When he brought her supper, Jessie had her scrubs top tied around her breasts, exposing her belly. She was doing squats along the wall near the bed.
Troy came in, his eyes riveted on the bare skin revealed. He tossed the paper bag—burgers, again—onto the mattress. It landed right beside her bra.
The undergarment bounced when the burgers touched down, and he stared at it. He licked his lips and leaned down, his fingers reaching for the silky fabric.
Jessie pounced. She whipped the shoelaces from where she’d tucked them into her pants. Landing on his back, she wrapped her legs around his waist and flung the makeshift garrote around his throat.
Troy snapped upright the moment she landed on him. The man had a huge neck. Her handles weren’t quite in the right place, and she barely crossed the laces behind him. But Jessie gritted her teeth and yanked for all she was worth.
Troy staggered back, his entire body vibrating with a rumbling growl. Then his big hands reached back to grab her forearms.
No!As his fingernails sank into her flesh—why did they feel so sharp?—Jessie sank her teeth into the back of his hand.
Troy snarled, the sound far more animal than human. Powerful arms heaved, ripping her loose from her perch. Jessie flew through the air, straight over his head, somersaulting to land with a crash on the mattress.
It drove the breath from her. As she lay gasping, Troy grabbed her by the hair, twisted as he raised her, and leaned down so that her face ended up only inches from his.
The laces hung loose around his throat. There wasn’t even a mark on his skin for her trouble.
Jessie got her knees beneath her, and clutched the hand holding her hair to ease the excruciating pain.
“I should scalp you for that,” Troy growled. His close-set, pale eyes bored into her, and they pulsed to an eerie gold. “You’re lucky Braden likes your curls.” The fingers of his free hand danced over her bare belly, then stopped, the fingertips digging into the soft flesh. “I could gut you in an instant, foolish bitch. Don’t think I won’t if I have to.”
Jessie flinched as the finger dug deep. He let her squirm for a moment, before he tossed her back onto the mattress. He bent to retrieve her bra. Lifted it to his nose and inhaled.
His eyes flared, and he grinned down at her. “If all goes according to plan, I’ll soon get to sample every inch of you. But for now, I’ll take this as a token of your appreciation.”
“You bastard.” Jessie pushed her hair out of her eyes. “You’ll never lay hands on me.”
He snorted a laugh. “Oh, I’ll do much more than that. Braden and I, we like them feisty.” He pulled a sad face. “Sadly, humans break all too easily. I’m so glad we’ve come up with a permanent solution.”
Jessie glared daggers at him. “What are you babbling about?”
He turned away, trailing her bra from one hand and pulling the laces off his neck with the other. “You’ll find out. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
The door shut behind him, leaving Jessie shaking like a leaf. Her scalp was on fire, and her forearms each had a semicircle of nasty punctures that seeped blood. Did Troy have his fingernails filed to points? They looked like claw marks.
Jessie swallowed as she rubbed them. More wounds to wash. Her mind struggled to put everything she’d just heard into context. She shuddered at the thought of Troy doing more than merely abuse. The man was a crazy-perverted-psycho bastard. She had none of the conflicted sentiment about him that she did about Braden.
But her best chance of getting out of here had utterly failed.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. A crumpled bag lay at her feet. Supper. After a moment, she reached for it. If she was to have any hope at all, she had to stay strong.
And watch for another opportunity to get the hell out of here.
5
Things achieved a routine, of sorts.
They’d taken Jessie’s watch, so time was hard to follow. She drew marks in the dirt on the walls, timed by the meals Troy brought. Twice a day. Every second meal, she licked her finger and scrubbed away the dirt.
Troy never referred to her attempt to strangle him, but he was more careful around her. In all honesty, what chance did she have? The sheer power when he flung her... how could she ever go up against that?
The punctures on her arms were healing, but they’d been inflamed for two days. If she hadn’t been able to treat them, they might have been trouble.
Right after she created the mark for day five, Troy declared that she would no longer be tending to the others’ wounds. The bites did look healthier, at least. Jessie’s experience told her how quickly that could change.
She pointed that out to the camera in the ceiling. No one answered.
