Chapter 84: Blast From The Past
My eyes snapped open as I gasped for air, waking up feom my unconsciousness.The blinding glare of a single, bare bulb overhead was the first thing that pierced through the heavy fog in my brain.
My tongue felt like sandpaper, and the bitter, chemical taste of chloroform was still thick at the back of my throat, making me violently nauseous.
I blinked groggily, trying to lift a hand to block the light, but my arm wouldn't move.
A cold jolt of adrenaline shot straight through the sedation. I yanked upward, but my wrist caught hard against a thick, unyielding restraint. I thrashed my other hand. The same thing. I kicked out wildly, but my ankles were pinned down, spread wide apart.
I was completely spread-eagled, tied securely to the four posts of a massive, heavy bed that had roses scattered around it.
Somebody had toes me up like a fucking virgin sacrifice!!
Hot, suffocating panic, flooded my chest. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird as I looked down at myself. The breath completely left my lungs.
I wasn't wearing my clothes anymore. My outfit from the club was gone, replaced by a sheer, emerald-green lacy dress that left almost nothing to the imagination. The delicate fabric clung to my skin, completely exposed and agonizingly seductive.
Oh God. Oh God, no.
My mind spun in chaotic, terrifying circles, desperately grasping for any thread of logic. Isabella? Was this another one of her psychotic tests?
But then, a completely different thought crept into my head, a desperate, irrational hope that made my throat tight. Cole...
Cole was a dark, dangerous man...yes...
He was wildly possessive... also yes...
He was intense...but could he have done this? Was this some twisted, alpha-male fantasy of his? Would he actually go this far...to kidnap me from his own mother's convoy, drug me, and tie me to a bed just to initiate some crazy, spicy game?
He was crazy and did things in his own way... but he was also very protective of me... he knew I was sick...he wouldn't put me in harms way even if I begged for it.
But I still couldn't put it past him. A part of me wanted to be furious at the mere thought of him doing something so reckless and violating.
But as I stared at the dark, unfamiliar shadows of the ceiling, tears of pure terror pricked the corners of my eyes, and my anger dissolved into sheer pleading.
Please let it be Cole, I prayed desperately into the silence of the room. Please, let it just be him.
Because if it wasn't Cole Ryder... the alternative was a nightmare I wasn't sure I would survive.
"Cole!" My voice cracked, a desperate, raw sound that barely carried across the quiet room. "Cole, if this is you, it isn’t funny! Please!"
Silence. Only the hum of the bare lightbulb answered.
"Cole!" I cried out louder, thrashing against the heavy restraints, the rough material biting into my wrists.
Panic was a living thing inside my throat now, choking me. "Cole! Answer me! Please, God, Cole!"
The door to the adjoining bathroom slowly clicked open.
A figure stepped into the harsh light, and my heart completely stopped. The air left my lungs in a sharp, horrified gasp.
It wasn't Cole.
Daniel stood there, leaning against the doorframe. Daniel, my ex boyfriend... my very abusive, very pompous ex boyfriend...
He looked different...disheveled, his eyes bloodshot and manic, but a twisted, familiar smirk was plastered across his face. He looked down at me, taking in the sight of me tied to the bed in the laced dress, his eyes gleaming with a sick sense of satisfaction.
"You still call on him to save you?" Daniel chuckled, the sound hollow and completely unhinged. He took a slow, deliberate step toward the bed. "After all this time away, Cee... you still haven't changed."
My jaw went slack, the shock hitting me so hard it felt like a physical blow. The room tilted. Out of all the scenarios my brain had violently whipped up, this was the one nightmare I hadn’t prepared for.
"Daniel," I breathed, the word tasting like poison.
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took another slow step forward, his eyes traveling down the length of my body, lingering on the emerald-green lace. The smirk on his face widened, turning into something deeply grotesque.
"How do you like the dress?" he asked, his voice dripping with an eerie, casual fondness. He gestured toward me with a lazy wave of his hand. "I picked it out myself. And before you ask... yes, I took the liberty of changing you into it. You were completely dead to the world, Cee. Made it real easy."
A wave of violent, suffocating mortification washed over me, closely followed by a blinding, white-hot rage. My stomach violently turned at the thought of his hands on me while I was unconscious.
"You sick, pathetic piece of shit!" I screamed, thrashing against the ropes with enough force to burn the skin on my wrists. "How dare you?! How dare you touch me! Put your disgusting hands on me!"
"Oh, come off it," Daniel snapped, his calm demeanor instantly cracking as his face contorted into the bitter, angry expression I knew all too well. "Don't act so holy now. I’ve seen it all before, remember? Besides, look at you... you're worse...wrapped up with some psycho mobster, running around strip clubs, and you're going to lecture me about what's appropriate?"
"You kidnapped me, Daniel! You drugged me!" I yelled back, tears of anger finally spilling over my cheeks. "You're completely damn unhinged! You belong in a fucking cage!"
"I'm unhinged?!" He let out a sharp, breathless laugh, pacing the length of the bed like a caged animal himself. "My life is over because of you! I lost my job, my funding, everything! Your little boyfriend destroyed me, and for what? Because you couldn't just keep your mouth shut? You ruined me, Celene!"
I stared at him, the initial terror hardening into pure, unadulterated venom. He really didn't get it. He was still the same pathetic, blame-shifting abuser, completely blind to his own grave.
I stopped thrashing. I let my head fall back against the mattress, glaring up at him with a cold, piercing intensity.
"You really want to die, don't you?" I said, my voice dropping to a dangerously quiet whisper that cut right through his frantic pacing.
Daniel froze, his bloodshot eyes locking onto mine.
"What did you say?"
"Cole let you walk away the first time," I said, a dark, fearless confidence bleeding into my words as I leaned into the heavy shadow of the Ryder name. "He warned you, and he let you live. And you think the smart move is to drag me into a room and tie me to a bed? If Cole finds out you even breathed the same air as me tonight, Daniel... he won't just ruin your life. He will end it. Do you really want to die right now?"