wake up.” The voice was so familiar it made relief trickle through me and my eyes pop open farther. Then, I remembered that he had to
be a part of the reason why I was here, and the slight amount of relief I’d felt rushed from my system quicker than it had come.
I sat up straighter, ignoring the way my body protested the movement, as Kace shuffled his body away from the door and into the center of the room to stand beneath the light. His hands were crammed in his front pockets, and he stared down at his sandals as he walked. The little bit of light offered by the exposed bulb shined against his dirty blond hair and his solid build. When he turned his face up to look at me finally, I felt the rush of a thousand heartbreaks shatter my delicate heart into tiny pieces.
How could he be so cruel? How could I have been so blind?
He seemed to feel just as heartbroken as I did, but there was a set to his jaw that allowed me to know right then that no amount of pleading with him to free me would work. The awareness of my entire situation hit me.
I nearly laughed out loud at the irony of it all. I’d thought by becoming initiated I could finally allow Kace and me to see where our relationship would go without the added baggage of the tether—of Theo—but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Turns out I wasn’t the only one harboring secrets; Kace seemed like he may have a few of his own.
Theo’s words about betrayal fluttered through my mind as I continued to stare at Kace. Why hadn’t I listened to him? By not doing so, I’d allowed myself to be betrayed by someone I’d trusted and to become confined to Soul Harbor in more ways than one.
Kace moved a little closer to the cot I sat on; his eyes remained on the grimy dirt floor. I glanced behind him at the door that I could now clearly make out, and wondered if I would be able to dart past him and across the room fast enough to escape.
“I didn’t want things to go this far,” he said suddenly. His voice was barely above a whisper, but it bounced off the walls of the small room enough for me to hear. “First of all, you weren’t supposed to become tethered, that was never in the plan, at least not my plan anyway. I’m just now finding out though that my plan wasn’t the only one made.”
I took in a shaky breath. “What are you talking about?”
He brought his eyes to mine. “All I ever wanted was to have the thing that was supposed to be mine since birth.”
Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) Page 14