"Dawn," a whisper woke me up. I frowned at the sudden movement of my head. As I tilted it, a sound like ripping paper echoed inside my head. My headache felt abnormally worse.
"Dawn," the voice said again and my eyes flew open, my head pounding even more at the fluorescent light overhead. Instinctively, my hand was about to shoot up but something chafed at my wrist. I groaned, trying to move them.
"Dawn, you're going to cut yourself," the familiar voice spoke concernedly, right from beside me.
I whipped my head immediately. Silas sat, his eyes bloodshot, his forehead shining with sweat.
"They got us," I whispered as I remembered everything that had happened before I lost my conscious.
"They did, yes," Silas said in a way as if he had nothing to say to make me feel better. I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against what felt like ice.
"Dawn?" The hoarse whisper came again.
I opened my eyes to find his pain-filled green eyes. Dried blood lay on his temple and I wondered if it was because of the hit he had to tolerate outside the Villa.
"You have blood on your..." I said, pointing my chin at his forehead, wishing I could wipe the stain away myself.
"It doesn't hurt that much." There was no astonishment on his face when he bent his head against a pole. It was a pole, not ice, I thought randomly. Suddenly wide awake, I looked around.
It looked like a storage unit of some sort. There was a number of large polycarbonate water bottles cramped together in a corner of the room. The room swayed slightly and I thought it was my head. But when I tried to focus, I understood the room itself was swaying.
"Are we on a boat?" I asked, not realizing until the words came out.
"Feels like it," Silas responded, still looking around. There weren't any windows visible on the decaying wooden walls. I craned my head slightly and scowled at my own blurry reflection. The wall behind was adorned with a shabby and hazy mirror.
"Silas, why are we here?" My eyes moved slowly towards the doorless threshold. It went straight to a dimly-lit hallway, leading to God-knew-where.
"The keychain," Silas replied. How subtle!
"The flash drive, you mean?" I glared at him and all the fear and dread rose inside me.
"Yes." He looked ahead and sighed.
"Did you give it to them?"
"No."
"They were talking about taking care of some bodies when I reached the gallery."
"That's why I want you to focus," said Silas strangely, his eyes darting all around with an odd expression. "Look for something... sharp."
"Sharp?"
"We need to get rid of these." He pointed his stubbly chin towards his back, at the handcuffs around our wrists.
"Even if we find something sharp, how are we supposed to reach it?" I frowned at him, my eyes straining on the dried blood on his skin like a bad habit. He stared back, green gaze darkening and it made me feel self-conscious somehow.
"That wound on your throat, how did you get that?" he asked, surprising me a little.
"Uh, my earring."
Was he suggesting...?
"Great." For a while, I thought he smiled. "We need to take that off."
"I can't reach it," I said, dumbfounded. Of course, I couldn't. My hands were cuffed behind me, so were his.
YOU ARE READING
Here's to Us (Blood Money #2)
Romance"What we had is over, Dawn. You don't have to do this anymore. You're free to go." I traced the glass separating us with my fingers, looking into his green eyes and whispered to the phone, "So you want to know why I'm still here?" He just stare...
