She screamed.
Not a pretty scream. It tore out of her throat raw and animal, scraped from somewhere deep inside her chest where fear had curled up and started eating her alive.
Her voice cracked. Her lungs burned. Her head throbbed. Her hair clung to her face in sweaty, tangled strands, some ripped loose, some matted with dried blood. Purple bruises bloomed along her arms and thighs like rotten flowers. Her wrists were raw where the ropes had rubbed her skin nearly open.
She was shaking so hard the chair rattled beneath her. “PLEASE!” she cried, her voice hoarse, desperate, humiliating. “PLEASE...ANYONE...”
The boss had already turned his back. He was halfway to the door when he stopped. Slowly, his hand rose to his eyebrow ring, thick gold hooked through flesh like a grotesque ornamen
