The man’s fingers were iron bands around Rosalina’s wrist as he dragged her down the dark passage. 

The more she struggled, the tighter his fingers squeezed. She gagged at his foul odour, but it didn’t stop her sucking in deep breaths between each terrified scream.

‘If you stop screaming, I’ll leave your clothes on.’ His calmness was terrifying and in that instant, she had no doubt he’d done this before.

She shut up. The fear of being naked in front of him set her heart to explode. 

‘Where’re you taking me?’

He stopped and pulled her up close. ‘You’ll be safe as long as you and your boyfriend cooperate.’

‘He’s not my boyfriend.’ She instantly regretted the admission. Damn. Why did I say that?

When the man turned again, she knew resistance was useless. He tugged her along behind him. She studied the walls, looking for something, anything to memorise, but every wall, every passage, whether they went left or right looked the same. It’d be impossible for Archer and Alessandro to find her. She knew they’d both come. Both of them, working together? That would be interesting. 

Between Archer’s impatience and Alessandro’s fastidiousness, they might kill each other before they even got to her.

Around yet another corner they stopped, and her captor wrestled keys from his pocket. With a grating metal on metal sound, the door opened and he dragged her through it. The door was like something from a medieval movie, at least four inches thick and held together with parallel black iron rods.

‘No one will hear you down here.’ He shoved her into the room and stepped back towards the door. 

Rosalina didn’t hesitate. She dived at the man, jumping onto his back and curling her arm around his neck. His hands clawed at her arm but she squeezed even tighter. He made a gagging noise, and as Rosalina clamped tighter still she caught wafts of his hideous odour. She blocked them, focusing only on fighting her way out. He grabbed her hair and she screamed as he yanked it. The pain was like thousands of needles stabbing her scalp. With the clump of hair, he dragged her head over his shoulder. Rosalina stopped screaming and bit into the first thing her teeth could sink into — the meaty muscle in his shoulder. It was his turn to scream and he let go of her hair.

His fists were flailing now and he spun her around. Her hip hit the open door, but still she clung on. 

She managed to dodge his first punch, with it glancing off her forehead, but before she could react to avoid it, his next punch hit her right in the eye.

Pain exploded in her brain. Her body went limp and she hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Kendall Talbot is an award winning author, thrill seeker and a hopeless romantic. She has travelled extensively, some 36 countries, and counting and she’s addicted to experiences that make her scream… white water rafting, scuba diving with sharks and hang gliding are just a few. Her stories reflect her sense of adventure and her long running love affair with her very own hero.