Bargain With the Beast (3 page)

Why had the man ensured that Tobias
couldn’t give it to her?

The obvious answer was that the man
had bought him here, only Tobias couldn’t work out why that would
be the case! Surely once he’d been knocked out he was no longer a
threat? Why go to all the trouble of arranging this?

Unless…his mind whispered to him now,
and Tobias wished to God that he had never become addicted to all
the true crime shows… What if it had all been some sort of set-up?
What if the man and the woman were some sort of fucked-up crime
duo, and they had abducted him in order to…

Tobias let out a shuddery
sort of groan and began pulling on the chains again. His reaction
was in no way logical. He
knew
he couldn’t get them undone,
knew
that no matter how much he
pulled and tugged they were not going to simply release him. But
the adrenaline was pumping. He was panicking, his belly churning
and his heart pounding.

He had to find a way out of these
chains.

He had to find a way out of whatever
this place was.

He had to get help…

...and then the door
opened.

Chapter Three

“
You’re awake. I wasn’t
sure if you were planning to sleep forever.”

Heart racing, belly churning, Tobias
looked up at the male who walked through the now open doorway. He
knew immediately that it was not the same man who had assaulted
him. How he knew that Tobias wasn’t sure. Maybe because the voice
was deeper, the hood absent, or maybe it was just a feeling. Either
way, Tobias knew he was dealing with someone else entirely, and
that thought made his head spin.

The couple he understood. They had
been right there. Possibly waiting for him if his ‘true crime’
theory held any kind of weight. But a third male? Tobias hadn’t
even considered that someone else might be involved in what was
very clearly his abduction!

What did that mean?

What was happening?

Tobias had to find out, and so he
spoke before considering that maybe he shouldn’t. “Where am I?” he
demanded. “Who are you? What’s going on here?”

The man smiled, a slow, almost amused
smile, and then he reached out to slam the door shut behind him.
Tobias couldn’t help but jump slightly, and cursed himself silently
the moment he did. He needed to act strong, like he wasn’t someone
who could be treated this way. Someone that could be
cowed…only…Tobias was, in a nutshell, scared shitless. His gym
workouts might have made him look like someone who could take on
any guy, but when it came right down to it Tobias was the same man
he’d been before all the muscles. He was a softie at heart. He had
no experience of anything even close to violence. Had never been
punched before. Had never been in a situation even close to
this…

“
Like a modern day
Cinderella,” the man added.

He approached the bed slowly, his arms
now crossed, a considering look on his face. He was, Tobias
realized, easily as tall as his assailant, though broader across
the chest, and heavily muscled along his arms. He was dressed in a
pair of faded denims and a tight black tee. His hair was brown,
almost tawny. A light dusting of stubble—the same
color—highlighting his angular jaw line, and his eyes...Tobias
swallowed uneasily. He didn’t think he had ever seen eyes that
color before. They were so lightly brown they were almost
yellow.

The woman had eyes like
that…

He frowned as that thought
flashed through his mind. Because now that he thought about it,
Tobias realized that they
were
almost the exact same color, and what were the
chances of that? Meeting two people with such an odd shade in such
a short space of time?

Contacts
, his frantic mind
suggested,
just contact lenses, because
you’ve been kidnapped by a bunch of fucking crazies!

“
Who are you?” he demanded
again. “What the hell is going on here? Why am I tied up? Who are
you people?”

The man tilted his head,
his smile spreading, and when he spoke it was as if Tobias hadn’t
said a single word. “It wouldn’t be as strange as you think
considering the world we live in,” he said. “The world
you
are now part
of.”

“
World?” Tobias demanded.
“What world?”

“
Our world,” the man said.
“And I welcome you to it.”

“
Welcome me?” Tobias
gasped, the disbelief in his voice obvious. “I’m tied to the
bed!”

The man nodded. “It was
necessary.”

“
Necessary?”

“
Yes. We could hardly have
you wandering about.”

“
Wandering where?” Tobias
spluttered. “I don’t even know where I am!”

“
Exactly.”

The satisfaction in the man’s voice
was such that, and surprisingly, because he hadn’t imagined it
would, Tobias’ anger sparked, enough that it was even pushing away
the horror and the panic.

“
You need to let me go,”
he demanded. “You can’t do this. You can’t just abduct someone...”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “It’s
illegal
.”

“
Illegal
?” the man grinned as if that
word amused him. “I make the laws here. I can assure you we’re well
within them. And,” he added when Tobias opened his mouth to speak.
“Who is to tell me otherwise? No one knows you’re here.”

“
No one…” Tobias swallowed
unsteadily as those words left his lips. He hadn’t even considered
it before now, though of course he should have, but this man was
right. Apart from his work colleagues and a few friends,
there
wasn’t
anyone to notice Tobias’ absence straight away. And it was
Friday night, which meant the whole weekend would pass by before
anyone thought to look for him. Maybe when he didn’t turn up for
work on Monday they would wonder. When he didn’t answer any emails
or messages they might think to call round, but maybe they wouldn’t
do so straight away. They might even leave it until Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday even…by which point…

“
You need to let me go,”
Tobias said, but the anger that had given him courage just a few
moments ago was gone now, and he knew his voice came out sounding
weak and panicked.

“
I can’t do that,” his
abductor said.

“
Why not?”

