Sinner
After driving back to California, the first thing I did was head to OPS and inform Cash of everything that had occurred since I picked up Vanessa. He got called away for another situation, so I didn’t have time to tell him I was going to be quitting. I went back to Vira’s apartment and informed her that I would be moving back to Pennsylvania.
“So, I assume that everything is functioning at one hundred percent again?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Should we take it for a test drive before you head back?” she asked unabashedly.
“I’m pretty sure that would fuck up everything I’m trying to do with Cara.”
“She doesn’t have to know. Aren’t there rules about fucking out of state?”
I laughed at her brazen attitude. “There may be for some people, but I’m not one of them.”
“Funny, there used to be a time when you and I had very similar perspectives on sex.”
“Well, that was pre-Cara. Now?”
“Now you’re pussy whipped.” She sighed and gave me a hug. “You can’t blame me for trying. I’ll forever have that last time stuck in my head. You’ll always be remembered as my worst fuck.”
I held a hand over my heart. “You’re breaking my heart, Vira. I’m sure you can remember what it was like a year ago.”
“Sure, but it would be nice to have a parting memory of you. I doubt I’ll be seeing you once you’re gone.”
“Probably not, but even knowing that, I could never do that to Cara.”
“It’s a shame, Sinner’s turning into a saint.”
I spent the rest of the day packing my stuff and then I took a nap. The drive had really taken it out of me. When Cash called and asked me to come back in, I groaned, but I knew that I needed to do it. If he asked me to do another job, I was going to have to tell him I was done. Grabbing my security card, I headed over to OPS in the rented vehicle that I had driven from Pennsylvania. My phone rang as I was pulling into the lot. Looking at the screen, I smiled when I saw Cara was calling.
“Hey, Lollipop. How’s it going?”
“Good. Sean and Lillian asked me to take care of their daughter when Lillian goes back to work.”
“That’s great. I’m glad you’ve found something you want.”
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t feel good that I left my old job, but this means I get more snuggle time with my niece. I’m also looking for a new place to live. I love my brother, but I don’t want to live with him.”
“I don’t want you to either. I can’t fuck you in his house.”
“Well, I was thinking of finding someplace in the country, but I’m not sure if there’s anything available.”
“Why don’t you hold off until I get back so we can talk about this? Maybe we could move in together.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Cara?”
“Would you want to do that?”
“Why not? I mean, it’s something worth thinking about at least.”
“It’s just that you needed time to think and now you’re talking about moving in together.”
I looked at the time and realized I was running late. “Hey, I’m going to be late. Why don’t we discuss this when I get back? Just don’t rent anything yet.”
I got out of the car and headed toward the building.
“Okay, call me when you’re headed back.”
“Will do.”
I hung up and was just about to the doors when everything went black.
Cara
I was just getting ready to check out some more rental listings when the doorbell rang. Lillian had taken the baby to a check up and Sean was at work. I went to the door and was shocked to see Sarah standing on the other side. At first, I felt like crying, but then I remembered what Sean had said and I steeled my spine.
“Can I help you?” I asked Sarah.
“Can we talk?”
She stood on the front porch looking nervous as hell and I wasn’t going to do anything to put her at ease. I motioned her in and stood in the entryway with my arms crossed over my chest.
“Cara, I came to apologize for the way Drew and I..”
“Threw me out on my ass like garbage?” I asked.
She nodded. “You have to understand, it was never that we didn’t trust you.”
“Really? Because I recall you telling me that they were your children and you couldn’t take the risk that I would lose it and hurt your kids.”
“It wasn’t really about that. Things with Drew and I are very different. We both lost someone and the thought of something happening to one of our kids was just a little overwhelming.”
“And you thought something would happen because of me. I get it. I’m a loose cannon. I mean, all those times that I watched your kids, at any second I could have lost it and hurt one of them. I’m a danger to society. I might as well be locked up.”
“We don’t think that. We were wrong and after you left, we both realized how idiotic we were. Especially after all you gave up for us. I’m very sorry that I ever doubted you. We both did some research and found that the medicine you’re taking is very safe.”
“It took you researching my medicine to figure out that I wasn’t going to turn into a deranged lunatic?”
“No, honestly, we already knew it, but when we saw how safe your medications were, we knew that we had just been making excuses. It just really freaked Drew out when he found you in that closet and we both overreacted. I hope that someday you can forgive us. We still want you to be a part of our kids’ lives.”
“Just not their nanny.”
“I talked to Sean. He said that you’re going to watch his daughter. I think we’ve screwed up enough. We don’t need to ruin this for you. Besides, I’ve been relying on you to take care of my kids for so long. I think now’s a good time for me to take over. Drew wasn’t ever happy with me working when I had the insurance money just sitting there. He always wanted me to stay home and take care of the kids.”
“You should be able to work if you want to.”
“I know and it’s not that he doesn’t want me to work. He just doesn’t want me to work somewhere when it’s not what I want to do.”
