Taylor

My mouth was dry and it was hard to swallow. I ran the tip of my tongue across my bottom lip as I moved slightly. A fog had settled in my mind and it was hard to link my thoughts together.

Groaning, I shifted slightly and felt the pain in my stomach and chest. When I opened my eyes, I took in my surroundings. My last moments before I blacked out came rushing back and confusion set in.

I was lying on a small bed in a basement. It was dark except for a dim, single bulb that hung from the ceiling. I winced as I sat up, holding my aching middle. As I tried to figure out what happened, I rubbed my forehead. There was a dull throb that hadn't quite developed into a headache yet.

I remembered the accident and Matthew being injured. Matthew. He'd gashed his head and he'd been knocked unconscious. The pain in my middle pulled my attention away from my thoughts and I lifted my shirt. Bruises were developing already.

My eyes scanned the damp basement. My mind refused to acknowledge the reality of what I was seeing, but then I remembered the guy who had come to the car and I remembered the slight pinprick. Why would he do that? Most people would have called an ambulance. Why wasn't I in a hospital?

I heard the door creak open at the top of the stairs when I finally understood what had happened. My breath hitched in my lungs as I watched a pair of dark boots descend the stairs one loud creaking step at a time.

Oh. My. God.

I watched in horror as my kidnapper came into view.

"Eric," I gasped as I put my hand to my mouth.

A cruel, assured smile spread across his face as his eyes settled on me.

"You've been out of it for a while," he said, as if it were the most normal thing for me to be locked in his basement as he stepped off the stairs.

One thought after another raced through my mind. Eric was the stalker. It was the only explanation. But the most pressing question was: why?

You're my whore, not his. Fear took hold of me.

I was in a basement with a potentially crazy guy who had been stalking me. How long had I been out? Did anyone know I was missing yet? But even if they did, they had no way of knowing where I was.

Eric studied me for a moment before he walked up to me. I couldn't help pulling away from him when he reached out to caress my cheek with his fingertips. He looked displeased. My obvious rejection of him hadn't gone down well and it looked like he was trying to rein in his temper.

I never imagined I would be in this type of situation. After my childhood horrors, I never expected to go through something so horrible again and I had a gut-wrenching thought that this could be so much worse.

"Why?" I whispered. Why had he targeted me? Hadn't I dealt with enough?

"There is a specific reason why I chose you, but that talk will have to wait," he said, brushing off my question. "I thought I'd give you a chance to clean up."

I eyed him suspiciously.

"You can use the shower upstairs, but you have to promise me you won't try to escape," he warned me. The look that accompanied the words told me that there would be serious repercussions if I disobeyed him.

It was hard to believe the friendly Eric who lived in the house with Sin, whom I'd met only briefly, was the same person who stood in front of me now. He appeared the same, but the way he looked at me made my skin crawl.

I had to swallow my fear. There was no one to save me. I had to assess my situation and try to figure out a way to escape before Eric could have a chance to do anything.

I pushed the thoughts of all the things he could do to me from my mind. If I was going to have any chance, I needed to keep calm, so I took a deep breath and allowed the fear to ease from my body.

"I won't," I assured him.

Going upstairs would give me an opportunity to get a layout of the house and hopefully I'd be able to find a way to escape. He stared at me for a few moments before he smiled.

"Come on," he instructed. "Follow me."

One moment he was a deadly foe and the next he was easy-going and friendly, like a Jekyll and Hyde.

I had to push my true feelings down and accept his outreached hand. The touch of his skin against mine made me want to yank my hand away, but I didn't. I'd already annoyed him once and I wasn't sure if he'd lose his temper if I did it again.

I was no shrink, but I was pretty sure the drastic changes in his personality indicated a more serious psychological problem. And the fact that he'd been stalking me, breaking into my dorm room, the message he'd left on my underwear, all pointed to an unstable individual who had the potential to really hurt me.

I was at his mercy. There was no rescue party. If I was going to survive this, it was going to be up to me to get myself out. The fear that I might not be able to escape brought a sting of tears to my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and followed Eric step by step up the stairs and out of the basement.

The stairs led into a small kitchen that was old but clean. My nervousness grew as he led me through a small living room and past a bedroom. I was scared of what he might do to me, there was no denying that. He stopped outside a small bathroom and let my hand go.

"There is a clean towel and a change of clothes for you," he informed me as he indicated for me to enter the bathroom.

My relief increased when I walked into the bathroom and he gave me a brief nod before closing the door. The sound of the door being locked twisted the knot of fear in my stomach and reminded me that I was a prisoner.

I took a deep breath and released it, trying to rein in the instinct that called for me to scream until someone heard me and came to find me. Keeping it together was my only hope for surviving this ordeal because there might be no one to hear my screams and I was scared it would set him off. There was no telling what he would do to me.

The thought of Matthew made me close my eyes for a brief moment and hope that he was okay. I had no way of knowing how long I'd been out of it and all I could do was hope that Matthew had gotten help. Considering the fact that he'd been badly injured and alone, it nearly brought tears to my eyes again.

Protecting me had been his job and he'd tried his hardest to fulfill it, but there was nothing he could have done to stop Eric from taking me. It scared me, the lengths Eric had gone to in order to kidnap me.

It had been my fault. The accident—I was sure—had been a setup for Eric to be able to grab me and I couldn't help the overwhelming guilt I felt.

I saw a folded towel on the bathroom sink as well as the change of clothes. What horrified me was the sight of a pair of my panties that I hadn't noticed had gone missing. It also made me wonder how many times he'd gone into my dorm room unnoticed.

Looking around the bathroom killed any hopes for escape. The only way out other than the door was a small window: too small for me to crawl through. I opened the cabinets in hope of finding something I could use as a weapon but there was nothing other than some soap and a shampoo bottle.

Still holding onto a little hope I opened the vanity, but there was nothing. Feeling frustrated, I dropped my head into my hands, trying to push the fear away so I could keep my control.

My mind began to search for signs that I'd missed that could have told me that Eric was my stalker, but I came up with nothing. I stripped naked and got into the shower. I gently soaped my aching body and then I leaned my forehead against the tiles as the water washed the soap away. For those few moments I allowed myself to cry for the first time. I hoped my allowing the release of fear and anger would help me stay calmer around him. I let the tears flow. I was angry that I was in the situation and that I had no control over it. The throbbing in my head had turned into a full-blown headache by the time I got out of the shower.

I quickly dried myself off and got into the clothes he'd given. I didn't want him to walk in on me half naked because I was scared of what he may do. The clothes—underwear, a pair of sweatpants and a shirt—fit. I was surprised that he knew my size.

It wasn't long before I heard a key turn in the lock and the door opened. I couldn't help the new wave of fear sweep over me when Eric surveyed me from head to toe. The appreciative look left no doubt in my mind that he had plans to take over Sin's role in my life. Fear gripped me.