“
Why not?” The man tapped
a finger against his chin and circled the bed. Tobias couldn’t help
but move back slightly, though his movement was curtailed by the
chains. As he did so he realized that there was an oddly appealing
scent in the room. It hadn’t been there before, he would have
picked up on it, but it was present now, and Tobias breathed
deeply, trying to work out what it was. A moment later and he
realized that it was something like musk, the spiced kind…and it
was coming from the man in front of him.

“
Would you like me to tell
you what is going on?”

It wasn’t a question, but Tobias
answered it with a yes anyway, because what else could he do?
Tobias had never felt so powerless in his life. He was chained to a
bed with absolutely no way to escape. The male in front of him,
whether he smelled nice or not, could do whatever he wanted and
Tobias had no way to stop him.

Abruptly, a series of images raced
through Tobias’ mind. Many of them came from the crime shows he
loved to watch, but others came from entirely different material.
He clenched his fists, tensed his body, and let out a shaky
breath.

The man pulling out a
weapon.

The man jumping on top of
him intending to use that weapon.

The man stalking across
the space between him and the bed…

The man peeling off his
clothes.

Was he really at risk of such things
happening? Tobias shook his head inwardly, because he had no idea.
This situation was something he had never even imagined he would be
in. Still he tried, frantically to work through the
possibilities.

Would he have been placed in such an
opulent room if this man intended to torture and kill
him?

Would the man be talking to him like
this if he intended to harvest his organs?

Would he not have already undressed
him if he intended to rape him?

So frantic were his thoughts, and so
panicky was he, that Tobias jumped again as the man
spoke.

“
You, Tobias Thorn,” he
said, “interfered in something that you should not have been
interfering in.”

Tobias Thorn…
How did they know his name? Had this been a
planned abduction? Or had they simply found out afterwards? And
yet,
interfered
,
that could only mean one thing…

“
Where is she?” Tobias
whispered.

“
She?”

“
You know who I’m talking
about.”

The man uncrossed his arms
and eyed Tobias through hooded lids. “I do,” he said. “And
she
is none of your
business.”

“
If you’ve hurt
her.”

“
You’ll do
what?”

Tobias shook his head even as he felt
his heart sink, because what the hell could he say to that? He was
in no position to do anything. And yet, he remembered the look of
panic in the girl’s eyes. The way she tried to pull away from the
male who had clearly abducted them both.

That was the only explanation, Tobias
realized. The male who had knocked him out had bought him here, and
clearly, the guy in front of him was in charge of…whatever this
place was...whatever this group was…

But why bother? That was what Tobias
couldn’t understand. Once unconscious he was no threat…

“
As it happens,” the man
continued. “Leyla is fine. She was...behaving petulantly. It is
nearly the full moon, you see, and she has some issues around this
time.”

“
The full moon?” Tobias
said. “Is that a euphemism for time of the month?”

The man smirked. “In a
way.”

“
The guy who took
her...who gave me this...” Tobias moved his head slightly so that
his chin, which throbbed slightly, was on view.

“
Is her
fiancé.”

“
Fiancés don’t usually
have to drag their fiancées back home with them,” Tobias said. “Not
if they’re willing.”

“
She’s
willing.”

“
You know this
how?”

The man took a step forward. Tobias
moved a little farther back, his chains clinking as he did
so.

“
This is my world. I rule
here.”

And there it was again,
that suggestion, no, that declaration, of being in charge. Like the
king of the castle, the beast in charge of the keep.
The Beast
…Tobias
swallowed unsteadily. That was exactly what this male looked like
he realized. With his corded muscles and his tawny hair, like some
sort of fantasy beast made human…

“
Here?” Tobias asked,
trying and failing to halt his increasingly odd thoughts. “Where
is
here
?”

The Beast tilted his head, as if
considering Tobias’ words. For a moment Tobias felt sure that he
wasn’t going to be given an answer, and so when he did speak,
Tobias found himself almost surprised by the words. “We’re below
ground.”

“
Underground
?”

The Beast looked at the leather chair
pulled up next to the desk. With a quick glance in Tobias’
direction he strode across the room, took one arm, and moved it so
that it was on the left hand side of Tobias’ bed. Once in place, he
lowered himself into it and steepled his fingers together. Tobias
couldn’t help but notice that he had very long fingers. That the
nails were trim, the skin as tanned as everywhere else on his
body…

“
You are aware of the
geography of the area?” he asked.

Tobias nodded, pulling his wandering
thoughts back into place as he did so. “Of course.”

“
You understand that the
town and the next one over, and the one after that, sit in
valleys.”

“
Yes.”

The Beast nodded slowly, almost
musingly. “I’ve often thought those valleys look almost like they
have been molded by giants. You can almost image them scooping out
great mounds of earth to create the beauty that we see around us.”
He grinned. “It’s a silly thought, but then I’ve always found that
the silly thoughts are often the ones that cheer me the most. Who
wants to spend every minute of every day thinking
seriously?”

His words were so close to the
imaginings that Tobias had thought about in the past, that he
couldn’t help but give a little gasp. “Then we are still in
town?”

“
In?
We are certainly
in
town. We’re all around it.” His grin widened, and
it did something to his face that made Tobias shudder. In that
moment Tobias became aware—almost like a light bulb moment—that
this male, whoever he was, was painfully good looking.