“Sarah, with your past hanging over your head, it’s possible that may never happen.”
“I know, but he’s right. I don’t need to work, so taking care of the kids makes more sense than paying someone to do it for me.”
I had a decision to make. I could choose to stay mad at her and never repair a friendship that I had cherished so much or I could try to move on. My therapist would tell me to try and move past my anger.
“I can’t say that I’m just over everything. It really hurt me that you guys gave up on me. Part of me understands, but then other part of me just wants to punch you in the face.”
“I know. I just hope that someday we can hang out again. I really miss our mornings together.”
I nodded and she turned toward the door. “I’d better get home. Drew’s watching all the kids by himself, so who knows what I’ll find when I get home.”
“You’d better get home then. I can only imagine what it’s like when he changes a diaper. He hasn’t done that in a really long time.”
Sean stepped into the house just as Sarah was heading out. He had a grim look on his face that immediately had me concerned.
“Sean, what’s wrong? You look really upset.”
“Cara, I just got a call from OPS. Mark was supposed to meet Cash this morning, but he never made it into the office.”
“What?” My heart pounded a little, but I didn’t let fear take over. Not yet. There were too many other explanations. “Well, I talked to him. He said he was running late, so he probably got held up somewhere.”
He shook his head and I felt my stomach drop.
“They found his cell phone in the parking lot and his rental car was there. They pulled up the footage from the parking lot and saw that three men attacked him and drag
ged him off to a van. They’re trying to track him down now.”
I just stood there staring at Sean. I didn’t know what to say.
“Cara, we’ll find him. I promise, we won’t stop until he’s found.”
I nodded. “You just don’t know if he’ll be alive when you find him.”
Sean looked at the ground and shook his head. “I’m sorry this happened.”
I went over to the living room and sat down on the couch. My heart thundered in my chest, but I just sat there and stared out the window. Should I be reacting differently? Wasn’t I supposed to be freaking out or pacing the halls? It was like my brain was refusing to believe what I was hearing. I shook my head and looked at Sean.
“He’ll be fine. I know it. Mark’s a fighter and..he’ll be fine.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sinner
I MOANED AS my head throbbed painfully, feeling like a lead weight was swaying on my shoulders. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was in a dark, dingy room with only a chair sitting across from me. As my senses came back to me, I realized the reason for the throbbing in my arms was because I was hanging from my wrists by a rope. I was naked, which was pretty typical when someone captured you with the intent of torturing you for information.
Shaking my head, I squinted around the room to try to find some clues as to where I was being held. There were no windows, so there was no chance of gaining any information as to where I was being held. The room was concrete, which most likely meant I was in a basement.
Twisting my wrists, I gritted my teeth as the ropes rubbed against my skin. When I had my arms in position, I wrapped a hand around the rope and started to pull myself up. The strain on my muscles was excruciating, but I managed to pull myself up enough that I could wrap my other hand around the rope. Slowly, I started to pull myself up the length of the rope toward the ceiling.
My sweaty hands slipped on the rope and I fell back toward the ground, stopping with a sudden jolt as my wrists locked back in place. My shoulders burned from the strain and I had to take several deep breaths to counter the nausea that swirled from the pain. I needed a few minutes to recover before I tried again. It felt like every muscle was tearing in my shoulders and I wasn’t sure how long I would have before I would no longer be able to pull myself up.
The door slammed open and several men entered wheeling in a large battery and cables. Another man carried a hose and began attaching it to a spigot in the wall. Shit. I knew what was coming and it was going to be painful. I had seen guys that had been tortured overseas. Most of them were never the same again. One man stepped forward with an evil smile on his face.
“Mr. Sinn, it’s so nice of you to join us this evening.” The man looked to be around mid forties with black hair that was slightly graying at the temples. He seemed to be in good shape, as did the others. He wouldn’t be the easiest to overpower in my current predicament, though it wasn’t hopeless. “Although I had kind of hoped that you would still be asleep so that we could wake you up in an exciting way.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“We have some questions for you and if you answer, this will go a lot faster. If you don’t, my men will have some fun with you first. Which would you like to start with?”
“Well, my friends call me Sinner. I’m betting you can guess what I like.”
“Fun it is then.” He smiled and motioned for one of the other men to step over. The man quickly fastened a mask around my eyes and then was gone. The shit people tell you about people in the military being stronger and able to handle the fear is all a bunch of shit. It doesn’t matter who you are, when you know you’re about to be fried to death, no amount of military training can make you suddenly immune to the fear. However, the military does give you the tools to work through pain and fear.
I breathed deep to attempt to keep my breathing even and let the anger of the situation wash over me. The anger was what would get me through right now. A zap of electricity shot through me when the asshole placed the prod to my nipple. That’s the way this would go, shocks to the most sensitive areas. This man knew how to dole out pain and the most effective ways to do it.
