They’ve leftme alone long enough that I’m sure they think they’ve broken me down and I’m going to tell them everything they want to know in the next round. Or, maybe they’re just thinking that the next round will be the one that kills me. Nikolai was in here earlier, moving shit around on the table, tossing things aside until he found what he was looking for.
I heard the screams for the last few hours, so whoever he’s working on, they’re as good as dead. Vlad’s man is about to lose the tight control on his leash and once he’s slipped, anyone in his way is fucked. I just have to hope it’s not me before I can get the fuck out of here.
My body is screaming in pain, and my body is covered in sweat while my back is nothing but pure fire. Looks like the meds Avery gave me are done working and infection is setting in. Which means I don’t have a lot of time to get out of here before I eventually just slip into delirium.
The fuckers were smart to put in me chains, making it so I can’t easily slip out. The pain in my body weakens me and busting out of them is going to be hard as shit. I try to peer around in the dim light of the room for anything I can use. Anything that I can try to reach for. Fuck the cameras. It’s time for me to get the fuck out of here.
There’s nothing close by, but I know there must be something on that table across the room. I brace my feet, sweat coating my face, and try to push to my feet, lifting the chair with me. I barely make it a couple of inches before the weight of the chair and my own body drag me back down. The crash of the chair echoes through the room, and the pain is so overwhelming that I have to fight back the nausea swirling inside me. I half expect someone to come running in, but nothing happens. I don’t even hear footsteps outside the room.
Alright, that means no one is monitoring the cameras, or they’re so focused on whatever Nikolai is doing that I might just have a small window to get free before anyone notices. Getting out of here is going to be another problem, but fuck it. If I die, I die knowing that they got nothing from me, and I’ve gone out on my own terms and not shackled to a chair to die from infection or whatever the hell they might have given me in this shit hole.
I gather my resolve, and I force myself to my feet on shaking legs. It’s going to hurt like hell if I fall, but I need to chance it. I brace myself as much as I can, my body straining and shaking with the effort. They must think I’m too weak to do anything like this because they didn’t shackle my feet, only my hands and around my middle, so I can take decent steps the entire way, even if they are shaking and small.
I don’t know how long it takes me to get across the room, but each passing second feels like years before I finally get there. I work hard to hold back the vomit rising in my throat when I stagger and nearly topple into the table, bumping the chairhard into my back. Once I’m back under control, I look down at the table, eyes straining trying to make out everything in the dark. The fun part is going to be grabbing something, but that’s something to worry about in a minute.
The darkness makes it very hard to figure out what everything is, but I can already tell there isn’t going to be much. Shit. The majority of items are knives or other instruments like torches and saws that there is no way I can use without hurting myself more. I’m not at the point where I want to cut off limbs to get out of here, but if it comes down to it, I might not have much of a choice.
From the looks of things, they’re not planning on letting me leave here in one piece. Dead or alive.
I shift as much as I can, gritting my teeth to keep from letting out the groans that are building in my throat, reaching for the table with just my fingertips. I need something sharp, and something I can bend to get into the lock, while also being small so I can hide it if I can’t get it picked before Vlad or Nikolai come back. I pick up a couple of knives, most of them too large. My teeth grind together as I move my hand again, straining against the chains as much as I can to reach for the final thing, a smaller sized screwdriver. I don’t know what they would have used it for, but I certainly could do without it. It’s just out of reach and the angle with the chair makes it near impossible to bend myself.
“Fuck,” I hiss when my fingers hit the edge of the screwdriver and it slides further inward. I twist, unable to keep the harsh grunt of pain from everything protesting and paining, but I can’t get any closer. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Now what the fuck am I going to do?
My body sways and I start to fall backward away from the table. I try to right myself, but I can feel myself falling back and just try to brace myself for the inevitable pain. The chair legs hit the floor first, driving the back of the chair hard intomy back and sending fire and pain through me. I don’t know how, but I manage to keep from doing anymore damage and toppling forward or backward by slamming my feet down, and only swaying a little bit. This time I can’t hold back the nausea swirling, turning my head to vomit on the floor.
Finally, after a minute, I manage to come out of the pained fog, but I feel so weak that I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not giving up, not even close, but I need to be smart. One more topple and I might just kill myself, or make it so that I can’t get back up again, and Vlad or Nikolai probably will kill me then.