I grunted and groaned as he repeatedly gave me shocks with the prod. Several times, he shocked awfully close to my cock, which had my balls drawing up inside my body to escape. It was worse never knowing where they were going to hit me next. I couldn’t prepare for the pain. With every prod, my body shook with pain and my brain begged me to let go.
“Are you ready to talk to us?” he asked as one of his grunts pulled off my mask. I blinked several times to regain my focus. The men all stood there like they were waiting for me to say no so they could dole out more pain. I didn’t say anything as I hung there, relishing in the few moments that I had pain free.
“You got in our way when you took Vanessa Adams. She’s important to us and we will do whatever necessary to get her back.”
I still didn’t say anything.
“Don’t want to tell us?”
“Is she a member of the Addams family?” I croaked out. Though my voice was a little hoarse, I got a perverse satisfaction in playing with them. “They’re creepy and their kooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re altogether ooky, the Addam’s family. Doot doot doot doot..damn, I can’t snap along. Maybe you want to untie me and we can have a sing along.”
“Very funny.” He chuckled as he stepped toward me with his hands clasped behind his back. He assumed that I was thoroughly incapacitated and while that was true at the moment, all I needed was a few minutes alone with him and he would be down for the count.
“You know who she is. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“I assume she’s someone important if you dragged my ass in here.” I was so thirsty that my voice was nothing more than a scratchy whisper. I had no idea how long I had been hanging here, but it had to have been hours since I last had something to drink.
“Let’s just say that she is a very lucrative part of a business deal.”
“Must be some broad,” I grumbled. With my body hanging the way it was, it made talking and breathing difficult, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me struggle.
“We can do this all day, Mr. Sinn, but the longer you hold out, the more creative we’ll be with our forms of torture.”
“And if I tell you what you want to know?”
“Let’s just say, we won’t send you back to your employers in twenty pieces.”
“Can I make a request?”
“Of course,” he smiled.
“Make sure you tell Cash that I want hazard pay,” I mumbled.
His smile fell and his face contorted into an ugly sneer. “Don’t play with me, Mr. Sinn. You know where the girl is and you will tell me!” he yelled.
“As you can see, I’m the one hanging like a cat’s play toy.”
The man quickly snatched up the prod and ramped up the voltage, then shoved the prod against my cock. “Ahh!” The scream was ripped from my throat as this time he held the prod longer than the previous times. Unimaginable pain ripped through me the longer he held the prod in place until I eventually passed out. I woke up to an empty room and breathed a sigh of relief that I had been left alone for the time being.
I really needed to try to find a way to escape, but I was exhausted and my eyes just wouldn’t stay open anymore. My body was shaking from the cold of the room, making it impossible to actually rest. I let images of Cara float into my mind. In some, we were lying in bed together and it was a sunny, warm day. In others, I remembered her telling me that she loved me, only I had said it back to her. I wished now more than ever that I hadn’t held back the day I left. I wished that I had given her more than the half assed goodbye and promises of talking when I got back.
I had been such an idiot to not see how much she wanted me. I had let my pride get in the way of my feelings for her. She’d left me and told me I wasn’t enough and that grated on me. It was highly unlikely that I wou
ld ever see her again and now she would never know how much I truly cared for her.
The depression that was starting to sink in was blurring the lines between wanting to escape and wanting this to just all be over, which wasn’t a good sign if I wanted to get out of here alive. I had no idea how long I had been here at this point, but I knew that I would have to endure a lot more torture before I would be killed.
I quickly came back to my senses as water was splashed across my entire body. I didn’t get a chance to fully wake before they were back to zapping me with the prod again. With the water, the pain was so intense, it felt like my bones would crack. I knew that if I didn’t get out of here soon, I wouldn’t be alive much less able to move my hands anymore. The next time the man came toward me with the prod, I swung my leg out, kicking the prod out of his hand and wrapped my legs around his neck.
Everyone was so shocked that it took a moment for them to spring to action. Several of the men rushed forward, trying to pry me off the man that had his head locked between my legs, but they couldn’t force me away from him. Every time they pulled, I squeezed my legs tighter, hearing the man choking under the pressure. When the prod hit me in the back, my legs constricted and squeezed tighter, having the opposite effect intended. I felt the man go limp under me and his dead weight pulled harder against my wrists. I released him and let my body hang limply, exhausted from my act of defiance.
“Get his body out of here!” the man with the graying hair yelled. The men quickly followed his orders and dragged him from the room, coming back moments later. “Cut him down. Obviously, he’s not quite ready to break. We don’t need anymore mishaps.”
I was cut down and my body fell to the ground in a heap, my legs too worn out to break the fall. The good news was that the blood started flowing back into my hands, though it was painful and felt like sharp pricks through both arms. My attempt at escape had at the very least saved my arms from being useless. It would take some time to get any feeling back, but time was something I doubted I was short on.
Sinner: A Reed Security Romance Page 20