I stare at the table, trying to get my fuzzy brain to work. What am I going to do? There has to be something that will work. If I wasn’t worried, I’d fall on my ass, I’d lift my leg and kick it off, but with how unstable I’m feeling, I don’t think that will be an option for me. Then again, if it’s the only option I have…
The door suddenly opens, and I hear someone bark, “Get in there and make sure he’s alive,” before the door slams shut and the light gets turned on. Shit. I vaguely hear yelling and shouting, but it’s moving away so I can’t make out what they’re saying.
The light momentarily blinds me, rendering me motionless other than slamming my eyes closed. Fuck, that hurts.
“How the hell did you end up over there?” I hear someone hiss and feet pounding on the floor toward me. “Shit. They chained you. Now the hell am I going to get you out of here now?”
That has my eyes flying open and I see Avery standing there, face pulled down into an annoyed scowl, and her hands on her hips. She’s not wearing scrubs. Instead, she’s wearing yoga pants and a shirt that looks familiar somehow, but I can’t place why. Not that it matters. If she’s here, that means Vlad and Nikolai won’t be far behind. “Need to get out of here,” I rasp out.
“No shit,” she huffs. She looks at the table full of instruments and her face pales slightly, but then it disappears and instead fills with determination. “Which one are you looking for?”
“Screwdriver. Can…C-can use it to pick the lock.” Shit, that was hard to get out. My head is swimming and I feel like I’m looking through a fog at her again.
She stares at me before checking my forehead. She lets out a hiss and mutters, “Fuck, you’re burning up. We need to get out of here. If you die, then I have Russians and bikers on my ass.” She turns around and grabs the bag she came in with, yanking things out of it. When she comes back, I can make out the syringe in her hand. “I’m giving you the largest dose of antibiotics I can until we can get you free and out. I’ll give you pain meds once we get out of here. Got it?” It must be a rhetorical question because the syringe pierces my skin before I can even try to answer. When she pulls away, she tosses the syringe aside and grabs the screwdriver.
“Cameras,” I whisper. If they see us doing this, they’ll be in here before we can get out and we’ll both be dead. I don’t know that I have the strength to take any of them down.
“Your friends gave me something to block them when I got here,” she says as she starts to move toward me, and then stops. “Where are the bolt cutters?” The screwdriver gets tossed aside as she quickly grabs the bolt cutters and moves behind me. “Don’t move. This is the first time I’ve ever used something like this.” She lets out a grunt, and I try not to move, keeping the chains as loose as I can manage with my wide frame. “They make this look a lot easier in the movies,” she grunts. “That or you’re just so big you stretched these out.”
I want to laugh but hold it in. Probably not the best moment to make an inappropriate joke. Finally, she grunts hard and the chains loosen. Thank fuck. I quickly slide forward, shrugging offthe chains and quickly getting to my feet. A little too fast. “Fuck,” I hiss when I get lightheaded and start to sway.
“Slow the hell down,” Avery huffs. “I’m not dragging your big ass out. Stand still a second.” I’m powerless to do anything else. She makes easier work of the smaller chains and then tosses the cutters and chain aside. “Alright, we don’t have a lot of time,” she says briskly, coming to stand in front of me. “Can you walk or run?”
“I can walk, but I don’t know about run, angel,” I tell her tiredly. It feels so fucking good to be out of those chains. It’s almost like I don’t know how to use my own body anymore though. My arms feel heavy and like I’m not sure how to move forward. The next few minutes are going to be the hardest of my life. I can feel it, but I don’t care. I’m getting out of here. I force myself to grab one of the guns on the table, and yep, it’s loaded. Looks like Vlad was preparing for the day he would just flat-out kill me. I look back at Avery, who’s watching me skeptically. “What’s the plan?”
“Should you really be holding that?” she asks dubiously. “The last thing I need is you accidentally shooting me instead of the bad guy.”
“I’ll be fine.”I think, but I keep that thought to myself. “You pumped me full of drugs, and that will keep me going until we get out of here. So what’s the plan?”
She still doesn’t look sold on the idea, but thankfully, she lets it go. Instead of answering, she suddenly lifts her shirt, leaving me to stare at her. She doesn’t even glance my way as she shows off her full breasts encased in a black sports bra and a slightly rounded belly that makes my mouth water.
